“Stop. I don’t want this.”
But he kept his hand wrapped around mine, so I couldn’t let it go.
“I don’t give a fuck what you want. I did, this afternoon, but you had me fucking dismissed.”
“Dominic—”
He brought the gun between us and pressed the mouth of the barrel to his chest.
My heart pounded.
“You promised to kill me. You swore it.”
I began to silently weep, heavy tears sliding from my face onto the bed. Dominic wrapped his other hand around my throat and squeezed. The tears stopped, and my eyes went wide as I gasped for breath. He cocked the gun, never taking his eyes off me.
“Pull the trigger, Gia.”
I tried to shake my head, but I couldn’t move.
“I’m an intruder. It’ll be self-defense. Now keep your promise, and fucking pull the trigger.”
He released my throat, and I choked and gasped for breath, my hand weak around the gun.
“I don’t want to,” I said, my voice coming out thin.
He tapped my face, small slaps that didn’t hurt but that invaded.
“I don’t want to,” he mimicked.
Dominic wrapped his hand back around my throat.
“You didn’t keep your promise!” I cried out.
He kept his hand there, but his hold remained loose. I thought I saw the faintest hint of a smile play along his lips.
“You didn’t fucking keep your promise!” I said again.
He let me pull my hand free from his, and I kept the pistol pointed at him.
“That’s it. Get mad,” he said.
He took the wrist of the hand that held the gun and pinned it to the bed and while he kept his gaze locked on mine, his hands worked the buttons of my pants, opening them, reaching inside to cup my sex over my panties.
“Get fucking pissed, Gia.”
I closed my eyes, the feel of his hands on me again, of my own need, it fucking overwhelmed everything.
“You let him walk away!”
He slid his hand inside, fingers finding my clit, my slick, ready entrance.
“You let me walk away,” I said more quietly.
Fuck. I closed my eyes and thrust up into his hand.
“I couldn’t make you stay,” he said quietly.
When I opened my eyes, I saw he’d leaned down over me.
“It had to be your choice.” His voice came dark and husky. “But that was then and this is now and I changed my mind.”
“Fuck me,” I managed as he jerked my pants and panties down so I worked them off the rest of the way. “I need to feel you inside me, Dominic.”
The pistol lay forgotten beside us as he used both hands to undo his jeans then push them and his briefs off.
“If I fuck you”—
His cock stood ready at my entrance.
“If you say yes”—
I opened my legs as wide as I could.
“You won’t be able to walk away. Not again. Not ever again.”
He thrust. He wasn’t waiting for my answer, not really.
And I wouldn’t have said no.
I cried out, and he held still inside me.
“Open your eyes, Gia. Look at me. I’m right fucking here.”
I did, trying to move my hips beneath him but unable to.
“Hear me, Gia. You won’t be able to change your mind. I won’t let you walk away again. Do you understand me?”
I nodded, arching my back. “Please. I need—”
He pulled out and thrust again, I gasped, biting my own lip, tasting blood. Blood. With him, there would be blood.
“More,” I said.
He smiled, pulled out, and impaled me again.
“You fucking left.”
He was angry and furious and sexy as fucking hell.
“I won’t ever let you walk away from me again. Fucking never.”
I bit my lip again, harder, until I tasted more blood, and I came. I came with him watching me. I came watching him. My pussy throbbed around his cock, and he never even blinked until I’d squeezed every drop of pleasure from him, taking from him what he gave, knowing this sealed our pact, knowing that when he moved again, when he fucked me and I watched him come, that I was his.
I was his forever.
27
Dominic
“What did you have to do with Angus Scava’s arrest?” I sat on a stool at the kitchen counter peeling an apple, watching her as she made coffee. Although she had her back to me, I saw her stiffen.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
She poured two cups of coffee out of the old-fashioned machine and set one before me. She sipped from her mug and stood on the other side of the counter, her eyes on mine. I could see her thinking as she worked out how to answer. Did she think I hadn’t realized the flash drive with the recording had disappeared when we’d left for my father’s funeral?
I picked up my mug and waited.
“Nothing,” she said again, turning away.
I sipped from the mug. “Christ. What is this shit?” I looked at the dark-brown water in my mug. That’s exactly what it tasted like: fucking dirty brown water.
“Don’t be a snob. The coffee machine was here when I moved in. It’s fine.”
She took another sip, but even I saw how she had to force herself to do it.
“You get used to it,” she said.
“I’m not getting used to it.” I stood and walked around the aisle to the sink and dumped my mug down the drain before taking hers and doing the same.
“What are you doing?”
“Let’s go get some real coffee.” I shook my head as she tried to argue. “You’re Italian, for Christ’s sake. You can’t tell me you like that crap.”
“I didn’t say I liked it.”
She grabbed her purse and jacket, and we walked out.
Once outside, we walked two blocks to a small café. Inside, we took a seat in a corner away from the windows. Gia ordered a cappuccino and I ordered a double espresso. After they came, I asked again.
“Gia, what did you have to do with Scava’s arrest?”
She shrugged a shoulder and kept her eyes on the flower design the barista had made out of her froth.
