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

by Raven Dark

  The pictures of Gala with another model, which must have been Holden. That’s why things had seemed off. They weren’t friends. They were dating. So much of what Kane had said, or hadn’t said, made sense now.

  I looked at him. “Okay, but why all the secrecy? Wait…Kane, you said she could be killed. Why on earth would she be killed? And why would you fake a relationship with her?”

  “Things are different for her, because of who her father is. Collin Rossi doesn’t know. And he can’t. Gala’s father is the head of the Rossi crime family. He’s a rather…old fashioned man. Even more than my father.”

  “Wait. Are you telling me Gala’s father would have his own daughter killed for being gay?”

  He nodded.

  “Wow. So homophobia’s alive and well in the mob.”

  “Well, in the Rossi family, anyway.” He pushed my hair back from my face, his eyes warm. “You have to understand, angel. Gala and I have been friends since we were kids. We were in school together. Our fathers had a lot of get togethers with the other families. When I turned twenty-five, and it became apparent I wasn’t the marrying kind, he gave me an ultimatum. To take over his company, I had to become a “respectable man.” I had to settle down and marry. Three years ago, Gala came out to me. I knew what her father was like. So I came up with a plan. We both needed the appearance of a relationship. She needed to appear straight, and I needed my father to think I was engaged.”

  “So you both agreed to pretend to be in this hot media sensational relationship.”

  “Yes.”

  “You were protecting her.” A smile pulled across my face. “All this time, you were helping her.”

  Kane pushed to his feet, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “Don’t make it sound so noble, Anika. My actions weren’t completely unselfish. I provided Gala with the appearance of heterosexuality, but she was providing me with something, too. My father is getting on with age, and let’s face it, the way things are going with Dominic, he wouldn’t last long even if he wasn’t getting up there. Gala provides the cover I need to take his empire when the time comes for him to step down, or he dies.”

  “I know. But you’ve had to pretend to be in love with her. That can’t be easy. For either of you.”

  He went to the window and put his hand on the glass, head bowed. “It’s the perfect relationship for a guy like me. We can both be with whomever we want. No attachments, no real commitment.”

  But he didn’t sound at all satisfied. Instead, he sounded lost. Lonely. The urge to comfort him was too much to ignore. I stood slowly from the bed and went to him, reached my hand out and laid it on his wide back.

  “Kane. What you did for her was wonderful. You protected her, knowing the danger it puts you in.”

  “Yeah, wonderful.” With a bitter laugh, he looked sideways. “I had a goal, girl. My father’s empire is poisoned, rotting from the inside out. Men like your father have paid the price for his greed. I intend to overthrow him if someone doesn’t kill him first, and when he’s gone, all that he has is mine. Gala was another piece of a puzzle. The appearance of civility from a man who has no desire to be civilized.”

  I wished I knew if I imagined the strain in his voice, the longing for something more than what he alluded to. That he was convincing himself he didn’t want a family. A wife. Love.

  Whether or not Kane was mine, I still didn’t know, but knowing his relationship with Gala was an act changed things. Maybe it didn’t mean we’d ever have more than what we did now, but knowing he’d done it to help her made my heart swell for him until it physically hurt. I slid my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his back.

  “Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? Her father would kill you if he knew.”

  He turned in my arms and slid his around me, holding me tight. “She’s my friend, Anika. That’s all there is to it.” Pulling back a little, he tipped my chin up. “I told you, I’m no hero. But you. You were incredible tonight. What you did for Ollie. What you had to go through with my family. I’ve never met a woman like you.” His thumbs stroked my cheeks. “My beautiful, brave nurse.”

  If I’d thought my heart felt huge before, now it seemed to be trying to beat it’s way out of my chest. For the first time in my life, I thought I understood him. Really understood him, deep down. I knew why Kane Davros was the man he was, why he had to behave the way he did.

