He nodded. “If that will make you feel better, go right ahead.”
“I’m sure everything’s fine. Give me until tomorrow afternoon. I can stop by the office between my breaks from school.”
After I cleaned up the mess from my dinner, I dumped it into the garbage can and exited his office. I stomped past the reception desk and into the hall where I pressed the button and waited for the elevator. The doors opened to an empty car, which was a welcome relief. I stepped out of the elevator and shuffled down the corridor faster than I could blink, making a beeline for my office.
Once inside my office, I leaned against the door, taking a second to comprehend the documents in my hand. Of all the illegal shit I’d helped Angelo with over the years this was the worst. Something was off about the land acquisition. I felt it in my bones.
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my suit jacket. It was Angelo. Seeing his adorable smirk and bright blue eyes on my screen brought a smile to my face. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out, wondering if my life would have turned out differently had I not been in love with Angelo Morelli. He could’ve been the end of me at any moment. But I didn’t know how to be anyone else without him.
I held the phone in my hand, staring at his handsome face. He’d had me from the minute he clutched my hand on the swing set and showed me how to jump. When I was with Angelo, I was never afraid. He made me strong—just like him.
I slid the bar across the screen and pressed the phone to my ear. “Hey, baby.”
“Ciao, bella,” he whispered. I loved when he spoke to me in Italian. Angelo never forgot to tell me I was beautiful every day. He worshiped me as much as I him.
I smiled from the second I heard his voice, until the minute he told me he was canceling our dinner plans because something came up. His brothers were ruining our lives. Angelo’s job was taking him away from me. Ever since the night of my father’s party, Angelo was different, more distant than usual. He always had someplace to be, and I was never allowed to go. I was sick of waiting around for him to include me in his plans. If I wanted answers, I had to take charge.
Chapter Eight
Gia
Sonny had no idea I snuck out of the house until I was on the highway, on my way to check out the new construction site. I had to see the property for myself. It was Sonny’s turn to babysit me, poor guy. He had no social life because of me. Men like Sonny did what they were told. They were good at following orders. Too bad he underestimated me.
When Angelo wasn’t around, he had Sonny or one of his father’s men take their shift. I was almost never alone. Someone was always lurking in the shadows wherever I went. I hated the feeling of being watched. Angelo said it beat the alternative. He feared someone would take me as collateral for something he’d done in the past. All he would tell me was that blood paid for blood, and it would be his they take not mine.
I turned off the deserted highway, greeted with nothing but pine trees as far as I could see. I’d landed smack dab in the middle of one of those towns you had to close one eye to see on a map. Even Google wasn’t sure of the exact location. I had GPS coordinates, which I’d plugged into my phone, following the prompts until I reached a long dirt driveway, buried deep in the woods.
A chill ran down my spine the further I drove. My car just fit down the narrow path, leaving me little room for error. I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles burned, all while my heart beat out of my chest.
What was I thinking by coming here in the dark?
Once I reached a black Cadillac Escalade that was parked in the middle of the road, I stopped and got out of my car. It wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done. A gnawing in the pit of my stomach told me to run, but I ignored it. I turned off the engine and locked the door. Not a soul was in sight, yet there was an abandoned car on the lot my company was about to own.
Using the flashlight app on my phone, I navigated the dirt path. I looked inside the Cadillac in front of me, almost relieved to find no one. I ran my hand over the hood, surprised to feel the heat from its recent use.
Walk away, stupid. Turn around.
I ignored all the warning signs because I had to find out why the site was so important to the Morelli family. Why did my father need me to sign off on the transaction? A smart person would have gotten back in their car and drove the hell home. But I was starting to lose my nerve the more Angelo hid from me.
He was never like that with me. I was always included in his business. Until I wasn’t. And that left a gaping hole in my chest. I missed being the Bonnie to his Clyde. I missed being us. So, if putting myself in danger was the only way to get Angelo’s attention, I had no problem making a statement.
Gravel and dirt crunched beneath my sneakers, the combination of it making it harder to walk without tripping over my feet. I had trouble seeing the further I walked, the moonlight fading, hidden by the thick canopy overhead. It wasn’t until I heard male voices that I stopped dead in my tracks.
Hiding behind a tree, I looked around at my surroundings and waited for someone to speak again. There was a muffled sound I couldn’t make out. They were far enough away from me I was confident I could creep closer to listen to their conversation.
I took my time, careful not to make a sound, and inched closer. First, I saw a black Mercedes with tinted windows, followed by six men. All I could make out was the silhouette of their bodies until I stepped into the clearing.
Angelo and his brothers were lined up, each of them directly in front of three men who had their hands bound behind their backs. The light from the SUV illuminated each of their faces, giving me a better view of the ditch the men were standing in front of.
“Any last words?” Angelo pointed a gun at the man in front of him along with his brothers.
The men didn’t answer. They kept their eyes to the ground and waited for their imminent deaths. I covered my mouth with my hand, the other limp at my side with the phone clutched between my fingers. My eyes widened in shock of what I was about to witness. Even though I knew Angelo killed men for a living, I had no idea it was a regular occurrence. I thought he mostly collected money and tortured people on occasion.
