His Light in the Dark

by L. A. Fiore

  It was intentional that Bruce had me turned so that Cole could see my face, our eyes locked. Every muscle in his body flexed, as Bruce pushed my legs wider. The sound of a switchblade opening followed, and yet a calm settled over me because as long as I could see Cole, I was okay. I saw the change in him, like a rattlesnake about to attack. Donny’s focus was on me, his back to Cole. His fingers wrapped around the chains that bound him. His arms flexing as he lifted his body up, his strong legs coming around Donny’s neck. It happened so fast, Cole squeezed his legs and twisted his body, the crack echoed around the room. Donny’s body dropped in a heap. Distracted, Bruce’s hold on me loosened; rearing back, I slammed my head into his nose.

  “Fuck.” He stumbled, the knife falling from his hand.

  “Over here, Mia.” Cole ordered even as I contemplated going for the knife.

  “Now!” Cole roared.

  I listened.

  “Behind me.”

  When Bruce pulled it together, he looked crazy. “Fucking bitch. You broke my nose.”

  Perhaps it was ill-advised, but the sound of his whining after everything he’d done just pissed me off and the words that followed sort of just flew out of my mouth. “Fucking pussy. It’s a broken nose. Strap a set on.”

  He didn’t like that.

  “Mia.” That word came from Cole, a warning to be quiet. I wasn’t done yet.

  “I can’t help it. You just killed a man, even though you have a dozen stab wounds, and that bitch is crying over a broken nose.”

  “Mia, do you ever listen?” Cole again.

  “Yeah, just making a point.”

  “When we get out of this, I am definitely putting you over my knee. You won't be sitting for a week.”

  He thought we were getting out of this? I didn’t see how but then he had just taken out Donny without the use of his arms. It must have been an endorphin rush because I was almost giddy when I replied, “Promises, promises.”

  I felt his answer, the slight shaking of his body. He chuckled—even in the situation we found ourselves in—he actually chuckled. Maybe we would get out of here, which meant he really was going to spank me. “On second thought, I think I’d like to forgo the knee.”

  Bruce moved to the table, Cole turning his body to keep himself between Bruce and me. “I’m going to carve her up right in front of you, Cole.”

  My body tensed, preparing to fight, as I weighed my options.

  “Don’t you fucking move.” Cole again and directed at me.

  A little false bravado to throw Bruce off seemed like a good plan. “I could probably take him. I just need to nail him in the nose again and I’m sure I could get him to cry.”

  That appeared to piss both of them off, but for different reasons I’m sure. Before either spoke, the door across the room opened and Donny’s counterpart entered. He took in the scene, from Donny’s dead body, to Bruce, to Cole and me before reaching for the gun at his hip. Pressing my face to Cole’s back, I willed myself to be strong. “I love you.” Cole tensed, his body straining against the chains.

  “Bruce Knox, you’re under arrest.”

  What? I peered around Cole in time to see as the room filled with S.W.A.T., who immediately surrounded Bruce. Terence right there with them. Cole’s body relaxed and I moved around to face him, turning my back to Terence, who cut me loose, as two cops worked to get Cole down. My arms wrapped around him, his body falling into mine as I dropped to my knees.

  “The ambulance is coming.” Terence said.

  “Mia?”

  “Save your strength.”

  “Mia.” Cole brushed my cheek with his thumb as he had a way of doing and my heart nearly burst in my chest.

  “I’m not losing you too. Don’t you fucking die.”

  “Mia.” His hold on my chin with his finger and thumb was surprisingly strong for someone willing death back. “Two weeks.”

  Confused, I just stared into his beloved face for a minute before I asked, “Two weeks what?”

  “You won’t be sitting for two weeks.”

  “Son of a bit—” I didn’t get the word out because Cole silenced me when he yanked my mouth down to his.

