by Dani Wyatt
You would think that of the two of them, I would be more attracted to Victor. After all, he’s closer to my age. And he looks like a slick advertisement in GQ. His helmet of dark hair, never a strand out of place. His cold, dark eyes feel as real as a model in the pages of a magazine.
I should feel lucky. Lucky that someone with those looks would even want to marry someone that looks like me. But I don’t. I don’t feel lucky at all. I feel sick and I have to shake away thoughts of Deck’s mouth. His fingers. The taste of my orgasm on his kiss.
As I curl into a ball, trying to shake the chill, I think of how other parts of Deck would have tasted if my mouth would have given him the same pleasure he gave me. And the tears seep out of the corners of my eyes, because I’ll never know.
Decker
“Well, fucking find a way!” I slam the phone down, then lift the receiver and slam it again, a couple more times before I finally put my head between my hands.
It’s been almost forty-eight hours. Thoughts of where she is, and if she’s okay, are pushing me to the edge of madness.
I called in a few favors with some cops that come in here, trying to figure out who that slick fuck was, the one who was sitting there the other night, talking about killing May. But their lack of urgency isn’t making things easy.
I still don’t believe it. I know deep down that it can’t be true because who could think of killing someone as kind and pure as May? But I’m not taking a fucking chance here. I have to know for sure.
The phone I gave her has a tracker in it. Okay, I lied, I don’t usually give them out to all my employees. But I had that one in my pocket so I gave it to her. I have a few special phones I give the girls if they are in trouble. Some of them have angry boyfriends. Pimps sometimes.
Over the years I’ve taken on a paternal role with some of them so I keep track of their movements if I think they’re in danger. I think somewhere deep inside, I figured I would never have a family of my own. After watching the shit my mom put up staying with my dad, coupled with my own awkwardness when it came to dating, I just threw myself into helping out the girls here, sort of a replacement for the family I would never have.
But I didn’t think May was in danger when I handed it to her. I just needed to know exactly where she was, if she were ever out of my sight.
Only problem is the phone was dead when I gave it to her. And apparently she hasn’t followed my directions and charged it.
“Goddamn it.” I slam my fists down on my desk just as the door to my office opens and Allister gingerly steps inside. Probably doesn’t know what to expect any more.
“Boss.” His face is gray. He’s been up with me since the fire, trying to piece together this puzzle and help me find my May, so I can get her to safety.
I measure my tone, but I can’t muster any enthusiasm. “What?” He’s been downtown, chatting it up with some of our friendly bureaucrats and judges. Owning a club puts you in a position where you come across certain information. Information that some husbands may not want their wives to know. And it comes in handy from time to time, when we need a favor or some intel of our own.
“I found him.” Allister sits down in the chair in front of my desk. “Victor Galletti. Son of Simon Galletti. They own a couple Ferrari dealerships. Some other small time real estate investments.” He waves a dismissive hand. “But they’ve been managing the Morgan estate since the matriarch died in a car accident years ago. That’s where their real money comes from, and I’d place my bet on one of the Morgan’s two daughters being your girl there. One of them is named Maribelle.”
My skin ripples and I want to skin that fucker alive.
“You have an address?”
Allister nods.
“Let’s go. Now.”
May
I feel nothing.
Simon is scribbling on a pad of paper and Victor is texting someone. As usual.
This office was where my father worked. The walls are made warm with walnut panels and bookcases stuffed with hard backs. Everything from Plato to Jane Austen. He instilled in us a love of books from the earliest time I can remember, but now this room feels foreign, cold. And I just want out.
“It’s settled. It may not be the fairy tale wedding of your dreams, but it’s the way it needs to be.” Simon finishes whatever he is writing and looks over the desk with eyes filled with as much life as a shark’s.
“Tomorrow, the judge will come here. We will have a civil ceremony, and if you like, we can have a toast or a celebratory dinner, whatever, before you head to the airport.”
I hear Victor grunt next to me. It’s not really a response, and even I know it’s not a sound that a groom should be making on the day before his wedding. Resignation or disgust? I have no idea. I just want to scream.
“As soon as you produce an heir, your half of the estate is freed. Your half will be in the hands of your husband.” Simon winks at me and I want to punch him in his fat nose.
Somehow, Simon figured out I’d snuck out. Probably has a camera outside our room. I thought I had it planned perfectly: I snuck down the stairs off the back terrace and through a gate near the service garage which isn’t monitored.
So now he’s decided the wedding needs to happen right now. He asked me a whole bunch of weird questions about where I went and what I did. He even threatened to have a doctor come and look at me. It was weird and disgusting. I felt violated. The way he talked about it, there was something sick in his voice.
Now I understand. I understand everything. Everything they’ve done, all the ways they’ve kept us here under guard. If one of us gets pregnant, produces an heir and gets married, Simon will no longer be hindered by the terms of the conservatorship. One half of the inheritance will be released, but not to that sister. No. It goes straight to that sister’s husband.
Apparently, my going out has them in a panic. That maybe I’ve managed to get a baby in my belly in that one night. What they don’t know is that the very thought of it has my girl parts tingling. Imagining Deck’s enormous erection aimed right at me. Ready, willing and able to serve.
