by Aria Ford
“Wh- what? Why?” Standing still, tense, I dug my toes into the tiled floor as silk fabric swathed over my face.
“You have sex in public, then? I never took Luciano for that type, but then again I don’t know him very well. Sylvi likes to bring his whores here, and Luciano usually accompanies him. I had heard he was very rough with women.” Gently tugging down the dress, the sales woman spoke with a light tone that threatened to knock my legs out from under me. Once my head was free, she caught my wide gaze in the mirror; my face couldn’t get any redder, and she pursed her lips together. “You’re not having sex?”
Furiously I shook my head, and she hummed softly before bringing my arms down. Adjusting the soft silk against my chest with one hand, she held the back closed until effortlessly pulling up the zipper.
“Well, I suppose you’re lucky for whatever reason. Luciano’s got a reputation with the working women; no one wants to service him because he’s very violent in bed.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LUCIANO
That fucking cunt said something. Those five words circled my head, dominating my mind and smashing every other thought. Even the image of Aya in that dress couldn’t penetrate the red haze that coated my field of vision. I’ll give her something to fucking gossip about.
I could feel the change in Aya when she stepped out of the dressing room. I could see the difference in the way she held herself. She tensed when I came nearer and cringed when I touched her, but now it was different. It was as if she was disgusted with me; as if her fear had renewed vigor in a way it hadn’t before.
Storming through the reception level of a seedy, shit-smelling hotel, my tunnel vision blocked out everything but the purpose that filled me. The sexual tension that had been brewing inside my gut since Aya had washed me had me bristling, and I clenched my hands into tight fists. At the desk the receptionist looked ready to piss himself, and he couldn’t get a word out before I gnashed my teeth at him.
“Get me Natasha Clevelli. Now!” It had been so fucking easy for Tyler to find out who that store clerk was; even easier to discover that bitch had a little sister that worked a hotel. Jumping and shaking, the receptionist snatched his phone to punch numbers, and I sucked in a hot breath.
In the 30 seconds or so it took for the whore to appear I began to pace, the movement fueling the anger that swirled inside me like a beast that had been poked with a sharp stick. Natasha looked like her sister, and my eyes narrowed into slits as they scanned her. She was so fucking ugly. Board straight blonde hair reached her shoulder blades, and her body was curved deeply, but she wouldn’t have been on my radar.
You can blame beloved Big Sis. The dark thought spurred me on, and I grabbed Natasha’s arm. Ignoring the receptionist, I swiped the key from his desk before making my way through the outdated interior. Discomfort seeped from her pores, mixing with fear to create a potent stench that fed the beast inside me.
Shoving the whore through the open doorway to my designated room, I banished her name from my mind. She was just a slut; a piece of garbage to be used as I wanted. Stumbling, she felt to her knees and tried to scoot back, but I grabbed her by the crown of her head. With my fist in her hair she couldn’t move, and her cry was almost music to my ears.
“That h- hurts!” Ignoring her pained, loud shriek, I couldn’t hide my smirk; she thought someone would save her.
But the moment that cunt opened her fucking mouth, she’d sealed her sister’s fate.
Unfastening my jeans, my hands trembled with the pure, white hot rage that coursed through my veins. My cock ached to be freed, throbbing when my jeans finally hit my ankles. The thing on its knees before my cried tears and snot, blubbering what might’ve been words. Taking my rod in my hand, my lip curled into a snarl when it refused to open its mouth.
Grabbing its jaw, I squeezed as tightly as I could, and a satisfying pop rang in my ears. The disgusting creature on the floor screamed, high pitched and blood curdling, but its mouth was finally open.
Shoving my cock through the hot opening, I grunted with the sensation of bending downwards down its throat. Sexual tension exploded in my gut, and I pulled back as a choking gag sounded from below.
Skull fucking such a revolting creature brought me no pleasure; there was no room for it. My ferocity over the day was all consuming, and my knuckles paled to white in the ocean of blonde they were immersed in. Harsh, pants sounded between thick, heavy grunts, and gagging cries created white noise in the background.
