Vengeance Unleashed (The Wanted Men Series Book 1)

by Nancy Haviland

  “I’ll book a room.” So much for getting it over with now, he thought as impatience ate at him. Had shit not blown up yesterday, he’d have made that trip to New York and this might have been over by now.

  “Let’s move.” Vincente motioned to Paynne and Alek to follow him out and the three of them nodded good-bye to Eva before they disappeared. Jak, too, took his leave, but he didn’t go beyond the study that was off the dining area.

  A few silent beats followed the mass exodus before Eva’s gaze swung his way. When she saw he was already looking at her, her lashes fluttered in a nervous blink before she broke the contact by glancing around the room.

  “I don’t know about you…” She cleared her throat. “But my brain is ready for a vacay. Wanna veg with me?”

  He let her wait for as long as it took to text Jak, delegating the booking of a room to him, then he slipped his phone into his pocket.

  “I’m all yours.”

  EIGHTEEN

  Oh, how she wished that were true, Eva thought as she eyed that huge body she couldn’t get enough of.

  But first… “Can I ask you something?”

  A glint of humor flashed in Gabriel’s eyes. “Stalling?”

  Her breath caught. Sexy beast. “Not for long.”

  The humor sparked into a flame. “Ask.”

  “Why did you send Caleb to New York?”

  He approached as he answered. “Rather than have a stranger shadow you, it made more sense to bring in someone familiar.” He winced a little. “If I’d known his sister might be in trouble, I’d have left him here and gone with Plan B. Too,” he added before she could say anything, “if I’d known my cousin would get as close to you as he did, sending in anyone else wouldn’t have been necessary at all.”

  “Your cousin?”

  An entirely masculine sound of amusement came from his chest. “Your roommate’s regular booty call.”

  Her jaw dropped as she pictured the handsome business major Tyla had met not long before grad. “Alesio is your cousin?” Of course he was, she realized as she looked at Gabriel now and belatedly saw the similarities between the two men. Alesio had hooked up with Tyla often enough to have become a permanent fixture around their apartment, and he’d become friends with all of them.

  “Our fathers were brothers.”

  Holy shit. “So he was only around because he had to be?” That was kind of insulting. Even though she knew he and Tyla were no more serious than any of the many partners Tyla had brought home, Eva had liked Alesio. His positive, playful outlook had been just what she’d needed at the time.

  Gabriel chuckled as he slid an arm around her, his fingers going under the hem of her shirt to stroke the bare skin of her lower back. Shivers climbed her spine. “Es loves women, sure, but he’s no prostitute. No one forced him to screw your roommate just so he could keep an eye on you. That was just a bonus.”

  “By the sounds that used to come from Tyla’s room, there was definitely no forcing going on.” She went back to something else he’d said. “What was Plan B?”

  “Get you kicked out of school and sent home,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Her jaw swung once more as shock ricocheted through her. “What?” she jerked away, putting some distance between them. “How could you have possibly done that?”

  He stalked her, pushing a lock of hair off her shoulder and following it with his fingers as it fell down her back. “Would have been easy,” he stated as he studied the strands still in his fingers. “But a shit thing to do to someone who’d worked her perfect ass off to get where she was. Really, it would have been a very last resort.”

  “But…it’s Columbia University,” she insisted, as if he didn’t already know that.

  His grin spread slowly and with enough ego to be noticeable. “Did I mention it was a last resort?”

  Rather than intimidate, his apparent clout inflamed her. Or maybe it was the ease with which he was slowly revealing himself, allowing her to know him. He was no longer lying and deceiving. He was openly giving her answers to anything she asked, and honestly sharing all that he was capable of.

  Reaching up to tunnel her fingers into his hair, she tipped her head to kiss the underside of his jaw. “Your honesty is very attractive,” she admitted, hearing the truth of it in the breathy sound of her voice.

  “Is it.” His arm tightened around her waist and he lifted her so that their eyes were level. “Then you’re gonna love when I tell you I need your fuckin’ clothes off. Feel like begging for mercy I won’t give?”

