Owned by the Mafia Bad Boy (Books 1 - 4)

by Raven Dark

  “Seriously, this stuff is incredible.” He brought the silver topped platters over and set one down in front of each of us. “You’ve never had anything so good.”

  Kane took the lids and pulled them both up at the same time, uncovering two plates.

  “Feast your eyes on…what the fuck?”

  I looked at the plates and almost jumped back, heart in my throat.

  On each plate, instead of a slice of cheese cake, a large rat lay dead, drizzled in blood and speared with a knife.

  I only half registered that Anika was talking to me through the ringing in my ears. For an instant, as I set the lid of the platter slowly down, eyes glued to the dead rats on our plates, her voice seemed to be coming down a long tunnel, garbled and out of focus.

  An odd memory flickered past my eyes. When I was eleven, I’d had a dog. A large German Sheppard, though my father insisted it was for protection and not to be treated as a pet. One day it crapped on the carpet. My father found out, and insisted I teach it a lesson with a night out in the cold, and a bat to its head. I refused. The next day, I found the dog in the yard, frozen to death, with it’s head bashed in. Since then, I’d never allowed myself to have a pet, at least not one I truly called mine. Why I would remember that now, I had no idea, especially when I couldn’t even remember the dog’s name. But as I stared at the bodies of the rats on mine and my woman’s plates where cheese cake should be, I saw my dead dog in duplicate. Sometimes I remembered that incident at the strangest times.

  “Kane?”” Anika had gotten up off the couch and was holding my face in her warm hands. “Kane talk to me. What the hell is going on?”

  I shook myself, putting all my focus on her. On the one I needed to protect. “Just stay here, Anika. I’ll handle this.” I went for the door.

  “Wait, where are you going?” She hurried after me, but I put a hand out, stopping her.

  “Just wait here. I’ll be back.”

  I jerked open the hotel door and stalked down the hall. The waiter should have been long gone, and I wasn’t surprised I caught him at the elevator, as if he was listening for our reactions. I glanced at his name tag and ignored his startled shout when I grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him to my suit.

  “Let’s talk, Reginald.” I shoved him down the steps to the main floor of the living room.

  “Mr. Davros, do you have any idea how much trouble you’re going to get in when management finds out what you’re doing?”

  Had he forgotten I owed the hotel? “Shut up.” I brought him to the coffee table, ignoring Anika’s questions.

  “Christ, Kane, what the hell are you doing, let him go!” She reached for me and I pushed her back, at the same time, pushing the man to his knees and shoving his head onto the table so that he had no where to look but at the rat on Anika’s plate.

  “What are you doing, release me this instant!”

  “Who did this?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about!” But he took too long to reply.

  “Wrong answer. Who ordered us up dead rat a la carte, huh?”

  “Kane, let him go. He said he doesn’t know.” Again, Anika moved toward me, but I ignored her, moving so that I blocked her from helping him.

  “I told you, I don’t know. I had no idea those were on the tray when I brought them up.”

  “Stop lying. Whoever did this wouldn’t risk this order going to the wrong person. Either you’re on Dominic Gavini’s payroll, or you know who is.” When he only protested, I pulled the knife out of my rat, yanked the waiter to his feet and pushed him to the wall, the knife at his neck. “I don’t like it when someone threatens me, and I don’t like it when they threaten my woman. I know how to cut you so that it doesn’t kill you, Reginald.”

  “Kane! Stop it!” Anika shouted, livid.

  “It just feels like you’re being sliced with a straight razor.”

  “Mr. Davros, please don’t…”

  “Kane!”

  The pain in her voice, the betrayal sliced deep. She’d just been beginning to trust me, and here I was, wiping that all away. I held the knife harder to Reginald’s neck and he cringed. “Now. One. More. Time. Who. Did. This.”

  The waiter nodded quickly and when I released him, he heaved in large breaths. “It was Bradly. The head chef, Fred Bradly. He said you’d know what it meant, and who it was from.”