A symphony- that was what it sounded like.
Slamming against the back of its throat, my cock rippled with the heat that surrounded me. Again and again I thrust my hips, forcing myself down until I couldn’t anymore. All the while not a single thought broke through the walls around my mind.
Time lost meaning as I jerked my hips back and forth until my abdomen tightened. My thighs quivered, and I widened my stance as my thrusts were ripped violently from sync. I didn’t pull away as cum shot up my shaft to spurt from my aching head, and I groaned. Muscles spastic, I tightened my grip on it as its throat flexed wildly. It couldn’t swallow; I’d dislocated its jaw. There was no relief to be found even as I experienced my own.
Tossing this disgusting creature onto the floor, I palmed my cock to pump out any residue. Chest heaving, my heart pounded hard against my ribs as my lungs ached. Clenching my teeth, I stared at the body laying on the ground as it struggled to breathe.
Should I kill it? The question weighed me down heavily, and after a moment I caught my breath. Pulling up my pants, my hand automatically unsnapped the holster of my gun. The thing on the ground was still oblivious, trying to stay conscious through the pain, and a frown dragged down my lips. Easily taking hold of my 9mm, I pointed the barrel down at its head before pursing my lips together.
Slowly my arm sunk slightly, only just barely, until my aim was on its lower face instead of its forehead.
Never before had I failed to hit my target, and now wasn’t any different. The bang of the shot reverberated around the room, a sound I was used to that might give less accustomed ears a ring. On the dirty, crusted carpet, the body jolted, and blood began to pour from the bullet hole. I’d aimed true, and I could easily make out the path of the bullet as it further shattered bone.
It wasn’t going to die, but it’d never be able to talk again.
Striding out of the room, I only just realized I hadn’t bothered to shut the door. No one dared to rush to the scene; everyone must’ve been warned I had shown up. There wasn’t a single noise to be heard in the hallway beyond my stomping, and that silence didn’t stir until I reached the street. Heading for my car across the dingy, cracking parking lot, I fished my keys out of my jean pockets.
My car smells like Aya. That thought as I sat in the driver’s seat brought a sag to my tense shoulders. After I’d had it reupholstered, I started to notice Aya’s natural aroma mixed with soap and shampoo. Taking a deep, hard breath, I savored the scent as the last few hours caught up to me.
I left Aya in her room after buying her 20 of those dresses, two in each color, one color in each style. She had looked so fucking beautiful that the urge to touch her was overwhelming; more so than in this very vehicle on the way there. Flinching from my hands, she even backed away from me.
Whatever moment we had before entering that shop had been buried by what she’d learned in the dressing room.
“Fuck- fuck- fuck- fuck…” Slamming my palms against the edge of the wheel, I grunted with each strike.
Leaving Aya in her room, I didn’t say a word to her after the dress shop. Instead, I went to Tyler and forced him to find the clerk who’d served us. Then I found the sister.
And now I’m here. Regret wasn’t present in the volatile mix of emotions that swirled in my chest and tightened my throat. I wasn’t above violence; Sylvi’s kind of sick pleasure, I wouldn’t participate in, but I was no saint. True, I didn’t hurt a woman, but whores were a different story. I didn’t touch a whor
e without leaving painful bruises behind. Not a single woman but one.
That woman was terrified of me now.
“Sylvi was right- the fucking bastard…” Grinding my molars together, I reached to grab the hand sanitizer in the glove compartment as my mind strayed to that place I hadn’t allowed it yet. “I have to get rid of her.”
My blood ran cold as I voiced the option aloud, and a fierce ache sprung behind my eyes. Killing Aya was incomprehensible, but there were other ways to remove her from me. Contemplating each one made it harder to breathe and squeezed my heart until it could barely beat.
