Queen of the Underworld

by Lee Savino

  She was cute. He smiled. “Don’t I?” But he stood up and sobered, coming around the table. This wasn’t something to be taken lightly. “I mean it, Cora. I’m talking about bad shit.”

  Cora jerked her head back in surprise, probably at hearing him swear. He almost never did around her. His father had raised him better than to swear around women. But he had to get it through her head about Waters.

  Marcus moved around the table to where she stood. “He’s dangerous.”

  “I can handle dangerous.”

  Did she mean that as a challenge?

  “Can you, Mrs. Ubeli?” He moved forward.

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “No, Cora? Why not?”

  “We’re separated right now. I don’t know if I want to be Mrs. Ubeli right now.”

  Marcus stepped into her space, only inches between them. Her breathing grew shorter, her bosom rising and falling in response to him.

  “If you don’t want to be Mrs. Ubeli,” he said in a voice dangerously low. “Why are you still wearing your wedding ring?”

  She blinked, but before she could tear her eyes away from his gray ones, he took her left hand, and raised it slowly to his lips and kissed her cold fingers, without taking his eyes from hers. The diamonds sparkled between them, the more subtle garnets flashing red.

  She tried to snatch her hand back, but he gripped it harder. Her breath caught and she swallowed hard. “I was cleaning last night…I don’t remember.”

  A visible shiver went through her and gods, her response drove him crazy. He wanted her. He wanted her so badly that sometimes he couldn’t sleep at night but for the wanting and the memory of her body beside his in the bed.

  “I’ve decided I want a divorce,” she whispered, finally taking a step back from him.

  He laughed.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “All right.” He shrugged. “I can grant you a divorce.”

  She stared, obviously not believing.

  “You want a divorce, I’ll give it to you.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Whatever you want, on one condition.” He held up a finger. “You talk to me, really talk. And we try to make it work first.”

  “Marcus…” She lifted a hand to her head like he was making her dizzy.

  “Cora, you’re still running. You wanted space, I gave it to you. You want my money? I’ll give every cent and work harder for more.” He closed the distance she’d put between them.

  “What are you doing? Marcus.” She backed up as he came forward, crowding her into the wall beside the coffee bar. All his Shades had wisely disappeared and taken up an outside perimeter. It was just the two of them in the entire shop.

  He stopped her with a finger to her lips. “Whatever you want, I can get it. All I want is you.”

  “You can’t have me.” She shook her head but her eyes were full of confusion and, if he wasn’t wrong, longing. “I don’t want to lose myself in you. You’re too…powerful.”

  “Is that what you want? To be powerful?” The small space between them was magnetic, drawing her closer to him. He hoped his gaze seared her the way hers did him. It was his only saving grace—that the obsession wasn’t his alone. As much as she tried to deny it, he knew she felt it too.

  “What you didn’t understand was that you had the power. All along.” He lifted her hand. “Together we could be more.” He kissed her palm.

  Her breaths grew even shorter and finally she whispered, “I’m afraid of you.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her.

  “I’m afraid of how you make me feel. I’m afraid of us. You swallow me up.” And then she leaned in as if she couldn’t stop herself from breathing him in. She halted only an inch away and when she shook her head ever so slightly, their noses brushed.

  “My feelings,” she murmured, “my attraction to you, they overwhelm me.”

  He nuzzled his nose against hers. Even this simplest touch felt life-giving. “Isn’t that just life? Being afraid and acting anyway?”

  She closed her eyes as if to ward him off even as their foreheads touched.

  “You can’t manipulate me, Marcus. Not anymore. Not after everything I’ve proven to you. Proven to myself.”

  “Why do you have to prove yourself to me? Who told you that you’re not enough?”

  She pulled away from him, pain welling up in her eyes.

  “There it is,” Marcus said. “That’s why you push me away, even though we have something good. Something amazing. You don’t think you deserve it.”

