Nico

by Sarah Castille

  Mia talked him through what she was doing, testing back doors in his system, trying to insert viruses, and break passwords. He enjoyed watching her work, the way she bit her lip when something wasn’t going her way and her utter focus on the screen. The businessman in him could see the advantage of having someone with her skill in his crew. Although his main business was real estate, there was money to be had online. But women were not part of the mob. And a woman could never be made.

  “Looks good,” she said. “Secure against the usual kind of attacks. Maybe not against the FBI, especially if they hire someone like me. I actually submitted a proposal to work for them last year. They put out a tender for cybersecurity work, and I thought why not? I’m just as good as any of the hackers I know, if not better. But I never heard back so I guess they picked someone else.”

  He gave a bitter laugh. “You were going to work for the FBI?”

  “Sure. Just because my family is in the crime business doesn’t mean I have to be in it, too.”

  Nico leaned back in his chair and stretched out his arm, brushing his fingers over the smooth skin of her shoulder. “You can’t get away from it. Once you know the lines can be crossed, you can’t go back. It becomes part of your DNA.”

  She stared at him aghast. “You’re saying because I grew up in a Mafia family, I’ll wind up being a criminal, too?”

  He couldn’t understand her anger when he was stating a simple fact. “I’m saying you’ll innately take risks normal people won’t. You won’t see the lines between lawful and unlawful as fixed and unbreakable. Instead, you’ll see them as fluid and malleable.” When her frown deepened, he gestured to the screen. “You stole a uniform, impersonated a waitress, and broke into my control room to do the penetration test.”

  Mia stiffened, shifted in her seat. “It was all aboveboard. Vito knew what I was doing.”

  “But it’s not something anyone could do,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “Just like hacking isn’t something anyone can do. Regardless of why you do it, many would see it as wrong. And yes, you keep it all legal, but it’s a very fine line.”

  With an irritated sniff, she turned away and stared at the screen. Amused that she was annoyed that he had pointed out what he thought of as an engaging quality, he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her up.

  “Come here, bella. I wasn’t criticizing. I like that you aren’t afraid to take a risk. I like that you aren’t straight, that you try to help people in an unconventional way. I like that you have one foot in my world and one in the other.”

  He pulled her into a straddle over his lap while the Queen of Soul poured liquid sex into his ear, drowning out the warning niggle at the back of his mind.

  Mia raised an eyebrow in mock disapproval. “I just played you the top twenty feminist songs of all time, tried to introduce you to a new genre of music, and you decide you want a lap dance to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’? I hope you appreciate the irony.”

  “I respect you. If you want me to stop, I will.” He put his hands on her hips, rocked her gently against his aching cock, the ear bud wires dangling between them, connecting them. “But if you’re offering…”

  Her smile lit her face, warmed his heart. He had put that smile there, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do to see it again.

  “I don’t give lap dances to suits.” She reached for his tie and deftly undid the knot, pulling it off Nico’s neck with a soft hiss. His fingers clenched tight on her hips, and all his blood rushed to his groin.

  “Undress me, Mia,” he demanded. “I want to fuck you into oblivion.”

  She pushed his jacket over his shoulders, and he released her long enough to let it drop to the seat behind him.

  “Tell me what you like,” she said softly.

  “You.”

  “I like you, too,” she murmured as she undid the buttons on his shirt one by one, her soft hands an exquisite torture on his skin.

  “Tell me another song you like. Something modern.” She tugged his shirt out of his pants, parted it, her hands smoothing over his chest. He unclasped his holster and placed his weapon on the desk before shrugging out of his shirt. Unlike many of the wiseguys on his crew, Nico worked out daily. Not just because he took pride in his appearance, but also because violence was part of the life and he needed to be in top physical condition to be able to enforce his will in a way that would garner respect.

  “AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck.’” It was how he was feeling now with this beautiful, sexy woman on his lap, her hands warm against his chest, her hips grinding against him as she wiggled to the beat. A delicious agony.