“I handed over the recording. I sent it anonymously.”
I shook my head. “Do you think Scava won’t know who sent it?”
“He’ll think it’s Victor.”
“He might, but he might not. He will retaliate, you know that.”
She met my gaze. “You’ll keep me safe.”
That took me back.
Yes, I would keep her safe, but I didn’t expect her to say it, because saying it came with so much more.
“I couldn’t just let him walk away scot-free, Dominic. Mateo died for that evidence.”
“I know. But you put yourself in danger now.”
“He’s behind bars.”
“He can run his entire organization from behind those bars. All he has to do is give the order.”
“I couldn’t not do it.”
I drank from my cup. “I know. You’ll come back with me today. You can’t stay in your apartment.”
“I have a job and school.”
“You don’t need a job, and you can take a semester off.”
“I’ve already taken too many years off. I’m twenty-five, Dominic.”
“If you’re dead, you’ll be taking the rest of your life off, won’t you? You’re studying to be an attorney. Which do you think is the better option?”
“Shut up.”
“I’m putting both houses on the market, my father’s and Salvatore’s. We’ll move to the city.”
“We’re just moving in together? Just like that?”
“You never once struck me as a girl for a long courtship with flowers and romantic walks on the beach.”
“I’m not. But it’s fast, isn’t it?”
“I want you with me. I thought I made that clear last
night.”
“So I’ll always be an available piece of ass for you?”
I sat back, confused now. “That’s what you think?”
She didn’t reply but watched me through hooded eyes.
“Gia, you’re a bright girl. Do you really think I came after you after eight months being apart, spilling my heart out to you, because I think you’re a nice ‘piece of ass’?”
“Do you consider what happened last night, what you said, to be spilling your heart out?”
Again, I felt taken aback. “What do you want? I’ve never been a flowers and romantic walks on the beach type either.”
“Maybe I am after all,” she said defensively, averting her gaze from mine momentarily.
I smiled, still a little confused, but understanding. I leaned forward and took her chin in my hand, raising it so she looked at me. “I love you. Is that what you want to hear?”
She only stared as if she didn’t believe me.
“I love you, and those eight months without you were like a little slice of hell worse than the seven years I’d lived before I found you huddled in the corner of that rotten cabin. I have never in my life wanted someone as much as I want you. And as much as I love fucking you, what I mean is that I want you in my fucking life, not just my bed. I don’t want to let you out of my sight again. I want you safe and close and—”
She cried and smiled at once.
“What?” I asked.
“You are a romantic, in your own weird way.”
She leaned forward and kissed my lips softly.
“You don’t have the smoothest way with words, but you have a bigger heart than you think, Dominic Benedetti.”
She sat back in her chair, her hands still in mine, clutching onto mine as I did hers.
I felt flustered looking at her. I felt…unsure. I’d never told any girl these things before. I’d never felt them or even bothered pretending I did. With her, though, I meant every word.
“Maybe we should just get married while we’re at it.” I said it before I lost my nerve.
Gia laughed, then wiped away a tear before returning her hand to mine. “Are you proposing?”
“Are you saying yes?”
“I don’t know. Aren’t you supposed to get down on one knee or something?”
I looked around at the other people in the place. No one was paying attention to us, but they would be in a minute. I shoved the table next to ours out of the way—luckily it was empty—and got on one knee, her hands still in mine.
“You already have me on my knees,” I said.
“Oh my God, Dominic, I wasn’t serious! Get up!”
She looked around and tried to pull me up.
“No. Gia Castellano, I love you, and I want you to marry me. I’m asking you to. Here on one fucking knee.”
Everyone was staring now.
Gia’s face flushed red, and she looked from them to me and smiled wide and cried and nodded her head. “I will.”
I got up and drew her to her feet to stand with me, wrapping my arms around her and closing my mouth over hers as everyone in the place started to clap and whistle.
She broke our kiss and whispered in my ear.
“That was so embarrassing, Dominic.”
“If you want romance, you’re going to get over-the-top romance.” I cupped her chin and tilted her head back to kiss her again, a long, soft kiss.
“I love you,” she said. “For a long time now. I don’t even know when it happened.”
“I think it was the first time I saw your eyes. When they were glaring at me,” I added, making her smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
It took me two months to do the one thing I needed to do to close the door on the past before I could move on with my future.
“You want me to come with you?” Gia asked from beside me.
We had just driven through the gates of the cemetery and pulled up near my family’s plot.
I looked at the gated-off area, at the three largest stones.
“No. I need to do this alone.” I squeezed her hand.
She nodded, and I climbed out of the sedan with the bundles of flowers. My breath fogged in the brisk morning air, and all I heard was the lonely sound of leaves crushing under my feet. I made my way up the hill and through the headstones of countless other Benedettis until I reached theirs.
Squatting down, I cleared some of the weeds, then lay the flowers before each of the stones. First, my mother. Then my brother. And finally, my father.
That was when I paused, traced his name and the dates. I took a seat on a bench nearest his grave and glanced at the waiting car. With its tinted windows, I couldn’t see inside and would have felt foolish for someone to see me, but I cleared my throat anyway and turned back to my father’s grave.
