Sons of Justice 13_Off the Market for Love

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  “I guess not since it’s a good cause. When I came in I saw Brooklyn and she said that the fundraiser is doing awesome.” She changed the subject, and stepped to the side.

  “Tiana, come here a minute,” Avana said to her, and Tiana gave them a smile. “Excuse me please,” she said so sweetly.

  Falzone thought she was too sweet. Too young as well. He was a hardcore leader who expected discipline and respect from everyone.

  “She looks incredible in that dress, and she has such a soft voice, too,” Biani said, and he watched her talking to her sister.

  “I think you guys need to slow down on the beers. She’s friends of our friends and we don’t need any problems or complications,” Falzone said, deciding that despite feeling attracted to Tiana, she was too young for them. They liked things a little rough, a total submissive woman who wouldn’t panic from a little discipline, tug of her hair during sex, or even being restrained. Tiana looked purely vanilla.

  “So wanting to strip her down and see what she’s hiding underneath that dress is a no-no?” Biani asked, still staring at her.

  “Let’s have one more and then head out. We did our part and we showed our faces. Come on,” Falzone ordered.

  The others exhaled, and he could hear them curse under their breath. It was better this way. The woman was too fucking young and sweet. They were old, fucked up and too hard for her.

  * * * *

  “What is going on with them and you?” Avana asked.

  Tiana squinted at her sister. “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play that with me. They are so hitting on you. Messina had his arm wrapped around your waist and was whispering in your ear, while Falzone stood close in front of you, and Vella and Biani were right there, too. They are still eating you up with their eyes.”

  “No,” she whispered, pushing her hair behind her ear, and then glancing back at them. Avana grabbed her arm. “No! Don’t let them know that you know you’re on their radar. Holy crap.”

  “Oh God, what? Why can’t I?”

  “Tiana, I’ve seen them working out at Frankie’s gym, and Merica has seen them working out at The Ring with Hook. They are crazy intense. You’re a little peanut and look so lost between them.”

  “That’s funny, because I kind of felt protected.”

  “Oh God, seriously?”

  “Hey, nothing happened or will happen. I’m showing them houses tomorrow.”

  “The four of them alone with you? Oh God, they’re going to make a move while you’re in one of the houses like that other guy did.”

  “Ellington? Oh, don’t remind me, he was at the party tonight.”

  Avana exhaled. “Did he hit on you again?”

  “Well.”

  “What happened?” Avana asked, and Tiana explained.

  “He forcibly kissed you and then said that?” Avana asked.

  As Tiana shrugged, Nathan joined the conversation.

  “Who forcibly kissed you? Is someone bothering you?” he asked kind of loudly, and so Frankie heard and joined in. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I handled it like the last time.”

  “The last time?” Nathan asked.

  “Yeah, this guy, a client, wealthy businessman wanted to have sex with her in the master bathroom of a house she was showing him,” Avana said to them.

  “Avana?”

  “What? He wanted to have sex with you, and forcibly kissed you. What did he do tonight? He kissed you again and cornered you by your car. It won’t be long before he pushes more.”

  Tiana didn’t dare tell them that he introduced her to his partner, and that both hinted about making her their lover. No, she would leave that out. Besides, she felt so confused right now. She was attracted to Falzone, Biani, Messina, and Vella, and Vella hardly said a word to her. There had been enough trouble around here lately, and some guys hinting about wanting her body for sex didn’t need to be the topic for discussion.

  “Listen, it’s fine, and I handled it. It won’t be a problem,” she said to them.

  “If it becomes one, you better tell us,” Nathan said to her.

  “Of course.”

  “Hey, we’ll work on a few more aggressive moves this upcoming week in the gym, okay? You just have to show up,” Frankie said to her in warning.

  “Okay,” she said, and then shook her head at Avana.

