by L. A. Fiore
“Heard you and Dad talking that night.”
“Right. I don’t know. She just disappeared. Most of her friends are convinced she up and left to start over somewhere else.”
“You don’t agree.” Mia stated more than asked.
“I’m not sure, but I do know she wouldn’t have left without telling me. She did leave though, so I could be wrong and I just didn’t know her as well as I thought I did.”
Mia hesitated for a moment before she said, “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
Without another word, Mia turned and headed for the door. Before I could follow her, Cynthia called me back. “Cole.”
I kept one eye on Mia. “Yeah.”
“I suspect you know more about what Mace had been involved in than Mia does and I knew Mace a long time and had never seen him looking the way he did when he came to see me. He was rattled and until you figure out why, I’d keep anything you learn quiet. Trust no one.”
“Including you?”
“You’re a smart man, you know the answer to that question.”
Mia was waiting for me at the door and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I could see why Mace had been attracted to Cynthia; I saw a lot of Mia’s spunk in her mom.
“Everything okay?” Mia asked when I reached for her hand and pulled her from the club.
“Yeah.”
We reached my bike; I handed Mia the helmet before climbing on.
“Where are we going?” she asked after she settled behind me.
“To the place that was like a second home.”
She pressed a kiss on my back. “And I love that you know where that is.”
Vincent’s was crowded when we arrived but as soon as we stepped inside, Vincent caught sight of us and hurried out. “I’ll have your table for you in un minuto. How are you, Bella?”
“I’m okay, Vincent, but I’ll be much better after a plate of your chicken parmigiana.”
“And a slice of cake.” Vincent added, “Your meals are on the house.”
Mia tried to protest, but Vincent had already walked away and no doubt on purpose so she couldn’t. Once we settled at the table, my focus was on Mia who was looking around the restaurant, thinking of Mace. Her next words tugged at my heart. “I miss him so much.” Her eyes shifted to me. “So where do you think he left it?”
“My guess, under this table.”
Her eyes went wide, excitement turning her cheeks rosy. Fucking beautiful.
“Do you think it’s still there?”
“It was important enough to leave, so yeah I think however Mace hid it, it’s still there.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Leaning closer to her and lowering my voice I said, “I think you should climb under the table and check it out. And while you’re down there ...”
Her pupils dilated, her cheeks turning even redder and fuck me, she was considering it. Now I was hard.
“Tempting.”
Her eyes were glazed over and she actually licked her lips in anticipation. My dick went rod straight. “Mia, stop looking at me like that or you and me are going to pull a Janie in the men’s room.”
Her voice dropped an octave and turned husky from lust. “Could we?”
Standing, I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the back. As soon as the door closed behind us, I flipped the lock, pressed her against the door and took her mouth. She worked my zipper as I lifted her, pinning her to the door. Licking my hand for moisture, I sought her and shouldn’t have been surprised to find her already wet.
“You really want this.”
“With you, oh yeah.”
My tongue plunged into her mouth at the same time my cock drove into her sweet, wet heat. Her arms and legs held me tight, her mouth as hungry as mine, as my hips rocked. She wasn't kidding that she wanted this because it only took minutes to bring her to orgasm. I caught her scream in my mouth or there would be no mistaking what was going on in here. My hips still pumped as her body clenched around my cock, bringing on my own sweet release.
Catching her scream had been pointless because one look at her and she looked like a woman who had just been thoroughly fucked. Her next words were a purr. “I understand the appeal now.”
I pulled from her and zipped up before wetting a towel and washing between her legs, which pulled a moan from deep in her throat that went straight to my balls. Checking to make sure the hall was empty, I led her back to our table. I had to keep my arm around her because her legs were a little unsteady. Once she settled at the table, she reached for her wine and drank half the glass in one swallow.
“We need to do that again.”
The idea was so tempting I almost fucked her right on our table. Snagging my beer, I took a deep drink to cool the lust raging through me. You’d think I’d have this shit under better control, but all it took was a suggestive comment from this vixen across from me and I’m off like an adolescent boy after his first orgasm in a woman’s pussy.
She leaned closer to me, mirroring my action from earlier. “You okay? You look a little flustered.”
“I’m not above putting you over my knee.”
Scandalized was probably the best way to describe her reaction to my intentions. “You wouldn’t.”
Wrapping my hand around her neck, I pulled her closer so that our lips were nearly touching. “Smacking your ass red and then fucking you, I absolutely would.”
Outrage drained from her expression to be quickly replaced with desire, her eyes glazing over again. Her languorous movement, as she settled back on her chair, belied the actual words she spoke. “We’re getting off topic.”
“I like the topic we’ve settled on.”
She lifted her glass for a drink and then looked at it stupefied when she found it empty. “I need more wine.”
I flagged our waiter, but kept my focus on her. “We’ll come back after the place closes and check the table.”
“Okay…wait. What?”
“The table, we’ll check it later.”
“How will we get in?”
My only response was to raise my brow.
“But the alarm system.”