  She could barely breathe around the grin that claimed her face as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her lips were almost on his when she remembered something that had been hanging in the back of her mind. “Condoms.” She kissed him. “Haven’t been using them.” She slipped her tongue into his mouth for a taste. “I have some in my purse.”

  He cupped the back of her head and held her steady so he could kiss the sense right out of her. “There’s some in my nightstand.” He got them moving, bringing her into the bathroom rather than the bedroom. “But since you’re on the pill and as pure as they fuckin’ come, and I’ve been tested even though Stefano pretty much made me a monk for the past few years, I think we’re good. You?”

  Her hands burrowed between them so she could get at the button of his pants. “We’re good.” Foolish or not, she agreed. They were so fucking good together. “How do you know I’m on the pill?” She nipped at his earlobe before kissing her way down the side of his neck.

  “Had Maks hack into your medical records the other day to make sure. Get that shirt off.” Because his jeans were now open, she obeyed, pulling her tank over her head and dropping it to the floor as he dimmed the lights. “I’d never risk you, Eva. Never,” he rasped as his mouth latched onto her bare shoulder. Around his nips and kisses, he added, “I know you don’t trust me, but please believe that.”

  Her insides twisted. Having it voiced somehow confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t true. Maybe it was sex on the brain doing something to her logical thought process, but she did trust him. With her life and then some.

  “Gabriel?”

  His head came up, and the low light cast half his face in shadows, lending him a mysterious air.

  “I wouldn’t be with you again if I didn’t trust you.”

  He growled like an animal, a low sexy sound that came from deep in his throat.

  Hmm. Her hips rolled with a mind of their own, seeking out his erection. She went for his mouth to kiss him in case he was thinking to say something. She didn’t want him to. That sound he’d just made was all the response she needed.

  † † †

  Gabriel devoured his woman’s mouth as he reveled in the gift she’d just presented him with.

  Her forgiveness.

  Fuck. That made it even harder to take his time with her. He wanted to savor this. Bask in the need blazing from her eyes that she was too inexperienced to hide.

  But shit hit another level when she started unbuttoning his shirt without prompting. He grasped two fistfuls of her hair and pinned her hard against the wall, groaning good and deep when she sucked steadily on his tongue while straining to get closer. He released her hair and smoothed his hands down her body to grip her tight ass, lifting and lowering her so that her pussy stroked up and down his aching cock.

  “Mmm…don’t stop,” she panted.

  But he did.

  He put her down, but only to whip her leggings and panties off. As he yanked his shirt over his head and got rid of his boot, she unclasped and slid the rainbow-colored bra she wore down her arms to drop it on the floor next to them. He stared at her naked form as he finished making quick work of his pants.

  She was beyond words.

  “Ready?”

  Her high-pitched tone was soaked with anticipation, and hearing it nearly sent him to his knees. He stepped out of the pool of clothing and backed her into the wall again, his hands going directly to her breasts
, cupping the full weight of them before sliding his thumbs over her nipples. Dammit, he couldn’t decide what turned him on more, the feel of her so soft and responsive in his arms, or the way she looked as her head fell back in pleasure.

  “Goddammit, you’re beautiful,” he groaned, tamping down his impatience to bury himself in her tightness. He rolled both her nipples, pinching, loving the feel of her sharp nails sinking into his biceps.

  She caught his gaze, and his body whacked out at the unbridled passion coloring her cheeks and brightening her eyes to a brilliant azure blue. She hid nothing from him. And that was goddamn beautiful.

  She pulled him in until he had to stop working her breasts. No worries. He grabbed her ass again, biting gently into her shoulder as he grasped the firm flesh. Unable to resist, he slid one of his hands farther back and under, going between her legs.

  “Oh, fuck yeah, baby.” She was soaked. He slipped in one finger, and then two, loving the sounds she made. “So goddamn ready for me.”