  Tears spilled, sliding down her cheeks. She was hurting and hurting deeply. Why wouldn’t she talk to him?

  “Come with me,” he tried one last time.

  She shook her head and swiped at her cheeks. “I can’t.”

  Marcus offered her his handkerchief.

  “Thank you.” She used the white square of fabric to dry her eyes, but didn’t look at him.

  As much as it killed him and as much as he wanted to throw her over his shoulder, pushing her right now wasn’t going to get him anywhere. A little longer. He could give her a little longer.

  But he wasn’t giving up either. “This isn’t over.”

  “So bossy,” she sniffed, and laughed.

  “That’s right, Mrs. Ubeli.” He leaned in and kissed her temple. She closed her eyes, her entire body relaxing into him.

  He slid a finger along her jaw and stepped away, breaking her trance.

  “My men will be tailing you from now on. Don’t try to slip away.”

  Nine

  For the next couple of weeks, Cora ran around New Olympus. By day she worked in Olivia’s office, keeping tabs on the brilliant but hopeless Pig (Saturday morning she found him asleep at his desk, still clutching a Sugar Juice can), wrapping up things with Armand’s party and linking her model clients with gigs. By night she first packed up her stuff for the move and unpacked herself at her new apartment before falling into an exhausted sleep.

  She thought constantly of Marcus. Their talk at the coffee shop had shaken her. She was alone with her thoughts, too, since all her friends were busy—Olivia had headed off to the west coast “to shake down a supplier,” her words, and Anna had been offered a role in Max Mars’s newest feature film, so she was never around. Armand was off the table because he was in cahoots with Marcus, and Maeve was busy opening a second shelter location downtown.

  And what else was there to say, really, even if Cora did have someone to talk to?

  When she’d come to the big city, she’d been running from her abusive mother and the smallness of farmhouse life. The move had been her chance to establish herself. Instead, she’d run straight into Marcus’s arms and allowed herself to be absorbed into his already perfectly ordered life. Marcus lived in a dangerous world, one that forced him to maintain a high level of control just to survive. It was natural for him to order her the way he liked, too. On some level, she’d even liked him controlling her.

  But he’d never truly let her be a part of his world. He wanted to lock her up like a princess in a tower. It didn’t work like that, though. Being anywhere in his sphere meant you were swallowed in the darkness too.

  And when she tried to help an innocent girl escape it… She shook her head as she unpacked her last box. She’d been fighting forces she didn’t understand and had only made everything worse. So much worse.

  So she’d run again, to give herself a second chance to order her own life the way she pleased. To live in the light, or try to.

  Even though, after the confrontation in the coffee shop, she had the feeling that her reprieve was over, and her husband was going to start taking over her life again.

  She couldn’t let him. She would have to prove to him how strong she was, even living on her own.

  It didn’t matter that being near him was the only time she’d felt alive in months. It didn’t matter that even now, her hand tingled with the memory of his touch. She ran her fingers over her palm.<
br />
  All I want is you.

  A shutter rocked her body at the memory of the burning intensity of his eyes… Gah! She shoved the box of toiletries away from her and stood up.

  What was she doing? She moved out of the bathroom and into the living room of her new loft apartment. A low woof greeted her and Brutus, the huge Great Dane mix puppy she’d adopted from the shelter after getting her apartment, all but bowled her over as he rushed over to meet her.

  She laughed and scratched his head, crouching down. “Who’s a good boy?”

  Another happy woof.

  She sighed, looking around her sparsely furnished apartment. She’d gotten most of her furniture off of BuyStuff.com and filled in the rest with thrift store finds. But she needed to get some rugs before it really felt cozy and like a home.

  “Wanna go for a walk?”

  Woof.

  Cora smiled. “Okay, give me a second. I want to check my bank balance. We’ll go by an ATM and stop by the farmer’s market on the way home.”

  She grabbed Brutus’s leash and opened up her laptop on the kitchen table. “Come here, boy,” she patted her leg as she sat down and logged into her bank account to make sure her most recent paycheck had hit.