  “You like AC/DC?”

  “I liked it so much, I once threw a brick through Luca’s window so I could hear it better.”

  Mia sat up. “Did you just tell a joke, Mr. Mob Boss?”

  “I don’t joke, Mia. Ask him.”

  Her smile faded. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. You’re forgetting who I am.”

  Nico’s stomach tightened in a knot. He had not for one second forgotten who she was. But he didn’t fucking care that she was the daughter of his enemy. He wanted her. End of story.

  Mia pulled back, studied his bare chest. “You’re inked,” she said in delight. Her fingers traced the lines of the word inked beneath his pec. “Trust. Why did you choose that?”

  “If we don’t have trust in our world, we have nothing.”

  “And the dagger?” She tilted her head as she studied the handle of the dagger tattoo that reached from his belt to his sternum.

  “A commitment to protect my family.”

  “And this?” Her throaty voice made it almost impossible to sit still, and he shifted in his chair when she pressed a kiss to the tribal design on his right side.

  “Warrior’s mark.”

  “God,” she whispered. “I love your ink. I don’t know any mobsters like you.”

  He fisted her hair, tugged her head to the side, deeply satisfied that his body pleased her. “There are no mobsters like me.” He kissed his way down the column of her throat and nipped the sensitive skin where her neck joined her shoulder. Her thighs tightened around his hips, and she rocked against the broad thickness of his cock. Sharp waves of hunger pulsed through his veins. He could lose himself in this woman. They were connected in a way he didn’t understand but he knew he couldn’t live without.

  Nico’s phone buzzed on the desk. He wanted nothing more than to turn it off, but it was a ringtone that Luca and Frankie used to warn him if something was wrong. He reached for it, and the message he read killed his desire in an instant.

  “Get dressed.” He stood so abruptly, she only just caught herself before she fell.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Nico reached for his gun. “We have company.”

  ELEVEN

  “Who is it?”

  Mia ran to the window and peered through the blinds, but she couldn’t see much in the dimly lit parking lot save for the vehicles of the customers from the pool hall below.

  “The Wolf.” He spat out the name, and Mia’s blood ran cold. Her father’s consigliere was as cruel and brutal a man as her father, and he held as much power in the family as Dante. If Mia’s father hadn’t groomed Dante to take over from the day he was born, the Wolf would have assumed the role of acting boss while the don was in the hospital.

  “The Wolf?” Her breath left her in a rush. “He never comes here. Are you sure?”

  “My bodyguards know who he is.” Nico grabbed his shirt, shook it out. “Is there a reason he might be looking for you?”

  “I don’t know. Dante left me a lot of messages that I haven’t answered. I think he needs some help with the business, but it’s not something I want to get involved in so I’ve been avoiding his calls. Maybe he sent the Wolf to track me down.” She straightened her clothing. “You have to get out. If you go down the back stairs—”

  “I’m not leaving.” He checked the magazine in his gun, peered out the w
indow.

  “You can’t shoot him, Nico. He’s our consigliere.”

  His gazed turned feral. “Then you’d better hope he’s unarmed and means you no harm.”

  Her heart kicked up a notch. The Wolf couldn’t find Nico here. Their families were still at war, and she was alone with the enemy. Either the Wolf would think she was betraying her family or that Nico had forced her. Neither of which promised a happy ending.

  “How about the window?” She yanked up the blinds. “You can get out here. There’s a fire ladder—”

  “I am not running, bella.” He rocked his neck from side to side, each little crack ratcheting up her fear.

  Desperate, she looked around the room. “How about the closet? You could hide there. Or in one of the empty offices—”

  “I don’t hide.”

  “Nico!” Her voice rose in pitch. “He can’t find you here. You know that. You know what it means.”

  “If I wasn’t prepared to deal with the consequences,” he said evenly, “I would never have come.”