  Avana was looking over her shoulder at Falzone and them, and Tiana hoped they didn’t hear any of this. How embarrassing. She straightened her shoulders and talked about the fundraiser and what was coming up next weekend. When she had the opportunity to look back toward where Falzone and his team were, they were gone, and she felt disappointed, but then reality hit. If they were interested in her or anything other than sex, then they would have at least said good-bye. She shrugged her shoulders and felt annoyed. How rude can you be?

  * * * *

  “Not her. No, not Tiana!” Messina couldn’t move. He crawled along the dirty floor, bodies, death, bloody bodies everywhere. He was too late. Tiana was dead. They killed her just like the others. He felt the rage rise up within him, but he was injured, something held him back and made every movement, every inch took his breath away, and it was as if he was climbing through quicksand with concrete legs and arms. He could barely get his muscles to work and move.

  “Help me! Help me!” She cried out to him as her killer laughed then cut her again. The cries screeched through his ears and penetrated his soul.

  “No!”

  Messina fell to the floor, waking in a cold sweat, ears aching, the sounds of Tiana screaming out in pain as that monster tortured and killed her. Messina failed her. He failed those other women and children, too.

  Tears filled his eyes and he wiped at them quickly. Another sleepless night, a full-blown nightmare and images of Tiana in danger, her face now the face of those victims raped and murdered in that house in Iraq.

  He couldn’t stop shaking. The realistic sounds and sensations so shocking to his body, he felt physically weak from struggling. It was so real, felt so real. His hands covered his face and he shook his head. He wasn’t normal. This wasn’t normal. He uncovered his face and looked at the clock. The last time he did it was five in the morning. He kept waking up last night during the night. Now it was nearly seven a.m.

  “Fuck.” He pushed himself up. Felt irritable, tired, and he made his bed, then headed into the shower. When he was done and walked down the hall with the towel wrapped around his waist, he saw Falzone and he was wearing a nice button-down shirt, black jeans and his nicer boots, and it hit Messina. Tiana would be coming by and they would start looking at houses.

  “Damn, you look as pissed as Vella,” Falzone said to him.

  “He still sleeping?”

  “Nah, he’s been up since five. Biani is cooking up breakfast. You’re on clean up,” Falzone said.

  Messina nodded and then headed back to his room to get dressed. He closed the door and then looked into the mirror. He was tired. So fucking tired. When would his body begin to relax, calm down, and realize that he was no longer in the danger zone? Back to back missions, and the last one before coming here to find Meredith had been a doozy. They all deserved a break, but couldn’t let down Falzone’s sister and brothers-in-law. Now here they were, cramped up in this small cottage. He needed to get his shit together, and hopefully today they would find a place they liked and could close on.

  Messina tried not to think about his nightmares or how Tiana was in them. That pissed him off, and because he was so fucked up in the head, he had no right to like that young thing. No right at all. However, he found himself pulling out a nicer button-down shirt, and making sure he didn’t look like he felt. Older than dirt. Today was going to suck. Maybe he should just stay home. He didn’t feel like seeing anyone.

  * * * *

  Tiana arrived at the guys’ cottage, her car sounding worse than last night leaving the Filling Station. As she pulled alongside the trucks and turned off the i
gnition, the car made a terrible noise. She started it back up again and it wouldn’t start. “Son of a bitch. Come on damn it.” She slammed her hand down on the steering wheel.

  “Problem?” Biani asked, coming up to her window, and it took a miracle to reply.

  The man looked good. He had on a tight-fitting button-down plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. He placed his hand on the window frame.

  “It won’t start. This is terrible. I’m so embarrassed. I thought I could get through the weekend. Shoot,” she said.

  “Come on out. We can call for a tow to the local station. Tat and the team know someone,” Biani said, and pulled out his cell phone, but his eyes landed on her.

  She wore a beige skirt that flared out at the bottom right above her knees, and a white camisole with a sheer floral blouse over it. It was going to be pretty warm today. She also had on low heels.

  “You look real pretty, Tiana,” he said to her, and she smiled.

  “Thank you.”