  Brutus trotted towards her and she was busy attaching his leash, so at first she didn’t see the balance. And when she glanced over back to the screen, she was sure she’d seen it wrong. But when she choked and dragged the laptop closer, nope, she saw that the huge number was her balance, even though it was larger than it ought to have been. Off by two numbers and a comma… She clicked to see more details.

  Reading through the deposit history, she found her paycheck, looking pathetic sandwiched between two large sums transferred directly into her account.

  From her husband’s account.

  She shot out of her chair so suddenly that Brutus barked twice. How dare Marcus? She was going to kill him. But a reaction was exactly what he was looking for. She paced back and forth, Brutus following at her heels. Of course he was, she was holding his leash.

  She cringed. “Sorry, boy. Let’s go for that walk.”

  She was still steamed half an hour later when they got back from the park. Especially since there had been two of Marcus’s men shadowing them the entire time when normally there was only one.

  And when she returned to the building, she noticed two more stern-faced men in black waiting outside her apartment. One of them had no neck.

  “Really?” she sighed, shoving the keys in the lock.

  One of them followed her in. “Mr. Ubeli would like you to stay close to us at all times. If you need to go somewhere, a car will be available for you.”

  “I don’t care what Mr. Ubeli told you. I don’t like being tailed. I want to feel normal. And I’m fine taking the bus.”

  She’d slammed the door in their face.

  She fed Brutus and was getting herself some rice and vegetables when her phone rang. What now? To her surprise, though, she saw it was Anna.

  “Hey, what’s up?

  “Cora! I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever. Everything’s been so crazy with the movie and Max. But tomorrow is my first official day on set—and I was hoping for some moral support. I’m allowed to have an assistant. Will you come?”

  “Let me check.” Cora checked tomorrow’s schedule on her phone. Nothing on the agenda. “Sure thing. I can come.”

  “Okay, great!” Anna squealed and gave her the details of when and where to meet her in the morning.

  Cora heard a man’s voice in the background and Anna giggled. “Okay, I gotta go. Max is here. But we’ll talk tomorrow?”

  “See you then.” But Cora had barely gotten the words out before Anna hung up. Cora shook her head. Young love.

  Then she laughed at herself. When had she gotten so old and jaded? She’d only recently turned twenty.

  It was chilly so she lit a fire in the fireplace. She grabbed her laptop and worked in bed, already feeling it was going to be one of those nights when sleep wouldn’t come.

  The fire had burned down, leaving only the moon’s cool glow. Cora kissed down her husband’s bare chest, loving how the smooth muscles clenched under her lips. Marcus drew her back up and took her mouth while his fingers fucked her, sliding easily in and out of her wetness.

  She hovered over him, eyelids fluttering with ecstasy. Marcus smiled his shark’s grin. And then he took his hand from her and replaced it with his cock, slamming up into her. Her breath caught as she felt herself stretch around him.

  “Say my name,” Marcus whispered.

  There was no other choice but to obey. There never had been.

  “Marcus!” she cried, and shattered.

  The orgasm woke her. Cora was still panting and clenching, her hands fisting the sheets even as her eyes popped open and she came back to consciousness.

  Not real. It wasn’t real.

  She whimpered and clenched her thighs together, feeling terribly, terribly empty. She’d come but she’d never experienced a more unsatisfying climax in her life.

  The ghost of Marcus was nothing compared to the real thing, no matter how genuine it felt in the dream. She wanted to cry in frustration. Maybe she should buy a vibrator. She rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. She had a feeling that nothing would satisfy her other than the real thing, though.

  Ugh! She threw her sheets off and swung her legs out of bed.

  At least she had going to see Anna to look forward to today. Cora could seriously use a distraction.

  She dressed in what she hoped was an appropriate backstage outfit—comfortable low-heeled boots, tights, a skirt and a nerdy tee that Olivia had given her. She took Brutus out, immediately irritated when Marcus’s men shadowed them far closer than normal. And after she brought Brutus back and fed both him and herself, there was a car waiting when she exited the building.

