by DD Prince
Nick. Little punk.
“Oh my god, Mia. You’re so off base it isn’t even funny. Don’t come here. Don’t worry about me. I’m on my freaking honeymoon. I’m in love. I’m happy.”
Tia looked frantic. Her hands were in her hair and she was looking pleadingly at the phone sitting on the sofa between us.
“Oh, all right…” she let that hang. “I won’t rescue you. I can hear how happy you are. I’ll just back off.”
The sarcasm dripped through the phone line.
Tia took the phone and took it off hands free, giving me an index finger.
“Mee, you’re not on hands free anymore. I am serious. Things aren’t always what they seem, okay?”
She stared at me while listening on the phone.
“No,” Tia continued. “I am serious. I’m in love. We’re happy. We’re just on our honeymoon. You don’t know the whole story.” She glanced at me and chewed her lip. “I don’t know yet. It’s open ended.” She shrugged. “No, you can’t come here. Listen Mee, if you follow us, there are people who could follow you and put Tommy and me in danger…”
“Fuck, Tia!” I hissed.
She winced. I grabbed the phone from her.
“Mia? Tommy Ferrano,” I said, giving Tia a shake of my head.
She paled.
“Tommy Ferrano?” she said, “I’d say nice to meet you but I’m sure it’s not. We are onto you, you motherfucker. You hurt a hair on her head and you will go down.”
“Listen Mia, Tia and I are on our honeymoon but there are people we don’t want to know where we are. You come here you could be followed. You might have compromised her safety already and you’d definitely compromise your own safety. I need you to not fly here. I’ll have you reimbursed for your ticket and whatever other expenses…”
“You seriously expect me to believe that you forced my friend to be with you and that she’s okay with this? I know she was forced. I know this for a fact. I visited her father in jail and he enlightened me. He also gave me his login for Facebook and I saw the message Tia sent him after grad.”
Fuck. Fucking Greg.
“You think you know everything but you only know the half of it. You don’t know what you’re dabbling in here and if you care about Tia’s safety you need to stand down.”
“You’re threatening me?”
“No. I’m telling you that I don’t want you putting her in danger. Stand down.”
“I don’t believe she’s okay and I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes. I’ll cancel my flight but only if you produce her. I need to see her and talk to her so I can determine for myself whether or not she’s actually okay. Get on a plane today.”
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Not today but I’ll get her on a plane soon,” I said.
“How soon?”
“We are not dropping things and running back there. You’ll see us in a couple weeks.”
“Three days. And I get twice daily phone calls from Tia until then so I know she’s okay and you haven’t done something to her. Morning and night.”
I gritted my teeth, “Fine. I’m sending someone to meet with you today to find out everything you know and where you got the info. You need to share this so that we can determine whether or not you’ve put us in danger. Got it? He’ll meet you at your place in two hours.”
“Who are you sending? One of your wise guy thugs? Sending someone to rough me up?”
Fuck, but this little girl was pushing her luck.
“No. Zack Jacobs. Look him up. He’s a PI. You’ll need to meet with him today so he can do damage control.”
“Fine but in public. Give him this number and I’ll meet him in public and I won’t be alone. Tia calls me tonight before midnight my time and then tomorrow by this time or I’m on a plane, Mr. Caruso.”
Yep, she proved she knows exactly where we are.
I got off the phone and glared at my wife. Then I got on the phone and sent Zack over there.
***
I called Dare from the laptop and things were complicated for him back home with this stuff with Felicia, the sex slave he’d brought home.
He’d told her he wasn’t down with the master/slave bit and she’d agreed to pretend for a bit while he figured shit out for appearance’s sake.
He and I had talked about faking her death. We knew there was a risk involved in letting her walk away, but we didn’t wanna be the kinds of men who’d just put an innocent girl down because she’d entered our lives inconveniently. Fucking Pop.
And now it seemed this girl was getting to my brother in a way he hadn’t expected.
I knew the feeling.
I told him to keep her. Fuck it. No one needed to know. Pop had done it with Lisa and according to my brother, Lisa wanted to remain part of our family. I didn’t know if we could trust her. Dare tried to reassure me, but did so in a way that I knew he wasn’t 100% sure either.
“You fucked her; you like the girl,” I observed.
“Fuck.”
“What’s the problem?” I asked.
Dare was staring at the ceiling on my laptop screen. “The problem? What about this isn’t a problem is more like it. Do I really want to take on a girl that’s broken? I didn’t wanna go here.”
“But you went there, anyway.”
“Yeah. She’s…fuck…she’s gorgeous and she’s submissive in bed and can’t get enough. She begs me for it.”
I knew what that was like. How fuckin’ sweet it was to have her begging. I had that with Tia. Tia, who was right now crying in another room because I’d yelled at her for fucking up.
“She has nightmares, so I let her sleep with me. I called her Angel because she was trying to behave like an angel and because she has the face of one and now she’s decided that’s her new name.”
Shit.
“Yeah, I know,” he said based on my expression, rather than an answer. “She won’t take off the collar they put on her because it gives her nightmares to have it off. She says she needs it on so they’ll know she’s mine and not try to take her back. She’s begging me to keep her.”
