"You're a bastard," I groaned, shoving off from his body and washing myself furiously. "I'm eighteen. You could at least give me time."
"Time for what exactly, mi reina?" he asked, reaching between my legs with his bare hand to help me clean myself off. His fingers slid inside me as he watched my face, teasing me as if he wanted me in a constant state of desiring him. "For you to think you've found a way to leave me?"
"To figure out what the hell is going on!"
"I've already told you exactly what is going to happen. You're just too stubborn to hear it," he said, stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel from the rack. I hit the switch for the shower, turning off the water as he dried himself off quickly and wrapped the towel around his waist. He grabbed another, holding it out for me to step into.
"I'm not stubborn. You're unrealistic," I argued.
"We'll see," he murmured with a laugh as he moved into the closet and grabbed one of his suits. Watching him dress was to watch him don the persona of a gentleman.
But if there was one thing he'd taught me, it was that the devil was a gentleman. He'd pretended to be whatever he needed to lay his trap, and by the time I’d realized I was his prey, it was too late.
I was already caught.
He tossed a dress onto the bed, the dark apricot fabric with a subtle white pattern standing out against the white bedding. I sighed and resisted the temptation to reject it.
Picking out my clothes was a new level of controlling, even for him.
But the shape of it looked comfortable, and since I had no intention of walking anywhere on my throbbing feet that day, all I wanted was something easy. I pulled on the white bra and panty set he tossed to me, shrugging the dress over my head and smiling when he glared at the low neckline where it dipped to show the top of the valley between my breasts.
"Maybe you should change," he murmured, twisting his lips as he retreated back into the closet. I turned for the door, striding out while he chased at my heels with a disgruntled noise of frustration.
"You picked it," I teased. While I might have felt uncomfortable wearing it, I'd never resist the chance to torment him. I had no power in our relationship, if you could even call it that, and I'd take whatever small victories I could when they came.
My confidence faltered when we emerged into the main space and Rafe guided me to the kitchen. Joaquin sat at the island, sipping a cup of coffee as he ate an omelet and Regina flipped something on the stove.
I gave Rafe a look of condemnation as he sat me in the chair next to Joaquin. My cheeks flushed as Regina turned a bright smile my way, feeling like it couldn't be possible they hadn't heard me scream my orgasm into the shower wall as Rafael fucked me into it. Neither of them said anything to that effect, but her gaze felt too knowing as she flipped an omelet on to a plate and slid it in front of me. My stomach grumbled with hunger, knowing I hadn't had much to eat at all since leaving Ibiza.
I hadn't exactly been in the right mood to eat, but the plate in front of me was too appetizing to resist. She slid a bowl full of fresh fruit in next to the plate, pouring orange juice into the glass. "Joaquin is going to keep an eye on you from now on," Rafe said, touching his lips to the top of my head and then making his way around the side of the island. I leveled his back with a glare as he made his way past me, picking up my fork and stabbing into a piece of banana before popping it into my mouth and chewing.
Rafael moved to the coffee maker on the counter, clicking the buttons on the machine as he spun to look at me. His face twisted into a smirk as he met my glare, gripping the counter and leaning his ass into it. "Don't look at me like that, mi reina," he murmured, his hands gripping the surface. "You might find out just how much I like your glares."
I blushed, darting a glance to Regina and then to Joaquin at my side. The traitorous ass never looked up from his food, minding his own business despite the innuendo to Rafe's words. Regina only smiled, trying to hide it as she cleared her throat and forced her mouth back into a neutral expression.
"Rafael!" I scolded, my voice a strangled whisper.
He pulled his coffee cup from the machine, blowing on the scalding liquid gently and leveling me with a smirk. "I'll never hide our sex life in my own home," he said. "Are you offended, Regina?" he asked.
The older woman shook her head, smiling through the motion. Rafe strode over to me, tilting my face up and kissing me gently before continuing across the kitchen to the little hallway that led to his office. "You didn't ask me," Joaquin said to his back.
"Because I don't care what you think," Rafe called back, making Joaquin chuckle at my side.
"Eat your breakfast, mi hija," Regina said, drawing my attention away from Rafael's retreating figure. "You've gone hungry too often lately, and this is good for fertility," she added.
I dropped my fork to the plate with a clatter, turning disbelieving eyes up to Regina. She smiled in response, as if there was nothing unusual about discussing fertility with a woman she hardly knew who had already expressed the desire to not be pregnant. I picked the napkin up off the counter, wiping my mouth as I thought over a response. "I've lost my appetite."
"Rafael will not be pleased if you don't eat," she said, a smirk tugging at her lips. "I think I would take my chances with the food, as I suspect his displeasure will be more likely to cause pregnancy than simply eating a healthy breakfast."
Joaquin snorted at my side, covering up the sound by taking a sip of his coffee. It didn't escape my notice that nobody bothered to offer me any. Whether that was because of my distaste for it or the seemingly unanimous desire for me to fall pregnant quickly, I couldn't know. "You have no issues with the fact that I'm eighteen and don’t want his child?" I asked her, picking up my fork as my stomach grumbled. I wish I could have said the spinach and mushroom omelet was gross, but to my famished stomach it was one of the most delicious things I'd ever tasted.
