Scars and Silk 2 (The Calvetti Crime Family)
Page 6
“Struck a nerve, did I?” He laughs, and it takes everything inside of me to stop my reaction toward him.
There is something about his laugh that strikes a chord in me. As if I’ve been traveling for years and finally come home. You know that feeling you get—the complete, quaint feeling you get when you walk into your home after being gone for a long time; the serenity that flows down into the marrow of your bones? That’s exactly how I feel when he shows me one of his smiles that he guards people around him from seeing.
“You’re a prick.”
“Never said I wasn’t, sweetheart. But I’m a prick who will tan your ass if you disobey me.” Why does the thought of him spanking me make me quiver? Make me practically pant like a little dog in heat. No person should ever want something so degrading in their life, but I want it. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
I’m practically vibrating on the bed as I stare at him, openmouthed, appearing to be shocked, but really, I’m too turned on to have another reaction toward him. But, leave it to Gavino to see right through my charade.
“Or, maybe, that’s something you’d like,” he says, smirking. God. Why does his smirk turn me on? It’s like this asshole knows all of my turn-on buttons and he’s pushing them all at once.
“Shut up,” I answer in a huff, sitting back on the bed.
“Oh,” he taunts, coming to the edge of the bed. Setting his fists down on either side of my thighs, he crowds me as he leans down. His smell filters between us, causing me to salivate by the richness. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re all calm and innocent on the outside, but on the inside, you’re a little slut begging to be bent over my knee.”
I’m so glad he’s getting a big kick out of this at my expense. Asshole. So, doing the only thing I can think of, I stick my tongue out at him. Only, within a flash, his fingers grip my piece of muscle, pulling me toward him. My eyes widen as they meet his, seeing the sadistic gleam swirling in his transfixing orbs.
“Just go away,” I say, trying to end this humiliating—yet, true—conversation.
“We will finish this when I get back.” Just great.
Knowing he won’t leave until I acknowledge him—which is a contradiction if I’ve ever seen one—I nod my head and lower my eyes from his.
The only thing he leaves behind when he exits the room is his taunting laughter. The asshole … I sigh. I really need to stop being so bad. Like this cursing. Before Gavino took me from Father Avery’s office, I didn’t cuss. Ever. I had an easy temperament and a lot of patience that helped me from succumbing to the need to speak my mind. But, ever since coming here, I have felt the shift deep inside me.
I’m no longer the person he took three months ago. I’ve changed, become someone I don’t even recognize anymore. Yet, I’ve never felt more like myself than I do right now. I don’t have to pretend that my entire world didn’t obliterate when I was seventeen. I can be me—all of me. And I don’t have to make excuses for myself. Gavino accepts me as I am.
After a bit, I’m in the process of lying back down on the bed when I hear the front door open once more. Smiling to myself, I shake my head and turn my attention toward the door. Gavino must have forgotten something when he left a bit ago. He’s been so scatterbrained since this morning.
I can’t really blame him, either. Finding out everything that happened and realizing that none of it was my fault, I’d be scatterbrained as well. Maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to be away from me, and he wants me to tag along. I giggle at the thought. That’s probably not what it is, but it would be a good surprise.
Easily slipping toward the end of the bed, an evil thought comes to me. I won’t admit this but being spanked by Gavino would be a welcome surprise. I might actually even like it. A rush of heat blazes inside of me as I slowly make my way off the bed, feeling the soft satin sheet sliding across my naked flesh.
My feet hit the plush carpet, enveloping my calloused feet, as I make my way toward the door. Before I can talk myself out of it or think of all the ways he can punish me, I fling open the door.
But, it’s not the man who makes me burn with a deep-seated pleasure I haven’t felt in so long—if ever. In fact, the only thing I can put with the person standing in front of me is fear.
Fear that my past has finally caught up to me.
“It’s time for you and me to have a chat, little one,” Brock growls, his face alight with maniac pleasure, as he forces me back into the room, slamming the door behind him.
14
GAVINO
I can’t stop the smile from breaking across my face as I make my way toward Mateo’s. A light drizzle causes me to huddle deeper inside my jacket, ignoring the way the people give me scathing looks from walking through their yard. I couldn’t give two fucks what they think right now. My mood is too good. I actually feel like a regular person again, not some soulless outcast.
“Hey, get the fuck out of my yard!” One of the braver neighbors yells, causing me to stop, giving him one of my evilest glares. He realizes who I am when he fully sees me, and he knows he made a big mistake. His mouth clamps shut immediately, and it looks like he’s about to piss his pants at any moment.
Taking my hand, I fist it and run my thumb along my neck from side to side. I make no other move, noticing the way he pales right in front of me before scurrying back inside the house. Chuckling, I take one last look at the house before closing in on my brother’s home.
People who don’t even know who I am are terrified of me. It’s the scars, the menacing vibe that I give off. It’s also the rep my familia has on this street. We’ve been rumored to be deadly, which isn’t true. But fuck them for stereotyping us.
