“Ha ha,” I said through my teeth. “Very funny.”
“Alright.” Marco sighed and put the cuffs back. After they made sure all the weapons were on them and out of my reach, along with any devices I could use to contact someone, they used body heat detectors to confirm only two figures were inside the house and headed down the road toward it. I leaned against the window and stared into the darkness.
Aaron had turned off the car lights before we got here, but I wasn’t sure if Raymond and Carl had known somehow that Aaron and Marco were coming. There hadn’t been a single car on this road, which was kind of strange. I contemplated getting out of the car and just trying my luck. Maybe a nice old lady was living somewhere around here, oblivious to all the criminal activity going on in her vicinity, but somehow I doubted I’d be that lucky.
Besides, Aaron wouldn’t want me dead until he got what he wanted, and I supposed there was still something he needed from me. Maybe to use me as a bargaining chip once he had taken over his father’s business and then had to find a way to get my family out of the picture. That would be a good plan, actually. All he had to do was make me think he was a decent person and that he would let me go so I would be more likely to stay by his side.
But I had my own plans too. It was unlikely my family would find Roberto’s delivery guys in time, since I couldn’t exactly send them the names right under Aaron’s nose, although I had used the opportunity to give them something better. I intended to stay with Aaron until I figured out where the drug would be. Aaron would drop his guard around me eventually because he’d think his plan was working and that I trusted him, and because I hadn’t tried to escape during this trip. But right before he took over, I intended to find a way to slip away and get to my family and tell them everything.
The first part of my message told them that I was fine, that I had a plan, and I asked them again not to do anything, but in the second part I let them know that I’d be going on a trip, so they should be able to get to me easier. I also asked them to say they’d found their girl, because in a way, they had. I just hoped they’d listen to me and let me do this, and not try to heroically sweep in and save me. They used to track Aaron before, but since we were using weird routes, they couldn’t really prepare an ambush or appear where they couldn’t be seen. Besides, if they got me back, we’d lose the opportunity to stop that drug from getting into the Viteris’ hands and being distributed.
A soft rumble roused me from my thoughts, and I instinctively ducked down. It was another car. Was someone else supposed to come? I didn’t think so, because Aaron had insisted on meeting only Raymond and Carl without their men to prevent them from doing anything stupid. Lifting my head when I thought it was safe, I peered through the window. A big SUV was visible under the moonlight that had finally broken through the clouds, and it was parked in the bushes.
Four armed men came out, their faces masked. They definitely weren’t my brothers coming to rescue me. One of them pointed at the car, and I hid behind the seat, hoping they hadn’t spotted me or knew that I was here. If they came to check... I risked another peek and saw the three men discussing something, and then they dashed straight toward the house. The fourth man came my way. Shit! The chance that the guy was friendly and would come to help me was below zero. These had to be Raymond and Carl’s men who had come to deal with Aaron.
They had known he’d be coming. This was a trap. The guy was coming closer, the gravel crunching under his feet. I huddled behind the seat and placed my hand on the door. Just as the guy wanted to take a look through my window, I shoved the door open, knocking him aside. I jumped out onto him and laid a punch on his face. He yelped, blood coming out from the corner of his lips. I grabbed the gun from where it had fallen, but the guy got a hold of me.
Rolling away from him, I kicked out with my leg, catching him in the stomach. He huffed in pain, doubling over, but he recovered before I could get to my feet, and gripped the back of the gun, trying to rip it out of my grasp. I ended up on my back and the guy advanced on me. I brought my knee up, kicking him in the groin. He swore, but he was distracted enough to let go of the gun. I sat up and slammed it into his face. Blood spurted from his nose, and he brought his hand to his face, a howl of rage escaping his throat. I quickly aimed the gun at him and fired, the sound muffled by a silencer. The bullet got him in the side of the neck, and I hopped to my feet, not willing to look back at him.
