[Made Men 6] The Root of All Evil

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  “Help me. Where am I?” She blinked her heavy eyelids.

  The man licked his lips. “Damn if you weren’t taken, boy, would I be working on getting you used to my touch.”

  He stroked her cheek. She turned away. He looked to be in his thirties, Hispanic with an accent.

  “Miami, he’s here.”

  She heard another man’s voice, and then this guy they called Miami smiled.

  “Your man is here.” He winked and stood from the bed.

  “Stay just like that. You look perfect.” He went to the door. She heard him greet the other man hello.

  “In there. She’s still weak from the drugs.”

  “Good.”

  She thought she recognized the voice. Then she heard him approach the doorway, and she looked, waiting to see who had taken her from her men and accomplished all of this. She gaped, and her heart felt as though it dropped to her belly.

  “Emanuel Cortez. Crown Royal.”

  * * * *

  Emanuel Cortez didn’t smile, despite the pleasure he felt at seeing Giada here in Cuba and lying on the bed. He placed his hands on his hips as she stared at him in shock and confusion. He’d had a long trip. Everything was in place. Shortly the Coglonie family would know that it was he who had taken their precious, beautiful woman from them, see how they liked losing something, someone important to them, just like how they’d taken his brother from him.

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

  He stood by the bed looking down at her petite figure, her sexy thighs, her full breasts, and her long, gorgeous locks of hair. Those stunning blue eyes and angelic face filled with fear made him feel the taste of success, of vengeance on his lips. He reached out and stroked her bare shoulder. She tried pulling back, but the drugs still made her weak. She needed to remain weak, compliant to his orders and instruction.

  “Don’t resist, Giada. I don’t want to hurt you or ruin this perfect body in any way.” He stroked along her hip and down her thigh. He grazed over her groin and her mound, and she tried turning away.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  “Oh, I will be touching you, and your men will see it.” He pointed to the camera in the corner of the room. She looked shocked as though she hadn’t noticed it was there. “We’ll be keeping a close watch on you, me especially, since this is my bedroom and now yours, too.”

  “No. Please don’t rape me. Please,” she said to him as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “Tsk, tsk.” He stroked the tears away. “I have never raped a woman before, and I’m not about to start now. Eventually, though, you’ll be mine and will accept me freely, or there will be hell to pay.”

  She shook her head.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it now, Giada. We’ve got time on our side. And to think we nearly lost the opportunity to grab you. Good old Uncle Les.” He smiled.

  She shook her head.

  “Oh wait, that’s right. He’s dead.” He leaned one arm over her waist and came closer to her lips. She tightened up but didn’t move her arms to stop him. Apparently the drugs worked for quite some time on her. She was small.

  He stroked her jaw and kept his hand and arm by her breast. “You are so gorgeous. No wonder all three of them wanted you. You’re a goddess, Giada, and now you’re mine.’

  “Never,” she whispered.

  He gripped her jaw, and she gasped. “You’ll see. Now, you’ll need to eat, perhaps use the bathroom, and then join me on our first night in paradise. Oh, and don’t think about trying to escape. I have numerous guards surrounding the perimeter of the island, all around the perimeter of the house, and a surveillance system that allows my guards to not only see and hear everything but also alert them to intruders a good half a mile away. More than enough time for me to escape with you if anyone was so stupid as to try and get through the security that’s in place.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why me?”

  “Oh, we’ll talk about that over dinner, as well as the rules. No time to waste, Giada. Tonight we make the first tape and send it to your friends, the Coglonies.”

  He leaned lower and went to kiss her lips, but she tried turning away. He gripped her jaw tight. “Cooperation is key, or your quarters during the day will not be pleasant at all. There’s a lot of dangers outside these doors, both nature and man. You won’t survive very long at all.”

  * * * *

  “Emanuel Cortez,” Brew said to all of them as they gathered inside of the penthouse.

  “Fuck,” Andreas stated.

  Dominick remained straight-faced.

