by Selina Woods
“Let’s go out into the back.”
Kiana accompanied me to the alley at the rear of the diner, and among the rotting garbage and nasty trash, I took her hand. “I need you to please trust me,” I all but pleaded.
“Why did you get out of that car?” she asked. “That’s Duke’s car.”
I gazed into her blue eyes. “It’s mine now. As is this entire city.”
Kiana choked on a laugh, then faltered when I didn’t join her. “How can that be?”
“Because Duke challenged me to a fight, and if I won, I’d take his place as the gang’s leader.”
I shoved my fists into my pockets and leaned against the wall. “Not two hours ago, I killed him.”
“Logan,” she breathed.
“I don’t know what to do, Kiana,” I said, desperate. “I don’t want to brutally kill people or take their hard-earned money. But if I don’t, the enforcers will tear me to pieces.”
She grabbed ahold of my forearms and leaned into my face. “You now have the power to change things,” she whispered, her eyes intent on mine. “Turn Miami into a safe zone.”
“How?” I half turned from her. “The enforcers don’t want change. There are hundreds of them who will kill to keep things the same. Slay me and put someone else at the top.”
“Look, I have to go,” she said. “You’re a good guy, Logan. I trust you to do what’s right.”
Then she vanished back into the diner, leaving me to wonder if she was wrong.
Derek stared at me with the same incredulity as Kiana. “You what?”
I paced around in front of him, feeling helpless and out of control. The goons stood on the sidewalk beside the well-known black sedan, passersby hurrying past it with their heads down.
“He challenged me to a fight,” I repeated. “If I killed him, I’m the new gang lord.”
“And you killed him.”
“Yeah. Believe me, I don’t want the job.”
“They’ll murder you if you don’t take over. You know that.”
I nodded. “I do.”
Derek stared at the car and the goons through the shop’s front window. “Stay alive, Logan,” he said. “Stay alive, and we can fix this.”
“Fix it? How?”
“I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure something out.” His grin bloomed. “You have the power to change things now.”
I stared morosely at the floor. “Kiana said the same thing.”
“I’m with you, buddy. To the end.”
He seized my hand, then pulled me into a tight embrace. “Hang tight, Logan. Stay strong, and this will all work out.”
Managing a small grin, I shook his hand. “Sorry about not helping here at the store. I have to rule Miami now.”
Derek laughed. “Don’t be a stranger.”
I paused halfway through the door. “You need me, you know where I’ll be.”
If I were to become the ruler here, I supposed I needed to get to ruling. I ordered the driver to return me to the penthouse, where I then asked Ramsey for the books and ledgers to inspect. He brought them to me as I examined a desk that looked like it came from the sixteenth century in Europe.
“May I assist in any way?” he asked, setting the books down on it.
“Yeah, order us both something to eat, then help me decipher them.”
I almost felt as though I could like him as he answered my questions in a friendly fashion, informed me what was mine, who owed what, how much the enforcers received each week.
“How many enforcers in total?” I asked.
“Four hundred and seventy-five,” he replied around a mouthful of hot roast beef. “All loyal and answerable only to you.”
I eyed him sidelong but didn’t reply. I ate my dinner while scanning the long lines of numbers and notations and absently considered hiring Derek to handle the books for me.
A buzzer sounded, startling me. Ramsey gestured toward a button and speaker on the wall in front of us. “It’s the intercom.”
I pushed it and said, “Yeah?”
“There’s a lady to see you, sir.”
“A—” I began, then asked, “Is her name Kiana?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Send her up immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
I stood and closed the ledgers. “We’ll go over this later. I need to see this person.”
I saw from his eyes he wanted to ask questions but didn’t dare. I also knew I might be risking Kiana’s life, for they might use her as leverage if they discovered she meant something to me. Rather than ask, Ramsey offered me a small smile and a quick dip of his chin.