The irony is, I probably could have done just that, if only Deck and I had had more time. But that would never work because Simon has made it very clear. If I don’t marry Victor, I will never see my sister again. I don’t know what he meant by that, but I believe him. So here we are.
“Are we done? Because you two are just wearing me out with all this frivolous celebration.” I tap my toes together as Victor grunts again and I snap my head around. “Do you know any actual words?”
He looks at me with dead eyes that match Simon’s, then right back to his phone.
“Stop it.” Simon chastises me.
Stop it. I mouth the words back at him with an eye roll.
They’ve already taken Leah away, and I have no idea where she’s gone, so I am completely alone. Simon is holding her hostage, using her as leverage. He says she’ll be back as soon as the ink is on the marriage certificate, and I can present a pregnancy test with two little lines.
Thinking of how long that could take makes my eyes burn and I have to fight the tears. I won’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry.
My stomach turns when I imagine Victor touching me. I really hope he just does what he has to do and that’s it. No kissing, no other touching. Just stick it in and fire. I think I can handle that without throwing up, but what I can’t handle is anything that feels good. Because anything like that is likely to remind me of how it felt when Deck kissed me.
In all the places he kissed me.
“Your father wanted you to be taken care of. And that’s exactly what I intend will happen.” Simon leans back in my father’s chair and smacks his lips together, looking out the window over the massive green lawn toward the front gates.
“Can. I. Go. Now?” I enunciate each word slowly, so that my feeble-minded captors will understand.
Simon snorts and waves his hand, while Victor matches his snort with anot
her grunt. “Go. But remember, if you want Leah back here with you, you will do as you’re told. We can all live happily ever after. You just do as your father wished and everything will be fine. Trust me.”
I’m out of the chair and stomping out the door without another word. My heart is breaking. Leah needs me, and I need her. All we have is each other.
I’ll marry Victor, I’ll make a baby. Geez, I’d even give them the money—I’d give them this house if I had to. Mom would understand; if it meant Leah and I got to be together she would tell us to let the house go, I think.
It would break my heart, but I’d trade it all if it meant that me and Leah could be together forever. Besides, maybe then they would leave us alone.
My only wish is that I could see Deck one more time. Just to kiss him, just to tell him goodbye. I know that’s stupid, a childish fantasy. I barely know him. But, still, my fate is sealed and for whatever reason, I think I owe him that much.
I’m up the stairs two at a time. I stomp into my irritatingly lavish bedroom suite. Nothing here makes me happy. Things aren’t important. There isn’t a single thing in this world that matters to me, only people. Perhaps I know that better than most because I have so much and yet so little. Two people in this world matter to me, and they are both gone and I’m so alone. I feel like my insides are rearranging themselves.
“Deck.” I whisper his name into my pillow as the tears come without any sound.
I may not know much about the world, but there are some things you do not need to have any experience with to understand.
Just one more kiss.
I squeeze my eyes together and wish hard. I even say a little prayer. I lie there until the room grows dark, my fingers go cold and no more tears will come.
I’m empty.
I flip onto my back, gaze at the painted ceiling, and I can’t stop the smile from spreading over my face. The most beautiful blue sky covers the plaster with cotton ball clouds drifting on top. My father had it done for us. He had mine and Leah’s ceilings custom painted like this so we would always feel free, even when we were here.
The irony of that thought hits me and my chest tightens. There is a breeze rustling the branches outside my window, dappling the moonlight across my walls.
Then a sudden gust of wind violently shakes the tops of the trees, slamming a huge limb into the side of the house. I cover my ears but as quickly as the wind starts it stops.
When I open my eyes, the door to my balcony is wide open. The moonlight shines a path across the texture of the wood floor.
I look up once more at the ceiling, smile and think of what I’m going to do.
Decker
I’d isolated myself for too long. Maybe that’s why I fell so hard and fast. Maribelle. May. She chipped at the walls around me, made a hole, and they all just seemed to collapse at once.
There was no build up, no easing into it. I was utterly fucking gone over this girl, head over heels, and it makes zero sense that I was affected as such, but I don’t care.
I know what I want and I’ve never failed before when I’ve set my sights on something. This time the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been.
This little cherub is already making epic waves in my otherwise orderly life, and I’ve spent all of about thirty minutes with her.
Fuck.
All I know right now is I need to get to her. Whatever the cost, that fucking asshole, Victor, will be dealt with. But first I need to get my May into my safe harbor before sunrise, and everything else is secondary.
“Ready, boss?” Allister comes in the office door as I’m shoving my fists through the sleeves of my leather jacket. I’d considered taking my Glock, but Allister talked me down from that, which was probably a good idea because I’m ramped up and if I even so much as see that slick dick’s face . . . well, let’s just say it will be far less pretty than it was yesterday.
But I can’t be there for May if I’m the one serving time, so I locked my 9mm back in the floor safe.