  Caught in a maelstrom of emotion, anger, fear, and frustration, she grabbed a pen off her desk and threw it at him. “But I’m not prepared. I didn’t think it through. And now someone’s going to get hurt.”

  His gaze pinned her, cold as ice. “You’re afraid of him.”

  “I’m more afraid of losing my freedom and independence than I am of being hurt.” She was also afraid to open herself up, show any weaknesses of vulnerabilities, including her interest in a man she shouldn’t want. Her father would find a way to turn this fling with Nico against her. Whether through pain or humiliation, he would do her harm. And Nico … Her stomach knotted. She couldn’t go through the Danny situation all over again. She couldn’t watch another man she cared about die.

  “So he has hurt you.”

  She shivered at his lethal tone. He was right, but she would never admit it. Several times, her father had sent the Wolf to punish Mia for her disobedience when he couldn’t do it himself, and he had seemed to relish the task. The Wolf had no limits. There was no line he wouldn’t cross. He had been born into the mob, served as consigliere for her grandfather at the end of his rein and for all the years her father had been in power. Although he was in his early sixties, he kept himself in shape and could beat a man unconscious without breaking a sweat.

  “All the more reason for me to stay,” he said into the silence. “I’m not afraid of any man. I’ll protect you.”

  “Please,” she whispered. “Please go.”

  “No.” He leaned against the window, facing the door. “I’ll wait here, and I make no promises if I hear anything that causes me concern.”

  Stubborn ass. Well, she would just have to keep the Wolf in the main part of the office and get him to leave before Nico lost his patience. He had impressive self-control, but she’d seen what lay beneath the surface. If he would beat a man half-unconscious for looking at her, she could well imagine what he might do if the Wolf touched her.

  Someone pounded on the door. Taking a deep breath, she walked through the office and unlocked it. The Wolf pushed his way past her, stalking into her office with one of her father’s enforcers behind him. Beyond the doorway, she saw Frankie and Big Joe coming quietly up the stairs.

  “Can I help you?”

  The Wolf scowled, his eyes darting around the office as if he’d expected to catch her doing something wrong. She shuddered, thinking just how much worse the situation could have been if Nico’s bodyguards had not been outside to warn them.

  “Dante has been trying to get in touch with you all day.” His cold, black eyes hardened. “You show the capo bastone disrespect by not answering his calls.”

  Brave, knowing Nico was in the room behind her, Mia shrugged. “I was busy at work. He’s never had an issue with that before. He knows I’ll eventually call when I’m done.”

  The Wolf’s eyes narrowed. “I see your attitude has not improved even after your father put you in your place the other night.”

  Mia bristled. Yes, he was consigliere, but she was still the daughter of the boss—Mafia royalty—and he owed her some respect. “My relationship with Dante is nothing like my relationship with my father. I’m surprised he would send you here. This isn’t something Dante would do, and certainly he would never send a consigliere with a message that one of his soldiers could deliver.”

  The Wolf closed the distance between them, stopping only a foot away. The enforcer stood in the doorway, as if to remind her there was no escape. Mia trembled, braced herself against the desk behind her, but refused to back down.

  “A soldier would be ineffective at dealing with your disobedience. Only Don Cordano and I seem to have the ability to keep you in line.”

  “I left years ago,” she snapped. “No one keeps me in line.”

  The Wolf barked a laugh. “You don’t seem to understand that things have changed. When Don Cordano heard about how you dishonored the family by whoring yourself out to a Toscani in a downtown casino, he realized he had been too lenient. The marriage to Tony might have fallen through, but Dante needs someone who understands financial and computer matters by his side. This…” He waved vaguely over her office. “Little hobby is done. What freedom the don allowed you is gone. You will return to the house and assist Dante until Don Cordano decides otherwise.”

  “And if I don’t go?”

  “Do you really want to test me?” He brushed a rough finger over the small scar on her cheek, a reminder of the night he’d hit her, and sliced her cheek with his ring.

  “Fuck you.” She slapped his hand away.