  Giuseppe looked at Brew. “What did you find out?”

  “He came to see her two weeks ago. They met for a short time in her office and then discussed meeting again to go over him being a potential client.”

  “Ballsy,” Fedarro said, knowing the situation and what had happened a few years ago.

  None of them even thought Emanuel was alive. He wasn’t connected with Raoul.

  “Who is this guy Cortez?” Hadeon, one of Dmitri’s guys, asked.

  “A Cuban dealer. His brother, Raoul, tried to double-cross Fedarro and his family and ours in a joint operation. Sent in some enforcers to eliminate us for a takeover. We caught wind of it, thanks to Andreas and his connections. As they came in to attack, Raoul went after me,” Dominick said to them.

  He didn’t have to give details to these men. They realized he’d killed Raoul.

  “So his brother, Emanuel, got away, waited three years to seek his revenge against you, and now he takes your woman.” Andriy shook his head.

  “He knows she is important to the three of them. He’s been watching us or having us watched. We have to find him. The longer he has Giada, the worse he can do to her,” Fedarro said.

  They all looked grim. Dominick felt so angry and helpless. His Giada must be so scared. He clenched his teeth.

  “We need to put the pressure on. His cousin Miami Cortez is one of the operators of the Bay Bloods. It could mean getting our fucking hands real dirty, but I’m so fucking angry right now I’m up for a bit of ass kicking to get answers,” Andreas said to them.

  “What exactly do you want to do, Andreas? Start a fucking mini blood war with one of the biggest drug gangs in Harlem?” Mateus asked him.

  Dominick looked at Andreas as he eyed everyone in the room—all their men, their friends and family, their partners in business.

  “No, just fuck them up enough to let them know that, at any time, we can come in and take the fuck over. That we mean business, and if their leader, Yovan Vega, wants to protect Miami, Emanuel, and anyone else who took our woman, then he and the Bay Bloods get to suffer, too.”

  Dominick was already formulating a plan. “We may not even have to start knocking down doors and bringing so much attention to the streets.” Dominick looked at Fedarro. He didn’t need to say a word as Fedarro looked at Sunny and Vinny.

  “To protect that bit of resource, I say we still go in and kick some ass right now, tonight. Then we let that special resource do what can be done,” Sunny suggested.

  “Agreed. Let’s do this. Let’s take a group, Andreas, and hit up the Bay Blood gang. Another group hit up Cha Cha Cabana, and another one find Calvarro and interrogate the shit out of him while our other teams infiltrate Emanuel’s financial resources. We aren’t going to take this sitting down,” Dominick stated.

  They agreed, and everyone headed out. There would be no sleeping tonight, not any time soon, and not until Giada was safe and alive in his arms.

  Chapter 14

  A week—a whole fucking week—and no exact location on Emanuel, just that he was in Cuba. Hadeon, Paulo, and Andriy were getting closer and in contact with a team associated with Nicolai. The Mulichecks were married to Nicolai’s daughter, Malayna. They were soldiers, hunters, and men who could infiltrate even the most high-tech security facilities out there. They knew their shit and had ways of finding out where people were. They were getting closer.

  “
I can’t take this much longer,” Giuseppe said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

  Giuseppe, Dominick, Andreas, Brew, Royce, Train, and Dmitri’s men were sitting in the office when Dominick got an alert on his phone. A private number. Check your e-mail.

  He stood and walked over to the desk and got onto the computer and his e-mail. He had three screens on his desk, and he saw a link to a video. He hit the button, and he felt his heart drop to his stomach.

  The sound of Emanuel’s voice echoed in the office, and Giuseppe and Andreas approached along with the others.

  He couldn’t believe it. Emanuel was lying on a bed with Giada. He was touching her, stroking her, and she was lying there, tears streaming from her cheeks as Emanuel taunted them through the camera.

  “She is so beautiful. Obedient, too, when she’s drugged like this,” Emanuel said to the camera. Emanuel cupped her breast as he inhaled against Giada’s neck. “She smells incredible, like heaven. No wonder you, your brother, and your cousin care so much about her. She’s addicting.”

