I’d sensed it, then it happened and I saw him balls deep in one of the women who was begging for more.
That was the person my father wanted me to marry.
He released my hand and Pa moved to take his seat.
“This is nice. I am happy that the three of us can sit like this together,” Pa began.
I tensed when Pa looked at Armand with a proud smile.
Armand returned the smile, gazing over me. “I appreciate the invitation like everything else you have given me. You set me up for life and that is something I will always be grateful for.”
It was all so fake. He wasn’t grateful. He was lucky. That was what it was. Luck was different to just showing some form of gratitude for something that had been given to you. Pa gave him that luck on the basis of that old familial bond our families shared.
No, there were no prior arrangements for me to be with him, but it didn’t bode well when I was with him. Seeds were sewn that I never wanted to plant.
“Armand, I appreciate your gratitude. You’ve always been good to me.” Pa straightened up in his chair and shuffled so he could look at me and Armand. “We are here tonight for a special purpose. That purpose is your union. You Armand Ricci and my bellezza, Jia Marchesi. A union that will not just be one of love but one of strength.”
A union of love and strength?
No, this wouldn’t be that at all. Yes it would make Armand stronger because he’d get some part of Pa’s billion dollar empire, but me? I would just be a means to his end.
His words just pushed the last part of me out the window. Just shoved my hopes and dreams to the back of beyond. They coursed through my veins like poison. Slow and sure. Hitting the mark and killing me slowly, softly. Surely.
“A union of love and strength,” Armand agreed.
What a hypocrite. He had the audacity to reach for my hand and give it a gentle squeeze.
“That is what I want for the two of you. Armand, I don’t have to tell you my child means everything to me.” Pa spoke to Armand but he was looking at me. He looked at me as he said those words. He focused on me, aimed the words at me then switched his focus to Armand. “Jia means everything to me. She is everything to me and the greatest gift I will give to you to take care of. We have spoken a few times about this union and it’s time to speak about it together as one. The three of us, especially in light of what is happening. The danger that lurks.”
“I agree.” Armand nodded.
“So the grand plan is this… In ten days you leave for Italy. You will leave for Italy and you are not to return until I give the all clear. No matter how long that may be. You must not return. Jia, I have arranged for you to further your art studies at the Accademia delle Belle Arti Florence. You will join late but you are enrolled. That is my gift to you for your artistic abilities. I however do not expect it to interfere with your upcoming wedding and duties as a wife. I have set the wedding to take place in a month’s time. We will join you in Italy for the occasion. After that, Armand and I will discuss the portions of the business I want him to have control over. ”
Going to the Belle Arti Florence had been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I should have been over the moon to hear I was finally getting the chance my heart had dreamed of for so long.
The rest of that plan however killed it, it killed it and the dream too.
I’d willed the tears away all evening. It worked because there was nothing left of me, no tears left to cry. They were all gone.
“My thanks to you Giovanni. I can’t thank you enough. It’s perfect.” Armand raised his glass of wine and gave Pa a curt nod. “We all get everything we ever wanted.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Pa joined in and raised his glass too. He looked to me, his eyes beckoning me to raise my glass too.
I did not.
* * *
Armand took me home.
There was no point in arguing or protesting that I didn’t want him to take me home or be anywhere near me.
I just had to accept it.
And accept it when he walked inside the house and followed me up to my bedroom.
But… that was as far as my acceptance went.
He looked at me with raw sexual desire that made me sick.
We’d driven in silence on the way here.
The sound was the car engine and car itself as it drove down the road, now the silence of tension surrounded us.
I stood by my bed looking at him and he was just by the door frame.
“You really can’t stand it can you?” he asked. A menacing expression washed over his face.
“What part?” I countered.
“You tell me baby. I don’t know what riles you up more. The part about going to Europe with me or being my little slut.” He chuckled and stepped closer.
How quickly he’d changed and showed his true colors.
“I can’t stand any part of it,” I answered standing a little taller.
“You will like it, every part of it. You will. I told you weeks ago you’ll come back to me. I told you you’d be mine again and look how the tables turned in my favor.” The smile inched up his face and made his dark eyes look like coal. Like heated coal that had turned black before burning on a fire.
“Have they though? This is how you got me back? Not asking for forgiveness because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.”
“Love your smart mouth baby. My dick will soon be in your mouth.”
Bile rose in my throat and I could have thrown up. The acid churned my stomach and weakened me.
“You had to get me back by going through my father. That was how you did it. Like tying me up to beat me, neither is real.”
He stepped closer and I backed away.
One step forward and I took one backward until I was against the wall.
He placed his hands either side of me and looked me over with that raw seduction. Evil seduction that reeked of greed and everything I never wanted.