He waited by the elevator until Kiana stepped out, who watched him warily as he got in and pushed the button to descend. Once he was gone, I paced toward her and took her in my arms. “I am not going to say it was right for you to come,” I said, holding her close, “but I am so glad you did.”
Her strong arms around my stitches made me wince, but I didn’t care. “I thought about it for hours,” she said, pulling away to look up at me. “I know we don’t know each other well, but you looked so alone—I had to come.”
“Where are Tony and Albert?” I asked.
She half laughed. “I foisted them on your partner. He agreed to look after them, and even put them to work around the store.”
“I can pay them a wage,” I said with a grin.
Kiana paced around the big suite, looking at things. “This is how Duke lived?”
“Yeah. Off the backs of the common folks.” I gestured toward the books on the desk. “From the looks of those, he’s got quite a pile stashed. It might be in here someplace.”
Turning to stare at me, she said, “It’s all yours now.”
“I reckon so,” I answered with a shrug.
“What are you going to do?”
“Try to get into your pants.”
A shocked giggle popped from her mouth, then Kiana covered it with a glower. “Am I permitted to say no?” she inquired in a teasing tone.
“Of course,” I answered, annoyed that she felt the need to ask such a thing.
“Just checking,” she said, moving into my arms. “You know what power can do to some people.”
“I’m still the same guy,” I murmured, and then she kissed me, and all coherent thought went straight out of my head.
Chapter Five
Laughing, whispering, kissing, we fumbled at each other’s clothes while trying to walk a straight line to the huge bedroom and its bed. We made it with my jeans and her uniform top off but halted just short of tumbling onto its covers. Kiana pulled my shirt off over my head, then stopped short, staring. “Oh, my.”
Her fingers lightly traced the neat rows of stitches that coursed over my shoulders, back, and chest, walking around me as she closely examined them. “How close a fight was it?” she asked.
“Pretty close. It was pretty much over once I chewed his front leg off.”
Kiana made a choking noise behind me, and I wasn’t sure if it was a gag or a laugh, or perhaps something in between. Pacing around in front of me, her eyes wide, luminous, her hand caressed the length of my shaft. “The lion wins the prize,” she said softly.
“Hey, now,” I protested, “you’re no prize. I mean, you are, but not in that way.”
She laughed low in her throat. “I know what you mean. You’re the strongest predator in the city, and you want me. Of all the females you could choose, you chose me.”
I cupped the palm of my hand on her cheek. “I did. I could fall in love with you. But this won’t happen unless you want me, too.”
“I do, Logan. Ever since I saw your kindness, your generosity.” Kiana grinned. “Your good looks, I’ve been fascinated with you. Given half a chance, I could fall in love with you.”
Bending, I scooped her up into my arms and set her on the bed. My lust rising with every beat of my heart, I pulled her short skirt off and lay beside her. “You are one beautiful lion,” I whispered.
Kiana pull
ed my head to her and kissed me, taking my wrist to put my hand on her breast. She was no stranger to making love, for which I was glad. I bedded a virgin once and inadvertently hurt her and didn’t ever want to do that again.
My tongue was toying with Kiana’s, heat spreading from my loins to my belly, my member straining to be inside her. Still, I took things slowly, kissing her deeply, my palm cupping her breast while my thumb played with her nipple. Rolling half on top of her body, I trailed my hand down to the split in her legs.
Her moist and warm button had already swelled under her arousal, and she moaned as I teased her fully. Dipping my finger into her tunnel, she thrashed under me, making a guttural growling noise in her throat. Taking my lips from her mouth, I sucked and licked her neck, nipping, wringing more groans from her.
“I need you,” she muttered thickly.
“You’re not ready.”
“I am.”
“Prove it.”
Kiana heaved me off of her and rolled me onto my back. In a swift move, she pounced on me, straddling my hips. “Gotcha,” she gloated, gazing down at me.
