by CR Robertson
I sighed, praying for divine intervention, my hands landing on my hips. “Do I look like I have a massive social life to catch up with on social media? I have an assignment due soon, and it counts toward my final degree results. You can keep me captive in your tower, but I need my laptop. Who the hell gave you the right to go through my stuff? My panties were in there for flip’s sake!”
His lips twitched at my attempt at foul language. “I noticed. They had pink polka dots.”
If my cheeks burned any brighter, they would ignite.
“We’ll need to disconnect the internet software.”
“I know not to contact anyone.” Papa taught me how to cover my tracks. I didn’t want to add that I had no one to contact. If I was here, there was no doubt in my mind that Papa would have Catarina and Lucrezia locked down. With Mario’s constant presence, I had very few friends at university.
“I’ll think about it.” He smirked and lifted the large coffee pot to pour himself a cup.
Rage replaced the fear in me. “I didn’t ask for your permission. I told you to give me my laptop back.”
His deep blue eyes met mine and the cold frost of the artic settled there. “Watch your tone.”
“Or what?” I demanded. “I’ve already been beaten up and molested in the past few days. I’ve freaking had enough of men and their need to control and dominate. I want my laptop back.”
His smile would make a smart girl weary. Anger fuelled me instead.
“You keep going and I’ll put you over my knee and give you the spanking you deserve.”
I gave him my haughtiest look. “You wouldn’t dare.”
His right eyebrow hitched up. “Wanna bet your polka dot panties on that?”
My fingers gripped the table, and I leaned forward. “You lay a finger on my polka dots and I’ll rearrange your balls for you.”
Nic slowly sipped his coffee. “I’d like to see you try.”
“My laptop,” I demanded.
“What’s it worth?” He grinned up at me like an asshole.
“It wasn’t a request.”
“But you’re living on my estate, eating my food, and being a brat. It’s only reasonable that I get something for giving you more.”
My jaw tightened, and I fought the urge to knock the coffee mug out of his hand. My temper flared, and I stomped around the table and poked him in the chest. His gaze dropped to my finger, and a smile curved those full, sensual lips.
“I want my laptop.” I punctuated every word with a poke from my finger.
His fingers wrapped around my digit and he slowly pumped it. His meaning was crystal clear. I wanted to be embarrassed, but his eyes were locked on mine. “You want your laptop, you need to calm the fuck down, and show me you deserve it.”
I leaned forward until my lips were nearly touching his. The pupils of his eyes dilated, and I swear he swallowed. “I submit to no man.” I moved back and his teeth bit into his bottom lip.
“Princess, you will kneel before me and ask for forgiveness before I hand over that laptop.”
I arched an eyebrow and turned on my heel to saunter out the door. This wasn’t my typical behaviour, so I had to pretend to be Catarina. She could flounce from a room and make it look elegant.
Maria had given me a tour earlier, including pointing out where Nic’s office was. My bet was that my laptop was somewhere in there. His men sat and watched me on my crazy mission. I heard the rapid chatter behind me, picking up only bits and pieces because their voices were heavily accented.
If he was anything like Papa, he would be arrogant enough to think no one would enter his office without his permission. The handle clicked, and the door creaked open to reveal his personal lair. I was so angry that I no longer gave a shit about invading his privacy. The past few days had been hell. Then he kissed me last night and made me feel wanted. This morning he treated me like shit. I was sick of men treating me like that.
Pillows littered the floor, and my ass was in the air as I hunted behind the sofa for my laptop. A male voice startled me.
“Is there a reason you’re in my office?” I froze when big hands grasped my ass, tugging me back into a hard body. “Or is this your idea of an invitation?”
No smartass retort was readily available.
“I have no objection to a woman waiting for me on her hands and knees, but I prefer her to be naked.” His hand slipped into my leggings, peeling them down.
I pulled it out of his grasp, slapping his hand. “I don’t think so, buddy. You don’t get to treat me like crap and then feel me up.”
His breath fanned my cheek, his body pressing into mine. “Did I hurt your feelings, Princess?”
My eyes closed when he pressed a kiss to my throat. I wanted to melt into his arms because right now I felt safe.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I whispered. “Lots of men have hurt my feelings. It comes with being the least glamorous sister.”
I tried to wiggle free, but he flipped me over in a heartbeat to loom over me, his powerful body pressing me into the sofa. “You really don’t see yourself, do you?”
When I moved my legs to try to get away, he settled himself between my thighs. His hands grabbed my wrists to pin them on either side of my head. All that separated us was a thin layer of clothing.
“You need to stop fighting me,” he said. I tugged my arm in an attempt to free it. His grip tightened, and he leaned down until his forehead settled on mine. “You’re still fighting me.”
What I really wanted to do was wrap my legs around his waist and pull him on top of me. Nic was the only man who didn’t treat me like delicate glass that would break if he touched me.
“Let me go,” I pleaded, bucking my hips to try to dislodge him.
The hardness that grew against my pelvis suggested it had the opposite effect. “Maybe you should fight me after all.”
