by Mae Doyle
I need to make sure that I don’t fall asleep.
I can’t fall asleep here. It’s not safe.
My ankle is freezing cold, and I open my mouth to ask Johnny to move the ice pack, but I don’t get the words out.
Chapter 10
Roque
Vince Lanetti.
He’s about as useful as a fly on shit, and about as easy to catch, too, but we found him. He holed up in his apartment like an idiot, and it only took Ricky one phone call to pinpoint exactly where he was. By the time we pulled into his driveway, he didn’t have had any time to really prepare.
I led the five of us. It was only right, since the hit had been taken out on me and could have easily killed my girl. Listen to me. My girl, like she’s more than just a quick fuck. There’s a nagging thought in the back of my mind that she could easily be more than just a quick fuck, but I push it away.
I can’t let my cock have any control of what’s going on right now. I need to make sure that I’m thinking clearly or this smarmy little asshole may very well try to escape.
The lock on the front door isn’t nearly as strong as it should have been, and I kick it down with just one try. The wood splinters inward, shards of it flying into the room and sliding across the floor. Other than that, though, it’s silent.
He has all of the lights off in the house, which is smart. It’s morning by now, but still so early that it’s impossible to see much of anything. My eyes burn from being so tired, but I blink away the pain.
I can’t rest until this problem is handled.
Slowly we walk into the house, all five of us in formation, me still in the front. I’ve never been here before, but it’s like all of the other houses built in this neighborhood. A large living room leads to a kitchen, and off of that there’s a hall to the bedrooms and bathrooms.
Chances are good that he’s turned one of those bedrooms into a safe room. That’s what I’d do, anyway, but then again, I wouldn’t be accepting a hit on my family. Fucking stupid, that’s what Vince is.
Valentino showed us a picture of him in the car on the way over. He’s skinnier than I would have thought, and has long black hair that he pulls back into a low ponytail. I can’t wait to wrap that hair around my fist and throw him to the ground. My finger twitches on the trigger of my gun and I take a deep breath to slow my pulse.
It’s not time to be rash.
We work our way through the living room and kitchen, fanning out to cover all the spots in the house before I lead us down the hall. The door at the end is the only one closed, but we check each room, looking in closets, behind doors, and under beds before we clear them.
This is not the time to take chances, and we can’t have him coming at us from behind us. Even though we’re fucking quiet as we walk, I’m sure that he can hear us. The floorboards squeak in the middle of the hall even though there’s a rug over them.
Finally, we’re at the last door. I try the knob, fully expecting it to be locked, but the door swings open with ease. Holding my flashlight out from my body, I shine it around the room, looking for where he’s hiding. He’s in here.
He has to be.
But the room is almost completely empty.
“What the fuck?” I turn on the light switch and walk into the room, quickly scanning the perimeter as I do. There’s a folding table with a few chairs set up around it and a TV mounted on the wall, but other than that, the place is dead quiet.
“Any thoughts?” Arlo’s right next to me and he keeps his voice low. Vince has to be in here somewhere. We have good intel, and we trust it, so that just means that we need to look harder.
Thinking fast, I retrace our steps through the house. There wasn’t anything out of place in the living room or the kitchen. Everything had been quiet until we started down the hall and found the squeaky board on the way to the bedrooms.
I pause. The squeaky board. There’s not another thing in this house that makes a sound. Normally, I wouldn’t give it a second thought – houses settle and make noises all the time. We all know that, and it’s nothing new, but there’s something about just one squeaky spot in a house that makes my skin crawl.
Gesturing to get all of my guys around me, I point back out into the hall and motion to the floor. Arlo frowns at me like he doesn’t understand, but Matty starts nodding right away. He gets it. The floor.
After another moment, everyone is nodding. We all know where Vince is hiding. I feel my heart start to beat harder, my blood coursing through my veins as we prepare ourselves to go find him. Vince may have thought that he had the best hiding place in the house, but now that we have him cornered, there’s really no way that he can possibly escape.