The law firm… I’d been putting off bringing Aya to her dead father’s firm, but now it was the perfect excuse. She’d have money, someone to help her find an apartment that she knew and knew her. Glancing at the clock on the dash, my eyes narrowed and a grimace twisted my lips. There wasn’t time to bring her before the Stadium.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
AYA
My foot tapped silently against the carpeted floor of my room, and I stared at the door with anticipation clenching my abdomen. Hours had passed since Luciano left me, and guilt ate at my insides with every round my memories made inside my skull. Silently berating myself, I curled and spread my fingers before they formed loose fists. Shame battered my eyes from behind their sockets, and I pursed my lips together tightly.
How could I have been so naive to believe that woman? For hours my mind barely strayed from that question, and only to tell me how stupid I had been.
Releasing a shaky breath, I glanced at the clock at the head of my bed for the 20th time in half as many second. The time read 5:46P.M., and a groan built up to block my throat.
A lifetime seemed to pass in the span of a moment bore the doorknob finally turned, and I sprung up on tense legs. Smoothing the purple and cream skirt of my dress, my fingers trembled as the violent cocktail of emotions inside me drained to be replaced with giddiness.
I had a plan; I would apologize to Luciano. My plan didn’t go any further, but it didn’t need to.
Only the form that appeared behind the barrier before me wasn’t tall or broad or imposing. Blinking slowly, my eyelids snapped back wide as my pupils blew up. Clad in a casual suit, Sylvi stood straight even as he tilted to lean on the door frame. Shrewd, appraising eyes scanned my body from top to bottom, and a sliver of darkness pierced my heart.
“I bet you’re wondering where Luciano is. He left an hour ago to warm up at the Stadium.” Crossing his ankles, Sylvi locked eyes with me just as a wave of disappointment crashed into me. The devastating blow was enough to send me swaying back, and I stumbled down onto the foot of my bed. Staring into nothing, my eyes swam with the tears of a missed opportunity.
“What did you do to him while you were out today?” Flickering to Sylvi, my eyes couldn’t focus on him while my mind screamed at me. All of this would have been avoided if I had ignored that woman- a stranger, someone I didn’t even know the name of.
But it was so easy to believe her… My heart nearly stopped at the thought. It was easy to believe her because she wasn’t lying.
“Hey.” Snapping to Sylvi as he languidly strode across the room, my vision cleared with a harsh shutter of my lids. Tensing with each foot that disappeared between us, I held my breath as his expression softened. “Do you love him?”
A deep, dark shudder lodged in my spine, jerking my shoulders and forcing my tears to start falling. My mind went blank at Sylvi’s question, shrouded in darkness that lasted seconds. Inside and out the silence stretched, and the lump in my throat bubbled up until a sob burst from between my trembling lips. Choking on air, my throat burned as my lungs quivered around a heart that no longer knew how to beat properly.
Gasping cries wrenched from my body, and snot ran down form my nose to mix with tears. Covering my ruined face, my palms were hot and clammy, smearing the mess that coated my skin. Crying a hoarse shriek, my hysteria reached its peak at a fragment of a thought that managed to form.
I betrayed him. This was my punishment; not a literal death, but a figurative one.
Unfamiliar fingers wrapped around my chin while yet more pried my hands from my face. Through watery, aching eyes Sylvi appeared, his face drawn and lips turned down into a deep frown. Pushing back strands of hair that stuck to my cheeks, his gentle touch made me flinch. Heaving for air, my lungs screamed, and my heart palpated as the dark blotch surrounding it grew.
“I knew he made a mistake by keeping you like some pet… but it’s too late now to kill you. Do you know why I didn’t kill you in Trevor’s apartment even though you witnessed his murder?” Sighing heavily, Sylvi didn’t wait for me to shake my head; I wasn’t sure I could as madness closed in on me. “You remind me of this girl I knew in Italy. She was a slut- the best slut I’d ever had. The things I made her do and did to her horrified her so much she never spoke of it. She never acknowledged those terrible, disgusting things between those endless moments. And you’re so much like her. You wouldn’t have said anything about Trevor to anyone. You would’ve ignored it because he disgusted you. That’s why I offered to let you go.”