I raced toward the house, hoping I wasn’t about to end up face to face with the rest of the crooks. There was just no way I could take them all out. Crouching low, I climbed onto the porch and crawled over to a huge window. This was some kind of a shop, or at least the front of the house looked like a regular shop, but the shelves inside were mostly empty. Maybe an old one, then. My pulse was ringing in my ears as I spotted Aaron and Marco with their hands raised and surrounded by five men.
One of the men was talking, his face unmasked and lit up with joy. This was either Raymond or Carl, and he thought their plan was working perfectly. I was glad they hadn’t come out to check what was taking the fourth masked guy so long to join them. Aaron was looking around the room, as if calculating how to get out of that mess, and then his gaze met mine.
Luckily for us, all the other guys had their backs turned to me because they were too busy pointing their guns at Aaron and Marco. Our best option seemed to be for me to open fire and distract everyone. The window glass didn’t seem bulletproof. But what if I missed? And what if the guys started shooting too? One of the men was glancing at Aaron, and if I remained there at the window for a moment longer, he’d spot me. That would be even worse.
I signaled to Aaron to get down, and when he nodded, I raised the gun and opened fire. The glass burst into thousands of pieces, but I didn’t stop firing until there were no more bullets. I dove to the ground as more shots rang out, my knee colliding painfully with a stone block that I hadn’t seen. Crawling across the porch, I made my way to the nearest bushes, just in case the person who’d emerge from the house wasn’t Aaron or Marco.
Aaron had said something to Marco before I started firing, and I hoped they’d both gotten to the ground and had time to get their guns. I believed I’d hit at least two guys, and the one who’d had his back turned directly to me was probably dead. All the noise died down, and I held my breath, afraid to even consider the possibility that Aaron was dead. A laugh bubbled up somewhere deep inside me, but I choked it down. Not too long ago, I wished him dead, and now... Now that idea terrified me a little. I grimaced as I pressed my fingers against a painful spot on my knee, which would probably become a nice bruise.
“Fucking hell!”
I nearly doubled over from relief at hearing Aaron’s voice.
“Octavia!” he yelled, and I wasn’t sure if I was imagining the desperation in his voice or if it was real.
“I’m here.” I got out from my hiding spot and waved.
“Oh thank God,” he said. Marco was with him, clutching his hand to his shoulder, his fingers soaked with blood. Aaron ran over to me and pulled me into a hug so strong that I thought he was going to crush me.
“Thank you,” he said, and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. “You could’ve left us to die, but you...” He looked me up and down. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “You?”
“Yeah.” He had a few scrapes and rips in his jacket but otherwise seemed fine.
Marco coughed. “What about me? I got shot and you two don’t care!” He made an indignant face, but a smile was playing on his lips.
“Don’t be such a crybaby,” I said. “Let me see that.”
He moved his bloody hand, and I inspected the wound. “Doesn’t look too deep. Is the bullet out?”
“It just grazed me.” Marco grimaced. “But it hurts like hell.”
“Do you have bandages or something?” I turned toward Aaron.
“I’ll go get them,” he said.
I held my hand over the wound that was still bleeding and not
iced Marco was staring at me. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said, but he couldn’t stay silent for long. “Why didn’t you run?”
“Why do you care? Be glad I didn’t.”
“He likes you, you know. I like you, too,” Marco said softly.
“Oh, come on now. Did you get hit on the head or did you just forget who I am? We’re enemies.” I kind of liked Marco too, and I didn’t even want to contemplate how I felt about Aaron.
“Keep telling yourself that.” He grinned, and I increased the pressure on the wound, making him groan. Aaron was back with bandages and water, and I immediately started to clean up Marco’s injured arm.
“Do you think my father arranged this?” Aaron asked.
Marco shook his head. “He wouldn’t have sent you into a trap like that.”
“But what if it was some kind of a test?” Aaron paced up and down, kicking at the gravel.
“Relax,” Marco said. “He just wanted you away from there so he could focus on his plan. That’s all. If he knew what you were planning, he wouldn’t have sent some silly guys after you.”