  He then leaned up and licked her lips, down her neck, and over her breast. They watched in horror.

  “I want you to know, Dominick, that since we’ve been here, she sleeps right by my side where I can protect her and hold her close. I bet you’re going to miss that, having her nice, round ass pressed up against you. Now it’s up against me. She’s mine now, Dominick. Mine to control, to train, to spend as much time with as I want. It’s sweet revenge, Dominick, on you and those asshole friends of yours. You’re never going to see her again. Never going to touch what is mine. How does that feel?”

  The screen went black, and Dominick just stared at it. The sound of a roar and a chair being thrown had Dominick looking up to see Andreas in a rage. Hadeon grabbed onto him.

  “We’ll find them. I promise, Andreas. We will find them.”

  “When? When, Hadeon? After he rapes her several times? Traumatizes her? Drugs her up? You saw her. She’s helpless and scared, and we did this to her,” Andreas said and walked out of the room.

  Dominick tried breathing through the anger. Giuseppe turned away and faced the window. Their friends, their guards, and their family had seen and heard the video, too.

  “Send a copy of that to Star,” Hadeon stated.

  “What? No, I don’t want a bunch of people seeing that video.”

  “Dominick, they have their resources, their ways of finding shit, seeing things other people wouldn’t. They may be able to find something on that video.”

  Dominick clenched his teeth and felt as though he could hardly catch a breath. He forwarded the video to the e-mail address Hadeon told him to as Hadeon spoke on the phone with Star. Poor Giada. When he got his hands on Emanuel, he would be sure to kill him.

  * * * *

  Giuseppe stared at the screen and then forwarded the video to Star. Three more days and nights of videos and still no concrete location. This video worse than the others. Now Emanuel lay in bed with Giada naked. She looked ill, withdrawn, white, and thinner. She was dying there. He was torturing her and making them watch it. This time he even scanned the beach, the room they were in, and showed the classy-style place they stayed as he threatened to take from her body in every room in the place. He felt sick.

  The door to the office shoved open. “Did you see it?” Andreas asked him in an uproar.

  Giuseppe nodded.

  “I can’t stand here and do nothing. I want and need to hunt. I want to go to fucking Cuba and track the motherfucker down and kill him and his crew of shit,” Andreas yelled.

  “Why are your knuckles all bloody?” Giuseppe asked.

  “I had a little conversation with Yovan Vega. He swears to not know a thing about this operation or whether Miami is involved. He said Miami left the gang six months ago,” Andreas told him.

  “That’s true, and right now Hadeon and the men are tracking down a possible location in Cuba where he stayed,” Dominick added, joining them in the room.

  Then Royce ran in. “We got it.”

  “What?” Giuseppe asked.

  “We got a location. Star and his team are organizing a pre-operation and surveillance to see what we’re up against. They say we need a lot of men on this. Dmitri is offering help, and of course, half of us to remain here and the others who can keep everything running smoothly while we go. Andriy said to come into the other room.”

  Giuseppe grabbed onto Andreas’s arm and onto Dominick’s shoulder. “We’re going to get our woman back. Emanuel and his helpers must die. We can’t leave anyone alive.”

  “I don’t plan to leave anyone alive,” Andreas stated firmly, and they hurried into the other room.

  * * * *

  Giada didn’t feel grateful that Emanuel hadn’t drugged her today. He wanted her walking on her own and reciprocating his touches and caresses. She wouldn’t, though. She didn’t think that would stop him from taking what he wanted from her. He was sick, twisted in the head, and he’d tricked her men, made them think that he’d raped her, was forcing himself between her legs, and he hadn’t—not yet. But she wasn’t stupid. He would rape her. To him it would mean the ultimate revenge against Dominick, specifically, for killing his brother but also against Andreas, Giuseppe, and the other families they were close to.