Stepping up onto the top stoop of Mateo’s mansion—the home that used to belong to our father—I make my way inside without knocking. No one inside cares if someone enters without making themselves known, because only a stupid fuck would do something like that if they aren’t familia.
Jogging down the two steps that brings me into the living room, my gaze treks over the newly redone space, nodding my approval. Hearing a scuffle down the hall, I take off in that direction. A smile threatens to tug at my lips when I see Carina and Mateo arguing. It’s a sight, that’s for sure. If there were any female meant for my brother, it’s this one. She takes no shit and gives a bunch of it in return.
“What’s going on here?” I ask, shocking the both of them silent.
“She refuses to stay in bed.” Slipping into Italian easily, he rants, “Pensa di essere fatta di pietra, ma è fragile come un fiore.” “She thinks she is made of stone, but she is as fragile as a flower.”
I laugh, shocking the both of them. Mateo’s eyes round as he steps closer to her. The sound escaped me before I could think about it, but I do say it feels good to allow it free. “She will cut your balls off, Teo. There’s nothing about her that screams ‘fragile’ or ‘flower.’ She’s more like a Venus flytrap.”
Carina turns her eyes toward Mateo, glaring. “Did you just call me fragile?! I’ll show you fragile,” she says, making an about-face before stomping back through the house.
Quietly laughing, Mateo looks at me, exasperated. “You were just here yesterday; don’t you have other things to do?”
“I do,” I respond, nodding. “But what I need to do is talk to your wife, whom you just pissed off.”
“I didn’t piss her off! You did that.”
Smirking, I lean against the wall and size him up. “Who called whom fragile? You told Reap that she was nothing more than a flower. How do you think that felt to her ego?”
He seems to think about it for a moment before groaning, allowing his head to fall back on his shoulders. “Fuck. I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“You’re asking me? I don’t know shit about women, especially that one.”
That’s true. I have no idea how to navigate anything with a pussy. The finesse to do so eludes me. I can only pretend I know what I’m talking about and hope to fuck
I can back my actions up when I do. With Carina, the jury is still out on that.
Sighing, I push away from the wall. “I have to talk to her. I’ll try to talk what you said down, but I’m not promising anything.”
I hear his sigh of gratitude as I make my way through the mansion. It still creeps me out to be in here, knowing what I do. Seeing the things I did that no child should have to see. The death of our father hit all of us hard. He was the only parent we had for a majority of our lives. Vinny was only a few years old when our mother died, so he didn’t know her that well. And, with him being the youngest out of all of us, the only parent he knew was our father.
It’s just been Anjelo Calvetti and us until it wasn’t. And now, I have to talk to the woman who somehow brought all of us back together. The glue to our familia that no one saw coming. And she’s pissed.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I breeze down the hallway until I’m standing right outside her and Mateo’s door. Whispering inside catches my attention just as I’m about to knock on the door. Furrowing my brow, confusion assaults me as I take a step closer. Who the fuck would be whispering inside the room?
“Gavino is downstairs right now,” the voice says. “Extract her nice and easy, then bring her to me. No. I don’t care what happened in the past. This has to do with me and my familia, and I’ll not have her harmed. Bring. Her. To. Me. I’ll take care of Gavino.”
The voice sounds oddly familiar, and just as soon as he speaks next, I know why it does. We had a traitor in our midst and didn’t even know it. I thought he was my fucking brother!
“You want to watch a movie, kitty?”
Domino.
Blistering heat takes me over. I don’t know whether to pull my pistol and end him myself or make him beg to end his life. After everything that was going down in this familia, he should think that betraying us would be a one-way ticket to the grave. But it appears that some people just need a visual instead of being told.
Allowing all my anger to engulf me, I step away from the door and raise my foot. Putting all my effort into it, I land dead center, the door splintering as it jostles open. A scream penetrates through my haze of destruction, but the only face I’m focusing on is the man standing next to the window with the phone still tucked close to his ear.
The man I thought of as a brother.
A confidant.
But he’s nothing more than a lying bastard.
“I’m going to kill you with my bare hands,” I seethe, stepping into the room.
Carina stands to the side, holding a hand to her chest as she watches me advance. I want to apologize to her for what I’m about to do, but I can’t bring myself to acknowledge she has any feelings for this man. He’s nothing but a liar—a traitor.
“It’s not what it looks like, Gav,” he says, trying to take the pussy way out.
“It looks like you and Carina talk a lot of shit behind closed doors. About the man who caused her to lose the baby. Was there even a goddamn baby to begin with? Or, did you just want me here to case my place? A goddamn safe house you and no one else were supposed to know anything about!”
A look of remorse flashes through his eyes, and that’s when I know everything I said was true. It’s all been a sham. A lie to get me to let my guard down because all these assholes know how much I pride myself in protecting my family.
“You knew I was outside that door, didn’t you? Yesterday when everything happened, you knew I was there.”
“Yes,” he answers, giving me nothing else.
Flinging my eyes toward Carina, I see the first smattering of tears dancing in her eyes. I’ve never known her to cry over something that didn’t revolve around Mateo. But here she is, looking like someone took her favorite lollipop away.
