by Penelope Sky
Damien looked away and sipped his wine. “You have nothing to offer.”
“You’re giving me nothing to work with.”
“You have a pussy, don’t you? Look at you. How hard is it to get this guy pussy-whipped?”
I was the one who was dick-whipped. Cato was the most amazing hunk I’d ever been with. I was just another woman in a very long line of beautiful women to him. “This guy is too smart for that. There’s no way he could become so successful by ever being stupid. You picked the wrong guy to cross. I saw him execute someone right in his driveway. You should pick a different target.”
Damien shook his head. “It’s gotta be him.”
“Why?”
“Because if we take him down, we’ll own everything—and not just the drug trade.”
“You’re forgetting his brother.” Bates was clearly just as shrewd as Cato.
“He’ll be easy to take down once we have Cato.”
I’d been out of the game for a long time, but I knew Damien was oversimplifying this task.
“Are you going to deliver or not? I should know now. It costs money to keep feeding your father. And if I can start fucking you now, I’ll stop wasting my time with this wine.” He pushed the glass away and looked me up and down.
I didn’t have a trick up my sleeve or any idea how I was going to accomplish this. Cato was too smart to fall for something so dumb. I let him conquer me in bed, but it seemed like he’d gotten me under his thumb instead of the other way around. But the thought of my father reminded me what I was fighting for. “Give me more time.”
I hadn’t spoken to Cato since I’d slipped out of his house a few days ago. Maybe he was pissed I left. Maybe he didn’t care. I had no idea. Sleeping with him might have brought us closer together, but more than likely, it had turned me into another conquest he could forget about.
If that was the case, I was screwed.
When I got off work at the gallery, I walked to the grocery store to pick up a few things to make dinner. I usually made a few meals and then brought the leftovers to work to save money—and to keep the inches off my waistline. Walking to the store was good too, since I usually sat around at the gallery all day.
I was in the canned food section when someone appeared beside me, a tall man with midnight-black hair. He was in jeans and a black t-shirt, his head tilted down like he was trying to hide his face. He came close to me, too close for someone just browsing.
“Why don’t you back up, buddy?” I pivoted my body toward him and kept my basket between us just in case I needed to hit him with it.
He turned my way slightly, an enormous grin on his face.
I recognized that grin. “Landon?”
He kept scanning the cans of beans on the rack. “Keep your voice down.”
The shock hadn’t worn off, and the warmest feeling spread throughout my chest. Hot summer days with freshly mowed grass came to mind, along with the small bikes we would leave in the roundabout. I thought of fresh cookies out of the oven at Christmas time, thought of all the times he would hide my dolls and force me to search for them. “I don’t care.” I set the basket on the ground then moved into his side for a hug. I buried my face into his chest, and I smelled his cologne, immediately recognizing it. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
Landon didn’t push me off, but he hardly gave me a pat on the back. “Pull yourself together, Siena. People are looking for me, and I know people are watching you. So get off.”
I pulled away reluctantly, heartbroken I couldn’t give my brother a proper hug. We’d never been particularly close, but blood was blood. With Father gone, he was all I had left in the world. “I’m sorry… I’m just so happy to see you.”
He grabbed a can off the rack and pretended to read the label. “I know what happened to Father, and I know what Micah and Damien are expecting you to do. You need to forget about it. Take off and run.”
That was the last thing I expected Landon to say. “And leave Father to his fate?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he whispered. “It’s not your problem, Siena. You didn’t want anything to do with this life, and you shouldn’t have to get your hands dirty now. I’m sorry you got involved in the first place.”
Even if I wanted to run, I couldn’t. There was nowhere to go. “Can we meet somewhere? You know, so I can actually look at you when I talk to you? So I can actually hug you?”
He put the can back on the shelf and sighed, his height towering over mine. “Where? We can’t meet at your house.”
“A bar,” I suggested. “Somewhere in the back.”
“Alright. I’ll meet you at Baron’s at ten.” He walked away without another word.
I wanted to watch him go, but I focused on looking straight ahead. Just when my world had become so bleak and dark, a ray of sunshine popped through. My brother was on the run because the business had been dismantled, and I was working for the enemies that took everything from us. But at least if we had each other…we had something.
Landon was already there when I walked inside. A glass of booze sat in front of him, and judging by his track record, it was probably his third or fourth glass.
I sat across from him at the table in the back, my eyes taking him in with a slight film. My brother and I had drifted apart over the last few years, and now that I was looking at him, I couldn’t understand why I’d allowed that to happen.
He showed a cold stare, the same one my father wore most of the time. Landon’s fingers rested around his glass, and he glanced around us every few minutes, checking for unfriendly eyes. His beard was gone, and his green eyes were bright despite his obvious sadness. “Don’t fuck with Cato Marino. That guy is a monster.”
Yes, I’d seen it firsthand. “I know.” Cato was cold as ice and so pragmatic he didn’t seem human. All he cared about was sex, booze, and money. Without a heart, he didn’t hesitate before he ended someone’s life forever. He traveled in a huge caravan everywhere he went because he knew the world was full of his enemies.