This time when we walk down the hall, we don’t worry about our steps being loud. I kick the rug out of the way and kneel, searching the floor for a crack that will giveaway his location.
There it is. Without a handle in the floor, I know that there has to be another way to open the door. Glancing behind me, I see that there are four guns pointed at the place where the floor will open. No matter what Vince has going on down there, there’s no way he’s getting out of this until we get the information we need.
Pushing down, I lean on the floor until I hear a click, then I release the pressure. The lip of a hidden door lifts up and I grab it, standing as I twist to the side and pull it open with me.
Four guns are pushed down into the hole, and as I turn, I pull mine from my holster to aim it into the hole, as well.
There’s a loud clatter as Vince drops his weapon and I immediately lean down, wrap his collar around my wrist, and yank him out. He struggles, but not much, probably because there’s enough firepower pointed at his face to make him unrecognizable.
Nobody wants their mom to have to try to ID their face after its been blown in.
Throwing him on the floor, I step over his body and level my gun at his forehead before leaning forward and pressing it into his skin. He whimpers but doesn’t try to move away from me.
Good. I hate pussies.
“Who hired you?” It’s the only thing that we need to know. Honestly, we all know that it’s a cousin.
But which one?
Were they working together?
He bites down, clenching his jaw together, and shakes his head. “I ain’t no rat.”
Pressing my pistol harder into his forehead, I grit my teeth. “You want to die, Vince? Who the fuck hired you?”
He’s sweating. Fucking disgusting. There’s no way that he’s going to make it out of this in one piece. I know it, my boys all know it, but I have no idea if he’s figured it out yet.
I wait. This fucker doesn’t realize that I have all the time in the world. Even though I was exhausted when I first kicked down his door, my adrenaline has kicked in now, and I’m not going anywhere until we get the information that we need.
“Ben. It was Ben.” He sounds defeated, and I grin.
“Ben. You mean Benito?” My fucking cousin shortened his name. Why he can’t wear our Italian heritage like a badge of pride, I don’t know.
“Yeah, Benito.” Vince opens his mouth to say something else, but I don’t give him the chance.
The silencer I’d slipped on my pistol works wonders and his head falls back with a thunk onto the floor. Blood immediately starts pooling around him and I take a step back, not wanting to get any of it on my shoes.
Ricky is the first to speak. “It’s a shame about the floors. The hardwood was nice.” When I look at him, I’m not surprised to see him smiling. Ricky’s one fucked-up dude and never shies away from doing our dirty work.
I kick Vince, even though I know he’s dead. “Take care of him, okay? I’ll send Johnny for you.”
Ricky nods and I walk out, followed closely by Arlo, and Valentino. Matty will stay behind and make sure that things run smoothly. It’s always good to have two people cleaning up a body, just in case. Ricky’s next step will be to call our friend at the morgue. Well, he’s not really our fri
end, but when you owe the Torenti family, it’s better to be called a friend than an enemy.
We’re going to go check in with Pops and I need to lay eyes on Eva. I’m sure that she’ll have passed out by now. I’m so tired that I don’t think I can get us home safely, but by the time we pull up in the driveway, the sun is starting to come up and I get my second wind.
“You guys go to the dining room and wait for me there. I’m going to check on Eva and send Johnny over to help Ricky, okay?”
The three of them nod and file into the house, but before I can make it down the hall, Pops stops me. He looks like he was up all night long, and I immediately get worried. Pops doesn’t miss his sleep. That’s why the five of us went out last night without him.
“Is it done?” When I nod at him, he smiles. “Good. Then we’ll meet around the table in a moment. But you need to know about Eva. She’s a fighter. We ended up giving her a pill and tying her down. You’ll see. She’s fine now, but you need to think long and hard about what you’re going to do with her. You know that she can’t threaten the family.”