I let out an accidental scream as the man I loved sunk a bullet into another man’s skull.
Pop, pop, pop.
Like a domino effect, all three men fell backward and into the pit.
Frozen in place, the tears streamed down my cheeks, each sob that ripped from my throat more painful than the last.
Angelo turned to look in my direction, as did his brothers. I turned on my heel to run, but before I could, strong hands wrapped around my middle. Sonny lifted me up and pressed my back into his chest. I knew his musky smell anywhere.
He covered my mouth with his hand and whispered, “Be quiet if you know what’s good for you. You’re going to get me whacked for the shit you pulled back at the house.”
I thrashed and screamed, the sound muffled the harder Sonny squeezed the life from my body. He dragged me over to where Angelo stood with his brothers.
“Gia?” Angelo scratched the stubble on his chin with the tip of his gun, confused. He narrowed his eyes at Sonny, his face twisted in anger. “You were supposed to watch her. Why the fuck is she here?”
“Sorry, Lo,” Sonny choked out. “She jumped out the bathroom window. I had to track her car to find her.”
“Track my car? What do you mean you tracked my car?” I tried to wiggle free from his grasp, but my attempts were pointless. He was too big and muscular for me to escape. “Put me the fuck down, Sonny!”
Sonny waited until Angelo told him to do so before he set me down on the ground. My thighs were like putty from all the adrenaline that coursed through my veins.
“This is bad for business,” Pete said to Angelo, his gun pointed in my direction. “Shut your girl up before I do it for you.”
“What, are you going to kill me, Pete?” I threw my arms out at my sides, so angry I couldn’t have cared less what he did to
me. “Go right the fuck ahead. Who will buy your gravesite for you when I’m dead?”
“We need her,” Marco said to Pete.
Pete smirked but lowered his gun to his side.
Angelo closed the distance between us within seconds. “G, stop it.” The seriousness of his tone made me cringe. “Don’t egg him on. He will shoot you without blinking an eye. You have no idea how much danger you could have put both of us in by you being here.”
I knew Angelo was right. His brother was an irredeemable asshole who enjoyed killing people.
“I’m sorry, but I had to know what I was buying before I signed the papers. Sonny doesn’t let me pee without talking to him through the door. Do you have any idea what it’s like to have someone watch you twenty-four seven?”
“Yeah, I do. Have you met my family?” Angelo gripped my shoulders and held me at an arm’s length. “Why do you have to be so curious about everything, G? You don’t seem to understand what’s going on here. There’s a reason I have someone watch you day and night. It’s to keep you safe.”
“Is your brother going to kill me?” I squeaked out the words.
“No.” Angelo hugged me to his chest and whispered, “I would kill him before he got the chance.”
“Now that you’re done holding hands, you think you can get your ass over here and help us finish the job,” Pete said to Angelo.
Angelo sucked in a deep breath and let it out.
“Go with Sonny and wait for me at your car. I’ll drive you home.”
“You don’t have to baby me, Angelo. I’m not a delicate flower. I can take care of myself.”
“Not against the men who want to kill me. No, you can’t.” Angelo pressed his forehead to mine, his words coming off like a growl. “You are mine, Gianna. No one is taking you away from me. Now, do as I say and get your sexy ass back in that fucking car before I throw you over my shoulder.”
I should have been afraid of Angelo. Instead, I had the opposite reaction. I was so turned on by Angelo my juices pooled between my thighs. “I need to feel you,” I said to him under my breath.
“You will, baby. You’ll feel me everywhere.” He squeezed my ass and pushed me toward Sonny. “Go. Now.”
On our way back to my car, Sonny hooked his arm through mine and kept me at his side.
“I promise not to run, Sonny. You can let me go.”
“I was serious about what I said earlier.” His tone had so much anger in it I was stunned. Sonny was never nasty with me. “If Angelo was anything like his brothers, he would have killed me for letting you out of my sight.”
“I’m sorry.” I squeezed my fingers between his and held his hand until we reached my car. “We’ve been friends as long as I’ve known Angelo. I don’t want to see anything happen to you because of me.”
Sonny helped me into the passenger seat, rolled down the window, and then shut the door. He crouched outside the car next to me, meeting my gaze. “You’re a pain in my ass, Gia. I hope you didn’t get me put on shit duty for the next month.”
“I hope that’s not literal shit.” I laughed, but Sonny’s face remained stoic. “If I had known, I would have listened. Angelo never tells me anything anymore.”
“You don’t want to know about the things we do. When Angelo is with you, he wants to be someone else, the person he used to be. He doesn’t want to be the person he is when he’s with his brothers. Understand?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “He used to include me in everything. Angelo told me everything.” I touched my fingers to his hand and gave his skin a light tap. “You did, too. I miss that.”
“It’s not that simple. For such a smart girl, you sometimes lack common sense. What were you thinking coming down here? You would have been dead if that was Enzo and his men instead of Angelo and his brothers. This shit isn’t a game. We’re not stealing DVD players off the backs of trucks anymore. All of us are in over our heads. Some things you’re better off not knowing. The more you know, the worse it could be for you. Someone could use it against us. You could go to jail for knowing too much.”