“If he suspects you, he’ll wring your neck.”
“I know that too.”
He glanced around the bar before he looked at me, the hostility in his eyes. “Then you need to leave. Grab your things and take off.” He reached inside his blazer and pulled out a thick envelope stuffed with cash. He set it on the table between us. “That should be more than enough for whatever you need.”
It was sweet my brother wanted to take care of me, but I didn’t need his support. I pushed the money back toward him. “I don’t need it. But thank you.”
A sigh escaped his lips. “Now isn’t the time to be stubborn.”
“I’m not being stubborn. I’m not leaving Father behind. He doesn’t deserve my loyalty, but I can’t just leave him like that.”
Landon bowed his head slightly and looked into his glass. “You have absolutely no chance of tricking Cato. You’re just going to get yourself killed.”
“And if I get killed, so be it.”
Landon’s eyes narrowed in hostility, like that was the worst thing I could have said. “I don’t want this. Father doesn’t want this.”
“But we’re family—and we’re in this together.”
He ran his hand through his short black hair, his jaw still clenched with ferocity. We always bumped heads because we were equally stubborn. Landon wanted to be the alpha, but I’d been the alpha since the day I was born. I’d never been the push-over type. Instead of wearing a pretty dress and keeping my mouth shut at a party, I was the one who spoke the loudest. He respected me for it, but during times like these, he also hated me for it. “It’s a suicide mission. Cato is at the top of the food chain for a reason. You think you’re going to outsmart him?”
“I don’t know what I think right now. I’m feeling him out.”
Landon didn’t directly ask about my relationship with Cato. He knew I was sleeping with him to get what I wanted, but that was such an awkward subject that he didn’t want to open it fo
r discussion. “Father didn’t make the sacrifices he should have made for our family. It doesn’t make sense for you to make any now.”
“I agree. But if I can make this work, I can get Father back and we can start over. Maybe we can move to France and open a wine shop or something. At least we’ll be together…” I hadn’t felt whole ever since our mother passed away and our family disbanded. There had always been a piece of my heart missing, a void no one could ever fill.
He gave me a look full of pity. “Even if we could rescue Father, that’s unlikely. They’ll hunt us down until we’re all annihilated. That’s why I’m telling you this plan is stupid. Even if you save Father, what then?”
“And you can really sleep at night letting him die?” I challenged, refusing to believe my brother would be that much of a coward.
He held my gaze but didn’t answer.
“I’m not leaving Father behind. I admit my plan with Cato isn’t the best—”
“He will kill you.” Landon squeezed his glass with his fingertips. “Siena, you don’t know this world the way I do. You don’t understand what these men are capable of. Just because you’re a beautiful woman doesn’t mean he won’t torture and kill you. It doesn’t mean he won’t give you the greatest agony before he finally puts a bullet in your brain. You have a strong confidence that gives you an unrealistic belief that you can accomplish anything. Siena, it doesn’t matter how good you fuck him, he will see right through you. He’s the smartest, most cunning man in the world. I say you drop this approach and we figure something else out.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Any time I was in that fortress, I knew I was outnumbered. Anytime I was alone with Cato, I knew he could do whatever he wanted to me. “What other option do we have?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Even if I wanted to walk away, I’m working for him now.”
“Then finish the job and disappear.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Then resign. Get someone else to replace you.”
“Don’t you think that would draw more suspicion?” I asked. “Not to mention, piss him off? I already slept with him, so the damage is done.”
If Landon was uncomfortable, he didn’t show it. “And what is his attitude toward you?”
I shrugged. “We haven’t spoken.”
Landon took a long drink from his glass. “Then your plan failed. He’s the same womanizer he was before. No surprise there.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So maybe you can get out of this unscathed. Just finish the job and leave. Keep Damien on the hook. Maybe we can figure out a different plan in the meantime.”
“What kind of plan?” I asked. “They have hundreds of men working for them. What do we have?” Our business, our reputation, and our money had been stripped away from us. Now we were both victims without protection. Our men had abandoned us, and now we were just two lone wolves.
He shrugged. “We have each other—it’s a start.”
13
Cato
When I got out of the shower, Siena had already left. She did the walk of shame and asked one of my men to take her back to Florence. I expected her to still be in bed when I walked out with the towel around my waist. I expected her to stay for a few hours.
But she disappeared the second the opportunity presented itself.
She couldn’t sit still.
I didn’t have to wonder if the sex was good for her because I could feel it anytime I was inside of her. She was so wet the condom didn’t experience any friction. She was so wet I could get my fat dick inside without issue. And she sucked my dick like nothing in the world would make her happier.
But when she got her fix, she disappeared.
I’d never seen that before.