“And you?” I ask, grinding out. “You lied about being pregnant, knowing it would lead to this?”
Nodding her head, she makes to step toward me. But I move away like her touch might burn me if I allow it. All this time, I held my family up in the highest regards, and they’ve been lying to me. I’m not even pissed off about how they know about Skylah. I’m more explosive that anyone thinks to take away what’s mine. I own that bitch. Not them; not anyone.
“Gavino, there’re things about Skylah that you don’t know,” Domino says, diverting my attention from Carina to him.
Narrowing my eyes, I take a step toward him. “Like what? She saw someone get killed in the place she works. She ran to the first place she knew she would be safe; the church. And if you tell me all of that was planned, I will kill you myself.”
“No, that wasn’t planned. It helped, but I still have no idea who it was that killed her. The only thing I know is I needed to get Skylah somewhere safe so I could pick her up. After years of searching, I had finally found her, and I wasn’t about to lose her again.”
“What are you talking about?!” I lose my temper, unholstering my weapon.
He raises his hands, and I get a sick sense of satisfaction seeing him unnerved like he is now. But he still hasn’t answered my question, and if he doesn’t start talking, I’m going to pull this trigger. It’s already apparent to me that I cannot trust anyone in my familia.
Who else knows? Giovanni? Mateo? Lucio?
Sighing, his eyes hold so much pain when they meet mine. “Skylah Bow is actually Skeelani Romanov. She’s my little sister; the true leader of my familia in New York. She is the one who is supposed to take over the familia business since I turned it down when I was six.”
The wind knocks out of me, almost to the point I’m doubled over. Staring at Domino in complete disbelief, the words elude me. There’s nothing you can say to that. How am I supposed to react, finding out the woman I love is deeper in this world than I am?
“What?” I finally ask.
“It’s true, Gav,” Carina steps forward, sniffling. “I didn’t believe it myself until Domino told me, showing me everything I needed as proof. He needed me to help stage this whole thing.”
It still doesn’t make any sense why he would have someone go pick her up instead of talking to me about it. I may be a hard-ass, but I would do absolutely anything for my familia, even if it means going against the Brotherhood.
“Why not come to me? I have protected her better than anyone has.”
“You’re too invested,” he says, giving me a sad look. “I needed someone to extract her who wouldn’t care if she was scared, crying, or didn’t want this. She is the head of my familia by right, and she needs to take her place.”
The way he says it causes ice to flow through my veins. He needed someone to extract her. Even if she was scared, crying. Who the fuck did he get? Why the hell am I not killing him right now? What the fuck is wrong with me?!
Breaking out of my trance, I backtrack. I have to get to her. Even though I know Domino won’t put her in danger, no one can protect her better than I can. Goddammit! He could have made things so much easier if he had fucking told me this shit instead of leaving me in the dark. I’m going to twist his fucking head off his shoulders when I’m through with this shit.
“I have to go,” I say, running out the door.
Their footsteps pound the carpet behind me, but they can’t stop me. Or rather, they shouldn’t stop me, because I’m already on edge. I’ll gut them like a fish, familia or not.
“She won’t be there, Gavino!” Dom yells, grabbing my arm.
Turning full circle, I rear my arm back, then put all my weight into a punch. It lands against his cheek, snapping his head to the side as he falters, almost falling to the ground.
Getting in his face, I grab his suit jacket, pulling him toward me, seething. “If she isn’t there when I get home, I’m going to kill you. Anyone who helped you—” I turn my eyes to look up at Carina, who’s gaping at me, then back down to him, “will suffer the same fate. You better hope she’s there.”
Shaking his head sadly, he whispers, “She won’t be. My man has already infiltrated your home.” A goddamn home no o
ne was supposed to know about!
“What?” I bellow, jerking him toward me.
“Easy mission. Brock was in and out, telling me everything went well when you burst through the doors.”
My blood runs cold in my veins as I stare down at him. “Brock?”
“Brock Johnson. I hired his services through a friend. He came very reliably. It’s not like I could sneak into your home and do it myself. You’re so goddamn paranoid, you would know it was me the second it happened. I had to be here, out from under your radar.”
Pushing away from him, I bolt down the stars two at a time. My heart thuds harshly in my chest as all rational thought leaves me. It feels like my entire world is crashing down around me, and I’m fighting to catch my breath. It can’t end like this. Not when it’s just begun.
Please, fight back, Sky. I’m coming for you, baby.
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Scars and Silk 2. I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it, and I can’t wait until you’re fully able to dive into my next book Scars and Silk 3.
More by Rose Harper:
www.authorroseharper.wixsite.com/books/
Now, flip the page to read where it all began with the first
THREE chapters in Blood and Secrets.
©2018 Rose Harper, Blood and Secrets 1
1
CARINA
My eyes track his every movement.
No matter what I do, I can feel the heat of his proximity like he’s standing right next to me, breathing down my neck. I can feel the burn of his fingers as if they’re sliding across my body, instead of his bottom lip. His presence lights a fire within me, filling me with intrigue to know more. To find out everything I can about him.