Triple Threat_An MFMM Romance

by Daphne Dawn

  Big. Perfect. It really looks like something one of us would do.

  Franco is starting to scream at Marco now.

  “You let her go? You just fucked off to do some work, and you let her walk out of the fucking house?!”

  “I told you—she seemed fine. I mean something was a bit off, but I thought she was meeting a friend…”

  “You and your business. Always the business. The best fucking thing to ever happen to us just walks out of here and you let her!? Something was off, you say? Did you bother to ask?”

  “Listen up!” Marco is getting angry now. “You know how badly we need everything to be prepared! This is a massive step! I can’t let all our hard work up to now be for nothing, you hear?”

  “What about our hard work with Sofia huh? What about that? You couldn’t ask her what was wrong, find out where she was going?”

  I gently touch one of the roses.

  “Guys.”

  My voice is soft, and they don’t hear me.

  It’s like being in another dimension. I hear their raised voices, feel the violence coming off them in waves, but it’s like I’m locked in glass. Somewhere else.

  “Guys.”

  Again, too softly.

  The rage comes out of me in a hot burning blaze. I turn around, the roses falling off my hand as I face my brothers. They smash on the floor, scattering in every direction.

  “GUYS!” I roar at them, “Who bought her the fucking roses?”

  Finally, they both look at me. They look at the floor, back at each other, and then me.

  “I thought it was one of you,” Marco’s voice is soft and dangerous.

  “I didn’t even think about it,” Franco looks shocked.

  “So, it wasn’t one of us.”

  My breathing is coming hard, but I’m thinking clearly now.

  All I can think of is Sofia.

  Her beautiful smile. Her warmth. Her passion.

  I fucked up. I let her down.

  I wasn’t here when she needed me. I’m going to fix all of that, though. I’m going to find her and prove to her that I’m a man worthy of a woman like her.

  Marco and Franco are eyeing each other with a little suspicion. Franco gestures impatiently as he tries to reason it out.

  “It could be anyone. We don’t know that much about her…Maybe she has admirers. Maybe she went to…see someone else.”

  I hear his voice catch on that. Brave fellow, to consider his worst fear like that.

  “But why have them delivered here,” I protest.

  “We have to find her.” Marco looks determined now. “I want answers—now. If she’s fucking off with someone else or if she’s leaving, she can do us the courtesy of saying so. She’s been shacked up here with us for awhile now. I don’t like this…”

  He clenches his fists, unable to finish the thought.

  “Wait up, hold up.” Marco pulls out his phone. “I have this app that can track her, even if her phone’s out of reception. It just has to be on.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Marco grabs his jacket as we head out the door.

  51

  Sofia

  The light shining from behind the Senator’s head shadows his face in darkness.

  He’s grinning, and he looks like an absolute maniac.

  I can’t believe I never saw it before. He’s holding a gun, and it becomes clear to me, he never needed me to kill for him. He’s been doing that himself all along.

  I feel cold and sick thinking about the people I’ve killed and the lives I’ve destroyed for him. How many were innocent?

  I never even thought to ask. I just followed orders. My need for revenge blinded me to the truth. My rage was the only validation I needed.

  He gestures at the doorway with the gun, and I walk past him slowly.

  I’m clutching at the red silk wrap like it might save me. I hear him follow behind but not too close—he’s smart. He wants plenty of room to get off a shot, should I decide to attack.

  My heart isn’t in it, honestly.

  The hard decisions I had to make are now out of my hands.

  I won’t see my boys again, my gorgeous boys.

  I know I’m not getting out of here alive. I want to feel like it’s better this way, that I’m protecting them, but all I can feel is misery.

  We walk into the huge, empty space, and I turn to face him as he closes the door.

  “The game’s up, Sofia. I didn’t want to believe it. My best, most loyal agent. Don’t you know I have eyes everywhere? Trust is a fragile thing. When you didn’t report, I had other investigators follow you.”

  He comes closer, walking around behind me.

  I try and turn my head, when he hits me in the temple with the gun. I crash to my knees, and he hits me again.

  I’m only out for a few seconds.

  I wake up to the feeling of cold concrete under me. He has tied my hands and is now binding tape around my feet. He looks up at me, eyes murderous in the half-light.

  He binds my ankles and places his hands on my legs.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t see you? Wining and dining with the brothers. Wearing pretty clothes. Playing with race cars. Planning parties. Living the high life while I sit around waiting for your call. Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  I glare at him. I can’t answer, not really. I’m not sure anymore.

  I was a killer, his weapon. No job too tough.

  Over the past few weeks, I’ve felt like a woman—a real one—for the first time.

  I felt like I might be worthy of comfort and security.

  Love.

  He grips my legs, and I look up at him again.

  He has a hungry leer on his face, and his eyes are crazed.

  “You fell in love, didn’t you? I warned you about that, remember? You said you couldn’t fall in love. Well tell me, Sofia—what do those brothers have that I don’t have, huh?”

  “Integrity,” I answer immediately.

  He grabs the gun and raises it, but I stare him down.