“I’ll call him.” Aaron pulled his phone out and groaned in frustration when he saw the phone’s screen was black and cracked. “Give me your phone,” he said to Marco, who fished his phone out of his pocket.
“I get grazed by a bullet and the phone stays flawless. Just my luck,” Marco mumbled. Aaron walked away from us, although we could still hear him yelling at his father. When he came back, he tossed the phone to Marco who barely caught it.
“Hey, man. Watch it!” Marco said but didn’t sound too angry about it.
“He said he was proud of me for taking care of it.” Aaron shook his head and grimaced as if he had tasted something sour. “Told me to take a few days off. Swears he didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“So much for his men being loyal,” I said.
“That’s what I said, too.” Aaron ground his teeth together. “But he replied that they were just some lowly dealers, not really his men.”
“Who cares what he said? Now we can go wherever we want, right?” I offered him a small smile. In fact, I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. It was a good thing no one was here to call the cops, but I was doing my best to ignore the fact that I had killed someone again, so I didn’t want to look back at the house or the car. I was sure my feelings would all catch up with me eventually, but right now, I just wanted to go somewhere safe.
“Yeah. We can pay a visit to one of those delivery guys. But we’ll have to wait a bit or my father will be suspicious,” Aaron said.
“Great.” I made sure Marco’s bandage was tight enough. “Then let’s go.”
Chapter 19
Aaron had left me alone in a fancy five-star hotel because he and Marco needed to search the office of one of the three guys who were listed as being in charge of the delivery to get the information about the shipment. Before they left, Aaron had made sure to cut the phone wire and lock the doors and windows so I wouldn’t try to escape, although I had a feeling he was doing it more out of habit than because he really thought I’d run away.
It didn’t matter much, because if I was planning to run, I’d do it when he least expected it. What annoyed me more than being locked up in a hotel room was that for the past few days, he was back to avoiding me and acting cold around me. He insisted on sleeping on the couch and not on the king size bed as if he somehow didn’t trust himself around me. And maybe he didn’t. Despite having this perfect, soft bed to myself, here I was complaining about how empty it felt. God, this captivity thing was messing with my mind, wasn’t it? Or maybe Aaron and I were both just trying to fight the inevitable.
The door clicked and opened with a whoosh, and for some reason, I immediately picked up the vase from the nightstand, ready to throw it at whoever came in. But when I saw Aaron’s angry face, I lowered the vase back to its place and knew their mission hadn’t gone as expected.
“Let me guess. You found nothing,” I stated the obvious.
“No. The guy doesn’t have the drug or any info about it,” Aaron said. “What if we got the whole thing wrong?”
“We didn’t. I’ll try to figure out if he has a secret apartment or something,” Marco said.
“You do that.” Aaron sat in the chair across from the bed and raked his hand through his hair. When Marco was out of the room, Aaron didn’t move, say a word, or even look my way.
“What if your father talked to the guy in person so there wouldn’t be any evidence lying around?” I asked.
“Probably.” Aaron’s shoulders were tense, and he still refused to look at me. Sometimes I just couldn’t understand him. “But the drug has to be somewhere and we can’t interrogate the guy because my father would find out.” His new phone rang and he immediately answered. His father’s voice was so loud that I could hear him just fine from where I was sitting.
“Someone’s targeting my associates,” Roberto yelled. “The Ferraras are getting closer!”
“Maybe I could come back and we could talk about your new plan,” Aaron said carefully.
“No, there’s no need. I can handle this.”
Aaron squeezed the phone so hard that I thought he would break it.
“Just tell your partners to be careful,” Roberto said, and hung up. Aaron clenched his jaw and quickly dialed a number. He ended up barking orders at someone and threatening them, but without revealing any useful information. I couldn’t care less about his business, so I just lay down on the bed and waited for him to finish. When he did, he stuffed the phone back into his pocket and turned toward me. His eyes briefly focused on me and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he seemed to change his mind and just frowned.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he finally said, and strode to the bathroom. I rolled my eyes and sat up, my gaze falling on the duffle bag Aaron had brought in with him. When I was sure Aaron wouldn’t be coming back, I padded over to the bag and peered inside. I picked up the gun, and a smile spread across my lips. This was just what I needed.