“It doesn’t matter, Jia. It doesn’t matter one ounce of a fuck because I have you, doesn’t matter how I got you. I have you back and guess what?” He leaned in close to my ear and sickened me further when he blew out his hot breath over my neck and cupped my left breast. I grabbed his hand to stop him but he stopped me and held me still. “Jia, I simply can’t wait to fuck you again. Mark my word you’ll enjoy it. Just like you used to.”
He squeezed my breast and I couldn’t break free.
“Let go of me!”
“You would do well to start practicing enjoying me from now. Or else that asshole Xander will get the full report to the boss from me. I’ll let your father know how much his newest recruit is interfering with our upcoming union. I may even get to enjoy the pleasure of killing him myself.”
That threat was enough to make me stop.
Xander again. There I was thinking about him, as if…
No matter what, I didn’t want him dead. I was the fool again.
“You are mine Jia, whether you want to be or not.” Armand hissed into my ear and I felt like dying.
He backed away, releasing me but with a sneer.
A sneer that promised me the doom I feared.
It definitely made me wish for death.
Chapter 5
Xander
The park Wes found was approximately two miles from The Grand Marchesi.
It was small. More of a kids playground with a merry-go-round in the center. Opposite it was a chapel of love where people got hitched on a nightly basis.
The park was the area of our concern since the tunnels led right into the casino’s secret underground chamber.
Wes and I spent the last few nights doing the groundwork where we analyzed the surroundings and checked out the place.
Tonight was when we planned to go down into the tunnels and set up to break into the chamber.
That was just the first part of the said plan.
We’d only know what to do next once we got inside since th
ere was no surveillance on the inside to hack into. Even in the normal part of Giovanni’s quarters in the casino he’d called the Castle there was no surveillance past a certain point. That was where he kept all his secrets and where I’d initially thought the blueprints were being held.
Tonight when we got down in the chamber it would be old school breaking and entering, then looking around. We’d also be putting our own surveillance down there because there was no way I’d leave it to instinct to venture into the unknown looking for the blueprints without some sort of back up.
Even if that was all we did tonight.
Getting to know Giovanni as I had over the last few weeks I knew right off the bat that it would be wishful thinking to hope we’d simply get into the chamber and find the prints just like that.
That of course was assuming we were right about them being there, which I truly hoped we were.
Providing we were, and we were able to at least locate the area or enclosure he was keeping them, then the next part of the plan would be the grab and go mission. An in and out onetime thing, balls to the wall mission that had to succeed.
Until I met Wes later, I was resuming my duties as a knight. I’d just finished my shift with Vinny in the Castle courtyard and was walking the casino floor to make sure all was in order.
The busyness of the place never ceased to amaze me, it was fucking busy all the damn time.
At least the continuous round of people flowing through stopped me from looking for Jia.
I was doing my best to get her out of my system. A little like how I did my best to get Claire’s death out of my mind.
Not forget, no… never forget.
Claire would always be there and part of my heart would always belong to her because she was my first love. Thinking of her always made me think back to how we met. How I met her father. Jack, the man I’d avoided for the last few years because I couldn’t face him. I wasn’t able to take care of his daughter the way I said I would.
And, I really wasn’t doing myself any favors by thinking about that now.
It didn’t do anyone any favors. I just thought you couldn’t put a leash on something your heart wanted. Didn’t matter what it was.
Right now I couldn’t explain to anyone what it was doing to me to stand back and watch while I essentially lost Jia to Armand.
Yes, I may have lost her all by myself with the secrets and lies. However, losing her to a guy I knew she wouldn’t be happy with enraged me. The same way it enraged me to see him driving away last night with two hookers in the back seat of his car.
The mother fucking asshole couldn’t have even picked the women up from somewhere else, he had to do it right in the open for the guys to see.
That was just one thing. The next was seeing him making out with Maria, the waitress, in that same car at lunch time. He’d driven off with her too.
Again I’d watched. All I could do was hope his fucking dick either fell off or someone chopped it off.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket cutting into my thoughts. I pulled it out to answer it, frowning deeply when I saw it was Giovanni.
“Yes boss?” I answered, not bothering to hide the disdain in my tone.
“Smart ass. I can hear the rudeness in your voice. Stupid prick,” he answered in his gruff voice that rose an octave supposedly to show me who was boss.
I had to try extra hard to hold my tongue and stop myself from putting this asshole in his place.
“What can I do for you boss?” I decided to say instead.
“There’s trouble by the roulette table in section six. Jia is there, go check it out. If it looks like something that won’t ease off, get security. I just want someone to check first.”
“Sure.”
“Xander, make sure that’s the only thing you check out. Don’t let me have to remind you to stay away from my daughter.”
“Yes, Sir,” I answered rolling my eyes and hung up before he could say another word.