“Not a concern. And before you get upset, involving Vincent will only put him in potential danger. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Literally.”
Her easy agreement surprised me, but then with all that she’d been through these past few weeks it really shouldn’t have.
She asked, “What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know, but what bothers me is the need for the secrecy.”
“Agreed, but why then did he go to Cynthia?”
“I don’t know much about her but I would guess despite being a grade-A bitch, she’s never been anything more than what she is. Mace may not have liked her choices, but I would guess she never gave him cause not to trust her.”
“Have you thought any more on who would want to hurt my dad if it really wasn’t Donny or Stein?”
“I have and I can’t think of anyone. Your dad only ever wanted to keep the neighborhood safe. Why would anyone want to hurt him over that?”
“Maybe it was just an accident. I wonder if Bruce could get his hands on the ME’s report.”
And that had been bothering me because why hadn’t he? And I knew he hadn’t because I had asked him about it repeatedly. “You’d think he would have already.”
“You think he knows more than he’s saying.”
“I think we don’t know enough about that night to have a clue what to think.”
“Well maybe whatever Dad left will fill in some of the blanks.”
Yeah or maybe it’ll just create more questions.
Several hours later, we returned with my car. It was an argument, but I won and Mia stayed in the car. On the off chance this went to shit, I didn’t want her involved. Picking the lock had been easy and since I knew the alarm code, something Mace had given me some time back, slipping in undetected was also easy.
Moving through the restaurant, I reached Mia’s table and flipped it over. It took a minute to find what Mace left; he’d obviously come in after hours himself, because he’d dug a hiding place in the thick wood and sealed it up with tape to camouflage it. A flash drive, made sense. Were these the pictures Donny was after? I’d bet money on it. Putting the table back, I pocketed the drive before resetting the alarm and locking up.
Slipping into the car, I handed the drive to Mia. Her shaking fingers flipping it over as she studied it.
“It’s the pictures, isn’t it?”
“That’s my guess.”
Back at my house, we fired up my laptop. Being careful to keep the contents on the local drive, I opened the folder. There was one doc and the rest were jpegs. Launching the document, I felt Mia tense at my side.
Mia,
If you’re reading this, something went wrong. I’m sorry I’m not there with you. Everything I did was to keep you safe. Please know if it could have been different, I’d be with you right now. Give this drive only to Cole; he’ll know what to do with it. I love you, Mia.
Cole, there’s more going on than we thought and I ran out of time. Keep Mia out of it. You always had my back; please have hers now. Take care of my girl.
Mace
Mia’s silent sobs tore at my heart. Pulling her into my arms, I just held her. “I don’t understand any of this. It was like Dad was living a double life.” She pulled from me, taking a few steps away. “You knew all about his other life, you were a part of it. Why didn’t you make him stop?”
My jaw clenched. Even as justified as she was to feel as she did, Mace and I getting into something before we truly appreciated the situation, it still grated. “He would have continued without me, with me he had someone watching his back. That Tammy bitch you mentioned earlier, that’s what started all of this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your dad was looking for her, tracking her last known whereabouts expecting to find her holed up somewhere drugged and sexed up. He asked me to help since I knew the places women like her would frequent.”
“Because of your past.”
“Yeah. We uncovered more than we expected, but the shit we uncovered wasn’t worth murdering for.”
“But now he is dead and leaving me notes. I don’t want his notes, Cole. I want my dad.” She pulled a hand through her hair, a gesture I’d seen Mace do countless times, before she walked to the door. “I’m going to bed.”
“Mia.”
She didn’t turn to me when she stopped in the doorway, but I heard the tears in her voice. “I’m not mad at you, Cole, just the situation. Receiving a letter from my dad when he’s been dead for almost a year is really hard.”
“You going to your bed or mine?”
She did turn then, tenderness shining through the sorrow. “Yours.”
Hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until she answered. “I’ll be in later.”
“Okay.”
Settling at my desk, I pulled up the contents of the flash drive, countless pictures of nameless johns who were the last people to see Tammy. She probably had moved on, started over somewhere new, but the fact that we never found a trace of her hadn’t sat right with Mace or me. I went through the photos a few times, not getting what was so important about them that Mace would have gone to the trouble of keeping them a secret, that Donny would go to the lengths he had to find them. And then I saw it. Most were taken at clubs, it was dark and there were lots of people, but it was the others in the scene in a few of them that caught my attention. Zooming in, there was no mistaking who the people were, people who had no business being seen together, let alone having private conversations. Mace had found the fucking smoking gun on Stein. Proof positive of the corruption Terence, Bruce and team were investigating.
“Shit.”
He held onto this, didn’t turn it over to Terence. Why? Terence sought us out because of these pics, believing, and accurately, that there was more in them. Why would Mace not have handed them over? Did he run out of time? My instinct was to hold off turning them over until I understood better why Mace hadn’t, but I needed to make copies.
