Mateo’s voice cuts through the fog in my head. It’s like a loud television being turned on, awakening me from a deep sleep. I’m back in my body. I can feel my hands and feet. I realize I’m shaking, and I’m cold. I nuzzle closer into Leo’s chest, though a part of me is terrified of him.
“We have to leave the state,” Leo says. “All of us. Ma, Pop, the whole family.”
Mateo glances at him through the rearview mirror. “You know how Pop is. He won’t leave.”
Leo tenses, and he draws into himself. I see the concern in his eyes for his family, and I’m reminded of who he really is. I try to hang on to this moment, to not let it slip out of my grasp. I grab his face, and furtively kiss his blood caked lips. Leo presses his forehead against mine, sighing deeply.
“What should we do, bro?” Mateo asks.
“We can’t risk going to the house tonight. I’ll find a way to warn Ma and Pop tomorrow. First, let’s get Mia somewhere safe.”
Mateo nods. I realize ‘somewhere safe’ is code for an actual place. We end up by the docks. Mateo cuts the headlights, driving slowly, until he arrives at a corner. The buildings in this area are boarded up and covered with graffiti. Leo starts walking steadily to the west. I follow him for what seems like ages as he zigzags down the blocks and through hidden alleyways. The area starts to come to life with shops and restaurants, a few of which are open.
Leo swings open a door to a Chinese restaurant. It’s crowded with patrons who sit around large, round tables covered with dishes piled high with food. Through the open kitchen, cooks stretch out noodle dough by hand, and toss food in sizzling hot woks. No one pays any attention to us as we pass through to the back, which is curious considering the bloodied state Leo’s in. I catch my reflection in slab of stainless steel in the kitchen, and I don’t look much better. My hair is frizzed, I’m as pale as a ghost, and black mascara is smudged under my eyes.
We pass by a series of rooms, and I realize this building is much bigger than it looks from the street. Most of the rooms are occupied by Asian men smoking, playing cards, or lying on cots. Leo opens a door at the end of the hallway, revealing a flight of stairs that descend into darkness. Leo takes my hand to start walking down, but I yank it back.
“What is this place?” I ask.
Leo cups my face in his hands. “Somewhere safe.”
I can’t see anything down here. There are no windows, and no outside light. Leo walks around the room flipping on lamps, and I take a look around. This is the basement, but it doesn’t feel like it. Despite the lack of windows and the concrete walls, it feels homey. It’s so quiet, you’d never guess there was a bustling restaurant upstairs, save for the smell of seared meat flavoring the air.
It’s set up like a studio apartment. There’s a small kitchenette complete with a refrigerator, stove, and microwave. The other half of the room houses a bedroom suit, and a small, flat screened TV. Off of the ‘bedroom,’ there’s a bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower.
I close my eyes. This is the most calm I’ve felt all night. Leo stands in front of me, and lays his hands on my shoulder.
“You have to stay here,” he says, seriously. “You can’t leave.”
“For how long?”
Leo presses his lips together. “I don’t know.”
I walk away from him and sit on the bed. It has simple white sheets and a beige comforter. The mundane normalcy of it gives me a small amount of comfort.
“What do you mean, I can’t leave?” I ask him.
“Just that,” Leo says. He points up the stairs. “Don’t walk out of that door. Don’t show your face on the street. Anton and his men will be looking for you. We can’t compromise this location.”
“What about my job?” I ask. Then, I think of something, and the air is forced out of my chest. “What about Dani?” My eyes flit up to Leo. “She could be in danger. She told me Anton threatened her.”
Leo sits next to me on the bed. “I’ll check on her. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Thank you,” I breathe, collapsing against his chest. Leo strokes my hair silently. “I’m sorry if I’m in a strange mood. I’ve never been through anything like that before.”
“Don’t be sorry. I can understand it being traumatic.”
I bite my lip and look up at him. “It’s not for you? Traumatic, I mean. You- you killed-“ I nearly choke on the word. I have to stop talking to catch my breath.
Leo pulls his gaze away from me. “No, it’s not. Not anymore.”