Yes, I’d received the fucking message loud and clear. Stay away from Jia.
I was.
I got to section six and saw the commotion.
She was there trying her best to stop these two guys from arguing. They were two marine type guys who I could tell straightaway were drunk.
They seemed to be arguing over a woman.
“Fucking asshole. It was your fault she left me,” the tallest one shouted. “You had to go and tell her I slept with her sister.”
“But you did,” the other guy snapped back.
The tall one threw a punch and hit him. I didn’t care about the guys. Who I cared about was Jia.
The guy stumbled right back into her and the force knocked her over, sending her crashing into the table nearby.
I went to her but pressed the button for security.
The two guys started to fight. Throwing punches. The tall one really gave everything he had.
I just focused on keeping Jia away from them.
Security came like a swat team tending to a bomb threat. Three tough, bulky guys who looked like me and the other knights swooped in and removed the men from the floor.
I looked to Jia who was trying to get away from me, but my eyes landed to a cut on her arm.
“Jia, you okay?” I asked.
“Fine. Thanks for coming.” She shuffled to stand and frowned when she saw the cut.
I noticed how she avoided eye contact and rushed away.
As every other time when this woman got away from me, I chased.
I chased after her falling in step with her down the carpeted path.
“There’s a cut on your arm. Let me take a look at it,” I offered.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll just put a Band Aid on it.” Again she didn’t look at me.
“It’s bleeding.” I reached for her arm and she pulled away.
“I’m fine Xander. Please, stop making a fuss.”
It wasn’t that I was making a fuss. I just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
She proceeded to her little office on the first floor and much to her dismay I followed her right inside.
When she got in she continued to ignore me and reached for her first aid box.
Fuck, she really was good at pretending I didn’t exist.
She winced when she placed a cotton pad to her arm.
I walked over and took over. I just took the pad from her because that wasn’t what you were supposed to do first.
She looked up at me making direct eye contact for the first time and gave in, allowing me to tend to her wound.
I set the cotton pad down and got a cleansing wipe to clean away the blood. It wasn’t a cut that would be deemed that big of a deal, but it was a big deal for me.
If tonight was a success, and I got the prints, this might be it. This might be the last time I saw her properly and the last time I touched her like this.
This would be goodbye.
“First aid. They teach you that as part of your work? My father doesn’t offer that here. I couldn’t even tend to myself.” She stated, voice heavy with angst.
“It’s just something I picked up,” I answered.
“Where?”
“Afghanistan.”
Her beautiful blue eyes clung to mine. “I didn’t know you served in Afghanistan. But then I didn’t ask. It fits.”
“What fits?”
“All of it. Makes sense. Marine and whatever it is you are now, it follows a pattern. Not bad. Not a bad person. You working here didn’t make sense. Ex-marine, man of honor who served his country joins the crew of a notorious mobster?” She gave me that laugh again with no humor behind it.
“Jia…”
“Don’t worry. Shouldn’t have mentioned it, it was foolish of me. I forgot nothing happened.”
“But something did. You can’t forget that.”
“I want to. I have to. So...” She shrugged her arm out of my grasp as I placed a Band Aid on her cut. “You can stop pretending to care.”
“Please, just don’t. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter anymore. None of it matters.”
“Jia, it matters to me…” There I went once again, venturing down that path that was forbidden to me. She was forbidden to me and yet I thought I should go down this road I knew had no hope.
I reached out and touched her face. A tear ran down her cheek and she shook her head.
“Please don’t touch me. I can’t bear it. I can’t have you touch me and know I can’t have you.”
Can’t have.
Shouldn’t have.
Mustn’t have.
Rules.
Fucking rules keeping me away from what I wanted.
Since when did I start playing by the rules? And, who placed them on me? I wanted her. I wanted her badly. I ached to touch her the way I wanted. I ached to be inside her.
She tried to back away from me but I caught her. The resistance stopped there.
I pulled her back to me, cupped her face and went straight to her delicious lips.
She didn’t resist me. She didn’t fight. She just gave in the same way I did, pushing aside everything to have this moment.
I’d shared several moments with this woman I shouldn’t have had. This was another. And damn, I never knew I could feel this way from one kiss.
Desire shot like a lance straight to my groin, igniting fire in me to take her. Just rip her clothes from her body and give in to the beast inside me that wanted to let loose. It came from the restraint I’d placed on my inner desires. The want, the need. The greed.
Yes I was greedy and selfish when it came to her.
That part of me didn’t want to understand the reasons why I couldn’t have her. That part of me didn’t want to accept them.
It was bullshit to me, all of it.
As a breathy moan tore from her lips I knew what I was going to do before I did it and it wasn’t to turn back or say no, or do the right thing by everyone else.
It was what I wanted.
Tease of Spades: Game of Love Series Page 4