  I felt like a fucking pin cushion; Donny knew his anatomy. Cut me in just the right places, avoiding organs and major arteries and veins so as to prolong death. Sick fuck. Doctors stitched me up, said I needed rest but I’d be good to go in a few weeks. Needed to stay a couple days in the hospital. I wanted to be home with Mia but then I’d be tempted to give her the spanking she had coming, which would likely pull the stitches and if that didn’t, the fucking that followed definitely would.

  My heart twisted thinking about her in that room because despite the fact that she had provoked Bruce, the reason she’d be walking funny for a while after my hand met her ass repeatedly, she’d been fucking magnificent. Even terrified, she had been fearless. She shared quite a bit with her mom, but there was no mistaking that she was Mace, through and through.

  “Hey, look who I found in the hall.” Mia entered with two cups of coffee and following right behind her were Terence and Special Agent Brian Crane, or otherwise referred to by Mia as Donny’s counterpart, an undercover Fed who had been building a case against Stein for years.

  “How are you feeling?” Terence looked a bit tired but then learning your partner was a dirty cop couldn’t be easy.

  “Ready to go home, but the doc has some bug up his ass about me staying for a few days.”

  “You’ve been through a lot, both of you, so enjoy the downtime.”

  “I’ve other ideas on how I want to spend my downtime.” My gaze turning to Mia who immediately blushed up to her hairline, which pulled a grin because the woman could tell a dirty cop to man up and strap a set on but she blushed when it was implied that I wanted to fuck her until she couldn’t move.

  Special Agent Crane changed the subject. “Stein and the rest of his crew are being picked up as we speak. Between the information obtained by Terence’s investigation, mine and the photos, it’s a slam dunk.” His attention turned to Mia, his voice a bit softer and filled with sympathy when he added, “Dylan Bauer’s body has been released. Your aunt is making the arrangements.”

  Mia said nothing, just tilted her head in acknowledgment but I saw the pain that crossed over her face. I hadn’t been there when she learned that Dylan was dead, when she had to share that news with Dee. These women just kept getting hammered with shit and yet somehow they stayed standing, kept moving forward. If I hadn’t already been completely sunk when it came to Mia, seeing the glimpse of that steel spine she had would have been the final push.

  “Tammy?” Mia asked.

  I didn’t envy Brian knowing some of the shit that was going down and being unable to do anything about it due to the nature of his assignment. Tammy was one example; he knew she was dead, but he didn’t know where they put the body and without it, the Feds couldn’t build a case.

  “Bruce Knox, at the encouragement of his lawyers, is finally seeing the light. He has two deaths on him so far, Tammy Lee and Dylan Bauer, so he’s singing like a choirboy to get a reduced sentence. Ms. Lee’s body was found in the foundation of one of Stein’s buildings.”

  What an arrogant bastard, but you had to give it to Stein, he had fucking steel balls.

  “It’s kind of fitting though since her death was the foundation of everything that happened after.” Mia’s voice broke, her eyes casting down again thinking about her father.

  “Mia, come here.”

  Her head lifted and a spark of rebellion replaced grief, just as I intended. “Now.”

  Her whiskey-colored eyes flashed with temper…now there’s my girl.

  “You’re awfully bossy.”

  And yet she was moving across the room to me. She didn’t hesitate to climb into the bed, pressing herself up against my side. Touching her chin, I lifted her face and saw the pain but it wasn’t as pronounced. Pressing a kiss on her head, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her cl
oser.

  Brian broke the silence. “You’re right, Mia. Tammy had witnessed Stein with a few men she knew…” he cleared his throat, “through her work. Officials from the city planning and zoning office, men who could make or break Stein’s dreams—men meeting with Stein late at night in gentlemen’s clubs. Fancying herself in love with Bauer, she suggested they blackmail Stein about the bribes to get him to back off about the debt Dylan owed. Stein retaliated by having Bruce Knox kill her; his ‘making his bones’ so to speak and Stein already had Bauer by the short hairs, enough to convince the man to use Mace Donati’s garage to launder money.”