Lifting my thick shaft, she raised her body high enough to point its head at the entrance to her tunnel. “Ready?” she asked.
Before I answered her, she speared herself on me, throwing her head back as I slid deep into her, gliding on her wetness. A long groan came from us both as her tightness clenched around my staff. After a moment of letting her body accept my size, she rocked her hips back and forth. Tilting her head back to better feel me, her eyes closed. Kiana moved slowly, erotically.
While I certainly enjoyed what she was doing, I needed a bit more. Gripping her around her tiny waist, I rolled her over while still deeply buried within her. Kiana locked her legs around my hips as I thrust into her, her arms around my neck. My chin in her shoulder, I pounded her nest, gasping for breath, sweat from us both mingling on our bellies.
I knew I succeeded in pleasing her when she frantically clutched my head, her fingers knotted in my hair. Her moans in my ear and spasming around my pulsing rod informed me she had climaxed. Wondering if I might bring her to a second orgasm, I hammered her body with my shaft, but only succeeded in my own explosion erupting.
“Ooohh,” I groaned, the pleasure of spurting my seed, the ecstasy of releasing and blasting into her, shook me from head to toe. I saw stars behind my closed eyes, my body trembling on top of hers.
At long last, I relaxed, just wanting to lie there on her, feeling her heart in her chest against my skin. Instead, I rolled off of her and snuggled against her body, my arm over her stomach. Kiana caught her breath, her fingers lightly stroking my face.
“Now I’m further along,” she murmured.
I lifted my head to peer at her blearily. “Along?”
“In love with you.”
“Oh.” I grinned and nuzzled her neck. “Me, too.”
Content to lay there for a while, just holding her, breathing in her sweet scent, my mind naturally wandered to keeping her with me forever, a mated pair, little ones. But that brought me back to the perilous situation we were both in, and I sat up.
“Logan?”
Bending, I kissed her. “Hungry?”
“Ravenous.”
“I’ll order room service.”
Padding naked from the bedroom, I went to the intercom and ordered a thug to bring food up. Heading to the bathroom, I found Kiana there ahead of me, running hot water for a shower.
“This luxury is going to spoil me,” she said with a grin.
I ran my hands down her sleek, soft curves, kissing her neck. “Don’t get used to it, babe. Unless I become the monster Duke was, we cannot stay here.”
Her grin faded, and she nodded, then stepped into the water. We scrubbed each other’s bodies, with Kiana taking care not to scrape my wounds. The elevator pinged as we finished dressing, and with our hair still damp, we went out to find an enforcer with a huge platter of food standing in the foyer.
“As I don’t know what you like yet, sir,” he said, setting in on a table. “I brought you a bunch of different things.”
“Great,” I replied, breathing in the delicious scents. “Thanks.”
He left via the elevator and left us alone to eat and, of course, talk.
Nibbling on fried chicken legs, I asked, “How difficult would it be to set up a democratic council?”
Pointing her finger at me as she chewed her mouthful of food, Kiana finally swallowed. “You, as the new president of the republic of Miami, announce a general election. The people select their candidates, who must pass a vote to be our new leaders.”
“Sounds easy enough,” I said, throwing the chicken bone in the trash. “Except four hundred and seventy-five thugs with guns who may not like the idea.”
“I don’t suppose they’ll surrender their weapons peacefully if you order it.”
“Not likely. These guys enjoy what they do; they want that higher status to kick folks around. Maybe some will go along with it, but most will fight to the death to maintain the privilege of being able to kill people.”
Kiana stared at me thoughtfully while chewing another bite. “Then it’ll come down to war.”
“I hate like hell for it to come to that,” I told her, “but yeah. It will.”
“We’ll have to gather people in secret,” she said. “Tougher folks like lions and wolves.”
“Kiana,” I said, my tone gentle. “How many tough people are willing to risk their lives and those of their families to fight?”