  She shivered from his touch, forced to stand naked in front of him as he evaluated her body, complimented it, and then dressed her how he wanted. Tonight he put her in a blue see-through blouse with no bra and a light flared skirt in white, no panties. She wore no shoes, and her hair hung wildly around her shoulders because of the humidity of the island.

  He brought a glass of wine to her lips. “To one of many romantic nights, Giada.”

  He pressed the glass to her mouth. She sealed her lips and refused to drink it. He gripped her jaw tight, forcing her to open her mouth. She struggled slightly, but she didn’t want to show him she had strength. If she waited a little longer, maybe the aftereffects of the drugs would be worn off, and she could make a move. At this point, after the man had touched her so many times, whispered what he was going to do to her, and made her stay in his arms in his bed every night, she wanted to kill him. She just didn’t know how or if she were physically capable of taking another person’s life.

  She swallowed the burning liquid, and he squinted at her. “You need discipline.”

  “Go to hell,” she said.

  The backhand to her mouth shocked her. The force was so great that she started to fall back in her chair when he gripped her by her hair to pull her forward. She shoved at his hands, and he struck her again then again. Her lips were bleeding, and her cheek throbbed in pain. He grabbed her neck and squeezed. Her chest was pressed against the table and her palm flat down on it. She felt the tips touch the large steak knife.

  “I could end your life in a snap,” he threatened her.

  “Do it,” she said, filled with fire and anger.

  He chuckled and minimized her threat, and then the lights flashed. He looked around them, and she screamed out as she lifted the knife upward and slammed it down on his hand. He roared in anger, and she jumped up, felt weak and dizzy, but she didn’t care. He grabbed at her top, ripping the sleeve, and she slammed his arm down and away from her. He shot a right hook at her, hitting her in the shoulder. She countered with an elbow. Then she grabbed the knife in his hand and yanked it out fast.

  He roared again and went toward her as the lights went out completely, and she screamed, slammed the knife into his chest, and then turned to run. She heard him yelling in pain and then coming after her, despite her stabbing him. She was shaking, and her legs hardly worked as she tumbled down the stars and hit her forehead against the corner of the wooden railing.

  “Get over here, bitch. What did you do?”

  One of the guards grabbed her by her hair and yanked her up. She swung back at him, and he hit her with the butt of his gun. She was on the floor trying to fight him off, and she scrambled up his leg, throwing him off balanc
e. He fell forward, and she gripped his gun, rolled to the right in one of her martial arts moves, and shot him three times.

  Gunfire erupted all around the place, inside, outside, and she could see shadows through the windows. Men in black shooting at the guards, at Emanuel’s men. She slowly started to head toward the side door when she heard the roar, turned, and Emanuel was there, lunging toward her with the knife in hand. She side-kicked, and he slashed her side. She screamed, and then the sounds of gunfire got closer, and men infiltrated the room she was in as she screamed and his body jerked as bullets hit him. Strong hands reached for her.

  “Giada. It’s Hadeon, Dmitri’s guard,” Hadeon said to her, and she cried out.

  “Oh God.”

  “Got her.”

  “Where?” She could hear Andreas’s voice through the receiver.

  Then more men came through the doorway.

  “Giada,” Andreas yelled to her.

  Then more shots were fired toward them, and Andreas, Hadeon, and the others fired back.

  “We need to move,” Hadeon said.

  “What about Emanuel?” Andreas asked in anger.

  “Your woman took care of him already.”

  As they headed out of the house and across the way, her legs felt weak, the adrenaline long gone. Andreas lifted her against his chest as they hurried into the jungle and then along the ocean shoreline. It seemed like forever until they got to a series of boats. More men were there.

  “Our window of opportunity is closing in fast. Let’s go,” she heard a man with a thick Russian accent say, and then others spoke in another language.

  They got onto the boat, and she held on to Andreas tight and couldn’t stop shaking.

  “Here, cover her up in this,” one of the men said.

  She felt the blanket go over her, and then the boats begin to move.