by Bella King
My heart nearly leaped from my chest when I saw the shiny gleam of metal that I had come to be so familiar with over the years of police training. It was a gun, albeit a tad on the small side, but a formidable firearm, nonetheless. Interesting.
I removed it from the drawer, feeling the weight in my hand. That alone told me it was loaded. I checked it anyway, pushing the release on the side and dropping the magazine into my hand. It was loaded with small-caliber bullets, but enough of them to make sure whoever you were shooting at was very much dead.
I slid the magazine back into the stock, hearing the satisfying click as it locked into place. There was no safety on the gun, but many didn’t have them. The safety was the trigger. One should never put their finger on it unless they intended to shoot.
I didn’t have a pocket to put the gun in, so I quietly closed the door and began carrying it with me. If someone saw me, I would be in serious life-threatening trouble, but for now, I was alright.
I wished I was in a bond movie, so that I could tuck it up under my dress, but guns didn’t actually work that way This one was far too heavy to stay in a simple band, and would clearly be visible in a holster under the tightness of my dress. I wouldn’t be able to carry it with me, but I could hide it in the garden or somewhere that was easily accessible. Perhaps the bedroom was an optimal choice.
I walked silently into the next room, peeking around the corner to make sure nobody was there. It was unoccupied, like all the others had been. I didn’t think that even the maids or butlers reached this portion of the house. I was truly alone.
I combed through each room I came upon with renewed confidence, ignoring my stomach, which was screaming for food. I didn’t have time to eat. Fuck, I barely had time to think as I scrambled to fine a phone amongst the expensive junk that occupied each room.
I was about to take a break when I spotted an old rotary phone on display in one of the rooms. This room was filled with technological artifacts, but what interested me about this one was that it seemed to be plugged in. Maybe it was even functional.
I picked up the headset carefully, lifting it to my ear. I was surprised to hear the tone prompting me to dial something. I placed the gun down on the table right beside the spinning dial and pushed a finger into one of the plastic holes to spin it.
I knew the police department number by heart, but if I was being monitored, I didn’t want to make it too obvious for them to track who I had called. Thankfully, I still had Derick’s phone number in the back of my head. He had been my supervisor and had come into managing the entire department after we lost our previous manager to a hit-and-run related to Caleb’s gang.
I began dialing the number, remembering halfway to enter the country code. I wondered if this phone would do long distance. It was worth a try. I hung up the phone, then lifted it back to my ear, almost expecting the line to be cut dead, but it wasn’t. Nobody was spying on me.
I dialed the country area code, then continued on to the dial Derick’s complete number. It felt like ages to get the whole thing in. Imagine calling 911 a hundred years ago!
The phone rang twice, then connected. Relief flooded through me as I heard Derrick’s voice on the other end. “Hello?”
“Derrick, it’s me. Kalila!”
“Kalila? You’re alive?! We all assumed the worst, but no body had washed up yet. I can’t believe that you’re alive. Where are you? Do you need help?” Derick’s voice blurted.
“I do need help,” I said, smiling to keep from crying. “I’m with Caleb as his prisoner. He’s in Italy. I don’t have an address, but I’m calling from the phone at his residence.”
“Italy? How the hell did you get there?” Derick asked, confusion in his voice.
“He brought me here. He has this wacko plan to marry me,” I said.
“Woah, woah. Slow down. So, he shipped you off to Italy to marry you? You know how crazy this sounds, right Kalila?”
“You think I’m making this up?” I asked, breathless in disbelief.
“I didn’t say that, but Italy, damn, that’s really out of our jurisdiction. Now, it’s possible that if you contacted the embassy they could help you, if you really are in need of help.”
I couldn’t believe Derick. He had been my supervisor, the one that put me on the force even when other people said I was too young. He stuck up for me, and now he thought I was fabricating all of this. For what? What did I have to gain? Attention?
“Derick, I need fucking help. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me here. He’s insane,” I said, trying to sound more distressed than I really was. In reality, I felt oddly safe with Caleb, possibly even more so than a typical day on the force.
“Okay, okay, let me think. Are you sure you’re in Italy? You said you don’t know your address.”
“Well, everyone here speaks Italian, so it’s a fair bet.”
“Has anyone said anything to you? Where are they holding you? How did you get a phone?”
As the questions flooded in, I realized that my story was going to sound awfully strange. I was being held captive in Italy, treated to fine dining and rose gardens, with access to a phone and butlers to serve me. It was like something out a movie, but not a very realistic one.
“Um, I’m in some kind of large house. We’re not in a tourist spot. Nobody here has spoken enough English to be of any help,” I said, trying to leave out the details about wandering around the streets with Caleb.
“So, they don’t have you in a holding cell or anything?” Derick asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.
“No,” I admitted. “I’m trapped in the house with Caleb. He has this crazy plot to marry me.”
I heard Derick chuckle on the other end. “Okay, Kalila. Now I know you’re pulling my leg. This would be funny if it weren’t so fucked up. You know how many officers we’ve lost to this guy in the past year?”
“I’m not joking,” I pleaded. “Trace the fucking call. Do anything. Just get me out of here!”