  Oliver had failed to be the man the Davros name commanded of him. The simple act of loving his fiancée enough to do something just for her had nearly cost him his hand. Kane wasn’t just a bad guy who thought he had to be tough. He was a man caught in a deadly game, a game where being hard and ruthless was how you survived. Kane allowed himself to be the bad man so that others didn’t have to.

  It hit home hard, what I was feeling for him now. It was as if my hatred for him had morphed into something far more powerful, so much so that it felt almost alien in its intensity. But it was also far more dangerous. He was a Davros, a man I’d been taught to hate. But tonight, realizing not just what he did for Gala, but what he went though every day because of his father, he was also something else. He’d become the man I loved.

  I made a soft noise in my throat and took his hands, kissing them both, closing my eyes as the weight of my love for him threatened to crush me in its embrace. Sliding my arms around his waist, I pressed my cheek against his chest. “Kane.”

  “Yes.” He nuzzled his cheek against my hair, tilted my head up and brushed his lips across my forehead. No, I couldn’t tell him what I felt. If I did, I’d only lose him. I didn’t dare believe he was as lost in his emotions as I was in mine, but I could dream. Oh, could I dream.

  “Nothing.” I lifted my head, letting him brush my lips with his. “I just really hate you, you know that?” God, I love you. I shouldn’t, but I do.

  “Do you?” He caressed my chin with his thumb.

  I nodded, but he’d never know what I was saying yes to, or what I was really telling him. “I hate you for pulling me into your messed up life. I hate you for making me want you.”

  He lifted me into his arms and carried me to his bed, laid me across it and eased himself down beside me. “I wish I could keep you. My perfect angel. But I can’t. You know that, don’t you?”

  My heart wanted to shatter to tiny pieces knowing he was right. Someone like me didn’t belong in his life. He needed a woman to be hard and cold and cruel, as icy as him. I’d only get him killed. The clarity of that understanding threatened to tear me up inside. I made myself nod, but my throat was so tight I could barely breathe.

  “You deserve so much more than this.” He pushed my hair back. “You deserve a good man who can give you tenderness and warmth. A man who can make you smile, and never make you cry.”

  “I don’t want that. I don’t want tenderness, and I don’t want smiles.”

  “What do you want, Anika?”

  “I want you to make me scream.”

  He drew back a little, and his eyes filled with hunger. “Now that, I can do.”

  Biting my lip at the anticipation building in me, I lay back and watched him get to his feet, watched him pulled off his tie and then undo his belt. My muscles tightened deliciously. How did he make the act of undoing his belt look so wickedly sexy?

  “Pull your underwear down and turn over.”

  “What are you going to do to me?” Already my pussy ached for him. He said nothing, but his eyes warned me to obey.

  Lifting my hips, I slid my underwear down to my thighs and rolled over.

  “Lift your dress.”

  “Make me.” I grinned into his pillow.

  A low growl escaped him and in instant he was on me. Kane shoved my dress to my waist, gave my ass cheek a good, hard swat so I cried out in pleasure, and straddled my thighs. His cock bobbled against my ass, already hard, and the feel of it made me wetter.

  “Hold the headboard.”

  I squirmed into the bed, needy, and gripped the headboard. Kane sli
d his fingers into my hair and then fisted it, yanking my head up.

  Then his grip loosened and he bent down, lips brushing my ear. “We only have a few minutes before I’ll have to relieve David.”

  “Fuck me, fast.”

  He rumbled and jerked my chin to the side, then his mouth was on mine. While he forced my lips apart with his and licked hungrily at my mouth, he shifted and got between my legs. Shoving them apart, lifting my ass up.

  “Open your mouth.”

  He’d stopped kissing me. If it would get his mouth on me faster, I’d do whatever he said. I parted my lips for him. Kane caressed my lips with his finger, then flicked them with his tongue. He kissed me with an open sensuality that made me wild with need. I squirmed against him and licked him back, opening wider when his kiss turned brutal.

  When he drew back and sat up behind me, I lifted my ass for him, hips raised at a good angle. Instead of fucking me, he slid his fingers through my folds. I wriggled against his hand.