  No Neck stood waiting patiently. “We’re happy to take you wherever you need to go today, Mrs. Ubeli.”

  Normally she would take the bus. Normal people took the bus.

  Whatever. If Marcus wanted his men to tail her, at least it meant she could provide car service for her friend.

  She called Anna. “Don’t worry about getting to work. I’ll be by to pick you up in fifteen.”

  They picked up Anna outside Olivia’s apartment building.

  “Cora, it’s amazing,” Anna gushed. She was glowing. “Everything’s falling into place. Just like I remember it.”

  “You used to act?”

  “Small commercials and a few indie movies. My mom wanted me to be a famous actress.”

  “She’d be proud.”

  “Yeah.” Anna looked out the window, quieting, her face sad. Feeling a little guilty, Cora reached out and squeezed her knee. Anna turned, her smile springing back into place. Cora felt the familiar rush of friendship.

  As they approached the movie studio, a guard station slowed them.

  “Anna Flores and my friend Cora.” Anna rolled her own window down to show the paperwork. “I have passes for both of us.”

  “And these men?” The two guards at the station frowned at the two men in black sitting in the front seat.

  Anna looked at Cora, who shrugged.

  “I’m sorry,” the guard said. “But they’ll have to remain here.”

  “Mrs. Ubeli—” No Neck started but Cora had already opened her door and was stepping out.

  “You heard the man, you can’t go further,” Cora sing-songed as she pulled Anna after her. Besides, it was a closed movie set. It wasn’t like anyone could get at her here. She and Anna escaped the car and trotted quickly past the gate.

  The Shades both opened the door to follow, but the movie set guards started yelling at them to stop. Cora glanced back. Her bodyguards weren’t following, but No Neck had a frustrated look on his face. His phone was already out, and probably speed dialing her husband.

  “Still fighting with Marcus?” Anna murmured.

  “Irreconcilable dif
ferences.”

  Anna lifted an eyebrow as they walked through one warehouse and another, passing people carrying lumber and tools.

  “It’s great that the set is so close to home and not on the west coast.” Cora saw two men struggling to move a giant ornate staircase on wheels.

  ‘I’ll probably end up finishing the film there, but they want some outdoor action scenes with the natural background. And they got a huge tax credit for doing it here.”

  As they entered the next warehouse, Cora felt her purse start to vibrate angrily. Probably Marcus. No doubt that No Neck had tattled on her. She pulled out the burner phone and silenced it without answering.

  People bustled all around them. The craft services table was filled with pastries, fruit trays and coffee. Cora and Anna helped themselves to hot drinks and wandered out into the activity.

  “There he is.” Anna nodded towards Max Mars. He was handsome, tall, and well-built, but too…well, pretty for Cora’s tastes. He matched Anna perfectly, though. He flashed a smile and headed right for them.

  “Hey,” he said in his signature sexy voice.

  “Hola, Papi.” Anna’s smile curved her red lips as she went right up to him and hugged him. Holy crap, Anna was hugging one of the biggest movie stars on the planet! He might not be Cora’s type but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still starstruck.

  Max smiled down at Anna, the suppressed desire obvious between them. Cora could almost see the sparks flying, their desire for each other was so obvious. But they didn’t kiss, just wound one arm around each other’s waist, as if posing for a picture of the most perfect couple ever.

  “This is my friend, Cora,” Anna said and Max Mars turned his mega-watt smile on her. His infamous dimple popped out, leaving Cora totally dazzled. She opened her mouth, then closed it, speechless at seeing the beautiful man up close. He had adorably tousled hair and wore a t-shirt that read, “I do all my own stunts.”

  Still a little dazed by being so close to a celebrity, she said the first thing that popped into her head, “Do you really?” She motioned to the shirt, “Do all your own stunts?”