***
I was waiting for Aaron to return, the gun hidden behind my back. The moment he emerged from the bathroom, wearing just a towel, the water still dripping down his body, I bit my bottom lip almost hard enough to draw blood. God, I wanted him. I wanted him more than ever, and I didn’t care what happened. Pulling out the gun, I pointed it straight at him. He stopped in the middle of the room, his eyes widening, his lips parting in surprise, but then he closed his eyes for a moment as if he’d realized what a mistake he’d made. What he didn’t know was that I’d emptied the gun and didn’t intend to shoot him. And a bowl of strawberries and a can of whipped cream on the nightstand weren’t just leftovers from my meal earlier.
“Come here,” I said. “Slowly.”
He eyed me carefully as he did what I’d told him, and I moved back a bit just in case he tried to overpower me before I revealed my intentions to him.
“Lie down on the bed,” I ordered.
“Why?” he asked, his eyes growing cold for a moment, but he couldn’t hide the hurt. Maybe he actually cared about me too.
“Just do as I say.” I waited for him to settle down on the bed, then threw an orange scarf I’d found in the closet at him. “Tie one end around your right wrist and the other end around that.” I pointed at the bedpost. That bed really was made for fun.
“No,” he said. “Shoot me if you want, but...”
“Do it!” I snapped, and he reluctantly obeyed, his breath catching in his chest as he finished tying the scarf. Picking up another scarf, the gun still in my other hand, I went over to him and bound his free wrist. A wave of desire engulfed my body when he looked up at me, mixed emotions filling his blue eyes. I watched him for a moment, waiting for him to try to reach for the gun, but he didn’t.
“What are you doing?” he asked softly, the movement of his chest quickening.
“You need to relax,” I said, settling ne
xt to him, but not touching him. Not yet.
“These won’t hold me.” He gave a tug at the scarves.
“They will if you want them to,” I said, and he gaped at me.
“I can’t do this. I...” He let out a shaky breath. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, I pressed my fingers against his lips and climbed on top of him. Bending my head, I pretended as if I were going to kiss him, but instead, I placed my free hand on his chest. “If you want to be mine tonight, just say yes.” I trailed my hand down his lean stomach. “I promise I won’t shoot you if you refuse. The gun’s empty anyway,” I said, tossing it to the floor where it fell with a thud. “But if you want...” My hand rested just above the edge of the towel, and Aaron shuddered, his cock already hard. A slow smile stretched across my lips. “So what do you say?” This time I planted the softest of kisses just below his belly button. “No one has to know.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Because we both want this. If I’m right, and you want this as much as I do, just say yes.” I looked deep into his conflicted eyes.
“Yes.” His voice was so low that I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
“Yes?”
He nodded.
“Then we’re in agreement. If you want me to stop, just say it, but I don’t think you’re going to want that. You’re mine now.” I winked, tugging the towel open. Why was every hard inch of him so perfect? “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” I got up from the bed and a thrill of desire shot through my core as I saw him lying there, exposed and ready, completely at my mercy.
When I returned a few minutes later, I was wearing just black panties and a bra, a bottle of red wine in my hand. I almost expected Aaron to tell me he’d changed his mind, but all the tension seemed to have fled his body, and he was perfectly calm and still, which made me smile, so I climbed back onto the bed. Tipping the bottle, I spilled the wine all over Aaron’s chest. He yelped, shivering a little at the cold liquid, and I set the bottle aside. I assumed he hadn’t expected I preferred cold wine. Lowering my head, I quickly licked the wine off his skin, spreading soft kisses all over his abs. He gasped as I wrapped my fingers around his cock and took him into my mouth.
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