  He stands up and points it at me. I don’t care.

  “Shoot me, then. Just do it. Why the fuck are you doing all this? Why not just kill me and get it over with?”

  “Because I have to know, sweet Sofia. I have to get the intel. Not just on the boys, but on you. I want you to spill on your precious boys, then I want you to come back to me. What can I offer you, Sofia? You’re my best agent. You need to see your boys for what they truly are, then you’ll come back to me, I know it.”

  “What happened to Sammy?”

  I’m defiant. I’m not telling him anything.

  He laughs. “Sammy is just a rogue agent who stuck her nose where it doesn’t belong. She’ll be taken care of directly. She can’t run forever. Now…”

  He leans down and puts the barrel of the gun against my temple.

  “Tell me everything about the brothers. What’s this big change coming to the business? How are my stocks going to survive if my crime rings collapse? Don’t you know I need the brothers propping up the drug addicts and the prostitution rings? Don’t you know they practically all work for me?”

  I’m so shocked I can’t speak. My head is throbbing, and I’m so cold.

  I don’t care what he does to me anymore. I just want the pain to stop.

  He shakes the gun.

  “Speak up, Sofia. You can’t sell out on me like this! Was the cock that good, huh? Was it? I mean fuck—if all I had to do to keep you was buy a few pretty dresses, I could’ve done that. You never gave me the fucking chance!”

  He stands up and paces away a few steps.

  I don’t even watch—I just keep my eyes on the floor.

  “This should be clear to you by now.”

  He doesn’t bother to turn around, even though he speaks softly.

  “Come back to me—or die. You need to decide. Me or them. If you choose them, you’re not walking out of here.”

  I stick my chin out, and my
body trembles as I attempt to get up and lunge at him, but all I can do is wriggle against the tape.

  “I’d rather die!” I scream at him. “I’d rather die than keep working for you.”

  He sighs and sticks the gun into his pants. Then, he reaches down and picks something up from the shadows and turns around.

  I gasp and struggle against the tape again.

  “Then you shall die, dear Sofia. Not quickly or easily—but screaming in fear as you see your fate coming to you.”

  He steps forward and I see it clearly.

  Stacks of C-4, taped together and bound to a detonator.

  It’s a strap-on bomb.

  52

  Franco

  We didn’t have time to wait for a driver. Marco has gotten his Corvette out of the garage, and we’re packed in tight to the small space.

  He’s absolutely thrashing the little beast. I swear he’s enjoying himself. I call out the turns, and I think Marco breaks every traffic law on the way out of the city.

  I start to really get worried as we leave the main city limits.

  Why would she come out here? Who could she be meeting?

  It’s an old industrial area. Papa used to have factories out here. A lot of them have closed down and abandoned. It’s a hell of a place to be, even for a fit young man who knows how to fight.

  Not a place for a sweet, beautiful creature, like Sofia.

  I give the final few directions, and Marco wrestles the little car through a side street and into a large concrete parking lot. We get out and look around.

  Marco glances at me. “Are you sure?”

  “As sure as I can be. I mean, it’s not definite, but—”

  “What’s that?” Antonio points in the direction of the door.

  Something dark there was fluttering in the breeze.

  We run over to it. Antonio picks it up.

  It’s a red silken wrap.

  “She was wearing this!” Marco screams. “She’s here!”

  The door has been locked, and I think I can hear Sofia inside.

  She’s crying. Oh god, I never thought I would hear such a woeful sound.

  Panic is attacking me from the inside out.

  “Get the fucking door open!”

  I’m screaming now. We’re all screaming.

  “It’s no good!” Antonio’s been studying the lock. “The edges are set in steel.”

  Marco takes a step back and examines the edges.

  “It’s set in steel, but the door itself is just wood. Old wood too—probably rotten. None of us could do it alone, but if we all hit it at the same time, it should break.”

  We glance at each other, nodding.

  I can hear Sofia sobbing, and I feel such a sense of urgency. My mind is almost blank.

  We take a few steps back for a run up.

  Marco counts softly. “One…two…three…go!”

  We plunge at the door, all of us throwing our shoulders down as we smash into it.

  There’s a splintering sound, but it doesn’t budge.

  “Marco!” Sofia screams from inside. “Antonio! Franco! Help me!”

  We back up once more like three men in a single mind.

  We know there’s no time to lose. Her voice has galvanized our strength.

  We lunge for the door again. This time, it splinters and buckles in the center.

  “One more time!” Marco screams, and we back up and run at the door again.

  Now it shatters.

  Marco falls through, and Antonio and I follow him through the crack.

  “I’m here! I’m here!”

  The sound of her voice drives me wild—she’s so scared, so scared and hurt.

  I can’t bear it.

  Marco’s ahead, but we catch up quickly and surround her. I just want to take her into my arms and hold her. As I approach, I see her hands and feet bound with tape, and I’m outraged.

  Who would do such a thing?

  Why would they think they can go up against the strongest brothers in town?

  Then I notice the bomb. The little blinking display on her chest clicks down to 180 as I watch, and keeps counting down.