“That’s why Angelo has you watch over me. Isn’t it?”
Sonny turned his head to the side, avoiding my question. Before I could ask him to elaborate, Angelo came up from behind Sonny. He tapped him on the shoulder and told him to take a walk with him. I was nervous for Sonny since I was the one who had gotten him in trouble. Angelo would never hurt his best friend.
They disappeared down the path together, and after five minutes, Angelo opened the driver’s side door and hit the ignition button to start the engine. “Never do this again, G.” The anger in his tone shook through me. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I muttered. “Don’t yell at me. I promise not to do it again.”
Angelo took my hand in his and threaded his fingers between mine. He looked at me with so much fire and intensity behind his beautiful blue eyes that my body trembled. “I can’t lose you. Think before you act. Do you even know what I would become without you? What I would do to anyone who hurt you?”
“Shoot them and dump them in a ditch,” I deadpanned.
Surprisingly, Angelo laughed. “What am I going to do with you, mi amore? Your curiosity will get you killed. I’m in too deep. You cannot get involved with any of the shit that’s going down.”
“Tell me, Angelo. Please.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t care. I’m in this with you. If anything ever happened to you, I wouldn’t want to live anyway.”
“Don’t talk like that.” He stroked my jaw with his thumb. “I never want to hear you say something like that again.”
“It’s true, cuore mio. You’ve had my heart for most of my life. I would never make it without you.”
“You would be taken care of. You would never want for a thing.”
“I don’t care about things, Angelo. I care about you. We could live in a studio apartment in North Philly and eat Campbell’s soup from the can for all I care as long as I did it with you.”
He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed my skin, sending a shiver down my arms. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do.” I shook my hand from his and got on my knees on the seat to lean over to his side of the car. “I’m yours, Angelo Morelli. Forever. Always.”
I unbuttoned his dress pants and slid down the zipper, fisting his hard cock in my hand. “If anything ever happens to you, the person who did it had better come and put me out of my misery, too.” I stroked his length and dipped my head down to lick the tip of his erection.
He groaned when I made contact with his sensitive skin and placed his hand on the back of my head. “Fuck, Gia.” I flattened my tongue and licked his shaft, staring up at him the entire time. “Don’t tease me,” he hissed.
I smiled up at him with my eyes. Angelo leaned his head back and tightened his grip on my curls, watching me as I did my best to take his ten inches in my mouth, which was never an easy task. With my hand still wrapped around him, I pumped faster, my movements perfectly timed with one another.
He moved his other hand to my head and pushed himself further inside me to the point I almost choked. But I never broke stride. I was used to Angelo being rough, and after ten years of sex with him, every part of my body had gotten used to his size.
A light shone through the windshield, and I felt Angelo’s grip on me slacken a little bit. “Don’t stop, baby. I’m so close.” The car stopped next to ours, and Angelo cracked the window to tell his brother to fuck off.
A few words were exchanged between Angelo and Pete, neither of them mentioning the fact I was sucking his cock. Angelo groaned, and Pete kept on talking as if this was normal for them. Angelo kept his hand on my head, and my hair was fanned out around my face to shield me from Pete’s gaze.
“I gotta…” Angelo said to Pete, his voice dying off in his throat. “Fuck! Can I talk to you later, bro?”
“Call me,” Pete said with an attitude and
then drove off, leaving in just enough time.
Angelo’s body trembled, his warmth filling my mouth. I swallowed, and as he let go of my hair, I sat up enough to look at him. A few satisfied noises later, he touched the top of my head. “Good girl. That was one hell of a fucking blowjob, babe. Fuck. You must really like watching me kill people.”
My panties were already wet from sucking him off, and then he had to go and say those words to me.
Was he right? What was it about Angelo doing messed up shit that made me so damn horny?
“Angelo?”
“Yeah.”
I took his still erect cock in my hand and gave it a few pumps. “I want you to fuck me on the hood of my car. But I want you to promise me one thing.”
“Anything.”
“I want it to hurt.”
Angelo smirked. “You’re as sick as me.”
I smiled, and he touched his hand to my cheek.
He shook his head with a sinister grin on his handsome face. “What are you waiting for? Get on that hood and show me your pretty pussy.”
Our night together started with the pop of his gun and ended with a literal bang. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Nothing about our relationship was normal. We lived every day as if it was our last because we never knew when that day would come.
Chapter Nine
Gia
My dad pushed open the door to my office and cleared his throat. I spun around in my high-back leather chair and smiled.
“Too busy for your old man?”
I pushed the keyboard away from me and leaned my elbows on the oak desk. “No. I’m never too busy for you. Come in and sit with me.”
Why was he here? My father always called before he made an appearance. The pained expression on his face made me nervous. He looked as if he’d aged ten years in a matter of months, though he tried to hide whatever had furrowed his brow in concern.
With a thick head of black hair combed to the side, my father stood tall, the weight of the world balanced on his broad shoulders. Shrewd in business and in life, he had a fierceness about him that sent a chill down my spine when his dark eyes met mine. We looked so much alike, from our grayish blue eyes to our black, curly hair, and olive skin.
The First Sin (Sins of the Past Book 1) Page 6
