by Ophelia Bell
Celeste slips up beside him as he opens the box. Her hand flies to her mouth when she sees what it contains. “Is that . . .” She looks at me, leaving the question hanging and I nod, heart pounding.
“It’s the bullet I pulled out of you that night. I don’t know how much of Manny’s blood was still on it, but I had it sealed and put on a chain as-is.”
Leo’s eyes are wide as he reaches in and lifts up the necklace by the silver ball chain. The bullet dangles in front of his face, a small, macabre, six-petal blossom of mangled metal and dried blood. I kind of hate the thing, but I also knew Leo would love it. He blindly hands Celeste the box and loops the chain over his head. When he hauls me into his arms, he’s shaking, and fuck if his tears don’t set me off for real this time.
We hold each other for an eternity, the world spinning around us, and despite the bubble of grief we share, I’m aware of Celeste’s light touch on my cheek. Her fingers first, then her lips, and somehow I know she does the same for him, as if she’s our guardian angel, blessing us both with her light and love.
The room is silent when we finally part, but we’re not alone. My family is waiting in the archway near the foyer, and I give Leo and Celeste an apologetic look. “I need to get them home.”
Marco shakes his head. “Brother, what you need is to stay right here. We can take care of ourselves. I’m here until New Year’s, so we’ll have time to catch up.”
“Is it okay?” I ask Celeste, suddenly self-conscious about the prospect of spending the night with her and Leo in her father’s house. I glance toward the long row of french doors that line the wall of the expansive living room, instinct somehow drawing my attention to the man in question. He’s deep in conversation with Toni and seems to hang on her every word, but he glances up when my gaze rests on him. He gives Toni a pat on the cheek, and I straighten as he starts toward me. He keeps walking past, then takes Mom’s hands in his and looks deep into her eyes.
“Anything within my power to give is yours, Marcella. You only have to say the word.”
Mom sets her jaw and nods once. “Thanks, Arturo, but you’ve done more than enough.”
“I’ll have Jerry drive you home then. Take care.” He kisses Mom on the cheek, shakes hands with Marco and Sam in turn, then pauses in front of Elle. She returns his gaze without flinching and he studies her for a few seconds longer before patting her on the cheek like he did with Toni and showing them to the front door.
“Mija, we have business to discuss,” he says to Celeste after they’re gone, his gaze sweeping across the three of us.
Celeste squares her shoulders and moves to face me, a strange gleam in her eyes that seems out of place for the somber mood this evening. “I promise I won’t be long. Let Leo take you to our room, okay?”
She leans in and drops a kiss on my mouth. I’m too surprised to respond at first. Other than her hand-holding this evening, this is the first sign of deeper affection she’s given me in front of her father. But it’s impossible not to kiss her back, so I slide my arms around her and deepen the kiss just a little before releasing her. She disappears with her father into his office just off the foyer, and it takes a pat on my shoulder from Leo to tear my gaze away from the closed door.
“What’s she keeping from us?” I ask.
“Whatever it is, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”
I glance at him as he leads me away. “I wasn’t imagining that look. You saw it too, didn’t you?”
Leo laughs and shakes his head. “Mad Dog, you haven’t lived with the woman for the past few months. You can trust her, but she and her father are their own little cabal. Best to just get used to it. Now come on before you fall on your face. You look exhausted.”
42
Celeste
Papá closes the door behind me, and I head to the wet bar beneath the window to pour us drinks. I hand him his glass, then settle in the chair facing him across his big desk.
“I wish we didn’t have to wait to give him the news.”
“I know, mija, but we don’t want to test fate.”
I sigh, trying to ease some of the anxious tension in my belly. I don’t like keeping this secret from Maddox, but the situation is still too uncertain. Right now I just want to go to him, comfort him as well as I can, and be with my two men. “Thank you for allowing him to stay tonight,” I say, watching Papá for any sign of disapproval. There’s nothing but an inscrutable mask.