  Mia’s body tensed, but I misinterpreted the meaning behind it until she spoke. She was pissed. “Had a good thing going until I asked to take over the books, messing up his plan. Stein ordering the hit on my dad killed three birds for him—keeping the laundering scam from coming out, getting Dad’s garage and, ironically, the one he didn’t even know anything about, the one that could have really messed up his world, stopped the potential reveal of his illegal activities with the planning committee.”

  I held her closer, pressing my lips to her head but she needed to get it out and frankly, I didn’t disagree with her. I was as pissed as she was.

  “You’ve been through a lot and with your help, we wrapped up a seven year investigation, so my office would like to offer you a week vacation at the Bellagio in Vegas. I understand you had intended to go at one point.”

  Mia tensed again, as I wondered how he knew that. Didn’t get why Mia and Mace wanted to do Vegas because neither of them were gamblers. No, that wasn’t true. They both were because both took a gamble on me.

  “We’d like that.”

  Mia’s reply surprised me. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’ll see it for him.”

  Cole rolled his hips, sinking deeper into me. It’d been a week since the hospital and though he was supposed to be taking it easy, we’d spent most of the time home making love. And it was love, not fucking, which we did and often, but this was different. Savoring was a good way to describe the attention Cole paid me, like he was committing it to memory. In and out, a slow, deliberate motion that had his cock sliding so deep only to retreat, creating that delicious friction. I loved the way he felt, his hard, big body over mine, surrounding me, consuming me. I could stay like this forever. His lips moved from the breast he’d been tasting, up my shoulder to my lips, his tongue mimicking the motion of his hips. Sliding my hands down his smooth, muscled back and over his ass, I pulled him deeper as I arched my spine; the orgasm moved through me like a wave. His big body stilled as pleasure moved over his face, his cock pumping his seed into me. He didn’t move, didn’t pull out to taste me as he usually did, just stayed where he was, still buried in me, his arms holding him up so he could look his fill.

  “You sure you’re up to going to Vegas?” His concern touched me.

  “I am.”

  “We can go somewhere else. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

  “I like that offer and I’m going to take you up on that and soon, but I think I need to go so I can finally put Dad to rest.”

  “He loved you.”

  My eyes started to burn. “I know.”

  “He talked about you incessantly, especially in the beginning. Took great pride in the fact that you were strong-willed. Knew that to be true cause the kid that sat and stared at me while cleaning my cuts had no fear, just a healthy dose of curiosity.”

  “You remember that?”

  “Yeah, the little kid with eyes too big for her face tending me while looking at me like I was interesting, important.”

  “You are interesting and important.”

  He pulled from me and I wasn’t ready. His hands wrapped around my waist and he flipped me onto my stomach and lifted my ass into the air. Thinking he was going to take me again, my body started to throb. Looking at him from over my shoulder, his finger moved to between my legs where he brushed it from clit to core before bringing it to his mouth to lick the taste off. I nearly came. And then he settled on the edge of the bed and pulled me over his lap.

  “What the….”

  “You didn’t really think you were getting out of your punishment?”

  “You’re not seriously going to spank me.”

  “Oh, I am. Let’s see. First, I specifically remember telling you not to pursue anything you saw in the photos.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “And yet you read through your dad’s financials and went off half-cocked to Dylan, confronting him about his part in laundering money for a man we both knew was bad news.”

  Before I could respond, his hand came down hard on my left ass check.

  “Ouch! Cole that hurts.”

  “It’s supposed to. Where was I? Right, then we’re in a room with two killers and you’re provoking one of them.” Another hard slap, but this time his hand came down on my right ass cheek.

  “You then called Bruce a whining bitch, not that he wasn’t, but still.” Another slap.

  “You were deliberately entertaining the idea of defying me, though what exactly your plan was when your hands were tied together, I don’t know.” Another slap.

  My eyes burned from the tears but damn he was really hurting me. Pulling from him, which only happened because he allowed it, I moved to the far side of the room. “Stop it, Cole. You’re hurting me.”