  “What’s going on?” Falzone asked, joining them just as Biani got Tat on the phone and spoke to him.

  “My car. I’m sorry about this. I guess we’ll have to change plans a little.”

  “No need to, just come into the truck with us. We’ll all fit, and that way we can talk about the places as we go from one to the next,” Falzone said.

  “Great idea. Okay, if you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. Let me grab the keys and tell Messina and Vella we’re ready.”

  “Okay, Tat said leave the keys in it, and he’ll take care of it while we’re out looking at houses. We can touch base when we’re done to see what the mechanic says about the car,” Biani told her.

  She nodded. “Okay. Thanks so much.”

  “Not a worry. At least it broke down here and not on the side of the road somewhere,” he said.

  “Yes, that would be my luck.”

  She grabbed her bag and purse from the vehicle when she heard the other voices.

  “What happened?” Messina snapped.

  “Her car won’t start and was making a terrible noise when she got here. Tat is going to take care of it,” Falzone said to him.

  One look at both Messina and Vella and she stepped back. Both men had scowls on their faces.

  “You should have gotten that car looked at the other day. What if you broke down on the side of a road in the middle of the night or someplace remote, then what?” Messina raised his voice.

  “Messina,” Falzone said his name, and Messina exhaled and walked toward the truck.

  “He has a point. You’re a beautiful young woman, and you need to be smarter. There are bad people out there. Bad,” Vella said.

  He looked down at her, eyed her body over, and damn it, every ounce of her was aroused. She was attracted to these men and they were nice one moment and mean the next. She feared those tempers, never mind their facial expressions. Jesus, Messina and Vella could give some pretty powerful pissed off looks. When the hand landed on her hip, she gasped.

  “Come on,” Biani said to her in a soft tone.

  She wondered if this were such a good idea, and when she approached the truck, Biani put her bags in the backseat with Messina. Vella was in the front passenger seat and Falzone drove. As she went to step up to get into the truck, she realized it was too high and her skirt tightened, plus with the low heels she needed to be careful.

  “Here.” Biani scooped her up as if she were light as a feather. She gasped and grabbed on to him, their faces inches apart. “My pleasure, ma’am.”

  He winked, and she adjusted herself in the seat, her heart racing and she slid into the middle as Biani got up into the backseat. Her thigh hit Messina’s, and she felt a shot of awareness shoot up her thigh. She cleared her throat as their masculine scents attacked her senses. The smell of their cologne, combined with fabric softener, and a woodsy scent made her pussy spasm. She shouldn’t be attracted to these men. She can’t be. It’s stupid, reckless and would be disastrous. She needed to ignore this sensation. She was more than likely just in need of sex. This was total lust. Any woman would feel attracted to such men, and they were soldiers, and badass, had attitudes, looked lethal, holy shit she was going to fantasize about them tonight but nothing more. Looks like Big Bob was going to need to be charged and ready for action.

  “So where we headed first, sweetie?” Falzone asked her and she sat forward to speak with him as she gave the address and some directions.

  “You should have your seatbelt on, that road is bumpy and if it’s the place I think you mean, then a long, old dirt road leads up to it,” Falzone said to her.

  “I’ll be fine.” She said and started to tell them about the place, the land, which was a lot, but the need for a lot of handyman work to improve it. As they got to the location and started to go up the dirt road, the bumps were pretty intense, and she gasped and grabbed onto the seat, nearly falling off, but both Messina and Biani grabbed her. She quickly sat back.

  “You don’t take orders well, do you?” Messina said to her, squinting at her face.

  “What makes you say that?” she asked.

  “Forget it,” he said, and looked out the window.

  She thought he looked tired. Even though she only met him a couple of times, she could tell he wasn’t himself today, and she didn’t know what the whole attitude was about. Vella seemed to have that attitude, too. When they walked around the first place when they got to it, none of the men were impressed, and the road to it just seemed to aggravate them. She walked around the house with them. The grass was pretty damn high just to get to the front door. As she was talking and kept looking at them, Vella charged toward her and lifted her up, and the others cursed as they brought her to the truck and far away from the grass.

