Protected by Shadows

by Aliyah Burke

  He hooked his thumbs into her waistband and tugged. She bit her lower lip as he lifted first one leg than the other to remove her red running shorts. He took the same care with each shoe and sock. Soon, she wore only her pink and green plaid bikini panties.

  He leaned close and kissed above her belly. Then he moved lower, his tongue flicking out, teasing her skin. She gripped one shoulder as he dipped it into her belly button before taking the dangle in his mouth and tugging lightly. Her jewelry was a revolver along with a skull bullet and when he pulled, it sent pulses through to her clit.

  “You are so fucking sexy,” he uttered, releasing the piercing and kissing the skin above her panty line. She didn’t think he required a response.

  She placed a hand on the back of his head and threaded her fingers into the silken strands. It was hard for her to let him do this—she wanted to tip his head back and brush the worry from his face by any means she could.

  His lips moved and she knew he was saying something but she couldn’t make it out. He trailed lower until his mouth settled on her panties and he nuzzled her. Her trembles grew and her legs began to shake.

  Keeping his face there, he drew down on the waistband. The material moved between her skin and his lips, tantalizing her. When he hit bare skin, she gasped. More of those intoxicating kisses before he dragged his tongue along the lips of her pussy. He removed her feet free of her panties.

  She tightened her hand on his shoulder and she opened her legs a bit more for him. Up and down his tongue slid over her skin, shooting sparks through her. Lids fluttering, she tried not to fall over.

  He cupped her ass and lapped up and down, dragging his tongue slowly. Taking his time. Moisture vanished from her mouth and she struggled to find some more. He rose to his feet and gazed at her with such intensity it nearly had her coming.

  Without a word, he hefted her and placed her on the bed then covered her with his body until he lay partially on her. Holding her gaze, he lifted her knee and allowed his fingers to smooth along her skin.

  He gripped the back of her head again and held tight.

  “Val—”

  He kissed her quiet. When their lips parted, he muttered in Italian, his voice darkly seductive. The words were faint as he moved down her body, making love to each breast.

  She got it—he didn’t want her to talk. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed his touch. His fingers tightened in her hair and she looked at him. He gave a shake of his head as his fingers trailed through the lips of her pussy before sinking inside her.

  Oh shit! She bit her lip to keep her moan contained. He added another finger and a moan slid free. The air thickened with tension. Every time she went to shut her eyes, he tugged on her hair until she watched him again.

  He brought her to multiple orgasms with his fingers and as she came down from one high, he stripped off his shorts. Val crawled back over her and rubbed the head of his cock along her dripping pussy.

  She wanted to grab him and shove him in deep. Feel him everywhere inside her. Flex her muscles around him and hold him there. He nipped her breast and put the large head of his shaft against her.

  He didn’t fill her with a dominating push in which she had his entire length in her instantly. No. This was inch by inch torture. Ever so slowly he entered her. He watched her the entire time, his expression intensity magnified. This was more than being marked or branded. More than being possessed by a man. All across the board, it was more.

  Never had she felt like this with him. He didn’t speak in English and she couldn’t understand his words the few times he spoke. His hazel gaze swirled with heat and untapped passion.

  In and out, he stroked her. He slid his other hand around her back and held her close, pressing his face against her skin. All the while, he never stopped the long, slow, toe-curling thrusts.

  Every inch of her was hypersensitive and she wanted to come. Hard. But he never altered his speed and it kept her dangling over the edge but not releasing her. His weight on her didn’t allow for her to move and set a pace she wanted. He pulled back and put them nose to nose, his eyes boring into hers he continued with what she was beginning to see as torture.

  “Val!”

  He silenced her with another kiss. It was the opposite of his driving hips. Here, he dominated and demanded. Teeth clanked against one another and his tongue drove deep, nearly angry. His hold on her hair tightened and he nipped her lips before pulling away and staring in her eyes again.

  She wasn’t sure how long he continued, time lost all meaning for her. Lexy’s entire world fell around to the two of them—nothing else. There was no thinking of the outside world. It was purely about Valentino and her.

  He finally increased his pace and allowed her the relief she so craved. Moments after she reached hers, he came deep inside her, filling her with his seed. Then he fell upon her and, still buried in her, turned them and gathered her close, his grip gentling slightly.

  Closing her eyes, Lexy allowed herself to revel in the moment and soon she drifted to sleep.

  * * * *

  When she woke, she found she was in her own bed. Pushing up, she rubbed her eyes. Had it all been a dream?

  The marks on her skin she saw when she stood nude before her mirror told her it hadn’t been a dream. Why did he put me back in my own bed?

  She showered and made her way up through the house. There was no sign of him and she found herself experiencing a moment of panic. She calmed quickly, realizing he probably had something to do. So she went to the kitchen and fixed herself something to eat.

  Chapter Sixteen

  He opened the door to the small studio and entered on soundless feet. Behind him, the door he’d just walked through clicked silently. A brief flash of annoyance crossed his expression as the stale air—an unpleasant mixture of beer, old food and sex—settled around him. He moved his unimpressed gaze around.