I opened my mouth to protest and his lips slammed into mine. His tongue invaded the recesses of my mouth to take command and swallow whatever argument I planned. Holy shit, it felt better than last night. My resistance slowly melted out of me until I moaned and gave into temptation, wrapping my legs around his waist. He ground himself against me and the friction felt divine against the ache of my core.
“You are fucking driving me insane,” Nic muttered. He levered himself up to stare down at me. “Am I going to have to pin you down and kiss you every time you misbehave?”
I shrugged. “You could try being less of a dick to me. I’m normally very well behaved.”
He pursed his lips and stared down at our bodies that were intertwined. “Less of a dick isn’t really appropriate right now.”
I deliberately arched my hips, my right ankle pressing into the bottom of his back. “I dunno, there’s always room for improvement.”
Nic growled, his head descending until his lips brushed my ear. “Keep that up, Princess, and I won’t care who your father is. I will fuck you into next week and make sure you can’t walk for the week after.”
My head canted to the side to give him better access. “You guys are all the same,” I chided him. “All talk. It’s why there is a multi-billion-dollar business in vibrators. Women get bored with all the implied foreplay and finish the job themselves.”
His chuckle sent ripples down my spine… all the way to the ache between my legs. I doubted a vibrator would feel anything like him. In fact, I had no idea what was making me so brazen with him.
“Do you want to compare the two? I’d happily volunteer the use of my dick and watch your performance with a dildo.”
His eyes met mine, and I found myself transfixed. My breath caught in my chest in a foreign emotion. From the moment he carried me up the stairs all those weeks ago, he’d begun weaving a spell of seduction around me.
“Since you went through my bag, I’m sure you already know I didn’t have time to pack my battery-operated boyfriend for the trip.”
His right eyebrow cocked up. “Looks like it’s just me and my
dick available then.”
“I’ll consider your offer and let you know.”
His self-assured smirk should have annoyed me, but it sent a tendril of excitement coursing through me. He made all the men I’d lusted after before him insignificant. Everything else paled when compared to the man currently resting between my legs.
Nic planted a soft kiss to my lips, which made my toes curl. His hands released my wrists, traveling down my body with an assumed ownership. He left fire everywhere he touched.
He pushed himself up and rolled to his feet in a single movement, leaving me lying there, staring up at him wordlessly. I took the hand he offered me and let him tug me to my feet, pulling hard at the last second to drag me against his hard length.
“My offer doesn’t last forever, Princess. No one leads me around by my dick. Understand?”
“Do you turn into a pumpkin at midnight?” I asked, breathlessly.
“Worse. I’m the big bad wolf, and I have no problem taking what I want.”
Holy fuckballs.
I wanted to melt under the heat in his eyes. Impure thoughts flooded my head at the same time moisture flooded my panties. Whoever this man was, he oozed sex appeal in a way that intoxicated me.
He slapped my ass. “Out of my office. I need to work and you’re distracting me. Next time you decide to wander in here and present your ass over the sofa, it better be naked.”
I glared at him. “I still need my laptop. All my course notes are on it and the start of my dissertation.”
He threw me the stink eye, so I replied with my best smile. His gaze narrowed in warning. “I’ll get Kris to disable the Wi-Fi and check for any bugs first. You might think I’m being a dick, but it’s my job to keep you safe.”
On impulse, I stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
Without waiting for a reply, I turned on my heel and sauntered out of his office, returning to my room before locking the door behind me.
My body slid down the inside of the door until my ass met the floor. My heartbeat was a staccato rhythm that beat violently inside my chest. I was playing with fire, but the burn was so exquisite that I couldn’t resist the lure.
***
Chapter Ten
Nicklas
“Why are there Council members in my city that I didn’t know about?” I demanded, staring around the room to gauge what the fuck was happening.
Someone in my organisation had to have known, and they didn’t tell me.
That fuelled my rage like an accelerant on a fire. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to look him in the eye and see his reaction. Sam and Kris had poured through all the data from the past few weeks. We kept track of where all our assets were, so we could pull them in at a moment’s notice. They cross-referenced it with flight records to determine who would have been on duty and turned a blind eye.
Sam took his position at the door; it appeared that he was merely looking out into the darkness in contemplation. Kris sat casually in the corner beside the ornate fireplace. What no one knew was that he kept a fully stocked arsenal up there, far from the prying eyes of any law enforcement. It was never lit, and Maria had a huge bunch of dried herbs in the hearth.
Danny shrugged nonchalantly. “The country’s opening to more tourists. If they came in under a false passport, they would be hard to detect.”
My gaze met Kris’ for a heartbeat. “How did they take over the old tobacco ranch without us knowing?”
Guilty consciences made people want to divert attention from themselves. It also made them over explain situations to make you believe them.
“That place is so overrun, no one would know anyone is there,” Danny replied.
“You sure someone is there?” Herman asked.
“You really think he’d call a meeting if he wasn’t?” Kris commented, his eyebrows flying up in question.
“Just asking, man,” Herman continued. “Like Danny said, that place is a wilderness. No one has been there for decades; I doubt it’s even habitable. Maybe it’s just squatters that need moved on.”