“But you stayed, and now you need Luciano… like some sick puppy that latched onto the first semblance of safety you could find. It’s revolting, really. Now, you’re here alone for the first time with me because Luciano decided you’re no longer worth his effort. He’s going to ignore you because you disgust him, just like that slut did- just like you did with Trevor. You need him, but he can’t even bring himself to look at you. You betrayed him, and this is the consequence.”
I betrayed him. Sylvi’s retreating form was lost to me as those three, little words circled in my mind. The abyss reached out, overtaking my field of vision until I was surrounded it. I betrayed him.
‘I don’t trust Sylvi…’ Luciano’s voice burst through the darkness to hit my body like an invisible brick wall. Gasping from the impact, I fell back onto my bed as memories rushed into my mind’s eye. The gym- the first time I met Sarah- I had been trying to block out her incessant talking. When Luciano’s familiar vocal wave reverberated around the gym, and his angry words had given my ears some relief.
“Don’t trust Sylvi…” My mumble was barely even words, but it banished the all consuming black around me. Blinking as inky tendrils were sucked into the corners of the room, I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Luciano wouldn’t ignore me. He would kill me.
The rationalization brought so much comfort it gently coaxed my heart back into rhythm, and I sat up fully. Relief turned my legs into limp noodles, and I managed a deep, steadying breath. Wiping my face, I sniffled hard as the space around me snapped into focus. Standing up slowly, my muscles ached and tingled as they slowly relaxed from their stiffness.
Sylvi and that woman from the shop were the same, and I shook my head roughly at the thought. They were destructive to me- to us, Luciano and I.
But there’s a place neither can get to us.
Stumbling over my half numb feet, I took slow, short steps to reach the door. When the barrier swung open easily, that pin needle sensation had given way to a surge of determination. The house was empty, dark even with golden light streaming through the curtained windows. Peering down the hallway, I rushed towards the stairs even as discomfort mounted in my gut. Over these past weeks I never once left my room without Luciano.
I have to, though. Because Luciano was out there, and Sylvi was whispering in his ear just as that woman from the shop had done to me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
LUCIANO
“Are you okay, Luciano? I’ve never seen you fight like that before…” Emptying the rest of a bottle of alcohol onto my fists, I hissed at the sting as Sylvi’s words snaked into my ears from behind me. The smell of sweat and blood curled my nose hairs; a block of uncovered, gray concrete filled my vision. Tossing the bottle of the floor, my fingers flexed and tensed with the desire to squeeze something.
“I’m fine.” My grunt reverberated through the small room
I had been assigned, echoing off the walls. Only a plain, hard couch and a shower decorated the space. There wasn’t even a rug on the concrete floor.
The room was nothing more than a fucking concrete box- a cell.
“No, you’re not. What happened today?” Clenching into fists, my hands shook from a mix of pain and adrenaline. Images whirled through my mind of the shit that had happened today. My muscles gorged on blood rich with oxygen and anger, and I took a shallow, rasping breath.
“She was afraid of me.” That collection of words felt alien as they rolled off my tongue. Disgust rose up inside me, and my lips curled into a snarl. “That fucking cunt made her afraid of me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Lei è sempre spaventata.” Whirling around, I lunged at the only person stupid enough to come near me. My hands finally found something to crush, and Sylvi’s neck was slender enough for my fingertips to touch.
“Not like that!” Roaring in his face, I squeezed until his harsh breaths rang in my ears. My brother was powerless against me; his wide and fearful eyes told me he never expected me to turn on him, but in that moment I didn’t care. “She was never afraid of me like that!”
Restricting around Sylvi’s neck, my palms itched to take another life as Aya’s image bubbled up from my brain. He couldn’t breathe at all now, his mouth opening and closing as his throat flexed wildly. Watching his face go from bright, lobster red to pale purple, my eyes narrowed into slits.
