Dark Desire (Famiglia Book 1)

by A. J. Daniels

  Like trash. Like broken pieces littered on the floor waiting for someone to come along and put them back together.

  Who am I kidding. While that vision is incredibly appealing right now, I know that despite the years of trauma these girls will go through if we ever make it out of here alive, if they’re strong enough to make it through this hell then they’ll be strong enough to survive afterward. And I pray they do. Because there is no bigger fuck you than these girls taking back what was wrongfully taken from them and not allowing these monsters another second to occupy their thoughts.

  As I curl into myself I know I’d give anything to see those dark, haunted eyes trained on me again.

  ***

  (Braxton)

  “Everything ready?” I ask, rolling up the sleeves of my dress shirt while getting into the back seat of the SUV. Alessandro pockets his phone next to me as Pete, my driver, gets in and starts the vehicle.

  “No disrespect, Boss, but you sure this is how you want this to play out?”

  I look out my window as we pass by building after building, my elbow propped on the door, absently running my thumb along my bottom lip. Klara loved when I did it, it never failed to draw her gaze to my lips… causing her to bite the corner of her own. I’ll never forget the heated look in her eyes when she’d slowly drag those pale blue eyes up my body. It was a look I’d kill to see again.

  “Just make sure Antonio and Gio are there.”

  Alessandro reaches back into his pocket to retrieve his phone and make a couple calls while I settle back against the leather of the backseat and not for the first time, pray that I find my girl.

  “THE STUPID SONUVABITCH got himself killed tonight.”

  “Did he talk?”

  “Don’t know. Wasn’t there, but knowing Rick it probably didn’t take De Luca very much to get anything out of him.”

  I’m struggling to stay conscious but I can feel my mind wanting to shut down, to live inside my dreams where it’s lighter, but I can’t let it. Not now. Not when it sounds like Braxton is so close to finding me.

  “De Luca called a meeting,” the first voice says.

  “You think he suspects anything?”

  “Don’t know. Going to find out.”

  “Good. Stall him. Need another few days before I’m ready to take over.”

  There’s silence except for the sound of feet moving further and further away, then my mind takes over, and darkness clouds my vision.

  ***

  (Braxton)

  “hat are we doing here, Boss?” Gio asks, as we around the front of the SUV outside the darkened building.

  It took me longer than I cared to admit to find where my cousin has been holed up, but I should’ve known to look here first. Dante wasn’t very smart, he kept recycling buildings for his various activities. His name always attached to the paperwork.

  I turn over the cigar in my hand watching it roll between my fingers while Alessandro goes around and collects the cell phones of every man here. It wasn’t something I ever required of my men before, but tonight was different. Klara was just on the other side of the brick wall and I wasn’t taking any chances of something or someone coming between me and having her back in my arms. And one of these men behind me had betrayed this famiglia. He would not live to see the end of it all.

  “We’re going to have a little fun,” I say out the corner of my mouth while I light up.

  Alessandro balls up the bag, stowing it in the trunk of one of the vehicles before coming to stand at my right side, tipping his chin in a slight nod that everything was set. I never once had to question his loyalty, even now with a traitor standing amongst us. Maybe that was because I’ve known him for half my life, maybe that was because he never once gave me pause to doubt him or his loyalty, but whatever it was, I’m glad for it.

  A blacked-out van pulls up alongside our SUV’s, several men in uniform filing out the back at the same time an ambulance pulls in behind them. I don’t know what was going to go down tonight, but it never hurt to be prepared, and being the head of one of the biggest crime families in the country afford me certain…luxuries. Like having the SWAT team, and any emergency vehicle at my disposal whenever and wherever I needed. I scratched their backs from time to time and they scratch mine.

  “You sure you want to involve the RCMP in this?” Antonio asks to my left, keeping his eyes trained on the newly arrived officers.

  “Don’t know what to expect in there. Need all the man power I can get.”

  “We could’ve handled it ourselves, Boss,” Gio says next to Antonio.

  I look over at the men who are supposed to have my back through whatever shit life dealt us. One of them still does, the other is about to meet a bloody fate. I don’t take too well to betrayal. I stand back and listen while the officer in charge gives the rundown of how we’ll be breaching the building. I’m not used to taking a back seat in these situations, in fact, I outright despise it, but it was either this or risk killing any women Dante has tied up in there. I may have been willing to take a chance on people’s lives, but not innocent women, and certainly not Klara’s.

  When everyone moves to get into position, I put out my cigar, turning to Alessandro. “Once Klara and the women are free make sure nobody is around. I want him to myself.”

  He nods, moving to get into position with everyone else, and then all hell breaks loose.

  THE SOUND OF rapid gunfire rouses me, I’d like to say from a deep sleep, but that would be a crock of shit, I wish my mind would’ve shut off but alas no dice.

  I struggle to sit up then bring my knees up to my chest once I’m sitting somewhat steady on the mattress. My muscles ache from being subject to this mattress that is nothing but broken springs and worn fabric, and from the hours of torture I’ve had to endure since being brought here. The men here may have been ordered to not touch me, sexually, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t use me as their own personal punching bag. I got a few good hits in at first before I realized that they wanted me to fight back, they fed off of it, and the more I fought the harder they hit.