I turned a chair around until the back faced the table and straddled it. “Open war has been declared on the Council. Anyone found to be helping them is an enemy to the Vendetta Brotherhood. We all took an oath when we joined, so you’re all aware of the consequences of breaking it. No compassion, no second chances, no mercy.” Joining our group was the only second chance we gave. We helped our brothers achieve the vengeance they desired. Silas was still on my list, and he just became a legitimate target.
Silence rippled across the room.
Everyone eyeballed each other as they realised why they were here. If there was a rat in my team, then I would hunt them out and exterminate them. Tension pulsed in waves and perspiration formed on several brows in the room.
Kris stretched and moved toward Sam at the door. He paused briefly behind Danny before continuing on his path. There was no noise since he sliced straight through his vocal cords. The blood poured from his throat and down the front of him even as he tried to stem it with his hands.
Herman stood abruptly; his eyes glued to Danny as he gurgled his last breath. His gaze cut to me as I cocked the gun that was in the waistband of my jeans.
“I can’t afford to risk my revenge because of some assholes who wanted a bigger slice of the pie,” I said. “Have a safe journey.”
My fear of guns disappeared years ago when Lucas taught me to shoot. The greatest tip he ever gave me was to make sure you had your weapon drawn first. The second was never to hesitate. The shot echoed out and Herman slumped to the ground. Fuck centre mass. No one was coming back from a close-range bullet to the middle of the forehead.
“Anyone else have anything they want to share with the group?” I asked.
There were no second chances because I could never be viewed as weak. The day that happened was the day I needed to retire.
“Do we know what the fuck they’re doing over there?” Alvaro asked.
“The guy I questioned yesterday was low level and stupid enough to go walkabout when they were cut off from civilisation. He was banking on us not knowing they were there. Unfortunately for him, both Danny and Herman were on another assignment when we discovered their hideaway.”
“You think the Council knows we’re here?” Alvaro hated the Council almost as much as I did. His brother was killed a few years ago when he went to school abroad. He got mixed up with the wrong people, and the Council never left witnesses alive.
“I doubt they even know who we are,” I replied. “They needed a base of operations somewhere that isn’t heavily monitored, and their greedy eye fell here.”
“Bastards,” Alvaro sneered.
He’d been a prominent surgeon until his brother’s death. He fell into a bottle of rum until we dragged him out of it and hung him out to dry. He still drank, but it was in moderation now since he had a purpose.
Vengeance was the purest reason to stay alive. It gave you focus and determination when your world fell apart around you.
I doubted they had been working alone, but I had no evidence on my other suspects. Right now, we’d put the fear of God into them, and hopefully it was enough to make them cut their ties with whoever was paying them. Every person in this room knew I’d find whoever else was involved and eliminate them.
“Kris.” I nodded at the maniac beside the door.
“Alpha team is with me and Nic. Everyone else wait here.”
Alvaro sighed. “Am I going to need to order more units of O negative?”
“Why? You a vampire, Doc?” I grinned at him, hyped at the prospect of getting out of here and stretching my legs.
He rolled his eyes at me. “You need to stop shooting people. We could have used that blood.” He pointed to the two pools of it on the floor.
Gross didn’t cut it. I could send someone straight to the pearly gates, or in their case, the iron railings of hell, but I wasn’t draining them first like some ghoul.
; Our garage included the traditional vintage cars of Cuba, but we also had custom made Jeeps that were built for stealth and speed. The guys in that estate were about to be paid a little visit to see what exactly was going on.
We were all dressed in black and jumping into the Jeeps, when I felt the compulsion to look up. Sophia stood on the balcony watching us. She still wore those leggings and T-shirt. Most women would demand clothes and hair accessories. All she wanted was her laptop so she could study. I checked out the contents to discover that there were pics of her and her sisters, but little else other than university notes like she said.
She was a bookworm who’d been hidden away, far from the rest of the world.
I deliberately waved, so she knew I saw her. Technically, she was still in her room, but she was definitely garnering attention from my men. She nodded once in understanding and returned inside, closing the patio doors. Sofia shied away from others, yet she turned into a little kitten with sharp claws with me. I wanted to feel those claws digging deep into my back as I fucked her.
Lucas Black would kill me. He would probably have my balls mounted on the wall for even thinking about it, but Sofia Black was fast becoming my greatest obsession. All the way to the estate, she filled my head while I debated the pros and cons of defying her father.
“You wanna scare them or just gather intel?” Kris asked.
The blade that was permanently strapped to him seemed to constantly need to be fed blood, and he was happy to oblige it. We were all fucked up, some of us more than others. He was definitely in the more category.
“I need to know what the fuck is happening.”
He was a technical genius, which was why he was here tonight. The rest of us prowled around the estate, putting the devices he used up in prominent positions. By the morning, we’d have eyes and ears up everywhere in this estate. They wouldn’t be able to take a shit without us knowing if they wiped their asses.
Kris could have worked for any tech company he wanted in the world. His life changed the day his family was murdered, and he started on his path of darkness and revenge. He attached some sort of device to cables that ran into the main house, a screwdriver held between his teeth, and his black baseball cap on backward.