  Slowly, I put the knife on the table, calculating what this meant and the best way to react.

  “Look, Mr. Davros, if you’re going to fire me—”

  “Oh, no. No way. I have something better planned for you.”

  “What?” His eyes were huge.

  “I want you to go downstairs. Finish your shift. Behave as if nothing has happened. When that kingpin comes calling to see what damage he’s done to us, I want you and Bradly to tell him we got the message loud and clear.”

  “Why are you letting me go? Why would you want to do that?”

  I resisted the urge to look at Anika and pushed him toward the doors to the suite. “Just go. I’ll find you later.”

  When he protested again, I made like I was going to come after him. He bolted.

  As soon as the door to the hotel closed, I turned to Anika, reaching for her.

  “No way.” She shoved my hand aside and crossed her arms. “Tell me what the hell is going on, Kane. All of it.”

  “Anika, you don’t need to know this stuff. It’s not for you to know.”

  Her teeth clenched. “Man’s work, right? That’s it, isn’t it? Some Mafia male code thing?”

  “As a matter of fact, yeah.”

  “Bull shit. Kane, you want me to trust you so bad, then stop shutting me out. You pulled me into your life. If you don’t think I can handle it, then let me go. Otherwise, open the hell up and tell me the truth. I can take it.”

  I stared. Her words sent a torrent of something I didn’t think I’d ever felt for a woman before. Not like this. It wasn’t possessiveness, or protection. It was respect, cutting a swath through me so wide and deep I literally couldn’t speak. No woman had ever stood up to me like that, but more importantly, I could hear something I’d only ever heard once, from David. In this life, a woman either knew everything about her man’s work, or she knew nothing. It was the only way to make a relationship work. I could hear which path she’d chosen, loud and clear. She needed to understand. She wanted all the way in.

  Closing my eyes, I tamped down the alien feeling of uncertainty that stormed its way through me. This was uncharted territory. Somehow, I’d let this woman get closer than anyone had ever done, let her become so embedded in my life, the only way to go was deeper. Except everything in me screamed that it was wrong, that telling her everything would only hurt her.

  One breath, then I let it out. Then I opened my eyes and nodded to my bedroom. “You’d better get dressed, Anika. We’re going for a walk.”

  As soon as I was dressed, Kane led me outside and hailed a cab. Even though David had swept everything for bugs, he apparently didn’t want to take chances. I soon realized that’s why Kane took me elsewhere to talk.

  Five minutes from the hotel, the cabbie dropped us off at a park. Kane led me up to a small, but gorgeous garden with a gate he closed behind us.

  “This is a public garden, but the owner let’s me have it to myself whenever I want. There’s no chance of being heard here.”

  Some of the tension seeped out of me and I nodded, following him up a small hill to a willow tree with a bench under it.

  At almost two in the morning, moonbeams danced across the grasses, casting the kaleidoscope of roses in a silvery blue glow. A summer breeze caught the fronds on the willow, causing them to sway slowly like the tendrils on some strange and ghostly beast.

  Once Kane told me what had happened at the shipyard, I gaped at him. “The container was filled with rats?”

  “To the brim.”

  “Wow. So, what was on those trays was a message for you. He thinks you sabot
aged his shipment.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you?” I winced at the question when he looked at me, expecting him to threaten some sort of punishment, but he didn’t.

  “All right, I deserved that.” He rubbed his hand on my thigh slowly. “No, I didn’t.”

  “It’s a rather specific message. Rats for a rat.”

  Nod. “Someone thinks a member in Dominic’s crew is a rat.”

  “But why would he think you did it?”

  “Because. That same shipment was late, and he already thought my father made it so.”

  “Did he?”

  “Hard to believe, but I don’t think so. He was genuinely surprised when I interrogated him.”

  As he spoke, Kane wouldn’t look at me. Was it only because he wasn’t used to confiding in someone? In a woman? Or was it something else?