  “Stay still.”

  I smiled at him over my shoulder, and his hand cracked across my ass hard. I stilled with a curse. He pumped his cock a few times and I watched, needing it inside me so bad my pussy clenched.

  Once or twice, he ran the head of his cock through my wetness. Then he slid in slowly, and I groaned, forcing myself not to slide down onto him. The sexiest growl left him and he buried himself in me, gripping my hips.

  “Oh, fuck, you’re so perfect. So hot.”

  I closed my eyes, letting his praise wash over me, He meant it, I could feel it. In the awe that poured from his voice, the way his huge hands held me. The place where our bodies joined felt different this time, like I was really connected to him, beyond the physical.

  “God, Kane, yes.”

  He leaned over me, hands to either side of my shoulders, fucking me slowly at first. Sliding in and out like we had all night. He’d never taken me like this, like I meant something to him.

  “Jesus, Anika. I could do this all night.” He kissed and sucked one side of my neck, then switched sides and did the same to the other. All the while, he stroked me long and deep.

  “Yes…”

  “Fuck me, Anika. Use my cock.”

  I spread my knees wider and angled my hips, rocking steadily back into him. Quickening my pace and letting my orgasm pull me toward release.

  “Slow down.” He grabbed my hips and I wailed at the loss of my climax as it ebbed away.

  “I hate you,” I chuckled. God, I love you so much.

  He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. “Say that again.” Gruff, needy.

  “I hate you, Davros. I hate you so much.” My eyes stung with the weight of the truth I didn’t dare say. He was mine. All mine. Not forever, not nearly long enough, but he was mine.

  “Good girl. That’s what I like to hear.” He lost it then, fucking me wild and savage until I clawed at the bed and bucked, and screamed his name.

  Just before he came, he stopped and rasped in my ear. “I feel more for you than I should, angel. I told you I’d do whatever I have to in order to protect you. And I will. Even if it means letting you go. But for now.” He slid his hand around my throat the way I liked and then his pace went savage again, until the bed banged the wall. “For now, you’re all mine.”

  Yes. I am. Always.

  * * * * *

  Sometime after we’d finished, I’d fallen to sleep. The sound of Kane moving about the bedroom woke me and I lifted my head, looking at him.

  “I’m going to relieve David,” he said when he saw me.

  I glanced at the clock. We had two hours. My heart plummeted. My father. “Do you think he’s had any luck?”

  “He didn’t. He called a few minutes ago.”

  “Shit.” When Kane came to the nightstand to get his Glock, I put my hand on his arm. He looked at me. “What if you two can’t get him to tell you who the rat is? Gavini won’t let you get away without killing my dad.”

  “Hey.” He lowered himself beside me. “Look, I don’t know what happens after this. But we’ll figure it out. I won’t let anyone harm your father. I checked with the facility while you were asleep. He’s still safe, there’s security all around him.”

  I blew out a breath and nodded.

  “We’ll get what we need. We will.” He stood up, took his Glock out of the drawer and holstered it. “Stay here.”

  But I couldn’t sit still. I got up, tossed on a robe and followed him into the living room. The hotel suite doors beeped and opened. I heard them close and David dragged himself in looking ready to collapse.

  “Nothing?” I looked between the two men, desperate.

  David shook his head and leaned against a wall, face pale and sweaty. “That guy must be made of steel.” He lifted his head. “Kane. We’re in trouble. He’s not going to crack. He nearly escaped.”

  “Yes, he will. I’ll go.” Kane went for the doors.

  Frustration clawed at me and I grabbed his arm. When he turned to me, I could hardly believe what I was saying. “Let me try.”

  “What?” He twisted free. “Don’t be ridiculous, Anika.”

  David shook his head.

  “Oh come on. This is insane. You two are exhausted, and we have two hours left. Maybe he would respond to a softer touch.”

  The very idea of torturing someone for information—and an FBI agent of all things—made me physically ill, but if it would protect my dad, what choice did we have? I swallowed. I’d already done a B and E and murder. Why not add torture to the list? Jesus Christ.