  One window had a shade partially drawn to keep out part of the Virginia sun. The other two allowed in no light whatsoever. To his left, the kitchen sat full of dirty dishes and fast food containers. The entire situation left much to be desired.

  The rest of the studio he could see from his position was relatively clean. A small table with a single chair pushed beneath and a phone on top. That was spotless. Were he a man who felt pride, he might have.

  He wasn’t, however, and he walked farther in, still searching for the man he’d come all this way to see. The bed was set back in the small nook created from the kitchen’s setup. No windows near.

  Trevor Mansfield put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “This is what you do on your time off?” He was less than amused by the porn on the computer screen.

  John nearly folded in on himself. His hand flew away from his cock, which also shrank. He tried to cover himself with a pillow.

  “Sir, I didn’t…had I known you were coming…”

  “I never give warning. Finish. And John? Make it fast.”

  John’s nondescript blue eyes grew wide. “F…finish?”

  “I interrupted. Finish, or are you ashamed?”

  The young man swallowed but didn’t lower his gaze. “Embarrassed.”

  “In that case, tell me what happened with her brother?”

  He walked closer and discovered a five-by-seven glossy picture of Lexy in a short jean skirt and a multi-hued spaghetti strap tank. It hit him that the man had porn on, but he wasn’t really paying attention to it. He approved. The man had declared Lexy to be his wife. And while Trevor believed a man could do whatever, it was the loyalty John showed Lexy that Trevor approved of.

  “He died.”

  Trevor arched a brow. “I know that. I was under the impression our inside connection was keeping him in a medically induced coma. So we could use him as leverage.”

  “He was already dead when she reported in to work the following day. Died overnight.”

  Trevor knew his presence intimidated most people, but John seemed to have gotten over his initia
l fear and shock. “And you called me…”

  “I didn’t call—” John snapped his mouth shut as he realized his egregious mistake.

  “Exactly. You didn’t and now I’m here.”

  “I’m so sorry, sir. I know I broke—”

  “Enough. Had I wanted to hear your endless prattle of apologies, I would have accomplished it over the phone. Surely you don’t think I would come all this way to do that? It surely wasn’t to watch your inept masturbation.”

  Heat rushed into his cheeks. “What did you come for?”

  Trevor stroked his goatee. “To deal with the issue of his death. And I thought I would check in on you. See how you were doing.”

  The smell of fear permeated the air. All members knew Trevor didn’t ‘see how you were doing’ for any of his people. That usually meant someone was about to die.

  Good. “Now handle this for me.” He held out a folded sheet of yellow paper. Trevor watched John’s expression as he took and read the instructions. The man swallowed a few times before nodding.

  “I understand.”

  Trevor walked to the door. “Don’t ever forget me again. And John?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Clean this place up.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He left, blew an annoyed breath then walked down to the waiting white Benz. “Go,” he ordered, as he slid into the back to be met by the refreshing coolness of the air conditioning. The driver listened.

  * * * *

  Four hours later, he walked through the dark and into the old warehouse he’d been driven to. The farther he progressed in, the louder the whimpers became. Eventually he reached his destination.

  John and another man stood behind the woman tied to the chair with a bag over her head. She whined and continually worked her wrists as if she’d find a way to free herself.

  He popped in a piece of gum and yanked the bag off her head. Her reddish-brown hair, tousled and mussed, framed her face as she blinked up at him. There was a gag in her mouth and he withdrew his knife. Her screams grew as her eyes widened. She tried to squirm away when he flicked the blade free.

  “Don’t be so dramatic.” He sliced through the material, briefly admiring the look of his shiny blade against her overly tanned skin. She spent too many hours in a sunbed. “I have some questions for you and I want instant and honest answers.”

  She was trying to be brave—he could see she wanted to be, she just couldn’t quite pull it off. Had she been able to, he might have been almost proud. As it was he felt nothing. Never did.

  Correction, his brain popped in. You did when you confronted Valentino Cassano.

  That was an extremely honest statement. There’d been a thrill building in him as Valentino knelt before him, begging for the life of his son. A feeling that put sexual experiences to shame and one feeling since then he’d never been able to duplicate.

  When he’d been interrupted on that fateful night with Mr Cassano, he’d been unable to finish his fun. Having been unable to complete his objective, he’d been overtaken by another emotion. Anger. Raw, unchecked fury had pulsed through him with every solitary heartbeat.

  How dare that man get away! He had so much to atone for.

  As the years passed, Trevor had taken over as the undisputed leader of The Watchers. No one knew he’d also been the one to poison Marcell Wingo, their previous leader. He supposed some might have wondered but none challenged him. All they knew was that Marcell had died a horrible and painful death. Some had been shocked and disgusted by Marcell’s looks before he’d finally found solace in death. Trevor had only been intrigued.

  He still wished—to this day—he’d taken more time administering poison so he could have watched him suffer longer. It wasn’t meant to be.

  Trevor in this position was meant to be. He was everything Marcell couldn’t be. Trevor had made them wealthy. Put them on the map—more than they had been. Now, they were a group the government both feared and hunted.