I don’t think my dick has slept at all since I’d tasted her. Fuck, if she didn’t brand her flavor on me with one lick. I’ll never forget what she tastes like. It was more than just sweet; it was fresh and earthy, but swirled with some sort of lust-flavored candy that has my head lost in the fucking clouds, dreaming of when I will have her under my tongue again.
And finally claim her completely as my own.
I want her body around my cock. I can practically feel it already. That may sound like complete bullshit. I mean, who would believe it? I’m creeping up on thirty-six years old and never tasted a woman before her, never fucked one either. I guess I’m probably not all that bad looking, I mean, I’ve had more opportunities than I can try to count so they must have seen something. But I just shut that part of me down so long ago, so it just became easier as time went on to forget it ever existed.
But May has awakened the beast, and I’m almost afraid for her. When the time comes, I don’t think the word gentle will be in my vocabulary.
Allister’s holding the door open as I stride out of the office. I barely notice the thick crowd filling the club, my mind is too focused on the task at hand. I grab my jacket which I left hanging on a chair at the end of the bar.
I’m running through the way this might play out when we get to the estate where she . . . what? Lives? Is being held? It’s secured, I’m sure, but I will tear down the fucking walls to get to her and free her if necessary. Failure is not an option here because it’s literally life and death.
Allister is on my heels as we make it through the noise of the kitchen and out the back door into the alley. I hit the door with such force, it snaps my wrists back with a jolt of pain. A blast of icy wind hits me as the darkness blinds me for a moment.
The shapes of a few cars in the back alley come into focus. The hushed voices of a couple making their way down the street toward the front of the building, the wind whistling between the buildings. They’re the only thing I hear besides the voices in my head, the ones saying her name over and over.
“The car’s waiting.” Allister steps in front of me and I follow.
The tips of my fingers are shaking, my heart is thudding against my chest wall, and each breath I take becomes a shudder on the way out. I break into a run. I can’t do this slow; it needs to be hard and fast, and done before I lose my fucking mind.
When we get to the car, I stop as Allister opens the door, but remain standing outside because I hear my phone making an unusual dinging sound. I’m out of breath from the sprint, but I take a second, stuff my hand into my inner jacket pocket and pull out my personal phone. The screen is black; I touch the button and it lights up, but no calls, no texts. What the fuck?
Then I remember.
Fuck.
I reach around, slapping my hand on each of my pockets until I find the other phone. The one I forgot I had stuffed in my jacket this morning. The one I have connected to the tracking app in the phone I’d given May.
I hit the button and the alert pops up. The tracker is on and she’s on the move.
Frantically trying to pull up the map so I can read the street names, it’s then that we hear the scream and I go cold. It’s like a knife through my heart. At the same instant, the map comes up and I see the blinking red dot.
May.
The screaming has stopped, silenced maybe but I don’t want to think about that. I’m locked on like a viper. My feet slam the pavement and I hear Allister’s shout from behind me as I turn and race away from the car.
If someone has their fucking hands on her, this day will be their last.
I’m between two buildings. She’s not far and my senses are on alert. I can hear everything around me: a candy wrapper blowing under a dumpster, the hum of electrical wires running over my head, the sound of struggle and muffled screams.
I slam myself against a brick wall easing toward the corner, every muscle in my body rock hard, coiled, ready. I see the flash of headlights out of the corner
of my eye, and turn my head to see a black Mercedes in a parking lot to my left, behind the building. I’m ready to fight for her. My heart is unusually slow, my breathing even.
“Shut the fuck up.” It’s a man’s voice, bored and raspy. It echoes around the corner. “You’re nothing but a pain in the ass. Sneaking out again? You’re an idiot. Dad sent me to find your ass and bring you back, that’s all, but you always have to make this harder than it is. Fucking little crazy ass bitch cun—”
He doesn’t get that last word out before I spin around the edge of the building. May’s eyes flash with horror as Victor drags her toward the Mercedes, his hand gripped tightly over her nose and mouth.
His split second of surprise is all I need. May is barely to his shoulder, and with one roundhouse swing my fist smashes into his eye socket filling the night with a sickening crunch of bones breaking.
It’s enough to make him let go of her, and with the few seconds I have before he recovers, I meet her eyes.
“You’re okay.” I’m a bit too hasty getting her behind me and she stumbles, but she manages to keep her feet. I hate it, but I can’t concentrate on that right now. Victor is trying to refocus his vision and it’s only a matter of seconds before I have to deal with this son of a bitch.
He has no idea what just hit him, but he’s going to get a second chance real soon.
“Get over there!” I yell to May, pointing toward a metal door with a security light over it. She’s frozen, shock will do that to a person, but I need her to listen. “Pink!” The word seems to draw her eyes, her mouth opens and she takes a gasping breath. “Over there.” I make my voice as gentle as I can. “Go over and stand by that light.”
Victor’s a step away from me, but he’s no match. A fuck like this is all slick talk but he hasn’t been through the trenches. I’ve got skills and he’s got a manicure.
My second blow comes up from below, slamming his perfect teeth together and a flash of white incisor breaks loose. It arcs from the spray of crimson and lands on the black pavement but I’m not done. I’ve got to finish this now.