“Calm down. If you are in trouble, you need to contact the embassy in Italy. I can forward your call information to them, but you honestly don’t sound like you’re in that much trouble.”
“I am,” I said, holding firm.
“Well, then you’re in a lot more trouble than I can help you with. To be honest, you shouldn’t even be alive right now if you were captured by Caleb,” Derick replied.
“I told you. He’s holding me so that he can use me for marriage. He’s trying to gain access to his father’s estate, then he claims he’ll turn over his mafia empire to the police.”
Derick’s laughter erupted from the earpiece. I had to hold it away from my head for a moment to keep from being deafened by it. “Now I know you’re bullshitting me.”
“Fucking Christ, Derick. I’m not!”
“Okay, listen, Kalila. I don’t know who put you up to this, but I recommend you return to the station before you get put on permanent leave. That means fired,” he cautioned.
I groaned. “You’re really not listening.”
“Apparently neither are you. We were all very worried about you until you call in pulling a ridiculous story out of your ass. It’s shocking that you would do this, honestly.”
My heart sunk. He didn’t believe me. I had the perfect opportunity to get the hell out of here, and my boss didn’t buy my story. Maybe that had been part of Caleb’s plan, make such a ridiculous scenario so even if I did manage to phone for help, nobody would believe me. The bastard was as clever as the devil, and twice as evil.
I slammed the phone down in frustration. This was no use. I was in more trouble than I could ever imagine, and nobody was coming to save the day. It was me, this gun, and Caleb. This wasn’t covered in basic training.
I sulked out of the room, not believing how bad things had gotten. I flew too close to the sun, the wax that held my feathers melting away until I fell. I was falling without a safety net, barreling down through the turbulent wind toward the sun-cracked
pavement of Italy.
I did my best to hide the gun in my hand as I walked back toward the bedroom that Caleb and I shared. I didn’t want someone to see it and send a few bullets through the back of my head before I could explain myself. Although, considering the circumstances, there was little to explain.
After my interesting journey through the house, I felt glad to be returning to the master bedroom to hide the gun. After that, I could get a bite to eat. I wasn’t being saved today, or possibly ever, but I wouldn’t accept my fate just yet. There was still fight left in me.
I tucked the gun away inside of one of the many pairs of shoes in the closet, observing that the clothes I had tossed into the corner of the closet were no longer there. Yes, housekeeping was efficient, but they wouldn’t be snatching my gun any time soon, so long as I didn’t move the shoes that they were in.
I went off in search of food once the gun was tucked away and I had cleaned off my hands and dress so that nobody could tell I had been sifting through dusty drawers for the past three hours. Now, to get some lunch.
Chapter 13
The pen isn’t mightier than the sword.
I tried to hide the guilt I felt when Caleb got home. He was in such a good mood, cheerful, and happy to see me. I came up to him with my arms clasped in front of me, and he extended his arms, hugging me close to his thick torso.
My head lay against his broad chest, and I inhaled his masculine scent. For having been out all day, he smelled fantastic, like cracked wood with a hint of fire. Even as he let go, I lingered in his arms, enjoying being close to him for the first time.
“Did you have everything you needed?” Caleb asked, removing his shoes and placing them in the shoe closet.
I nodded. “Yes,” I squeaked.
“You did some exploring today?” He asked casually, but the words made my heart stop for a second. Did he already know about what I had done. A small sweat broke out on my hairline, but I swiped it away.
“I peeked around,” I said innocently. “The gardens are so nice,” I said, not having visited them. It was the most innocent line I could pull out of my ass at such short notice. I had foolishly not thought up an alibi for what I had been doing all day.
Caleb smiled at me gently. “How about we spend the evening in the bedroom, together. I’m awfully stressed out today. Maybe you want to give me another massage?” He suggested with a wink.
I agreed to it immediately, trying to cover the pang of guilt I felt for my actions today. I shouldn’t have felt guilty, but Caleb had treated me so well, and Derick had acted like I was making this whole kidnapping thing up. The tight ropes around my wrists felt like nothing more than a fever dream, concocted on the consensual flight to Italy with the man I was destined to marry. How fucking wonderful would that be?
But it wasn’t the case, and I had to remind myself that with worrying frequency. I was the victim, not Caleb. He wasn’t playing all kinds of games with my brain, and I wasn’t enjoying it. I felt myself being pulled into a life that wasn’t mine, almost convinced that I really was supposed to be married to him, living in this glorious mansion together.
Caleb removed his jacket, hanging it up int the hallway closet and holding out his hand to guide me up to the master bedroom, where he would be waiting for me to rub him down with oil again. I wondered what else he had planned behind those ice-blue eyes. What did he want from me, really?
I followed him, but my mind kept drifting back to what he had said the night before about the police department not actually wanting to catch him. It made even more sense after talking to Derick. Maybe Derick knew that I was in trouble, but rescuing me meant capturing Caleb, and the department would dissolve afterward.
That was ridiculous though, because it would be such a huge bust, guaranteed to get him an even better spot at a much nicer police department. Then again, his family was there, in his hometown, and he had never left it. There was a chance that everything Caleb said was correct, but I didn’t want to believe it. It was too fucked up for me to accept. We were the good guys, and the mafia was the bad guys. That’s how things always were. I couldn’t accept that we both were the bad guys all along.