  “Maybe next time.” He reached for her arm, but before his fingers even closed on her skin, he was no longer in front of her. Instead, Nico had him up against the wall, one hand around his throat, the other on the trigger of a gun pointed at the enforcer in the doorway.

  “Drop your weapon or I’ll break his fucking neck.”

  The enforcer placed his weapon on the floor and Frankie came up behind him and yanked his hands behind his back. Big Joe leaned in to grab the weapon, his chest heaving as if he had just run a marathon.

  “There’s two more downstairs,” Big Joe puffed. “Luca’s dealing with them.”

  “You would dare touch the daughter of your don?” Nico pressed the barrel of his gun against the Wolf’s throat.

  “You would dare touch a Cordano woman, Toscani scum?” The Wolf wheezed out as Nico’s hand tightened around his neck. “But then she’s a whore and slut. Fitting for a Toscani bastard.”

  Nico moved in a blur. One moment the Wolf was up against the wall; the next he was bruised and bloody on the floor, his mouth a wreck of teeth.

  “Big Joe. Get her out of here.” Nico nodded in Mia’s direction, his voice devoid of anything but cold, lethal fury as he drew his weapon from its holster.

  “Come on, love. Let’s go.” Big Joe gestured to the door.

  Mia shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. This is my office. My fight.”

  “Take her.” Nico’s sharp command awakened fear in her heart. “Now.”

  “I won’t be ordered around. Not by my father. Not by the Wolf. Not by anyone.” She stiffened her spine. “I won’t leave my office unsecured, especially if you plan to kill my family consigliere in cold blood.”

  “Your office will be safe.” Still, he didn’t look at her, but she didn’t need to see his eyes to know death lay within them. “Trust me.”

  Trust. The word was etched into his skin. But trust didn’t come easily in their world; it had to be earned, and she didn’t trust him. Not yet.

  “I’m sorry, Nico. I can’t do that.”

  His anger was a knife blade that cut through her heart. Tension thickened the air between them, and a curious silence filled the room. Nobody said no to a mob boss, and especially not one who had earned his position of power through blood and pain. But Mia had grown up defying her father. No matter how many times he punished her, she never backed down. Every family di
nner was a battleground. Every interaction a fight. She didn’t know why she felt compelled to disobey him, only that she knew the day she gave in was the day she lost what little respect he had for her. Not once did he break her, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to break tonight.

  She shivered at Nico’s glacial stare, realizing only as her blood chilled in warning that she’d made a serious tactical error. At home, with just her family within earshot, she could challenge or disrespect her father without causing him to lose face, but here, in front of both the Toscanis and the Cordanos, she had left Nico no way out.

  “Hey, you got any employees who could come and help out?” Big Joe asked into the silence, his voice low, cajoling, as if he was trying to ease the tension. “Make sure our guys don’t touch anything they aren’t supposed to, maybe do a little cleaning, and lock up after we’re gone?”

  “Yes. My friend, Jules.” Mia shot Big Joe a thankful look. Obviously, very politically aware, he had used very specific language to suggest a way out that would give Nico a way out without causing offence or disrespect.

  “Whaddya think, Mr. Toscani?” He turned to Nico. “You’re my boss, and if you say get her out of here, then I’ll get her out. I’ll toss her over my shoulder and carry her if I have to. But getting her friend in might be another possibility.” His gaze flicked to the Wolf and back to Nico. “After you’re done, of course.”

  Nico didn’t respond, but she didn’t expect him to. His will was absolute. As far as he was concerned, she was already gone and the reality was there was fuck all she could do about it. Still, Big Joe had given them a way out that would allow Mia to escape humiliation and ensure her office was secure, so she decided to play along.

  “If you approve,” she said to Nico, biting back her anger. “My friend Jules could come and keep an eye on things. Although I don’t see why—”

  She cut herself off when Nico’s face turned stony. Okay. Time to shut up and take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity to make a graceful exit that involved walking and not being carried out like a sack of potatoes.