“She won’t.” Even as I tell Pops this, though, I’m not sure if I’m right. The way Eva was freaking out last night tells me that she may very well go to the police, and we simply can’t have that.
There’s a certain way that our family deals with people who threaten it. I know that. Hell, I just dispensed that justice.
“You better make sure. If you can’t, Roque, then understand that I will.” Pops walks past me without another word. I know that I need to check in on Eva and make it fast. Johnny needs to help Ricky, and everyone will be waiting for their next orders.
Fuck.
Taking a deep breath, I knock on the Eva’s door. Johnny opens it immediately. “Go to Ricky and Matty,” I tell him. “They’ll need a ride after the morgue stops by.” He’s silent, which I like, and leaves me alone with Eva.
Eva. Fuck.
She’s got a half-melted ice pack on one ankle and is tied spread eagle to the bed. Her head is turned to the side and there’s some drool from her cracked mouth wetting the pillow. Even though she looks like hell, my cock still stirs when I look at her.
After I take care of a man, I love to bury myself in some pussy, but that’s not happening right now. Fuck.
Running my hand through my hair, I leave the room, locking it behind me. I have to figure out how to make sure that she doesn’t talk, but before then, we have to get rid of Benito.
Chapter 11
Eva
I’m freezing. There’s voices in the room with me, and that’s probably what woke me up, but now that I’m awake, I want nothing more than to pull a blanket up over my body and wipe the drool from my chin. I never drool when I sleep.
What in the world happened?
I realize with a start that I was given a pill and that it probably knocked me out. Even though I’d thought about hiding it under my tongue and then spitting it out when I was left alone, I had the distinct feeling that if I did that, I might not walk out of here in one piece.
The guy who gave it to me – Roque’s dad, I guess – looked so intimidating that I would have done about anything he asked, so long as he didn’t kill me or anything.
Fluttering my eyes open just a little, I try to see who’s talking so loudly in my room. It’s a fine line between making it obvious that I’m awake and just barely seeing out from my eyelashes. As soon as I see Roque, hope surges through my body.
My Roque is here.
What the hell am I thinking? I can’t help the fact that just looking at him makes heat and damp pool in my core, or that my stomach twists when I think about what it felt like to have his huge cock thrusting in me, but I should have the presence of mind needed to keep from thinking that he’s going to save me.
I mean, let’s be real. I’m not entirely sure on who is a bad guy and who’s a good guy, but I have the distinct feeling that even the good guys aren’t that great.
“How many did he give her?” Roque runs a hand through his hair and glances over at me when he speaks, and I stiffen, trying to look as natural as possible, but it obviously fails. He walks over to me and sits next to me, reaching up and brushing some hair from my face. “You okay there, Eva?”
God, my traitorous body wants to turn to him and have him curl up with me on the bed. I hate that he has this effect on me, especially since he’s the reason that I’m here in the first place and not waking up in my own bed. His fingers are light on my forehead, and I ache to have him run his hands down my body before pinning me to the bed and kissing me.
“She might still be asleep. He only gave her one, but it knocked her on her ass. Never seen anything like it actually, so I’d be willing to bet that she hadn’t had anything to eat before she took it.” I don’t open my eyes to verify, but I’m pretty sure that it’s Johnny talking. He was the one who was here when I was given the pill, so it makes sense.
“Eva? Can you hear me? I know that you’re not asleep, sweetheart, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t keep pretending.” Before I can roll over or even open my eyes to look at him, I feel him turn and lift the ice pack off of my ankle. He touches it, and even though he’s gentle, I can’t help but suck in a hiss.
“There you are, Eva. You did a number on your ankle, darling. Does that hurt?” He lifts my foot and turns it a little, tsking as he does.
Instinctively, I try to reach down and grab my ankle, but my wrists are stopped by something. I yank on them harder, trying to pull my arms down. This is the first that I’ve tried to really move since I woke up because I didn’t want anyone to know that I was awake, and now I’m beginning to think that that was a mistake.