  “You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

  Hand tensing in mine, I felt him almost pull away, that distance rising up around him like a wall. Then he shoved to his feet. Keeping his back to me, his shoulders stiffened, he seemed to be studying the huge willow tree’s massive trunk. “I’ve told you everything I can right now. Anymore is… It’s too dangerous.”

  Everything in me wanted to press, but I forced myself not to. He’d already trusted me with way more than I’d expected. The notion made my heart swell for him. Especially when I didn’t think I imagined the worry weighing on him, the danger that surrounded him like a cloak.

  “All right. So, that message to you means Gavini thinks you’ve marked one of his men as a rat. But bugging your car means he thinks you’re lying about our relationship and he wants proof.”

  “Yes.” His voice was soft with urgency, and, I thought, or maybe wished, protectiveness.

  “So, what does this mean? I mean, now what? I don’t know how your world works. Now what to do we do?”

  He turned to me. “I shouldn’t even be having this conversation with you.” His voice sounded strange, off balance. “I’ll handle this, Anika. I—”

  “No way.” I shook my head and got to my feet, taking his shoulders. “Don’t you dare do that.”

  “All right.” He cradled my face in his hands. “Listen to me. We have no way of knowing how closely Dominic is monitoring us. We will have to be careful now. You’ll need to watch your temper. Be careful what you say to me.”

  “That’s asking a lot.” I managed a smile. “My brain to mouth filter doesn’t work very well around you, if you hadn’t noticed.”

  He grinned. “I noticed.”

  “But he’ll never believe you’re not helping me now. That pony play equipment means he heard what we said right before the alley. You didn’t behave entirely like a brute there. You gave me a safe word.”

  “We can make that look the right way if we need to. Hopefully, it won’t be necessary. I’m hoping he put the bugs inside the car late enough that he didn’t hear much before that.”

  “And David is sure he had the listening devices put in at the carwash today?”

  “He’s positive.” But when he answered, I swore I saw something flicker behind his eyes, something that was gone before I could place it.

  “Kane, what is it?” I took his face in my hands, desperation clawing at me as I saw him begin to put that distance up again. “What are you leaving out?”

  He appeared to shake himself and sighed. “Okay, look, there’s something else I meant to tell you. Those rats in the container aren’t the kind of accusation someone puts on the Mafia without being absolutely sure. If someone went through that much trouble to sabotage a shipment like that, then someone in Dominic’s crew is an informant.”

  My brows climbed. I lowered myself onto the bench, adrenaline making my knees weak. “Which is exactly the sort of thing we can use against him.”

  “Right.” Kane’s grey-gold eyes alighted with triumph. “We just have to figure out who did sabotage the shipment. Once we do, that’ll lead us to the rat.”

  “And then we’ll have him.”

  “Yes.” He took my hands and I let him pull me up. Hands on my hips, he pulled me to him with a gentleness that caught me off guard. I couldn’t help grinning at him.

  “See? This whole ‘we’ thing isn’t so bad, is it, Mister Tough Guy.”

  He made a mock-grumbling noise and bent, kissing my ear.

  “This is almost starting to feel like a relationship.”

  “Ha ha. You’re cute.”

  But there was still a matter to cover. When I pointed this out, he sat back on the bench with me. “So, how do we handle his monitoring us?”

  “Well, for one thing, anytime we’re anywhere where Dominic might be aware of what we’re doing, he needs to think two things are certain. You are my property, whether you want to be or not, and sometime between now and two weeks from now, I intend to take your father’s head.”

  The blood left my face so fast I could feel the skin pull in my cheeks. The lighthearted bubble in my chest burst. “So he can’t know we’re trying to find a way to get him.”

  “Yes. And since we have no way of knowing how closely he’s monitoring us, you’ll have to learn how to submit much faster than I planned. How to submit, but also exactly when to fight.”

  “Because if I’m too cooperative, he’ll know something’s up.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Jesus Christ. Can this get any worse?”

  Kane’s lips pulled. “It is.”