  Her back arched in a provocative slope, pushing her breasts into his chest as her hips began gyrating in a circular motion around his fingers. He wanted to grind her right through the fucking wall.

  Slipping his fingers free, he gripped her hips and lifted. She grasped at his sweat-slicked shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist once again. He shifted and entered her, slowly working his way in deep, making them both groan. He thrust, savoring the feel of her pussy, slick and tight around him as he sank into her over and over. Craning his neck, he took her nipple between his lips and tongued the tight peak. Her inner muscles clenched in response, almost sucking the orgasm right out of him.

  “Such a tight pussy,” he rumbled against her breast.

  “Maybe…oh, God…it’s just your…cannon…”

  He smiled and fucked her harder while kissing his way up her throat and across her jaw. When he got to her mouth, he took it and mimicked the motion of his cock with his tongue. He felt her body tighten, her pants heavier now. Her body arched up to meet his, thrust for thrust.

  “That’s it, sweetheart. Take what you need. Take everything.”

  Her gasps cut off, and then her muscles were milking him, dragging him under with her as she stiffened and cried out.

  † † †

  As relief finally arrived in the form of a mind-bending climax, Eva became aware of Gabriel’s vicious growl as he shuddered against her, his hips still pounding as he, too, found his release.

  Time passed, their movements slowing, their kisses lingering, their touch softening, and soon Gabriel was turning and gently setting her down on the counter, his arms still around her.

  He kissed her, soft as a breeze, and then just held her. As she rested her chin on his shoulder, she looked into the mirror across the way. Her feet were clasped together hiding his fine ass, but his back…

  “Wow,” she murmured, gazing at the tattoo of an angel draped over an aged cross, her spread wings touching the tops of Gabriel’s shoulders while the tips went all the way down the back of his ribs to his waist. “This is gorgeous.” She went under his arms and smoothed her hands over the many shades of grey.

  He accepted the compliment after a slow lick at her collarbone. “Ghost did a nice job on that one.”

  “I take it Ghost is your tattoo artist?”

  “Mm-hmm. He does a lot of work on me and the boys.”

  “Does it symbolize anything for you?”

  He stroked his palm from her nape to her tailbone. “Vincente calls her Sophia.”

  “Any reason why?” She wasn’t aware of a Saint Sophia but that didn’t mean much since she also wasn’t a religious person.

  “His sister. She was a sweet little thing who got dragged into a prostitution ring. They kept her there by forcing an addiction to the shit they supplied. V ID’d her body on one of his nightly rounds to the morgue almost a year after she disappeared. She was only sixteen.”

  Her heart broke for his friend. “Oh my God. That’s awful.”

  “Yeah, it was. She was a treasure lost. She gave me this.” He lifted the wolf tooth that hung around his neck. It had a bible verse inscribed on it. Again, one she didn’t know. “V has one, too. It was her way of telling us that no matter what we did, she, and God, would forgive us.”

  Eva sighed, understanding the sentiment as Gabriel brought her into the shower and turned them so that his back took the brunt until the spray warmed up.

  “V was never the same after that.” As he talked, he soaped and rinsed her from head to toe. “He’d taken care of Soph pretty much on his own from the time she was eight. Blames himself for…well, all of it, which is bullshit because he couldn’t have been with her every second of every day.” A ripple of tension passed through him. “He was actually with me when she was snatched, so I guess I should shut the fuck up because how can you not feel responsible when you basically are?”

  As he rinsed the soap off himself, she reached forward and hugged him, pressing her cheek against his back as the water ran down their bodies. The more she learned about his life, the more she understood what drove him.

  “I’m so sorry for all of you, Gabriel. Poor Vincente.” She touched the angel’s sad face. “I like Sophia. And I’m glad you have her watching your back.”

  It was true. She’d be grateful to anyone for keeping him safe, because, apparently, it mattered very little that his brother was still out there and wanted her dead. It no longer mattered that Gabriel had kept life-altering secrets from her. It didn’t matter what he’d done in his past. None of it made any difference to the feelings steadily developing inside her.