  “What the hell are you doing? Let me down.” She held onto Vella’s shoulders. The dark hair, beard and matching dark brown eyes bored into hers.

  “A nest of fucking poisonous snakes. You were about to walk into a little nest of them,” he reprimanded, and she looked back as he was about to set her feet down.

  She gripped on tighter, pressing against him and shivered. “Snakes? Oh God, yuck. Ewww,” she said, and then buried her face in his neck and clung tight.

  “Easy, darling. I got you out of there, and now we’re nowhere near that place.”

  She felt like an idiot, and they more than likely thought she was naïve. She exhaled. Then took a deep breath, and worried her bottom lip when Falzone stepped closer. He reached out and held her chin between pointer and thumb. He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip so she wouldn’t keep biting it.

  “Don’t do that. You’re fine and we’ll protect you from any further dangers,” he said to her, holding her gaze. Messina remained holding her with little effort. She gulped. “I’m not usually so unaware like that. I don’t know why I wasn’t looking first.”

  “Hmm, glad Messina and Vella were looking because I was too busy looking at something else.”

  “The house, you mean? Me too, and trying to tell you about it.”

  He shook his head and she stopped talking. His thumb brushed her lip. “You. I was staring at you, Tiana.”

  She gasped, lips parted, and he smirked then licked his lips. “Just being honest, for a tiny little thing you sure do pack one hell of a punch.” She gulped. “You can put me down now, Messina.”

  “Not quite yet. You need to be more careful. Your lack of taking precautions is disturbing to say the least,” Messina said.

  “Sure the hell is,” Vella chimed in, and she looked toward him. He had a scowl on his face and Biani didn’t look too happy either.

  “It happens, that’s all,” she said, and Falzone cupped her cheek and stepped closer.

  He shook his head. “If you were my woman, you’d be on your third ass spanking for your reckless behavior,” he said, and holy shit, her face flushed, her pussy clenched, and her heart began to pound in her chest. She felt Messi
na squeeze her tighter.

  “I’d join you in that brother,” Messina added.

  “Oh God,” she said, and Falzone cursed then closed the space between them and kissed her.

  Just like that, the man was plunging his tongue into her mouth and she was kissing him back. Fire. She felt like she was on fire and desperate. When he released her lips, Messina lowered her feet to the ground, and she was scared, disappointed, that he was pushing her away, and then realized too late he was going to kiss her next. He grabbed her face between his hands and kissed her hard on the mouth. She grabbed onto his hips and then she felt another set of hands on her from behind, and then a mouth went to her neck. She moaned into Messina’s mouth, and when he released her, Biani turned her around to face him and he went from kissing her neck to kissing her lips. It was crazy and chaotic.

  She jumped when she felt the large, warm hand caress her ass from behind, and then a moment later she heard Vella’s voice.

  “Discipline. The woman needs it.”

  Smack. He spanked her ass. She gasped and Biani hugged her to him as Vella caressed her ass cheek with one hand, and his other hand slid up her back to under her hair and against her neck and shoulder. His dominant, sexy restraint of her while Biani hugged her, keeping her in place, was overwhelming, and her body’s reaction a shock. Her pussy leaked, her hips moved, and her breath caught in her throat.

  Smack. Smack. He spanked her again and then caressed where he spanked. She gasped. “Oh God, what are you doing to me?”

  “Fuck, she is perfect. Holy fucking shit,” Biani said, and squeezed her to him.

  “Accept your punishment. You’re too damn sexy and gorgeous to be so unaware and place yourself repeatedly into dangerous positions,” Falzone said to her, and caressed her hair as he held her gaze.

  Smack.

  “Oh God, this is crazy. Please, oh God, I can’t take it.” She moaned and tightened her thighs.

  Then she felt the palm slide under her skirt, and her ass was exposed to Vella, Messina, and Falzone.