When I got to the bedroom, Caleb removed his shirt completely and tossed it over a chair, undoing his trousers as he had before. This time, though, he yanked down his underwear, letting his cock fall out in front of me. I didn’t have time to shield my eyes, but when I saw how well hung he was, I couldn’t move them away. I was fixated on his penis.
“You like it?” Caleb asked, smirking at me arrogantly.
“No,” I said, but I was lying through my teeth. I did like it, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. He probably already did, anyway.
“Don’t lie,” Caleb said, cocking his head at me. “You never resisted me before. Why would you now?”
I hated that he was right, but I had reasons not to. He was dangerous, and I was defenseless. I couldn’t just say no to him. He might kill me for it. I didn’t play games with my life.
I glared at him, looking up from his growing erection. “You never gave me a choice.”
“I’m giving you one now,” Caleb said. “Join me in bed.”
“That’s not a choice,” I said. It sounded more like a demand.
“It is. Nobody has made you do anything the whole time you’ve been here, Kalila. It’s always been your choice,” he claimed, sitting down on the side of the bed.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Caleb? You’re a mafia boss, not a saint. I’m never safe around you. Nothing I’ve done has been my choice,” I said, feeling color flush to my face.
He smirked, looking just as arrogant as could be. “You’ve never been in any danger. I left you alone all day and you stayed in the house. You could have left if you really wanted to.”
I shook my head. “And have your guards shoot me?”
Caleb laughed. “In Italy, I’m not a mafia boss. I’m just a normal guy. You’re not getting it, are you? This entire time, you’ve been free to act as you wish, and yet, you stayed with me. Now, why do you think that is?”
I crossed my arms, shooting daggers at him through my eyes. “I don’t like you. I never have, and I never will.”
Caleb stood up, taking a step toward me. His cock still hung half-mast, clearly aroused by my presence. I froze, not knowing what to do. He was right up on me, his broad frame shadowing me and looming too close for comfort.
“You’re free to go, Kalila, but I think you’d rather spend the night,” he said, his voice a deep growl in his throat.
I examined the light lines on his face, the curves of his cleanly shaven neck, and the wicked sharpness of his jawline. He was a tempting lay, but that wasn’t why I was here. The more I tried to remind myself that he was the enemy, the less I believed it.
I stood still, letting him continue with me.
“You’re like a little moth, flying toward the light. My darling, you have no idea how to get there, or what it will cost you, but you want to so badly. Let me give that light to you. You want to be number one. I’m going to make you the richest woman in Italy,” Caleb purred.
He raised a hand, pushing the blonde hair from my neck and lowering his lips to it. I felt his hot breath as he paused there, blue eyes flickering up to mine to check if I would do anything about it. I stared forward, shaking slightly as I tried to keep myself calm. I didn’t want him to think I was scared of him, but I was terrified.
His lips hit my delicate flesh, sending a familiar spark of excitement through my body and down between my legs. It was like the previous night in the massage room, only more intense and deadly than before. This time, there was a lot more at stake. Caleb was proving a point. This wasn’t just sex.
Caleb’s lips sucked the blood to the surface of my pale skin, leaving a mark on my neck that would take days to fade, before moving up to my face. His lips grazed my cheek, almost taunting me for being unable to resist him.
I turned my head away
from him, but his lips followed mine, finding them and pressing close. I could taste his power in my mouth. The fire in his soul was real, and it drew me into his kiss. I hadn’t wanted this at first, but once he was there, I couldn’t help myself. He was too good to say no to.
I moaned into his mouth, finally giving way and allowing my body to relax against his. That was the signal he needed to continue, and once I had given him that, there was no turning back.
Caleb’s hands found the zipper in the back of my dress, peeling it down and pushing the fabric away from my breasts. He cupped them in his strong hands, simultaneously squeezing them and pushing his cock in between my legs.
I let my dress fall to my feet, and all that was left between him and me was a thousand-dollar pair of silk panties. I wouldn’t be the one to remove them. He would have to if he wanted me. I challenged him with my eyes, staring into the darkening storms that occupied his sockets. “Fuck me,” my eyes seemed to say to him.
But that wasn’t me, and I wanted to keep it that way. He could have me now, but I wouldn’t be the one to give myself to him. It was my body speaking because my mind had turned off, tuned out, and let my body have a say on what was happening now. I was wet between my legs for him, and I was thinking with my pussy instead of my brain.
“Darling,” Caleb said, removing his lips from mine. “Take those off.” His eyes moved down to my panties, but his hands stayed around my waist.
“You take them off,” I insisted, refusing to be responsible for this.
“That’s an order,” he said, his eyes squinting at me, challenging me.
“I thought you said I was free here,” I said.
“You are, but I’m not going to remove those panties from your delicious hips. You are, and you’re going to lay down in bed and let me have you.”
“Or what?” I asked, shaking my hair behind my shoulders.
“Or you won’t get this,” he answered, pressing his hips in between my legs and prodding my wet pussy with the head of his cock.