Papá nods and sips his scotch. “He’s grieving. It’s better to be with the ones who love him the most.” His brows furrow and he stares down into his glass, swirling the amber liquid before taking another drink.
I ask the question that’s been itching at my conscience all week. “Marcella was who you went to when Mama died, wasn’t she? Do you still love her?”
He raises his head and stares at me, eyes wide. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so shocked, so I give him what I hope is a comforting smile.
“Papá, you didn’t think we wouldn’t put it together, did you? Maddox and I had this revelation a week ago. He was there for me after we learned about Mama’s death. Marcella was there for you. You have history with her, don’t you?”
He sighs and leans back in his chair, swiping both hands over his face. “It was a long time ago. I wasn’t thinking clearly the night we got the news about Lola, and Marci was always easy to talk to. If I’d been more in control, I’d have sought out Amador right away. Made him answer for what he did. But I needed . . .” He leans forward and shakes his head, grimacing as if it pains him to admit he’s ever been weak.
“You needed comfort. Love. Don’t apologize for it. Maddox needs that tonight, and I’m sure he appreciates that you’re allowing it. Though I have to say you’ve come a long way for someone who insisted the Santos brothers were so untrustworthy.”
The tender look is back in his eyes and he smiles. “You’ve taught me something valuable these past few months, mija. I admit it was difficult for me to accept at first, but I lost something crucial from my relationship with Amador when we agreed to divide our responsibilities the way we did. Our strength was as a trio. Not as two couples with your mother’s attention divided between us. The distance was what destroyed us, what ultimately turned Amador into the monster he is.”
“He loved Mama, so your insistence that love can be a weakness wasn’t wrong. I just think it’s a lot more complicated than that. It can be a strength if we let it. Maddox taught me that.”
He takes another sip of his drink, then regards me thoughtfully. “If all goes as planned, you’ll need to explain in more detail to Maddox what my expectations are. We need to know we can trust him not to go to his family with the news.”
“I will, and I’m sure he’ll understand. Gustavo’s still a wild card though.”
He waves his hand. “Gustavo won’t have a reason to leave Cancún for a long time, if Amador lets him live.”
“How did he even escape the hospital? His room was under guard.” Papá’s eyes have a wicked glint and I tense. “You let him go, didn’t you? Why?”
“I needed him to deliver a message to his master. I want Amador to know I’m coming for him.”
“Leo and Maddox aren’t going to appreciate that, Papá. If you want them to trust you, you should have come clean.”
“They want you, mija. They won’t argue with my decisions if they want to keep you. But I’m confident once you explain the plan to them, they’ll understand it had to be this way. I have no doubt there will be another opportunity to see Gustavo suffer once the operation to destroy Amador is fully under way.”
I’m not sure I agree that it’ll be that easy to convince my men this is for the best. I’m not even sure myself, though I’m aware there’s a much bigger picture. After my call with Senator Longo, I have a suspicion that it isn’t the feds pulling Papá’s strings after all, but the other way around. I plan to milk him for more secrets, but tonight I’m content to leave it alone. I may have opened Pandora’s b
ox that day, but I don’t need to examine all the contents until I’m ready.
There is one detail I want settled though because it’s been eating at me all week. “Elle Santos is my half-sister, isn’t she?” He has barely uttered a confirmation before I’m bouncing in my seat and grinning wildly. “I knew it!”
Papá tuts. “It’s up to her mother to tell her the truth, but feel free to take Arielle under your wing if you’d like. The closer she is, the safer she’ll be.”
The implication sobers me. “Is closer really safer for her? She wants to go to school in San Diego, to get away from Los Angeles. I have a feeling it’s to get away from her father. Julian, I mean. When we were kids, Maddox used to say he was violent with him and his brothers. If he’s that way around her . . .”
His expression darkens and he sits up straighter. “How violent?”
“I don’t know,” I say, shocked by his sudden change in demeanor. “It’s been years, so maybe he’s changed.”
“Men like him don’t change. I’ll look into it. Thank you for letting me know.”