“I should have done this when you were alive.”
My eyes felt hot and damp. Death was so final and regret so permanent.
“But that night fucked with me, Paps. You telling me the truth like that, it fucked with my head. I wasn’t like either of my brothers. Sergio felt duty bound, and Salvatore is just too good for this life. Me, I wanted it. Oh man, I wanted it so bad I could taste it.
“You’re right, you know. What you wrote in the will about me being the most like you. You’re right. Who’d have guessed it, huh, considering.”
I wiped my hand across my face and stood, made a short turn, and kicked some pinecones away while I got myself under control. I didn’t even hear her come up behind me until she slid her hand into mine and held it. Gia stood close but gave me space at the same time. This is what we’d become to each other. It was like we knew, like we felt each other’s needs, and neither of us could stand the pain of the other.
Gia, a woman I’d hurt, one I’d been paid to break, had given me a part of her soul and stolen a piece of mine.
“Okay?” she asked quietly.
I nodded, and we walked back to the grave.
“I love you, old man. I miss you, and I wish I hadn’t wasted the last seven years of your life. But you took care of me in the end, didn’t you? You made sure I’d have the family’s allegiance. And I forgive you for that night, for telling me like that.”
Just then, a robin landed on my father’s headstone.
Gia gasped beside me. The bird simply perched there, unmoving, and watched me for a long moment before it flew off and landed on a branch of the closest tree, still watching us. We remained silent until finally, it flew off into the sky.
“Wow,” Gia said.
I exhaled a breath with a smile. “I don’t think it’s a sign or something.”
“A robin symbolizes renewal, Dominic. Maybe it was your father—”
I touched the headstone one more time and turned to her, caressing her cheek, kissing the tip of her cold nose. “That’s sweet, but it’s just not really Franco Benedetti’s style,” I said with a short laugh.
I didn’t want Gia to know I was worried. If Angus Scava suspected Gia turned over evidence, he’d send men after her. He wouldn’t need proof to do it. But I hoped with Victor coming forward as a key witness, he’d blame it all on his nephew. Victor would have had access to the recordings too, after all, and that recording was only a small piece of the evidence against Angus.
Gia quit her job, but she wouldn’t quit school. So I moved in with her into her crap apartment for just over a month until I signed the lease on a condo in Little Italy. We fell in love with it the first time we saw it. It was charming with its exposed brick, reclaimed wooden floors, and huge windows. Gia and I had similar taste in furnishings: ultramodern, and it had nothing in common with any of the houses my family owned. Moving in together felt so natural, as if we’d lived together our whole lives.
Effie flew up to New York to visit. Isabella let her stay with us over the Thanksgiving break, and she and Gia hit it off from the start. I liked seeing Effie so at ease, and as much as I wished I could tell her the truth, I knew it wasn’t the time. I saw Gia watch
ing me with her, and I hated the look of pity she sometimes got. We never talked about it, though.
Ruling the Benedetti family came with its challenges. Now that I was boss, things were different than I’d always thought they were. I had no one I trusted. Salvatore didn’t want to have anything to do with the family business, and the taint of Roman’s betrayal still tasted bitter on my tongue. I retained Henderson’s services, but I had learned that everyone had their own agenda. I wouldn’t be played again, not by anyone.
I married Gia over Christmas. We flew to Calabria, Italy, for the wedding. That house was the only one of the family homes I’d kept. I hadn’t spent much time in it during my youth, and it didn’t seem to hold the stain of betrayal in its walls. Salvatore and Lucia attended with all three kids. So did Isabella and Luke and their new baby girl, Josie. Effie was our flower girl, and Salvatore and Lucia stood as witnesses. Gia’s mother and aunt attended, but that was all, and it was fine. I guess we were both loners. But together, just us, it didn’t seem to matter.
I didn’t show Gia the newspaper that arrived on our doorstep the morning of our wedding. I didn’t tell her that Victor Scava had disappeared, along with all the evidence against Angus. I didn’t mention the small box tucked inside the paper either. Angus Scava’s wedding gift. A box containing Victor’s tongue. Or what I assumed to be Victor’s tongue. I guess it could have been Joe Blow’s tongue, but I didn’t think so. The card with it was addressed to the “happy couple” and wished us a long life.
I threw the box and the card into the fire.
This was mafia life. No rest for the wicked and all that shit. Both Gia and I had our eyes wide open, and we’d face whatever challenges came our way together. I’d keep her hands clean, though. I’d keep her pure and carry all the weight. All the blood.
I understood Salvatore for the first time in my life, then. I understood his decision to leave and respected it.
28
Gia
Dominic thought I didn’t know about Angus Scava’s release. He thought I didn’t know Victor’s disappearance most likely meant his death. I would let him believe it for now. This day was too important to spoil with talk of the Scavas. I was going to marry the man I loved. A savage beast of a man who’d been through hell and walked out on top of his world. I don’t think he realized how lonely it would be at the top, not until he stood in his father’s shoes.
Dominic: a Dark Mafia Romance (Benedetti Brothers Book 2) Page 22