Why the hell can’t I move?
“What’s wrong with my arms?” I cry out, opening my eyes and searching for Roque. He’s still sitting on the edge of my bed and he chuckles, reaching up to run the pad of his thumb down my cheek. I pull my head away, but at the same time, I want to snuggle up to him. I like him touching me, dammit.
“They tied you up last night because you were causing trouble. Don’t you remember?” I shake my head. Everything from last night is really fuzzy. He frowns and then continues. I’ll free you if you promise not to do anything stupid.” His eyes are dark as he talks to me. I could easily get lost in them, but I do my best to focus. It’s obvious that he’s being incredible serious, and it’s also obvious that he’s my best way out of this mess.
“I’ll be good. I promise.” Even as I say the words, I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to abide by them, but I have to get Roque to believe me. He nods, a small movement that I would have missed if I hadn’t been staring at him and pulls a knife from his pocket.
God help me, I gasp as he flicks it open, which only causes him to roll his eyes. “Listen, Eva, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m on your side here, but you have to help me out or I won’t be able to take care of you. Do you understand?” The tip of the knife is pressed up against the rope while he talks.
I nod. “Please, Roque, help me.” My voice is small, but he must believe me. Quickly he cuts through the ropes tying my wrists and my ankle and then lifts me up, his arm wrapped around my shoulder to support me. My entire body hurts from being in the same position all night long and I cry out.
“Are you okay?” Roque leans back and stares at me. Under his strong gaze, I can’t help but blush.
“Just sore, I think.” I pause, taking stock of my body. Damn, I feel like I was run over by a truck. Never in my life would I have thought that someone as small as the rookie driver would have been able to tackle me like this, but then I remember running through the woods, crouching there for what felt like forever.
I think that I have every reason to feel like crap today.
“That’s it? Just sore? We can work with that.” He stands up. “I’m going to get you something for the pain. Don’t move, you understand?”
I understand completely, but there’s something else I have to do. “Um, Roque?” My
voice is small and I glance over at the driver. He’s standing by the door but not looking at me. “I have to pee. Bad. Like, really bad.”
Roque nods and reaches down, picking me up and pulling me in to his chest. I gasp and fight him a little, but he just squeezes me tighter, keeping me so snug to his body that I couldn’t possibly pull away.
This close to him, I can’t help the way I feel. He radiates heat, and I can feel all of his muscles as he turns and walks me out of the bedroom. Even though he’s got to be dead on his feet, his pulse is slow and steady, and I can’t help but rest my head on his chest to listen to it.
“Bathroom,” he says simply, putting me down in front of the toilet. “After this, I’ll help you shower or take a bath, if you want.”
My face flushes as I think about his hands on my body, soaping me up, running his fingers over my curves and back inside of me. “I think I’ll be fine,” I tell him. “You don’t have to worry about helping me.” While I talk, I slowly unwrap the blanket that’s still tied around me and let it drop down around my waist.
Immediately, goose bumps pop out all over my body. It’s much colder in the bathroom than I thought, and the small shirt I have on is simply not enough to keep me warm. I jerk my head up to look at Roque and feel dizzy with the way he’s looking at me.
His eyes roam up my body, stopping to take in my tits. I want to cross my arms, but the way he’s looking at me has me frozen in place. He looks like he’s starving. He looks like he can’t wait to take me home and make a meal of me. I feel my pulse start to pick up and I close my eyes, breathing in from my nose to try to calm down.
This guy – this sex god – may be a great lay, but he’s also the reason someone shot at us last night. I can’t go on thinking about what his body feels like pushed up next to mine. I won’t let myself go there.
“I’ve seen you naked, Eva,” he says, his voice cutting into my thoughts. “You don’t have to worry about me seeing something that I haven’t already. I’m happy to help you shower in a bit.”