Dead Man's Hand: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 1)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

“I don’t believe you,” I said truthfully. She didn’t want to hurt me.

  “Do you really want to find out?”

  Hell yes, I wanted to find out, but I also knew that part of this was a defense mechanism. She didn’t have much control over anything right now, but her newfound skills forced her to wield them to protect herself. I’d break through eventually, but I had to give her time to come to terms with what she learned.

  She turned away from me, scraping the vegetables into the frying pan. She ignored me the rest of the night, acting as if absolutely nothing had happened.

  After a quiet dinner, I was itching to get her back by my side, but I had never gone out and gotten the damn TV. I should have done that weeks ago.

  The dogs had been restless all night, constantly barking and jumping at one another. It was insane. I sent them both outside to run around for a bit, but when they came back in, it started all over again.

  When she went to bed, I followed her, despite it being so early. I didn’t want to leave her alone. She didn’t need any time to consider where she wanted to go from here, because she was staying with me. I climbed into bed beside her, attempting to pull her into my arms, but she rolled over and ignored me.

  Sighing, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out how I was going to get her back on my side. It wasn’t just about the sex. I needed to know that when she finally remembered, she wouldn’t turn her back on me.

  The dogs started barking, scrambling around the room. Max was whining and causing all kinds of racket. I sat up, turning on the light, only to find Princess mounting Max like a prize stallion.

  “Whoa!” I shouted, leaping out of the bed. “What the fuck are you doing? Get off my baby!”

  Max shifted around, but Princess had her tucked under him, his paws holding her hind legs where he wanted her. Ciara sat up and started laughing.

  “Relax, they’re just having sex.”

  “Just sex? He’s going to crush my baby!”

  “Your baby? Aw, that’s so cute.”

  “I’m serious. This is really bad!”

  “Why is it bad?”

  I watched as Princess thrust his hips against my little girl, fucking her like a wild animal. I wasn’t even getting this much action.

  I threw my hands up in the air. “Great, even the dogs are having more sex than I am.”

  “They like each other. It’s sweet.”

  “It’s not sweet. It’s downright filthy! He’s defiling my little girl.”

  Ciara snorted, covering her mouth. “It’s perfectly natural.”

  “She’s a King Charles Spaniel! She’s practically royalty.”

  “Oh, come on, Daddy. It’s not that bad. Your little girl is old enough to know who she wants to have sex with.”

  Max let out a loud, piercing howl. I threw my hand in her direction.

  “See? She’s not enjoying it! She’s being raped by your dog!”

  “The dog you got me,” she clarified. “I think it’s great. They both have a healthy sexual appetite.”

  “It’s wrong, and I’m going to put a stop to this.”

  I marched toward them, but as I got closer, Princess started to growl at me.

  “Is it wrong that I’m turned on by this?” Ciara asked.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Well, it’s not like I want to join in, but come on, we’re still watching a live porno.”

  “This is so wrong,” I grumbled, rubbing my head. Princess finally stopped fucking my little girl and just laid over her for a minute. She was going to be crushed by his weight. Finally, he got off her, but his dick did not come out. They stood ass to ass, my little baby’s hind legs not even touching the floor as she scrambled with her front paws to stay on the ground.

  “What the hell?” I shouted. “They’re stuck together!”

  “Oh my god,” Ciara said, finally seeing the urgency in all this. “What do we do? Should we pull them apart?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “What if he’s stuck in there?”

  “Of course he’s stuck in there,” I shouted. “Your dog is like a million times larger than my little girl!”

  “Well, what do we do?”

  The dogs struggled with their position, whimpering every once in a while. It looked damn uncomfortable. “We should call 9-1-1.”

  “For dogs that are stuck together?” she asked incredulously. “I’d love to see how that conversation goes. Yes, I’d like to report an emergency. My dogs are stuck together after fucking!”

  “Well, what would you suggest?”

  She frowned, and then her eyes lit up. “We need to call Jo. She’ll know what to do. You have a phone, right?”

  I rushed out the door, ignoring the biting cold as I ran to my truck and grabbed the phone. “She gave you her number?” I asked as I ran back inside.

  “I’ve got it,” she said, thrusting a piece of paper in my direction.

  I quickly dialed the number. It was kind of late, but screw that. This was urgent.

  “Hello?”

  “Jo, it’s Antonio. There’s something wrong with the dogs. I need you to get up here.”

  “What’s wrong?” she said in a voice that was way too calm.

  “I don’t fucking know! Just get up here!”

  I hung up before she could argue. I found that people were more likely to get their ass in gear if the situation seemed dire. And this was definitely dire. Max still stood there, her little paws barely scraping the floor. I sat down in front of her, picking her up to hold the front part of her body on my knees so she wasn’t dangling from his cock. Princess started growling at me.

  “What?” I snapped at him. “I’m trying to help. You’re the one that got your giant cock stuck in her!”

  “Stop yelling at him. He was just doing what comes naturally.”

  “That should not come naturally,” I said harshly. “That was just downright uncivilized.”

  “Oh, and I suppose you’re always the symbol of virtue.”

  I glared at her, just barely holding back my anger. “I’m not mauling someone four times smaller than me.”