A collar? Fuck. I imagined Tia wearing my collar and my dick was getting hard.
I let out a long breath. “So you fucked her and now you feel bad ‘cuz you don’t plan to keep her?”
“Fucked her repeatedly, bro. Can’t seem to stop. It’s feeling like a relationship.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“So,” I shrugged, “we change the plan. You wanna keep her, you keep her.”
“It’s wrong,” my brother said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“It feels right, though.” He looked at me with a whole fuckuva lot of emotion. He had it bad for this girl already.
“I know,” I assured him. Boy, did I fucking know.
“Pop’ll be laughing his ass off at me right now,” Dare said as he scrubbed at his jaw.
“For sure,” I replied. I heard the door open. Tia was in the room with me, holding a coffee and a plate of food. She waved at my brother on-screen.
“Hey,” he said.
She put the plate down and leaned over and kissed my cheek. Timidly. I grabbed her hand and pulled her back, making her land on my lap. I kissed her and gave her a look to tell her we’d talk when I was done. She gave me a shy smile as our eyes locked.
Fuckin’ loved this girl.
My brother cleared his throat on screen. I knew he wanted to ride my ass for it. I lifted Tia off my lap and smacked her ass playfully.
She waved at the screen and I watched her go.
“So, what if as she gets well in her head, finds who she used to be again, and she doesn’t want this?” Dare asked.
“Or what if she falls for you and does?” I volleyed.
“Do I really want someone broken? I grew up with a broken mother, man, you remember. Sometimes Angel seems like she’ll get past it. But I don’t know if what I’m seeing is her or who th
ey made her into. And I dunno if she’ll get past it. I’m not even fucking making sense here.”
“I get it.”
Dare and the girls’ mother Annette was definitely broken. When she first started coming around, she tried to be sweet to me. She soon understood the life she married into and seemed to retreat into herself. She fell for my father and didn’t know what kind of life she’d bought. Despite having three kids with Pop, she acted like one of the staff instead of the lady of the house.
“What if her wanting me isn’t real, just a side-effect of her hero worship because I got her outta there and then it becomes obligation?” my brother pushed.
“Make it good for her so she won’t want anything else.”
“I’d hate to put myself out there when it could go sour,” he said.
“Better to have loved and lost and all that jazz, man…” I shrugged.
“Send me your counselor’s details, okay? I think it’d do her some good to talk to someone. I don’t know her backstory yet but I’m guessin’ therapy could be good.”
“Will do.”
“Is it helping you?”
Fucked if I knew. Probably not. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna keep it up. “Still early days, man.”
“Yeah. Maybe we should all go. Get the Ferrano family discount.”
“You need me home, man? You’re dealing with a lot.”
“Naw, it’s all good. I thrive under pressure. You know me.”
“Yeah, I know you. I know that you’ll drown before you lower yourself to ask someone for a life preserver.”
He laughed. “Family trait.”
“Thinkin’ of coming back for a few weeks. While I’m there I can see about lightening your load. Maybe if I make a few appearances it’ll prevent red flags. You getting any bad vibes anywhere?”
“None. And it’s up to you, man. What do you think about goin’ to Thailand for that summit?”
“Dunno, bro. I am not bringing my girl there. No fucking way. I’m also not comfortable leaving her behind. So, I don’t know yet. We’re dealing with a few things here, too, so a trip home might be good. We can talk when I get there.”
“Yeah? Everything alright?”
“Not really. I’ll fill you in later. We’ll see what happens in the next few days.”
“Zack and I are meeting day after tomorrow to chat. He’s been doing more digging,” Dare said.
“Yeah; Ferrano has practically become the guy’s full-time job,” I said. Zack had come through repeatedly for us. If I was staying in ‘the life’ I’d have made him my head of security, told him to give up his other clients and be 100% focused on Ferrano Enterprises.
My brother and I said our goodbyes and at the end of the chat it was evident he was relieved I was planning on coming home.
He said he didn’t know if he was gonna keep the girl. I could tell he would definitely keep the girl.
I knew, first hand, what it was like for our father to present a woman as perfect for me and have him be right.
Once again, he was right.
But, fuck. Why did things fuck up so badly? I suddenly ached to talk to my fucking father and ask him why. Why the fuck did he make me do what I did?
I wanted to smash something. I wanted to kill somebody.
I didn’t go talk to Tia. I stayed in the workshop until four in the morning and passed out beside her, not touching her. Not because I was that pissed that she’d made an innocent mistake, but because I didn’t feel worthy of her touch.
***
I woke up to her mouth. Fuck, but my baby girl could give head. I’d said it to myself every time I got those beautiful lips around my cock.
She finished and cuddled up and kissed my chest, kissed her tatt on me, and then tried to roll away.
Whoa. I grabbed her and stopped her.
And then I looked into her eyes while my hand slid in between her legs. She’d gone to sleep naked for me and I hadn’t even noticed.
She tried to close her eyes and roll her head back.
“Eyes on me, Athena,” I whispered and circled her clit.