  NINETEEN

  Vincente wasn’t shocked to find Gabriel and Vasily’s daughter already situated at the round table when he and Alek arrived for brunch the following day. Greetings were exchanged as they claimed a couple of chairs, and while Alek, ever the gentleman, started up with the social chatter, V watched the room slowly fill up.

  Trisko came in looking like a UFC light heavyweight title holder, scarred and proud. It was good to have him back. Judging by the new attitude, the guy had brought home more than sand in his boots from Afghanistan. No surprise. But having a former special-ops soldier in their crew? A very fucking nice surprise.

  Quan Mao entered behind Jak, and Vincente narrowed his eyes on the newcomer. So what that the Asian had been with G for more than four years now? Vincente didn’t know him well, so he was a newcomer who would have to prove himself before he was accepted fully into their circle. Maks had dug deep into channels that had earned the stubborn Russian a few warnings to keep out, but he’d managed to put together a striking history on the Asian. Quan had belonged to a ruthless organization, but had somehow been allowed an out after proving himself invaluable—very interesting. The fuckin’ guy was disciplined to the extreme. Hell, he’d already earned a Roku Dan and the samurai title Renshi. Damn impressive considering his age; he’d just reached his thirties.

  Paynne came in next, strolling across the room with a round of nods and an open grin aimed at Eva.

  “Talk to Nika yet today, Priss?” The biker took a chair two over from Vasily’s daughter.

  Priss? Nickname?

  “No. Why? Is she okay?”

  “She’s good. I wanted to pick her up on my way back from seeing some of the boys, but she insisted—in that way of hers—that she’d get here on her own.”

  “She’s coming here?” Eva said with a brow that arched in that perfect way only women could achieve.

  “Yeah. Since she’s now involved, Fist said to invite her.” Caleb tipped his head Vincente’s way.

  He nodded to the amusing biker in acknowledgment of his talents while noting how Gabriel’s shoulders kept stiffening during the brief convo. Because Stefano had pulled an innocent woman into their shit. Or was the idiot jealous. First time for everything, he supposed. Hilarious.

  Not so hilarious was the worry that hit Caleb’s face every time his sister came up. V got it. When it came to the we
aker sex—and, yes, he was well aware any woman who learned that’s how he viewed them would cuff him in the ear—they needed protecting. The simple truth of the matter was, most females just weren’t equipped to defend themselves against men who were typically bigger and stronger, and usually that much crazier, than themselves.

  “You have no more control over what your brother is doing than I do, Gabriel.”

  All attention went to the only female in the room when her response to hers and G’s quiet conversation carried, letting them all hear her relieve their boy of a fault they already knew wasn’t his.

  Vincente fell in like with her right then, and he wasn’t the only one, judging by the way G looked at her as he inclined his head her way.

  Eva’s voice was soft but firm as she focused her attention across the table. “Just as you have no control over what your sister does, Caleb. No matter how much you hate it.”

  Paynne’s expression was grim but deferential, his lifted brow showing he’d taken notice of Eva’s defense of Gabriel. “Yeah. I get that. Free will sucks sometimes.”

  “Yes, it does,” Eva murmured, straightening the cutlery in front of her. She did it absently, almost as if she wasn’t aware she was doing it. She tweaked Gabriel’s, too, lining the bottom of those eating utensils in a precise line. She took her time and then sat back with a sigh that was somehow content. Funny little thing.

  The sound of the door had all heads turning to see the second Russian in their closely-knit group saunter in like he owned the universe.

  Maksim Kirov was a jacked six-seven, built like a streamlined tank, with tattoos covering a solid portion of his muscled body. As was the norm, his criminal history was hidden away under a three-piece suit that Vincente thought looked damned uncomfortable, even though it probably cost as much as his Harley. The guy took in the scene with those silver eyes of his. Paired with his dark hair and ultraprecise goatee, he looked like the well-dressed nightmare he was as Gabriel got up to greet him.