  Marco is on his knees, pulling out a pocket knife to free her hands and feet.

  “There’s a bomb!” she screams. “He’s attached a fucking bomb to me.”

  “No fucking way,” I say, kneeling beside her, feeling a new wave of terror grip my heart.

  “May I take a look?” Antonio kneels next to me.

  He flips up the display panel and starts fooling with the wires.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Antonio?” Marco snaps. “You’ll set it off. We should cut it off her as quick as we can.”

  “Try that,” Antonio says calmly, “but from the look of the tape you would need at least five minutes. Maybe three, to cut her free of the explosives. Start cutting, Marco, in case I fail.”

  “What are you doing?”

  I’m amazed and confused, watching Antonio tinkering with the wires.

  Sofia is sobbing so hard her chest is heaving up and down, and Antonio follows the movements deftly. Marco starts speaking to her gently as he cuts the tape, telling her it’s all going to be alright. We’ll get her out of this.

  Fucking damn right we will.

  “Well,” Antonio listens with one ear as he tugs on a wire. “You know how grandpapa was in the army? We used to get bored some nights, and he would show me the old detonator codes. Most bombs work the same way.”

  I watch as the seconds count down. Marco is slicing at the tape, not caring about preserving the dress.

  We have less than twenty seconds now.

  “Hurry up, Antonio,” I warn him, “there’s almost no time left.”

  He reaches in to the detonator with a satisfied smile.

  “I only need another five seconds.”

  He grins and clips a wire with his knife.

  The red lights counting down to doom stop. Three seconds to spare.

  Sofia is still sobbing and gasping.

  We all try to hold her and comfort her. We pull the tape off her, the dress completely ruined now. It hangs off one shoulder, almost baring her breast, and I shake out the red wrap and tuck it around her shoulders.

  She smiles through her tears and stands up.

  We all try to support her at once, and she laughs. I put an arm around her waist, and so does Antonio. Our arms cross at the small of her back.

  “Well,” Marco grins, standing in front of us. “What’re we waiting for? Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  53

  Sofia

  I can’t stop crying as we get into Marco’s little corvette.

  Marco takes the driver’s seat, and Antonio and Franco climb in the back with me. My dress is falling off, my hair is a mess, and I know the crying isn’t helping my appearance at all.

  It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters any more. I’ve been selfish for too long.

  Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for myself. I was a killer for hire—not for the senator, but for myself. All I cared about was my own revenge.

  Now I’ve brought these beautiful, trusting men into my dark world, and they almost got killed. I have to speak up. I have to come clean, no matter what that means for me.

  It’s time to grow up.

  I try to wipe my face as Marco pulls out of the deserted car park. He flicks on the heat and keeps glancing at me through the rear view. Antonio and Franco are trying to soothe me and make me lie down, but I push them off.

  “No. No. Boys, please—please, just be quiet. Can you hear me up there, Marco?”

  “Loud and clear, honey. This car purrs nice and quiet. I can hear you fine.”

  I grip Antonio and Franco’s hands.

  It might be the last time I get to. I take a deep breath. Where do I begin?

  “My whole life, I’ve been walking around with a black hole inside me. My mother, my poor mother…she was forced into a prostitution ring. I don’t know who my fat
her is. I don’t know all the details as to how it all happened. All I know is she suffered. She was abused constantly. And it killed her.”

  Antonio tries to put an arm around me and crush me against his chest. I want his warm comfort around me, but I can’t let him get close, or I’ll lose my nerve.

  “The Senator has always been my protector. He looked after me…put me in a good school. When he started asking me to do infiltration, I was very young. The perfect spy, he said. No one would suspect a sweet young girl. As we got into darker and darker places, I only liked it more. I wanted to punish any bad guy I came across in the name of my mother.”

  Gasping softly and trying to hold myself together, I realize something. The senator had to be involved in my mother’s death. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

  Antonio and Franco have pulled back from me, staring at me with hard eyes. Marco glances through the rear view, and he also looks tense.

  Antonio still briefly holds my hand though, and I give it a squeeze.

  “This was a job. Just a job. I was supposed to gather intel on all your business branches and report back to the Senator. He tried to get rid of me, just there as a loose end…I think he has a few of those right now. He’s bad, clearly, and can’t hide his awful deeds anymore. He wanted to punish me for turning on him, but he also needed me gone. I could hurt him still, I think.”

  I look down into my lap, thinking of what I could do next if I was still the top badass spy I’ve always seen myself to be. Find Sammy, go after the senator.

  Who would I blow the whistle to?

  Sammy said to watch my back. I don’t know who’s in on it and who’s not.

  I’ve never felt so lost.

  “I wasn’t supposed to fall in love!”

  My sobs are coming hard again, and Antonio pulls out a silk handkerchief and gives it to me. I wipe my face down, but fresh tears just keep coming.

  “I didn’t think I could fall in love…but I did.”

  I look between Antonio and Franco, and then I glance at the mirror to catch Marco’s eyes.

  They all have the same look.

  Hard, suspicious.

  I’ve done it—I’m completely fucked now.