I rubbed her pussy until she called out my name and then rolled into me.
She held tight, body trembling.
“We’re gonna be okay. Get things ready. I’ll call today about getting us a flight back home.”
She nodded, got up, and took a shower.
I went downstairs and put the coffee on and made her some breakfast.
Tommy
It was our last night before heading home. We were down on the dock.
This fucking girl. My fucking girl.
She was slowly riding me, sitting on my lap, our foreheads touching, her sundress covering the fact that my cock was inside her. We were at the end of the dock in another chair I’d built, this one stained dark red.
“Sometimes, things feel like they couldn’t be more right than when I’m held in your arms, with you being gentle,” she whispered.
I ran my nose up the line of her jaw and my hand up her back, sifting my fingers through her silky, long, oats and honey scented hair.
Her voice got smaller. “And sometimes, I’m sure it’s never more right than when you force me.”
I closed my eyes and emotion washed straight through my skin, seeping into my bones.
“You really were made for me, baby girl. You know that, right?”
She nodded, shyly, teeth imbedded in her bottom lip.
“I used to get off on making you cry. Then it sickened me. Now I’m craving your tears again and I fucking hate myself for it.”
“Don’t hate yourself. Let me give you what you need.”
“Tia…”
“I want it, too.”
“I had a twisted sense of entitlement when you got given to me.”
“And now you don’t?”
“Naw. I still do. It’s just that now… I don’t only think about me. Don’t get me wrong, if it all came down to it, I’d still be a selfish prick --- but I’d feel bad about it.”
“Mr. Romantic.” She rolled her eyes.
She rode harder, getting me as deep as I could go, and her lips touched mine, tongue slid inside my mouth. My hand went under her dress and I circled her clit while she kept riding. She came with a shudder, and buried her face into my throat. I moved her hips with my hands so I could get mine.
“Eyes on me, baby girl.”
She obeyed, and her pretty eyes glassed over, mouth tipped up in a satisfied smile.
I stared deep into her eyes and slammed her down three more times, then I was coming, kissing her hard while I did, fingers tightening in her hair.
I took a few breaths and then stood, cradling her ass. My cock slid out of her as I walked us back to the house, and took her upstairs and put us in the shower. After, I carefully towel dried her, as she watched. Then, I took her to bed where I pulled her close.
“I don’t want you to hold back. I want everything, Tommy, want to be your everything. I love when you’re gentle, but sometimes I love when you’re rough.”
“You are my everything. And it’s really important to me that I don’t break you. That I don’t become too much of a task for you so you just give up.”
“You won’t. I trust you. You have to trust me, too.”
“You’re right. I’m trying.”
“That’s a start.”
Tomorrow, we were heading home. I’d sold my house, so we were heading back to my father’s house, temporarily. What the fuck was it gonna be like? I wanted to see, for myself, if Lisa was coping all right. I also wanted to have the place searched for additional safes, in case we’d missed anything. After Stan Smith, the lawyer in Thailand dropped the Kruna bombshell on my brother, it made me want to ensure we knew every bit of what was happening.
We had to shut this shit down with Tia’s friends and her bonehead ex-boyfriend.
I needed to meet face-to-face with people and ensure no one couldn’t meet my eyes. Or, that certain people who could meet my eye
s weren’t a danger anyways.
I wanted to help my brother who had a fuckuva lot on his plate.
I hoped that facing all this shit would help me figure out the best way to move forward.
I was dozing when I heard her call my name in the dark.
“Yeah, baby?”
She snuggled in. “I can’t imagine what I would’ve done if I’d been in between my father and you, Tommy. If my father had a gun pointed at you? God, you’re brave. I might have just covered my eyes and cried and hoped for the best. But, you took care of me. You saved me. Again. You always save me.”
Talking about me killing my father wasn’t something we did. We were both there, we both knew what went down, but we didn’t talk about it. She knew this was the subject that was heaviest on me.
She knew going back to face the music was weighing on me. She knew me very well so soon in our relationship. At this rate, she’d read me like a book long before we were old and gray. But, I could read her, too.
“Naw. You wouldn’t have cowered. You’re strong, baby girl. You’d have taken him out and you’d know you did the right thing.”
She flicked the light on.
“Right. Well…” She looked at me inquisitively with her eyebrows raised.
“Touché,” I said with a little smile. And then I swatted her ass. ”Go to sleep.”
“You go to sleep, too. Go to sleep knowing you did the right thing. But one more thing,” she said firmly. “Not so long ago, you told me life was a chess game and all you can do is make one move at a time and be as strategic as possible. So, that’s what we’ll do. Together. You’ve got me, babe. You’re not alone, and I love you unconditionally, so, yeah… let’s go home and face the music. We’ll figure it out.”
“What if I get sucked in and it’s not easy finding the way out of it?”
“What did I promise you?” she asked.
I stared at her quizzically.
“When we said our vows.”
“To honor and obey?” I smirked.
“And, for better or for worse. “Till death do we part, Tommy.”
“Trying to make sure it’s more better than worse, baby girl. And don’t want no more fuckin’ death if I can help it.”