  Because both men were looking at me like I had two heads, I threw in a shrug I hoped looked convincing. “Let me do it.”

  “Absolutely not,” Kane snapped. “I’m not letting you near him.”

  “I tend to agree, Miss Anika.”

  “Oh, knock it off with the tough Mafia act, you two. Are you telling me the mob never uses women for its dirty work? Let me try.”

  I thought I saw admiration flash in Kane’s eyes before his face became a mask again. “You aren’t just a woman, Anika. You’re my woman, and I won’t put you in that kind of danger. Agent Hadler is a trained interrogator, and he’s killed for the mob. I won’t risk losing you.”

  Fuck. I wasn’t sure if I was more irritated or in love with him. There was something different in him now, under the possession, under the usual bravado and protectiveness. Something more personal.

  I opened my mouth to argue, but David stopped me, coming to stand by the coffee table where we were. “We can’t let you near him, but we can let you hear.”

  “What?”

  Kane’s glance at him echoed my confusion.

  “After he almost escaped, I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to listen in on your interrogation, Kane. She’s right, you’re exhausted, and with fatigue comes the greater likelihood of mistakes. If anything goes wrong, I want to be able to help. Anika, you might as well listen in.”

  I nodded.

  “Forget it, you two. You both need sleep.”

  “Later.” David.

  I agreed.

  Which is why, in a few minutes, David had brought out a recorder and a few other things from his adjoining room. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the next hour or more listening to a man suffer, but it was the only way. David hooked the recorder up and handed something, a small black device of some kind, to Kane, which he clipped under his lapel.

  “What is that?” I scrunched my brows.

  “It’s a mic. Now everything he or Agent Hadler says, we will hear though here.” David tapped the top of the small recorder sitting in the middle of the table. He gave the equipment one final check and then nodded to Kane. “You’re good to go, sir.”

  Kane returned his nod. Then he grabbed me, pulled me close and kissed me hard and brutal on the mouth.

  When I was dizzy and reeling, he released me. “I’ll be back.”

  “Kane.” When Kane stopped on his way to the door, David added, “Be careful.”
r />   “I will.”

  Only after Kane closed the door behind him did I realize what David had done. He hadn’t called him Mr. Davros, or sir. He’d called him by name. A smile crept across my face.

  Slowly, I lowered myself to the couch beside David and my smile faded. I leaned toward the recorder like he was doing. I didn’t know which one I was more worried about now, my dad, or Kane. My heart squeezed in my chest.

  I looked at David. “I love him, you know.”

  “I know, Miss Anika.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “I’ve always known.”

  14

  The heavy door to the meat packing plant shut behind me with a whine and a bang that echoed through the building. At the door, I relieved the guard set to watch the prisoner and then made my way into the plant.

  Worn down and abandoned, the plant hadn’t seen business in two years. The long hooks used to hang racks of meat hung down in rows, and the icy cold that kept the meat fresh still clung to the air. The chill only made it an even better place for interrogations, offering a built in mechanism affective for loosening tongues.

  This was going to get messy. We had less than two hours before I’d have to find another way to save Anika’s dad from Dominic’s chopping block. There was no other way, and I knew it. I wasn’t leaving here without the name of Dominic’s rat, and that meant I’d have to pull out all the stops. Whatever I had to do to Agent Hadler to get him to spill, I had to do it now, even if meant it all but killed him.

  Well. If I married Gala, I’d have to do worse. A lot worse. Would Anika still want me then? It sickened me that assuming David had turned the mic on, she’d be hearing what happened now, but perhaps it would serve another purpose. It would keep her from ever thinking I was a man worth loving. Or saving.

  On my way toward the coldest part of the plant, the back storage freezer, I picked up a pair of pliers from the floor and let them trail along a metal railing that ran along the wall. A slow, grinding scrape sounded, and to Agent Hadler, hanging inside the freezer, it would be growing louder. Closer.