  “Oh no. What else.”

  “You’ll be getting another kind of training, too. And it’ll have to start immediately.”

  “What kind of training?” I drawled.

  “Etiquette.”

  “What?”

  He closed his hand over mine. “My father is coming to dinner this Thursday. He wants to meet you.”

  Dread tugged at me, hard. “Oh, shit. Victor Davros. My dad would be thrilled.”

  Not only was he the man who’d sent my father and myself into the poor house, but his actions had forced my father to turn to Gavini in the first place. He’d caused this whole mess, and as a result, he was probably the one person my father hated more than Kane. It made me feel an odd sense of closeness to Kane, knowing he was as worried about that dinner as me. Protectiveness filled his eyes.

  I took a long breath and let it out. Then I squeezed his hand. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

  Kane once more pulled me to my feet. “For now, we go home and get some sleep. Behave as if nothing has happened. Tonight, I’ll take you to the one place I can train you as a sub in total privacy. Not even Dominic will be able to find out what happens there.”

  A certain excitement mingled with my trepidation. “Where are you taking me?”

  “A BDSM club. We call it The Dungeon.”

  9

  The low sound of a TV babbling in the other room woke me just before nine. Working on a farm for a few years, and long shift work at the hospital, meant I was rarely in bed later than seven AM, but my thoughts had been racing too much to sleep until well after four in the morning.

  Feeling the bed once more cold next to me, I groaned and snuggled further under the blankets. Once Kane had left me in bed last night, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what he’d said. He was taking me to a BDSM club called The Dungeon. The notion sent heat licking between my legs and suddenly the bed felt too large as my thoughts ran wild.

  What would he do to me when we got to the club? How would he train me? What sorts of things would he make me do to him? Kane and I had done scenes before, but somehow, knowing this one would be in an environment meant for those types of scenes made my heart beat a little faster.

  I rolled onto my back, forcing myself not to slide my fingers between my legs and stroke myself to release. Taking the pleasure that was his, and would get my ass reddened all over again for it. Last night, he’d been so open, telling me more about his world and himself than he ever had, I wasn’t sure if I should be thrilled or scared, and not
just because our conversation laid bare just how dangerous his life was.

  All my life, I’d been told never to trust a Davros, that men like Kane always had an angle, and the truth was never what you thought. My father, and come to think of it, Fran, would tell me he was tricking me, that his openness was a ruse meant to earn my trust. That’s why I wasn’t ready to tell Fran anything. I didn’t need to further complicate things by having her make me doubt him even more. But last night left me a lot less sure of whether he was as nefarious as I’d always thought. I almost felt the same warm excitement toward him I had when we’d slept together the first time.

  Running a hand through my curls, I stared at the ceiling, wishing I could read him better, that I could fully trust him. Lately, I could feel my animosity slipping, the barrier created by my mistrust of him starting to crumble.

  I sat up and looked at the clock. Four hours before my shift, and Kane wasn’t there to keep my mind occupied. Damn him.

  I tossed back the blankets and sauntered out into the living room, thinking some TV sounded good, and wondering why a man as OCD as him had left it on. David, maybe, except didn’t he have a TV in the adjoining room he used?

  In the living room, the news was playing out, and a reporter was standing in front of an Easy Wash Car Wash.

  “Four bodies were found in total, two inside the shop, and two inside the washing area. A source confirmed each of the employees at the car wash suffered gunshot wounds to the head…”

  I picked up the remote and turned the volume up. Contrary to the way the news reporter made it sound, incidences like this were rare even in New York, and being a nurse, no one was as aware of that as me.

  “Sources also say at least one of the employees had strong associations to the Gavini crime family, one of them rumored to specialize in surveillance.”

  Certain words leaped out at me like alarm bells going off. Gavini crime family. Specializing in surveillance. David had said he’d stopped at a car wash, and that had been the only place Gavini could have bugged us. What were the chances that the next day, the staff at a carwash would turn up dead, one of them with expertise in bugging?