  With shaky arms, I push myself to my knees ready to crawl to the curtain and make a run for it if the coast was clear. No restraints were a result of all the beatings, they figured if they beat me down enough then there was no reason to restrain me because surely I would be weak enough to not contemplate running. Just wait until I get my hands on them. I’ll show those fuckers weak.

  But just as I place my palms on the cold ground to get ready to crawl, my curtain is pushed open and I freeze, bile raising up the back of my throat. I don’t look up as the air around me becomes thicker making it harder to breathe.

  No, dammit. This was supposed to be my chance for escape.

  Black leather dress shoes appear in my vision and I swallow past the lump in my throat. If I’m dreaming, this is the worst nightmare ever. And then dark eyes appear in front of me. Dark hair, full lips, a five o’clock shadow that’s way past five o’clock, a strong jaw as it ticks with his anger.

  “Klara.” That voice. My name coming from those lips is enough for whatever strength I had left to flee and I shatter into a million pieces right here on this cold cement floor, naked and dirty on my knees in front of Braxton.

  “I’ve got you, Mia Bella.” His voice breaks as he pulls me onto his lap, wrapping those strong arms around me and pulling me further into him. A warm blanket gets draped over my body and Braxton murmurs a thank you to whoever delivered it before resting his chin on the top of my head, my body shaking from the never-ending onslaught of cries and screams emanating from a part of me I locked away during this whole ordeal.

  ***

  (Braxton)

  “It’s time,” Alessandro informs me, but I’m not ready to let Klara out of my sight yet. Maybe I’ll never be ready.

  I know I’ll never forget the sight of her when I opened that curtain. All of Dante’s men had been taken out, my cousin nowhere to be found, and we were going from curtain
to curtain discovering girls of all ages, some younger than eighteen, bruised and broken, cowering in the corner and crying because they thought we were just more of the monsters they’ve had to deal with for god knows how long.

  The beast inside me is sitting on his haunches expectantly at the door of his cage, his teeth bared in a snarl because he knows I’m about to let him out to play and he’s all too eager after witnessing what my cousin had going on in this building, and finding Klara the way we had. It pisses me off that Dante got away, but I won’t rest until I have his head in my hands and my concrete floor is stained red with his blood. His running only adds to further ignite the anger coursing through my veins.

  I stand up with Klara in my arms. My heart swells with the way she attempts to burrow further into me, like no matter how hard she tries she’ll never get closer. She could burrow her way under my skin for all I care and I would let her stay there, surrounded by my warmth, in the protection only I can provide her.

  “Antonio.” I motion for him to follow me out to the ambulance where I deposit Klara, unwillingly, onto the bed.

  “Stay with her. Don’t let her out of your sight until I get back, you hear me?” I grab the collar of his shirt, pulling him right into me until our noses are just inches apart.

  “Got it.”

  I move to walk away but Klara’s grip on my hand tightens, her eyes rounding in fear.

  “Gio?” Her voice is small, panicked.

  I give her the most reassuring smile I can manage right now, loving the way she leans her face into my palm when I cup her cheek. “I know, Klara. I’m going to end this, and then you and me… we’ll go home.”

  I look back to Antonio. His jaw ticks with the realization of what her words meant, and then reluctantly I turn and go in search of where Alessandro has been holding the man who stabbed in me the back.

  ***

  The sonofabitch grins. “Looks like you’ve just seen a ghost, Boss.” He snickers even with blood running down his face and Alessandro’s gun trained on him. One nod from me and his brains will be splatters across the walls.

  “You betray me? Betray this family?!” I bellow, my voice echoing against the walls.

  “Was never a part of your fucking family,” he snarls, his top lip raising, exposing a gap where his tooth should’ve been.

  “Never part of this fucking family,” I repeat, running a thumb over my bottom lip, glancing over his shoulder. “You hear this fucking shit, Alex?”

  He nods. “Sure did, Boss.”

  I glare at Gio. “Trusted you with my life. With Klara’s life. Let you sit at my Ma’s table, eat dinner with us. Took you into my confidence and this… this is how you show your respect, by helping my cousin sell Klara into the sex trade!” I barely have a grip on my anger. If I were just five minutes later, I may have never found Klara. May have never gotten her back.

  “You never deserved the title of Don. You’re weak. Putting the life of one girl before the famiglia,” Gio spits.

  The warehouse door swings open, blinding light illuminating the figure entering. If I thought I barely had a handle on my anger before, I fucking lose it now as the door closes revealing Klara in nothing but my black button up dress shirt and a pair of beaten up boots.

  “Klara, thought I told you to stay with Antonio,” I seethe, hating the fact that she’s in the same room as the person who betrayed me, who stole her from under my nose. I was as infuriated at him as I was myself.

  “And I told you I didn’t need a babysitter!” she bites back, and I have to try to hold back a smirk. My girl’s fucking beautiful when that fire lights behind her eyes.