The adrenaline that had been rushing through me pulls in my stomach. I start to feel dizzy.
“How? How can do that and not feel a thing?”
“Mia,” Leo says, softly. “You know who I am. What I am.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know know. This is all too much, it’s too dark.”
Leo clenches his teeth. “You think I should feel bad about killing that asshole Mikhail? He’s terrorized the people in this neighborhood for over a decade. A bullet in the head was a better death than he deserved.”
Leo’s eyes go dark, and I shrink away from him. He holds my trembling hand and softens his expression.
“There’s ugliness in the word, ugly people,” he says. “I can understand wanting to ignore it, but for people like me, that’s not an option. I protect people, that’s what I do. And if that means getting my hands dirty, so be it. I don’t carry it on my conscience, because there’s no point. Mikhail, Anton, the world’s better off with them dead. That’s just a fact.”
I know in my gut this is true. Leo looks in the distance, huffing angrily. His tough bravado is starting to crack, and his vulnerability showing for the first time. I turn his face towards me, and examine the wound on the side of his forehead.
“Let me clean you up,” I say.
I search the bathroom and find a first aid kit. I wet a towel with warm water, and return to Leo. His mind is somewhere far away when I return. He doesn’t flinch when I start to wipe the dried blood from his face. I finally get a reaction when I dab alcohol on the wound. He sucks in air through his teeth and jerks away.
“Leo, tell me.”
He closes his eyes and takes a shuddering breath. He clenches his teeth, and I can see every muscle and tendon in his neck. With a giant exhale, he doubles over, releasing everything.
“Nico,” he mutters.
I lean down to better hear him. “Nico? Who’s that?”
“My cousin- no. My brother.” His upper lips stiffens, and he clenches his fists. “He was only fifteen when the Nabatovs killed him. Not even a man yet. Nico and Mateo were around the same age. They followed me around like puppies, always wanting to see what I was getting into. Yeah, I thought they were annoying, and I beat their asses every chance I got, but I looked out for them. I felt this responsibility towards them. Vince was older, he was gone. Pop was always busy. All they had was me. They trusted me. Nico trusted me.”
Leo trembles with emotions, but he forces it down.
“Nico started hanging around the reds. He thought they were his friends. That was before there was a line drawn in the sand, and there was some commingling between our crews. Then one night, they were drinking at the warehouse, and they turned on him.”
“Just out of the blue?” I ask.
Leo rubs the side of his neck. “It seems so. They dragged him into the back and strapped him to a chair. I think he was pretty drunk, so he didn’t fight them much. Maybe he even thought it was a joke before they started chopping his fingers off.”
I wince, taking an audible breath.
“I’m sorry. This probably isn’t what you want to hear right now,” Leo says.
I shake my head curtly. “No, it’s okay. I want you to tell me.”
“There’s no telling how long the torture went on. Probably all night. Nico died of blood loss, so his death was definitely slow and horrifying, not to mention painful. I’ve seen a lot of shit, but some of the things I saw the day we found him keep me up at night.
” Leo glances to me, concern in his eye. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
I nod, though I’m not really sure. Leo continues.
“His ears, fingers, and toes were chopped off. He was burned and cut all over his body. He was sodomized, probably with a baseball bat. They tried to scoop his eye out with a spoon.”
I feel a surge of nausea, and taste bile in the back of my throat. I lean forward, retching into my hand. Leo holds my hair back and fans my face.
“I shouldn’t have told you that,” he says.
I take a deep breath and sit up straight. “I’m glad you did. I want you to share your pain with me. Maybe I can shoulder some of the burden, even if it makes you feel just a little bit better.”
I see a hint of a smile on Leo’s lips. “It does feel good to talk to you.” His smile deepens, revealing his dimples. “Shit, I never say stuff like that.”
“Really?” I ask, nudging him. “That’s not just a line?”
Leo tilts his forehead towards me. “What do you think?” He strokes the hair away from my face, looking deep into my eyes. “I’m falling in love with you, Mia. That’s definitely something I’ve never said.”