“You’re welcome.” Should I have divulged so much? But at the very least he will make sure Elle is safe. If there’s one thing Papá cares about, it’s that the women in his life are protected from harm.
He nods. “We can discuss the rest later. Sleep well tonight, mija.”
I rise to leave, eager to return to my room, where I’m sure Leo and Maddox are waiting. I pause halfway to the door and turn, unwilling to leave without saying one more thing, even though there’s a risk in putting it out in the open.
“I love them both, you know. But more than that, they love each other. That’s how I know this is going to work.”
A series of expressions crosses Papá’s face—pain at first, then resignation, then acceptance. He finally sighs and nods, giving me a sad smile. “Yes, I think you’re right. If I’d had your wisdom three decades ago, our lives might be a lot less complicated now. I love you, mija.”
“I love you too, Papá.”
43
Maddox
Leo leads me on an interminable walk across terra-cotta-tiled hallways, down several short flights of stairs, and around corners beyond which there is even more of the house to see. It’s deceptively small from the outside, but it’s situated on a hillside so most of the living space is below the driveway.
“Thank you,” I blurt when we reach a lavish bedroom with yet another wall of french doors and a view overlooking the sprawling lights of Los Angeles, which glitters like a gem-encrusted dragon below.
He looks into my eyes and shakes his head. “Your brother’s just as dead as mine is. We understand each other perfectly. You already understood even before what happened to J.J., so you don’t have a goddamn thing to thank me for.” He pulls back the blankets on a king-size bed, then turns to me and begins unbuttoning my uniform.
“You’re probably right. I guess we’re both under his thumb now, huh? Pawns in his fucking game.” I look him in the eyes, watching for some sign that he’s onto the game Arturo’s playing, because I have zero doubt that’s what this is. I just wish I knew the rules.
He holds my gaze as he pushes my jacket off my shoulders, undoes my tie, and starts working on my shirt. “We’re all two people deep down, Mad Dog. There’s the face we show the world,” he pauses to slide my shirt down my arms and begins on my pants, “and there’s who we are in secret. Two skins we change when it suits the moment, or whatever agenda we’re working toward. You can choose to be a pawn for him, but that doesn’t change who you really are, got it?”
He lowers my zipper as he continues. “The ink you put on my skin, the scars Gustavo gave us, all that’s just part of the persona, nothing but added armor to our facades. You and me?” He leans down to untie my shoes. I kick them off and let him finish helping me out of my pants. “We can be our true selves with each other. We can always come back here when we’re tired of being whoever he expects us to be. We are each other’s sanctuary. I figured that out when you fucked me. That I could let you in and the world wouldn’t end if you saw who I really am. That seeing each other for who we are only sets us free of all the other secrets we hide behind. All the other skins we wear.”
My eyes are heavy lidded and my cock half hard from the repeated brush of his fingers as he removes my clothes. He peels my undershirt off over my head, then runs his hands down my chest, over my scars, careful to avoid the tender skin of my fresh tattoo and the bandaged wound on my side. He makes his way to the waistband of my boxers, then pushes them down my thighs. His hand comes up between my legs, cups my balls, and strokes me until I’m fully erect.
I hiss with the sudden, sharp, and oh-so-welcome pleasure of his firm touch, then groan when he leans in to kiss me. He keeps stroking my cock, and the kiss continues as I undress him. When we’re both naked, he eases close until his stiff shaft glides against mine and he grips us together. It’s only been a few days since we fucked, my obligations to my family keeping us apart, but my body is starved for this contact, my nerves sparking with every little touch, and my skin comes alive when he tightens his long fingers around us both and strokes.
The door clicks open, then closed again with the slide of a dead bolt. Celeste doesn’t interrupt us though. We keep kissing, engrossed in each other, and my fingers tangle in Leo’s hair as I thrust slowly into his hand. He slides his mouth across my jaw to my neck and I open my eyes, watching Celeste as she disappears into a closet and comes back out wearing nothing but a tiny red negligee that accents all her glorious curves. She’s wearing nothing underneath, and the sheer, lacy fabric teases me with glimpses of her ass and pussy as she walks. I follow her path to the nightstand on the other side of the bed as Leo grazes his teeth down my neck.