  “Mia Bella, you don’t need to see this.”

  She scowls, a line forming between her perfectly sculptured eyebrows. “I know it makes you uncomfortable having me here, seeing this part of your life, but I do, in fact, need this. I need to see him pay for what he did with my own two eyes. I need to be able to close my eyes without seeing his face. I need to be able to sleep at night. I need…” her voice breaks and it takes every bit of strength I have left to not pull her into my arms.

  Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to protect her, to shield her against what is about go down in this room, but I’ve seen that look in her eyes before. That steely determination, the look of someone who’s been through hell and somehow clawed their way up the other side, someone who fought their way back from the brink of death. Someone who’s one step closer to shutting the blinds on their heart and encasing themselves in darkness. Fucking fuck!

  Alessandro shifts on the other side of the room behind Gio and I know he’s thinking the same thing. He doesn’t like her being here anymore than I do because he wants to protect her from this life as much as me.

  “Braxton.” Klara places a hand on my arm, earning her my glare but she doesn’t show any fear. A glare that has been known to bring grown men to their knees and beg forgiveness, and this woman doesn’t even fucking flinch. “Please… I need this. Give me this.”

  I blow out a breath, the beast inside bearing its teeth in a snarl. There’s nothing about this situation that I’m okay with, but I realize now that it’s not about me. No matter how much I want to be the Don and tell her—no, demand her—to go back outside and wait with Antonio, no matter how much I want to push her behind me and protect her with my life, to shield her from the ugly side of this life, it’s. Not. About. Me.

  It’s about her and the nightmare she had to live from the second those bastards got their hands on her, to when my cousin marked her, to being forced to display her body to those… bile raises up my throat thinking about the hell my girl had to live through when I couldn’t save her fast enough. The truth is, she’s already seen the ugly side of this life. She’s already lived it and survived it.

  My eyes survey the scene around me. So this… this isn’t by far the ugliest, and if this is what she needs to feel safe again then I’ll bring every single one of the sick fucks back from death and drag them in here by the skin of their teeth, and string them up for her to do with as she pleases. If this is what’s going to help her heal then she can fucking have it, and I’ll give it to her willingly.

  I nod, shooting a warning glare at Alessandro when he starts to protest, and offer Klara the option of the pair of matching blades I’m always carrying, or the set of 24k Gold Desert Eagles that I never leave home without. The same pair of guns my father gave me the day I became a man. The day I had my first taste of blood, of death.

  She surprises the fuck out of me by choosing the blades, her hand hovering over the shiny metal of the handles.

  “Klara, you don’t need to do this.” I try again to change her mind. Murder is not an easy path to come back from.

  She blows out a breath, determination in her eyes when her fingers curl around the handles. “I know, but I have to.”

  My palm wraps around one of the desert eagles, while my other hand reaches back and replaces the second one in its holster at my side.

  “This is a conversation for the men, little girl,” Gio snarls, not knowing that he just sealed his fate at the hands of my girl. “Run along now. This is no place for you.”

  It’s quick, but I don’t miss the way her hand veers to the side and then quickly cuts back, slicing through the fabric and skin of his chest. I grin when Gio falls to his knees, clutching his gaping wound in one arm, and doubles over. His breath heavy.

  Klara uses the toe of her boot to kick him so he’s lying on his back, his wound exposed as she stands over him, careful not to let him see under the shirt. I growl in warning, my hand tightening around the eagle in my palm. One wrong move and I’ll put the fucker down myself.

  I wince when her foot comes up and settles over his open wound, the flexing of the muscles in her leg and Gio’s agonizing screams are the only signs of her putting pressure on the fresh cut.

  “You tried to push me off the CN Tower that day on the EdgeWalk, didn’t you?”

  What the fuck?

&n
bsp; I look over at Alessandro, the knuckles of his hands are turning white as he clenches his fists tighter at that new revelation.

  Gio laughs despite the obvious pain he’s in. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for that stupid rope they had us tied to, you would’ve gone over, too. Saved me a shit load of trouble. You were so ready to trust me, and all I did was bring you junk food and sit through a few episodes of that horrid tv show.” He groans with the increased pressure she puts on his wound. “Tell me, little girl, do you spread your legs so easily for any man who shows you the slightest bit of attention?”

  I see it the second it happens, the little bit of life that was left in her eyes fades. My girl shuts down right in front of me with her booted foot grinding down on Gio’s wound, and the other blade hovering a few feet in the air over his groin. Any humanity that was left inside of her dies when her fingers uncurl, sending the blade in a free fall. I feel like howling right along with Gio when the sharp edges connect with its target.

  Klara smirks, watching over her shoulder as blood pours from the wound around the floor beneath him. Then she shrugs, making sure he’s looking directly at her when she leans down and lowers her voice. “You didn’t need them anyway. It’s not like you were a real man. Consider it payback.”

  She straightens up, handing the other knife to Alessandro before turning around and walking to stand in front of me. Klara places her hands, palms down on my chest and leans up to place a kiss on my lips. “Make it hurt, baby. I’ll be waiting outside.”