Bates and I had a meeting with our Chinese clients at the estate, and after several hours of crunching numbers, they finally departed the property. More money was in our accounts, hiding in plain sight from their government. Some of it would be used to fund the Skull Kings and their weapons project. Money was taken from some piles and dropped into others. It was the nature of the business.
Bates helped himself to the decanter of scotch then relaxed in his leather chair around the conference table.
I shut the folder in front of me, partially thinking about the money I’d just made and partially thinking about the woman I’d fucked two days ago. Still hadn’t heard a word from her. She hadn’t come to the estate to continue decorating it.
She just disappeared.
“What’s on your mind?” Bates asked. “Money or pussy?”
“What if it’s neither?”
He chuckled before he took another drink. “It’s never neither. Which is it?”
I’d been thinking about pussy a lot more than money lately. “Siena.”
“And what’s new with her? Haven’t seen her around lately.”
“Neither have I.” I ignored my scotch because I wasn’t in the mood for booze. A cigar would be nice, but I didn’t have the energy to get up and fetch one. Giovanni was always two seconds away, but I was too proud to have the man wait on me hand and foot.
“Really?” he asked. “That’s interesting.”
I didn’t do much kissing and telling. Bates knew about my rendezvous because he usually witnessed them directly, but I rarely mentioned them out of context. I’d finally had Siena and assumed I would forget about her now that her name was carved into my bedpost. But I was even more confused than I had been before. “She stayed over the other night.”
Bates watched me, his hostility slowly filling the room. “How’d that go?”
I skipped the details. “I haven’t stopped thinking about her.”
“Then it went really well. You’re usually bored by the time you get into the shower.”
I definitely wasn’t bored this time. She was the only woman in my bed, and that seemed to be perfect for me. My fingers drummed against the table as I pictured the way she looked underneath me. With her ass in the air and her face pressed into the sheets, she was the sexiest thing in the world.
Bates studied me for a moment longer. “I was hoping this interest would burn out like all the others.”
I knew my brother was suspicious of her, but I believed she was harmless. If she really had negative intentions, she wouldn’t be so cold and distant. It seemed like she genuinely hated me, but her attraction to me kept her in place. She wasn’t like the others, the ones who threw themselves at me in the hope something would stick. “She’s harmless, man.”
Just like every other time he made a speech, he sighed before he spoke. “I did some digging. I didn’t like what I found.”
“How many parking tickets does she have?”
Bates didn’t laugh. “I’m serious, Cato. She’s Siena Russo.”
Was that name supposed to mean something to me? “Russo is a common surname, Bates.”
“She’s the daughter of Stefan Russo.”
Now that name did mean something to me. Stefan had a drug enterprise. He smuggled his goods in cigars. He’d asked me for money on many occasions, but I always turned him down because we could never agree on a mutually beneficial interest rate.
Bates held my gaze, knowing this information was important. “You don’t think it’s a strange coincidence that she follows you around and gets a job working where you sleep almost every night?”
I was the most paranoid man on the planet. I didn’t trust anyone—except my own brother. Even then, that was difficult to do sometimes. “You think this woman is here to take me down? What’s she going to do, Bates? She can’t get a gun past security, and she certainly couldn’t fight me off. Even if she did, how is she going to get me out of here? I admit it’s a weird coincidence, but that doesn’t mean she’s guilty of anything.”
Bates tensed visibly like a snake, as if he wanted to lunge at me with a knife raised. “I know you like pussy, but come on. How stupid are you?”
&n
bsp; “I’m not stupid. I’m just not afraid of a woman who’s a little over five feet tall. She’s been working at that gallery for five years, so it’s not like this was all some setup. If it is, then she and her father have been plotting this for a long time.”
“Actually, she hasn’t spoken to her father in five years. When her mother passed away, they stopped speaking.”
I hardly knew this woman so I shouldn’t care about her feelings, but sympathy immediately tugged on my heart. Not only did she lose her mother, but she also lost her father. “Why?”
He shrugged. “From what I can gather, Siena blamed him for her mother’s death. She wanted him to walk away from the business because it wasn’t safe. Her mother was taken as a hostage and then murdered. That’s when Siena turned her back.”
Again, I shouldn’t care. But I did care. “She didn’t want anything to do with the business.”
“I guess not.”
“Which is why she got a job at the gallery.”
Bates shrugged again.
“She’s not a threat, Bates. She’s just a woman trying to get by. Everyone in Italy has ties to the criminal underworld. It’s impossible to meet someone who doesn’t.”
“I still think it’s too much of a coincidence. If she wants nothing to do with the underworld, why is she working for you?”
“She wants to decorate my house with artwork, not work in one of our offices. She’s still sticking to her own discipline.”
He shook his head. “Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t think I am. The last thing I want to say is I told you so.”
“If she has no connection to her family, then what’s the harm?” I questioned. “It’s not like she has a group of men she’s reporting to. She’s completely on her own, and even though she’s got a serious attitude, one woman is no threat to us.”
Bates dropped the argument because he knew he didn’t have a case. “I just wanted you to know. Do whatever you want with the information.”