She opens a drawer and pulls out a bottle of lube and a plug that’s even larger than the big one I planned to use on Leo the other night before he preempted me. My cock kicks in Leo’s hand at the sight. If she has some scheme to distract me from my grief, it’s working.
Leo releases us but his hand returns to my dick as he kisses his way down my chest until he’s on his knees before I realize it. I shift my attention back to him, more than startled by this turn of events. He’s kissing the underside of my cock all the way from base to tip, and the sight of his wild hair and soft mouth wars for my attention with the seductress who has taken up position in the center of the bed.
I flit my gaze from him back to her in time to see her turn onto all fours with her ass aimed at me. Leo’s mouth is warm when he sucks my tip between his lips, but he only takes me in for a second before sliding saliva-coated lips back down my shaft to my balls. I’m compelled to watch him again. I thread my fingers into his hair as he opens up to take both my balls into his mouth. As he sucks, I give in and surrender my attention again to Celeste, who reaches between her legs and spreads her pussy open for me to see.
Fucking hell, what are they doing to me? Whatever it is, they’re either the best mind readers, or they really do understand exactly what I need, because everything about this is lifted from my wildest fantasies—only better. It’s more than simple solace, what they offer. It’s pure, unadulterated, hedonistic oblivion.
Leo’s taking his time, probably because this is new to him, but he can take as long as he wants. I keep my hands in his hair, holding just enough to offer nudges of encouragement when he does something I like, because it’s not lost on me that this is the first time he’s ever sucked a cock. But otherwise my attention stays on her. She’s playing with herself, her pussy pink and wet, her lips swollen and luscious. She dips two fingers deep inside herself and draws them out, glistening with so much arousal my mouth waters. Then she slides her hand farther between her legs until her fingertips reach her bare, puckered asshole and she circles it, making it gleam with wetness.
My desperate groan catches Leo’s attention, and he glances over from kissing the tip of my cock and pauses what he’s doing.
“Goddamn,” he whispers
, and I have to nudge his head.
“Don’t you dare fucking stop,” I growl, which earns me a chuckle. Celeste peeks over her shoulder at me with a raised eyebrow. “You either, sweetness. I’m watching. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“For now,” she says, and gives me a sly smile.
Leo dutifully returns his attention to my cock and I stare down at him, easing my hold on his head and nodding my encouragement. “Suck me,” I whisper.
His brows twitch and his eyelids flutter closed, then he opens his mouth, carefully covers his teeth with his lips, and engulfs me in one smooth movement. His tongue glides along the underside of my shaft, and I stop breathing until his chin hits my balls.
The pop and squeeze of the lube bottle snaps my attention back to Celeste just in time for her to upend it over her ass and drizzle the clear fluid over her tight rear hole. She picks up the enormous plug and swirls it around and around, back and forth until it’s fully coated, then starts to work the tapered tip in.
Jesus Christ, these two are trying to kill me for real. Or at least put me out of my misery, and I’m more than happy to surrender to them.
Leo starts to suck, obviously desperate to watch what she’s doing because his head keeps tilting to the side. I tighten my hold on his hair and pull.
“Focus,” I demand, tilting my hips as he descends on my cock. “Make me come hard enough and you can fuck her first.”
His eyes blink up at me, flashing with a combination of irritation, amusement, and acquiescence. He goes for broke on my cock, grabbing me by both ass cheeks and swallowing me whole, sucking so perfectly the room spins.
Celeste’s teasing is what grounds me, and I am transfixed by the slow and steady way she works the massive plug bit by bit into her tight little asshole. She lets out a raspy moan once it’s finally in, then lets go of it, leaving me staring at the bejeweled end still visible outside her body. She looks over her shoulder at me again, then at Leo, and moans more breathily this time as she strums her clit.