It was close to two in the morning when I climbed into bed. Mia shifted in her sleep moving into me. She wore a silk nightie; her skin smooth and considering her Italian heritage, surprisingly pale. Her leg wrapped around my hip, and though my intention was to let her sleep, the hunger for her was too strong. As soon as I touched her clit, her hips moved into my hand, instinctively because she was still asleep. Rubbing that pleasure point, her body started to respond; first with the moisture that dampened my fingertips and then the pebbling of her nipples that were pressed against my chest. I pushed a finger into her and she moaned, her body moving closer to mine. Positioning her on her back, I removed her panties and lifted her nightie up and over her breasts. Moving into the cradle of her body, my finger continued its gentle assault as I sucked on her nipple, toying with it with my tongue, before sucking it deep into my mouth.
“Cole.”
Half a sleep, her body started to move with me, taking on the age-old dance as instinctively as one breathes. Her small hands found my back, moved lower to my ass, my hips rocking against her wet heat, my cock straining to feel her body milking it. Impatient, even half asleep, she took my cock in her hand, lifted her hips and centered it right where we both wanted it. I was surprised when my head lifted to find Mia watching me with lust-filled eyes. She pushed up, the tip of my cock slipping into her.
“Please, Cole.”
Grabbing her hips, I rammed into her. Her back arched, her tits rising up like some offering, as the sexiest sound ripped from her throat. As much as I wanted to taste her, I instead watched, her face and the place where we were connected. Seeing her pussy taking my cock had my hips moving harder and faster. She worked her nipple, twisting and pulling, while fingering her clit until her body clenched around me. The sensation tightening my balls as my cock jerked in release. I pulled from her, needed to taste her, when her soft voice stopped me.
“Why do you do that? Taste me after you’ve come?”
“Never had anything that was mine.”
She studied me as tenderness entered her expression. “So it’s like your bite, you’re marking me.”
“Not a mark, an affirmation that you really are mine.”
Her thoughts were her own for a few minutes, but it was the way she looked at me that had my heart pounding because I had never had anyone look at me like that—the center of her world. And then she smiled as affection shifted to understanding. Hesitating, as if embarrassed, she said, “I want to taste.”
Something shifted in me in that moment. Mia not only respecting my odd behavior, but also wanting to understand it by sharing in it. Lowering myself down her body, my eyes never left hers as I ran my tongue over her and in her, tasting us. Our eyes still locked, I moved up her body, my mouth inches from her parted lips and then I closed the distance—plunging my tongue into her mouth as I rubbed our flavor over every inch. Her tongue hungry for my own, rubbing and tasting, devouring.
Pink infused her cheeks as she licked her lips. “I like our flavor.”
I fucking loved it. Curling around her, since her eyes were growing heavy again with sleep, she whispered. “You can wake me up like that any time.”
“Cole, did you find anything interesting on the flash drive?”
“I’m surprised you were able to wait this long before asking.”
Cole and I were just finishing lunch, almost twenty-four hours after learning about the flash drive. “He wanted me out of it, I’m trying to respect that, but I am curious.”
“In keeping with his wish, I’m being vague on purpose, but he was right to take precautions.”
“Now you’ve piqued my interest. I want to see.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got the drive in my safe, but I’m moving it and the copies I’ve made to a secured locat
ion later today.”
“Sounds like the find is bigger than you’re letting on.”
“It is, which is why you are absolutely forbidden to act on anything you see in those pictures.”
That stirred my ire. “Forbidden?”
“Yeah, fucking forbidden.”
He was across the kitchen from me, which was a good thing because had he been closer, I might have slugged him. “I am a grown woman.”
“And I’m the man who loves you and I never want to see you in a situation like the one you were in the last time you went head-to-head with these fuckers.”
Fear, I felt that just thinking about my last encounter with Donny; irritation that Cole was being highhanded, yep, felt that too, but both paled in comparison to the elation surging through me hearing him say he loved me. He had never said those words to me—said what he felt was more than love—knew he felt it; his actions showed that every day, but to actually hear the words literally took my breath away.
“Mia? No further argument?”
“You love me.”
His expression nearly had me laughing; if you looked up, ‘duh’ it would be that expression defining it.
“You’ve never said the words.”
He thought on that for a minute though now I wished the length of the room didn’t separate us. “You found a way into my heart at seven when you hugged me, my first ever hug, over a fucking movie. You stole my heart when you were fourteen in the park after witnessing me behaving no better than an animal you not only lectured me on my life choices, you told me you’d left the candle in the window so I could find my way home.”
He stalked toward me, my heart pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it; hell, it was loud enough that the kids down the street in the garage band could keep a beat to it. “Fell even deeper every time you invited me out to dinner with your family, your tireless pursuit to bring me into your family. There was no hedging, no competition for Mace’s attention, you accepted me without question, wanted me in your family without question.”
Stopping in front of me, he wrapped me in his arms. “Fell in love with you the night I came to your dorm. Never hesitated to offer me all of you, to allow these hands to touch someone so fucking good. Yeah, I love you Mia.”