My eyes lock on his, and my lips fall open. Those are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard. A profound calm expands throughout my chest, and I completely forget the traumatic events of the night. Suddenly, Leo grasps the back of my neck, and leans in close to my face.
“Fuck it. I love you,” he says.
Electricity runs up my spine, touching every cell in my body. Now is the time to stop being a victim, now is the time to take charge, and take what’s mine.
“I love you, too,” I say.
Our lips crash together. We wrap our arms around each other, clutching desperately, while our tongues dance together. I taste iron on Leo’s lips from the blood. It energizes me. I pull his shirt off of him, ripping it in the process. I drag my lips across his bare chest, tasting the sweat and dirt that cling to him. This is the taste of a man capable of protecting the innocent, raw and dirty, and unabashedly so. I run my lips down the center of his torso, over the stiff ridges of his abs. Every part of me feels alive. I nip at Leo’s flesh with animalistic desire.
Leo practically tears the dress away from my body. He holds me tightly against him, kissing down my neck. The urge between us is palpable. Every part of me reaches for him, needing him. He wraps his arms around my waist and throws me back on the bed. He kisses around my naval, then drags his tongue down to the top of my panties. He rubs my clit through the sheer fabric, pressing hard against it with his thumb. I’m already wet down there, and this only pushes me further towards the edge. I reach between my legs and grab his face.
“I want to taste your cock,” I say.
Leo grabs the strings of my panties and yanks them down. “I want to taste you,” he says. “Me first.”
He plunges his face between my legs, licking me ravenously and sucking my clit. I’m going wild with desire, and can barely contain myself. I clutch at the sheets, screaming like a banshee. He makes his tongue broad and flat and presses it hard against my clit. I hold the back of his head, pushing him harder into my pussy until I come.
Leo rises up on his arms, a grin smeared on his face, and his chin glistening with my juices.
“Your turn,” he says.
He climbs on top of me, and straddles my neck with his thick thighs. I tilt my head back, opening my mouth wide. He holds the tip of his cock right at my lips, teasing me. I lick my lips, eager to taste his stiffened flesh. He rubs the head across my mouth. I stick out my tongue like a baby bird. Finally, he slips it inside of my mouth. Leaning forward, he holds onto the bed post, and pushes it further in.
His cock pulses angrily as he thrusts it in and out. In my submissive position, I can feel his power. It nourishes me, and I crave more.
His breath deepens, and he lets out a low groan. He pulls his cock out of my mouth, and stands quickly from the bed. Grabbing my waist, he pulls me with him, lifting me from the ground. I wrap my legs around his waist and simultaneously sink down on his cock.
Leo holds me steady in his strong arms, allowing me to lean back a little. Once he’s completely inside of me, he bucks his hips wildly. Every aggressive, tumultuous emotion he has is bubbling up to the surface, and he’s taking it out on me.
What a lucky girl I am.
It’s the roughest sex I’ve ever had, and I come more times than I can count. Beads of sweat form on Leo’s forehead, and the veins throb in his temples. His face is hardened with intense determination as he fucks me, hard. I undulate against him, taking him deeper. I am wild in his arms, all primal passion, and it feels so good.
Leo drops me on the bed, and plunges into me. He grabs my hair and makes a fist, tugging it from my scalp. His cock pulses as it empties itself inside of me.
“Shit, Mia,” Leo says, catching his breath. “Are you ovulating?”
“Who fucking cares?” I grab him by the shoulders and him pull him towards me. We kiss with hot passion while the mess of our lovemaking seeps between my thighs.
Chapter Thirteen
———————-
Leo
Before meeting up with my brothers at the pool hall, I stop and buy us all coffee. In the couple of weeks since my botched attempt to kill Anton, things have been tense between all of us. Vince thinks I’m scum for stirring things up again. He thinks we should bow to Anton, and give him whatever he wants to make up for my mistake. Mateo thinks we haven’t gone far enough, that we need to continue our attack. For the first few days, all of our meetings devolved into shouting matches. Neither of my brothers are willing to budge from their position, and I feel stuck somewhere in the middle.