  “I’m trying to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that pain you’re feeling right now, that is nothing next to what I’d feel if something happened to you. And I realize that you’re Mace’s kid and you’ve got a lot of fire, that’s one of the things I love most about you, but you also let your temper get away from you and act more on emotion than logic. And if we never experience a life and death situation, that’ll be too soon, but if we do I will not fucking lose you because you let your temper get the better of you.”

  “Why did you have to go and say that? How am I supposed to keep my mad on when you go and say something like that?”

  He moved, like a predator who had its prey in its sights. And as much as I loved the sight of his big, strong, naked body coming toward me, my focus was on the dozen or so wounds over his torso. And remembering how it felt when I thought he was dying, the pain that stole my breath and nearly eviscerated me from the inside, I got it. Backing up until I hit the wall, he moved right into me, his hands coming to rest against the wall on either side of my head.

  I held his hard stare. “I’m sorry.”

  “Came from shit, have had one bright light in the dark hell I’ve lived in, gotten too used to being in the light, Mia, I ain’t going back to the dark.”

  Oh God. My heart was so full it really should have cracked through my ribs.

  “I don’t like it when you spank me.”

  “Then we’ll save that for when you’re bad.”

  “I don’t want to be spanked at all.”

  “Then don’t be bad.”

  “You’re impossible. So what’s my recourse when you’re bad?”

  He actually had the nerve to raise his brow at me. Which was bad enough and then he responded, “I’m not understanding the question.”

  My temper, the one I just promised to keep in check, was beginning to get the better of me. “Seriously. You just spanked me and since getting you over my knee will never happen, what’s my recourse.”

  “Since I’m never bad, it’s really a moot point.”

  “I’m going to bite you.”

  His expression turned so dark, his lips parted as his body moved closer to mine. “I’d like that.”

  “Oh my God. You really are impossible.”

  “Seriously, Mia, let’s not get off topic. I’m getting hard just thinking about those teeth sinking into me.”

  Temper just flew out the window because now I was getting hot thinking about biting him. Lifting me, he pressed me against the wall in the same motion that he drove his cock into me. My leg wrapped around his
waist, my hands falling on his shoulders. “Bite me, Mia.”

  So I did, when my body clenched around him in ecstasy, I bit his right pec hard enough I drew blood. We went to the tat parlor the very next day.

  Vegas was wild. Our suite, because it was a suite, was the size of a small house. We christened the bed last night, our first night here, which was the size of two king-sized beds put together. Just thinking of the very thorough use of space we achieved, Cole was a very inventive lover.

  Soaking up the rays by the pool, my shade-covered eyes were on Cole, currently at the bar ordering me a glass of pineapple juice, more specifically my focus was on the tattoo on his right pec. I understood now how he felt at seeing my tattoo. I loved seeing it, knowing it was my mark. He had even gone so far as to have my name scrolled on the inside of his forearm. As he walked back to me, I wasn’t shy about taking in all of his beauty from the wide shoulders and muscled arms to his black swim trunks that rode low on his hips so his six pack was completely visible as was that fantastic v of muscle just under his abs. The scars, some of which were permanent, tempered my drooling. The doc had offered Cole a plastic surgeon, but he wasn’t interested. There was a part of me that would have liked for him to have the scars removed so we wouldn’t have a reminder of the horror, but at the same time we’d survived it while the others were all rotting and so the scars were like a fuck you to them. My eyes moved to the tats on his arms, the tribal tattoos. The designs were different in subtle ways; the one on his left side moved down to his pec and I noticed what looked like wings worked into the design on his right arm and an angel on the left.

  Cole handed me my drink, his voice lowered enough for only me to hear. “Keep staring at me like that and we’re finding an empty cabana.”

  Sipping my drink, since my mouth had gone unaccountably dry, I lowered my shades and met his stare as he settled on the chair next to me.

  “I really wouldn’t have a problem with that. What do your tribal tats mean?”

  He didn’t answer right away, but I wasn’t sure what fed his hesitation, before he said, “They’re my reminders.”