  “As I recall, when you fucked me the first time, you weren’t exactly gentle with me.”

  “You’re not a dog,” I snarled.

  “No, and I would be worried if you were thinking about fucking a dog.”

  I ran a hand over my face. “Jesus Christ, please save me now.”

  “I’m not sure he’s going to help you.”

  “How much longer until she gets here? Doesn’t she know this is an emergency?”

  “She has to drive all the way up the mountain!”

  I held my little girl in my arms, waiting for what felt like hours. It was torture. Was she in pain? The longer I had to wait, the more pissed off I got.

  After several more minutes, something happened and they finally became unlatched. I gathered Max up in my arms and stood, walking away from Princess.

  “Oh, you poor, little girl. Are you alright?” I stroked her head lovingly, letting her kiss my face. The poor thing had just been through something traumatic.

  “You’re such a good dog,” Ciara said to Princess, rubbing his head like he was the dog of the year.

  “What are you praising him for? He nearly killed Max.”

  “He did not,” she said exasperatedly.

  “Then what would you call what just happened?”

  “Fucking with a twist?”

  I heard the front door bang against the wall and light footsteps. “Hello? What’s going on?” Jo shouted.

  “Back here!” I called out, still snuggling my little girl.

  She ran back, but stopped in the doorway, looking at us. “What happened? You said it was an emergency.”

  “It was! They were stuck together.”

  “Stuck together?”

  I pointed at Princess. “That dog raped my little girl and then his giant cock got stuck inside her.”

  Jo stared at us for a mo
ment and then burst out laughing. “That’s what you called me about?”

  “Why are you laughing?” I growled. “It’s not funny. He could have killed her.”

  “He wouldn’t have killed her. They were mating.”

  “He was raping her,” I snapped.

  “Not likely. Dogs get stuck together after mating. It’s part of the process. It’s called a copulatory tie. Male dogs have a gland that enlarges, basically ensuring that the female gets pregnant.”

  “What?” I snapped. “He’s trying to impregnate her? I thought they were fixed.”

  Jo laughed slightly. “Um…not exactly.”

  “What do you mean not exactly?” Ciara asked.

  “Yeah, don’t shelters usually have dogs fixed before they sell them?”

  “Not my shelter. I’m a one woman show. I have no funding to do that kind of stuff. It was in all the paperwork you signed.”

  I glanced over at Ciara. “Did you know that?”

  “I’m not the one that signed the paperwork!”

  I turned back to Jo. “This is all your fault. If you had—”

  My sentence was drowned out by the sudden sound of gunfire and breaking glass. Whoever was out there was firing at everything and anything, which meant the only purpose in them being here was to kill everyone inside. I dropped to the ground, shoving Max under the bed and crawling over to where Jo and Ciara had also dropped to the ground.

  “Get under the bed!”

  I grabbed Princess and shoved him under the bed as well, then turned and reached into the nightstand for my gun.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jo shouted over the sound of the automatic rifles obliterating my house.

  “Stay the fuck down and don’t move until I come back for you.”

  I wanted to stop and give Ciara a kiss, just in case I didn’t make it out of here, but at the moment, I couldn’t handle even looking at her. If I did, I would see my chance at happiness slipping away.

  35

  Ciara

  “Ciara!”

  I got in one last jab in the boxing ring before turning to face my father. He looked stern as always, probably here to give me another job. He didn’t approve of me knowing so much about defending myself, but I learned after the first job he sent me out on that I needed to be prepared for anything. I started working with a trainer, and I became pretty damn good at defending myself. I also worked with our enforcer, training with both knives and guns. I would never be defenseless again.

  “Father,” I said, stepping out of the ring.

  He jerked his head, motioning me over to the corner of the room where we would have some privacy. Wiping the sweat from my face with a towel, I waited for his orders.

  “I have a special job for you. This isn’t like the rest.”

  “Okay, who is it?”

  “Antonio Scavuzzo.”

  I frowned. “I thought they were all dead.”

  “We all thought they were, but we have word that he may not have died like we thought.”

  “So, you want me to do what?”

  “I need you to go to a small town in Colorado where we believe he’s hiding out. You’ll confirm his identity and report back to us.”

  “How would you like me to confirm his identity?”

  “You’ll have to get close to him. It’s been a year. The pictures we have are from a distance, and don’t give us much to work with. He looks very different, if it’s him.”

  “And if I confirm his identity? Then what?”

  “Get close to him. Find out what he’s up to. We need to know if he’s a threat.”

  I nodded, knowing what he was asking of me, what he always asked of me.

  “We have a backstory worked out for you. We’ll have some photographs taken to add to your story.”

  “Which is?”

  “You’re from Vegas. He’s in the town of Black Hawk, just a small casino town. We’ve already got you a job working at the casino. We’ll get you trained before you head off. Your cover is that you’re running from an abusive ex, and Black Hawk is the perfect place to hide.”

  “Where will I be staying?”

  “In your car,” he grinned.

  “What?”

  “We need you to look desperate. Bump into him in town. Play up the damsel in distress. The fastest way for you to get close to him is to make yourself available to him, for whatever he needs.”