Her fine brows lowered over her nose. “More than you think,” she snapped. “How many are like me and Tony, Albert? Who lost loved ones to monsters like Duke and his gangs? How many will be overjoyed to find someone at the top who will turn this city into a place of freedom and hope?”
Staring down at my plate, I muttered, “Can I really lead an army, Kiana? To order people to kill other people?”
“Can you order your enforcers to kill an innocent who can’t pay his taxes because he has nothing to give?”
She leaned over the table toward me. “Would you order your goons to kill me and my brothers because I don’t have the cash to pay?”
“Of course not.” I shunted my face away. “To both those questions. I can’t order bloodshed.”
“You have to if you want to live. It’s either you stay the boss and collect taxes, slaying those who don’t or can’t. Or it’s war. Your choice.”
No longer hungry, although I’d eaten only half of what I put on my plate, I stood up to pace to the balcony. Leaning against the rail, I gazed at the sun sinking under the horizon, turning the sea into a golden red, and thought of all the people hurrying to get into their homes before dark fell.
“People shouldn’t have to be afraid of the dark,” I muttered. “Am I strong enough to provide a city where business can continue after sunset? Where night hunters are cleaned out, and people can walk the streets in safety?”
“Yes. You are.”
I didn’t turn around as Kiana joined me to stare out over the ocean.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she murmured.
“I guess so.”
Together, we watched the sun set and darkness creep in on silent feet.
Chapter Six
“What are you doing?” I asked Kiana as she rummaged in Duke’s closets the following morning.
Finding a nice skirt and blouse, she held them against her to see if they might fit her. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Duke’s tastes in females is the same as yours. I think these will look good on me.”
“You’d look good in rags,” I replied, sitting in an armchair watching her. “Better yet, naked.”
Kiana grinned. “You’re as randy as a billy goat with two peckers.”
“You have no idea.”
While she dressed in the clothes of some long-gone lady friend of Duke’s, I continued. “Are you going to go back to work? Will you stay here with me? I suppose we can bring the boys here, too, but I’m
scared that if I do, the gangs will have leverage over me if and when they turn on me.”
Kiana came over and sat in my lap, her arm around my neck. She nibbled on her lower lip in a way that made me want to kiss her. “By now they’ve figured out I mean something to you,” she said.
“Yeah. And if they hold you hostage, threaten to kill you, then I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”
“Perhaps I should leave here.”
“Kiana—”
She pressed her fingers to my lips. “Just a minute. We have to somehow make them think I don’t mean much to you but still enable us to see one another. We have to be able to talk, to figure this out, so I need to be able to come back.”
“I can always say you’re a hooker, and I’m paying you for sex. But I hate that.”
“No. It makes sense. I’m just a whore you picked up. We can even have a scene where you piss me off, but I keep coming back because you have money.”
I chuckled. “We can have a fight as soon as we step off the elevator.”
Taking my face in her hands, Kiana kissed me slowly, deeply. “You’re the one in the most danger, Logan,” she said, her eyes big and luminous so close to mine. “And you have no one to watch your back.”
Taking her small hands in mine, I held them to my cheek. “Do me a favor,” I said. “Don’t go home. Stay near Derek. After you leave, I’m going to go see him, and I’ll ask him to look after you.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“I’m not being sweet, Kiana. Your life hangs along with mine. If things go south, I want you, your brothers, and Derek to get out of here. Go north. Get to Denver.”
Kiana straightened and stared hard at me. “Denver? Why there?”
Why the name popped out of my mouth I’ll never know, but my gut told me I was dead on. The odd calling in my blood came from there; I was sure of it. Denver was safe; it was where we would all be safe if we could just get to it.
“I can’t really say,” I replied. “My gut says so, and my gut doesn’t ever lead me wrong. Promise me you’ll stay close to Derek when you’re not with me.”
“Denver sounds like a nice place.” Kiana smiled, then slid off my lap. “Come on; time to get a fight going. What are we going to fight about?”