Second only to the ensaimada Rafe had hand fed me in Dalt Vila.
She turned her lips down into a frown. "I can understand why it might seem odd for you, coming from how you were raised, but Rafael is thirty-three years old. He needs to consider the future of his legacy. To be honest, he should have started producing heirs years ago, but by the time he realized he was interested in it, he'd found you. His plans have already waited longer than I would have thought him capable." She said the words as if they should reassure me. Instead they only confused me more.
"Why should that have mattered? I can't imagine he would have cared if he brought me here when he already had a spawn to call his own. He doesn't seem to give a shit if anything he does affects me," I said, glaring at her before turning my glare to Joaquin.
"I can understand how it might feel that way now, but Rafael loves you. He will do what it takes to have you, but he doesn't enjoy hurting you unnecessarily, aside from what had to be done to bring you here and to make you see that it isn't temporary," she said. Her words echoed in my head as my vision blurred.
I shoved the thoughts away with denial. "He doesn't love me. He would have told me if he did."
"Just as you've told him that you're in love with him?" she asked with an arrogant smirk. "Rafael doesn't understand emotions. His father beat them out of him when he was a boy and killed all traces of them along with his mother." I froze as Joaquin went still at my side. Regina closed her eyes as she realized she'd probably said something she shouldn't have.
"His father killed his mother? He told me she died in a fire," I said, shaking my head. Of all his lies, I thought that one might have been the worst.
"She did," Joaquin said at my side. I turned my stare his way, wishing I could undo the way that his face hurt me. It shouldn't feel so familiar, not when every word he'd ever spoken to me had been a game. A job. He might not have hurt me as much as Hugo, but I'd grown close to Joaquin in my own way. "He burned her alive," he added, holding my stare with deep brown eyes that sucked all warmth from the room.
Regina nodded her confirmation
as tears stung her eyes, and I turned back. "But why?"
"He became unhinged as he grew older. There was never an official diagnosis since he didn't trust doctors, but he thought she was a witch. Things got worse when Rafael was born and had her eyes. He said it was the mark of her witchcraft." Regina shook her head, her lips moving as my world spun. I knew better than most how judgmental some people could be about even the most miniscule of differences, but to kill someone over their eye color was...
Deranged.
That was the man who had birthed Rafael. In the event he did get me pregnant, what would my child grow to become? Another monster?
"Is that what Rafael will do with me when he tires of me?" I whispered, staring up at her in shock. No matter what Rafe said to try to assure me I was a permanent staple in his life, I couldn't imagine there hadn't been a time where his father fed his mother the same pretty lies.
"He won't grow tired of you, but even if he did, he's not his father," Regina reassured me. "He may be cruel, but the only thing that would cause him to become that unhinged would be losing you."
"Everyone gets tired of fucking the same person every day when there's no love involved," I said bitterly.
"Rafael will tell you he's obsessed with you. He doesn't know it is love yet, but he'll get there," Regina repeated, echoing her words from before as she stared at me intently and I forked a massive bite into my mouth to avoid having to respond.
"Men like Rafael have two outlets," Joaquin said at my side. "Killing and fucking. He lost one of those when he saw you and you were too young for him to touch. Trust me when I say that his men spent the last year parading all manner of tempting women in front of him to try to get him to fuck, because his cruelty knew no bounds when he didn't have you with him. He killed. He punished his people more brutally than he would have if he'd had a warm body in his bed," he said. "But never once did he show the slightest interest in any of them. Men who are only obsessed do not give monogamy to a woman who doesn't know he exists. He gave you monogamy because he loved you, even then."
I laughed, the smile fading from my face as his eyes held mine intently. "Are you saying Rafael hasn't been with anyone in sixteen months?"
"I'm saying he hasn't so much as looked at another woman since he saw you," Joaquin said.
"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked, glancing between the two of them as they leaned in closer. As if whatever came next, they didn't want Rafe to overhear.
"Because you're so desperate to be free that you haven't stopped to consider something. You look at Rafael like he's your captor. Like he took you from your life and made you his prisoner," Regina said. "But you imprisoned him long before he ever touched you."
"The game is over when the King is lost," Joaquin said, glancing at the chessboard sitting in the breakfast nook as the sun shone in the windows. I hadn't even noticed it when I walked in, but the same pieces sat on the board.
The same ones that had haunted me in the streets of Ibiza.
"But the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board," I said, turning my head to face Joaquin in my confusion.
"You have all the power, mi reina. He's already tried to tell you as much." I bit my lip, considering his words. "All that's left is for you to use it."
13
Rafael
When the sun had started to set over the horizon, Alejandro knocked at the side door of my office, avoiding the main space as I'd requested.
Until I felt she was ready, I thought it best to keep her as isolated as possible. Certain events would prohibit it from being entirely true, but I'd do what I could to let her acclimate. Putting Alejandro's mauled hand and his limp directly in her face didn't seem like it would be the best path forward if I wanted her to relax, especially with what was coming once the sun went down.