  The slimy look on my father’s face sent chills down my spine. I should be used to it by now, but I wasn’t. I did as he asked, because there really was no other option in my case. I was the daughter of Kieran O’Sullivan. Saying no was not an option. I did as he said or I would end up dead. There was no way out of this life, unless you were headed to the grave.

  “When do I leave?”

  “One week.”

  I nodded and turned back to the ring, but my father stopped me.

  “No guns.”

  I slowly turned around. “You want me to go seduce a man who values no one’s life but his own? He’ll kill me.”

  “Not if you make him fall in love with you. Get down on your knees and make yourself useful. It shouldn’t be too hard. You’ve had practice.”

  I hated my father. He was probably the worst person I knew, but it wasn’t like I had a choice. No one in the organization did. Once you were in, you were in for life.

  “And make sure you don’t show off your skills to him and ruin everything we’ve put in place. It would be a shame for it all to fall apart just because he got handsy and you couldn’t handle it.”

  Clenching my fists, I gave a tight nod, knowing there was nothing else I could do.

  “Don’t fail me, Ciara.”

  Gunfire snapped me out of the memory. Glass shattered all around the house and Jo was hiding next to the bed, trying to keep the dogs calm. I looked for Antonio, not sure where he was now, but I had to get to him. Whoever was out there, they obviously came prepared. He couldn’t fight them on his own.

  “I’m going for Antonio,” I shouted to Jo. “Stay down!”

  “Wait!” she grabbed my arm. “You can’t go out there. Are you crazy?”

  I grinned slightly. “I’ve got this.”

  Getting to my feet, I crouched low and ran as best I could down the hall toward the living room. Luckily, the lights were out, so they couldn’t see our positions in the house. Antonio was opening the cabinet that held his rifles. Bullets flew past him, but he didn’t even flinch. The windows were pretty much busted out now, but the bullets were starting to pierce through the walls, leaving large holes in their wake. I ran over to Antonio, sliding the last few feet on my ass so I didn’t get hit by a bullet.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” he snapped. “Get back in the other room.”

  “And leave you out here to have all the fun on your own?”

  “It’s not safe.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed sarcastically, speaking loudly over the gunfire. “Were you ever going to tell me who I am?”

  His head snapped to meet my eyes. “You remembered.”

  “Yeah, and not really how I wanted to considering the situation we’re in.”

  He shoved a rifle into my hands. “We’ll argue about that later.”

  “Right, because my family is here to kill you, and apparently, they don’t care if I’m in here too.”

  “Then make sure you kill them first,” he said harshly.

  I grabbed the ammo out of his hand and rushed over to a window, kneeling down in the corner as I quickly loaded the rifle. Thank God I remembered how to do this or I might be in the other room crouching on the floor with Jo. Sitting up with my rifle resting on the window ledge, I watched for the flash of gunfire and started firing. Antonio took up a position by the kitchen table, just across from me. He slid a second rifle my way, and I stopped it with my foot as I took aim, hoping I was hitting someone. It was too hard to tell in the dark.

  After using all my ammo, I picked up the second rifle, checking the barre
l to see it fully loaded. I would give anything to have a hand gun right now, with a magazine of eighteen rounds. This reloading bullshit would get one of us killed.

  Glass breaking in the bedroom had me spinning around, but my gun was empty. Spotting the butcher block on the counter, I grabbed two knives and ran for the bedroom just as I heard Jo scream. A man dressed in all black had his arm around Jo as she struggled, with a gun pressed to her head.

  “Drop it right now,” I commanded, flipping the knife in my hand.

  He spun around, shaking his head at me. “Ciara, can’t say I’m surprised you’ve flipped.”

  “I can’t say I’m surprised you’re here to kill me.”

  “Not just you. We would have been fine with only getting the Guido, but then we saw you were on his side. It’s not like we can bring you home now.”

  I smirked at him. “It’s not like I’d let you. Besides, you’re not going home.”

  I flipped the knife just once, flinging the blade through the air and hitting him right in the throat. His blood gushed, spilling down Joe’s shoulder as his gun dropped to the ground and he pulled the knife from his throat, trying to stem the flow of blood. He dropped to the ground, gurgling and choking. I pulled Jo away, shoving her into the corner as I knelt down beside the man. Now that I was closer, I could see he was just one of my father’s soldiers. He was no one of importance, but then again, my father didn’t think anyone was of much importance.

  Shoving the knife into Jo’s hands, I stood and headed back for the kitchen. “Kill anyone that comes near you,” I said over my shoulder. Rushing back to the kitchen, I ducked just as another man came crashing through the window, tackling me to the ground. Without his full weight on me, I was able to roll out from under him, slamming my elbow into his face before he could get his hands on me. I vaguely heard Antonio fighting off another man.

  I jumped to my feet, ready to finish the man, when I was tackled from behind. My chin hit the floor, making my vision swim for a few seconds. But that was all it took for the man to get his arms around me as I started to stand. Just inches from the couch, I used it as leverage, pushing myself into the air and flipping over his shoulder. Seeing a gun at the small of his back, I yanked it out of his pants and fired just as I landed on my feet, then spun and caught the other man still lying on the floor.