  The Watchers didn’t worry about petty crap like the white supremacist groups did. The country hadn’t been founded by whites, so their claim of putting it back to how it was made held no logic—that argument meant they had to leave as well. No, this was about the government and remembering the reasons they settled here. Remembering and honoring the words of the Constitution.

  Currently they were setting up for a huge statement. His only problem was John and his obsession with Lexy. He’d allowed the man to think they could use the woman and perhaps in the future they could. Right now, however, it was more of a test to see if he could control her. Something he wasn’t sure John could do at all.

  I have one too. Although his was more the one who got away. It did appear that Lexy was a direct link to that man.

  With a sigh, he focused back on the woman before him. He picked up some cutters and dragged a stool up to her. “I ask. You answer. Any hesitations and this happens.”

  He cut her middle finger off at the knuckle closest to her hand. Her scream wasn’t loud, given she probably had very little moisture in her mouth or throat. He held up her finger before her face.

  “Nine more and ten toes before I get to be inventive.” He dropped the digit. “How did he die?”

  She wouldn’t stop crying so he did the thumb on her other hand. “I am not”—he released the bloody item and it bounced on the floor only to land in some more of her own blood—“one to repeat myself.”

  “Th…th…they said he just died. His heart stopped.”

  “Could it be a lie?”

  She vehemently shook her head. “No.” Her word was nearly impossible to hear.

  He tapped his upper lip, the cutters right in his face. “So the siblings’ reaction seemed heartfelt and real? Not contrived?”

  Her head made more of a circle, but he waited and gave her a chance. Feeding false hope to them tended to make what he got to do last longer. “Yes. Hector arrived first then Lexy with her husband.”

  His heart fluttered. Getting closer.

  “Is he still an investment banker?”

  “Hector’s a vet.”

  “No, not Hector.” His voice showed emotion and he took two fingers this time as she cried in agony. “Never Hector.”

  The moment he realized how he sounded, he took a deep breath and willed himself to calm down. Flicking a glance up, he noticed both John and Allen were studiously ignoring him and standing there with blank expressions on their faces. They were smart men, pretending they didn’t see his cool slip.

  “Please,” she begged. “Can’t we work something out? I did the best I could. I didn’t fail him.”

  Trevor crossed his arms and leaned back. “Didn’t fail who?”

  “Mr Mansfield.”

  There was a bit of awe in her voice when she spoke the name. Trevor tilted his head to the side and studied her.

  “You did. Eugene is dead.”

  “But it wasn’t my fault,” she protested. “I’ll do anything, just don’t tell him you found me.”

  He leaned forward and smoothed some of her sweaty hair from her face. “What are you offering?”

  “Anything.”

  “Where would you go? He has his people everywhere.”

  “Somewhere he wouldn’t think to look for me. He doesn’t know what I look like. Just let me go, I promise I won’t go to the cops.”

  “What do you think he’d do to me?”

  “You could run away as well.”

  “And the men against the wall?”

  Her eyes were wild. “I don’t know. Just let me go!” She rocked back and forth in the chair in a frantic attempt to get away.

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Please!” Tears streamed down her face.

  “Nope. And I’ll tell you why. Because he does know what you look like.”

  “How?”

  He leaned closer. “I’m Trevor Mansfield.”

  She paled beneath her tanned skin and shook her head as she slumped in the chair, he
r fate having been realized and accepted.

  * * * *

  The paper dropped in front of him and Valentino looked up at Lexy who stood there with a frown on her face. It was the first he’d seen her since they’d made love earlier. After the nightmare, which still lingered, wounds had been reopened and he wasn’t sure how to sew them back up.

  “Yes?”

  “Read that.”

  “Which article?”

  “The one where one of Eugene’s nurses, Sally, was found in pieces in a warehouse. Pieces, Val! Each finger and toe removed. The tips of her breasts and even the nose on her face.”

  “Let me read,” he ordered.

  It didn’t take him long then he lowered the paper to the table. Disgust roiled through him and he glanced back up to see Lexy watching him with an indescribable emotion on her face.

  “You knew Sally well?”

  “More once Eugene was admitted, she was there every morning. She was bubbly and a good nurse as far as I know. Who the hell would do this to her? Does it have something to do with The Watchers?”

  “My first response would be yes. Someone wanted to make an example of her but that doesn’t match the emotionless tag which is tied to Trevor. Maybe one of his men went out on their own and did this, I’m not sure.”

  “They had to ID her from dental records. Dental records! That’s how mutilated her body was.” She rubbed her arms and he knew she felt guilty for this.

  He reached up and drew her to stand between his legs. “Don’t blame yourself for this, Lexy.”

  “How can I not?”

  “How can you? These people are playing you. You don’t have control over their actions.”

  She tapped her foot then placed it on the seat between his legs. The point of her boot aimed directly at his crotch. He didn’t move, trusting she wasn’t about to kick him. Lexy bent in closer and leaned over her knee at him.

  “These bastards are really beginning to piss me off, Val. I am tired of letting them call the shots.”

  “Me too,” he admitted.

  She backed away and sat across from him. “So what’s the plan?”