"Everything is ready for tonight," he said as he dropped into a chair on the other side of my desk. "Are you sure you want to go through with it?"
There was no hesitation in my response. "It's tradition."
"She won't like it," he said, shaking his head in warning.
"It's part of life here. She'll have to come to terms with it eventually," I said, continuing on with the next task I had for him. "I want you to find Pavel's sons."
He nodded, pursing his lips to the side. "Which ones?"
"All of them, but start with the oldest." He widened his eyes, biting his bottom lip.
"Are you sure that's the wisest move? He's already restless after your interaction in Ibiza."
"He could have cost me Isa," I warned. "With his relentless need to insert himself into my vacation with her, he put everything I'd planned at risk. He needs to suffer for it. His sons were going to die anyway. Knowing he'll watch me kill each and every one of them before I finally come for him will be his punishment."
"You'll leave Isa here to go hunt Pavel's sons?" he asked, questioning my motives. It would kill me to leave Isa behind, but there would always be business I needed to tend to off the island. She wouldn't always be able to accompany me, as much as I very much liked the idea of having her waiting for me when I finished and went back to our hotel room at the end of it.
But the reality was, she was much safer on El Infierno.
Most of her time would be spent here, particularly once our child was born. That would give her a distraction, because mi reina had never been good at inactivity. Boredom would be her worst enemy.
"Yes. She'll remain here for now. Hopefully there will come a time soon enough where I can trust her," I said, dismissing him as I stood from behind my desk. As night fell through the windows, I made my way toward the door to the rest of the house.
Isa was curled up in the breakfast nook, a book in her lap as she studied the words intently. The cover brought a smile to my face, the chess pieces staring back at me as she glanced up from the book. She studied the board, moving a piece with her expression deep in thought.
In the yard behind the pool area, a fire raged in the pit halfway between my home and the start of the village where my most trusted people lived. Regina met my gaze as I made my way to the French doors that led to the yard with Alejandro at my heels. Isa's face twisted as she realized I intended to walk past her without greeting, but the events of the night required a certain detachment.
I regretted nothing I would do that night, but that didn't mean I wasn't weighed down by the reality of what was still to come. Penance was necessary, a tradition that kept people from failing me. That kept them from betraying the loyalty I expected of my men.
Hugo had failed me months ago, but his connection to Isa had prevented me from giving him the penance he'd earned. Nothing stood in the way of him paying the price for that failure now that Isa was aware of his involvement with me. I stripped off my suit jacket, tossing it onto one of the stools at the island as I glanced toward Isa one last time. She pushed her chair out from the table, looking as if she might follow me into the night.
But women had no place at the pyre, not unless the penance was theirs to pay.
That day too would come.
My shirt followed, draping over the stool as she held my eyes in confusion and glanced toward Regina who wisely held her tongue. "What are you doing?" Isa asked when I didn't move to strip my pants down my legs.
"Stay here," I ordered her as Alejandro swung the doors open and stepped outside. I followed, pulling them closed behind me with a meaningful look. Turning my back on her finally, I hardened myself to the mask my people saw.
Only Isa threatened to make that mask slip, only she could make me realize that it was a mask at all.
The pyre loomed closer as Hugo approached from the other side. Gabriel accompanied him, standing by his side to help him stumble home. Hugo's first penance—there was no telling how he would react to the skin melting off his body.
The brand already burned in the fire as he stripped off his own shirt and knelt at my feet. I held his eyes as some of my other most trusted men gathered around to bear witn
ess to his penance, to offer their support in the fact that he willingly accepted the punishment for failure. Giving ourselves to the fire was the only true way we could cleanse our bonds of the negative responses to such things.
Never again would I blame Hugo for what happened with Isa all those months ago. His penance would wipe his sins from his skin.
He'd be free to continue to work for me, without the disappointment of his failure influencing his future.
"Do you accept your mark?" I asked, staring down at him. He swallowed down his nervousness, his dark eyes glittering in the flames beside me that heated my skin. My own brands burned with the memory of skin melting, and I remembered what it had been to anticipate the first mark.
The terror I'd felt looking up into my father's eyes when I'd dared to cry as my mother burned. The same fire that burned her had been the flame to give my first penance.
"Yes, El Diablo," Hugo said, his voice carrying through the night air. Heads around me nodded their agreement, the soft acknowledgement of the ways that had been ingrained in our history for as long as I could remember. The tradition might have been barbaric to some, but it was ours.
And it was an honor to continue a tradition my people held to so strongly.
I picked up the glove and slid it onto my hand, reaching to the fire and grasping the handle of the branding iron in my grip. Isa's scream pierced the night as the doors of the house flew open. I watched in confliction as Joaquin grasped her around the waist, working to restrain her and keep her away from the pyre.
She struggled in his grip, yelling my name as if she could stop Hugo's penance. She didn't yet understand that it was as much for him as it was for me, or that he came to receive the mark willingly.
She would soon enough, when it was her who knelt at my feet to accept the penance for her betrayal.
14
Isa
Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance Page 10