Lately, after the dust has settled some, and we’re able to think more rationally, things have gotten better. We still don’t agree, but we can argue without yelling. Today, I’m hoping to tell my brothers that I come in peace, and with coffee.
Vince and Mateo are sitting at the card table, their heads bowed over something, when I walk into the pool hall. I plaster a shit eating grin on my face and saunter up to them.
“Who says I don’t look out for you?” I say, placing a coffee in front of each of them.
They both stare down at the table blankly, and don’t even notice the coffee I so kindly brought for them. I start to make a snarky comment, but I quickly realize something’s up. I calmly sit down, and glance at the newspaper laid out on the table. It’s the obituary section. I know immediately why they look so sad. Maria Bello has died. Her restaurant, Bello’s, is a family run restaurant, passed down for generations, and an iconic fixture of the neighborhood.
I sit back, rubbing my forehead. “Shit. What happened?”
Vince glares at me. “You’d know what happened if you weren’t always sneaking off. Where the fuck were you last night?”
I stay calm, refusing to get riled up. “What happened?”
Vince flips the newspaper to the front page, then pushes it towards me. I can feel him staring at me while I glance at the headline. Bello’s was shot up last night. There are no suspects in custody.
“This is retaliation. Bello’s is our place,” Vince says. “They did this.”
Vince grabs the paper and rips it in two. He stands up, pushing his chair out from behind him. He paces around furiously, shaking his head. Mateo stares straight ahead, his face blank. There’s no telling what’s going through his mind right now. It’s probably the same thing going through mine, images of the Nobatovs, mangled and bloody, how they’d look after I did what I want to do to them.
“They’re going to fucking pay for this,” I say, adamantly. “Maria deserved better.”
“She deserved better. You’re goddamn right,” Vince says. He points at me. “And I’m not going to let you make it any worse.”
“What are we supposed to do? Sit back?” I say. “Let me finish Anton. Let me finish all of them.”
Mateo nods, pressing his lips hard toget
her. “I’m with Leo. Let’s do this.”
Vince shakes his head. “No, that won’t work. Look, I’ve been talking to Anton. He promises to let this go if we give him what he wants.”
I take a deep breath, reminding myself to stay cool. Though I’m not going to like this.
“And what would that be?” I ask through my teeth.
“He says if you return his girl, he’ll tell his guys to stand down,” Vince says.
I laugh. “His girl? I don’t think so.”
Vince slams his hands against the table. “You started this. You have to end it.”
I grip the edge of the table. “You don’t know what you’re asking me. And you expect me to believe Anton will drop it, just like that?”
Vince hesitates. I can tell there’s something he’s not telling me.
“That’s not all, is it?” I ask. “What else does he want?”
“You promise not to flip the fuck out?” Vince asks.
I lean back, lifting my hands up and showing him my palms. “Promise.”
“He wants you to pay him ten grand,” Vince blurts out. “He says since the girl is his property, you owe him a user fee.”
“What?” I say, tilting my forehand towards him. I’d promised to stay calm, but the anger is boiling inside of me. My heart pounds, pumping hot blood through my veins. My vision goes red. Every cell in my body is telling me to root out my enemy and kill him. I feel like if I don’t let this out, I’ll explode. I grab the table and flip it over with a yell. The tattered newspaper, cards, and coffee all fall to the ground.
“Leo,” Vince says, futilely.
I stand up, every muscle in my body clenched, and my veins throbbing. I walk around the pool hall, looking for something to punch.
“Leo, get a grip,” Vince yells. “You’ll forget about her. You always do.”
“Not this time,” I growl.
“Come on,” Vince says. “You’ve been gone a long time, but you can’t tell me you’ve changed that much. You’re still the guy that kept a box full of panties in his closet.”
“Anton is done,” I say, more to myself than to them. “He’s fucking done. I’m going to rip him apart with my bare hands. I want to look into his eyes while his sorry life slips away.”
Witness: A Dark Mafia Romance (Romano Brothers Book 2) Page 24
