by Sarah Bailey
“You… two… are… too… much,” I said as I struggled to breathe.
Xav got up off the desk chair and came around before grabbing my head and placing a kiss on my forehead.
“That’s my man.”
Quinn rolled his eyes.
“Get a room.”
“All right, Mr Prude, that was nothing… if you want a proper show, then I’m more than willing to oblige.”
Before Quinn could say a thing, Xav planted his mouth on mine, stopping my laughter in its tracks. I didn’t even protest considering it was the first time Xav had actually kissed me without restraint outside the bedroom. Usually, we tried to keep our PDA on the down-low.
Xav pulled away grinning at me before turning to Quinn who blinked at us.
“Do you think we rendered him speechless?”
“Maybe we did,” I replied, smiling back at him. “Would be a first.”
Quinn’s phone went off. He dug it out of his pocket and sent a few messages back and forth before showing it to me and Xav.
GEOFF: You seriously want me to send him that?
QUINN: Do it.
GEOFF: Your funeral.
QUINN: Trust me, the only funeral happening any time soon is Russo’s.
GEOFF: I really hope you’re right.
“He’s only worried about his own safety,” Xav said with a shrug.
“He knows the risks. Besides, Colm has granted us the use of his men so I had him stick a few on Geoff and his family.”
“Well, the Irish cunt is good for something, I suppose.”
Quinn grinned.
“Geoff has been loyal for years, it’s the least I could do for him.”
Geoff had been with us for a long time, helping us with the families and our investments. He was as loyal as they came and none of us wanted him to be taken out. He played a very important role. Thankfully, he wasn’t too unhappy with our plans to scale back and retire the Il Diavolo name when all of this was over.
“The guy is solid as fuck.”
Quinn’s phone went off again and he frowned when he read it.
“What?”
He handed me the phone.
GEOFF: His response was to tell you if you think he will meet your demand, you’re more deluded than he first thought. Be prepared for the backlash.
“We are prepared, aren’t we?” I asked.
Quinn gave me a look.
“What do you think?”
I rolled my eyes, shoved his phone back at him and got up.
“You’re lucky he has no idea where we live, Quinn, because if he did, we’d be fucked.”
The house wasn’t in any of our real names for good reason. We didn’t want to be found, especially not by men like Frank Russo. This place was our sanctuary. Our home away from everything else in the world. It’s where we belonged.
“It’s the only saving grace we have right now.”
And didn’t I fucking well know it? If this all backfired, all of us would be in for a huge wake-up call. It scared me, but I wouldn’t admit it to the boys. Right now, we needed to present a united front. For all our sakes.
Chapter 23
I stared up at the ceiling, eying the star consolations I’d had painted on it and trying to stop myself from thinking too much. Ash was sound asleep next to me, her blonde hair splayed out over the pillow. She looked so fucking peaceful and serene, like she didn’t have a care in the world. Like we didn’t have a man chained up in our cell downstairs and we hadn’t all just put bigger targets on our backs. Frank Russo was coming for us. No question about that.
I looked over at my girl, wanting so much to protect her from all of this. I clenched my uninjured hand into a fist. The more I thought about it, the more having Carlo here unsettled me. Made me angry. In fact, it made me fucking furious. He’d tried to kill me once and Ash, twice. Having him here was like a fucking kick in the teeth.
I hadn’t thought about it much during the day since my focus had been on keeping Ash occupied. We’d spent all day on the sofa together, reading for a while, then watching a film. My headaches had completely disappeared, which pleased me no end. Now I had to wait for my wrist to heal up. Then we could go after Frank once and for all. We were biding our time. Waiting to strike.
I felt completely on edge. The house was deadly silent considering it was the middle of the night. The urge to rid the fucking world of the scumbag downstairs drove through me. It clawed at me, making me feel completely unhinged. I needed it to end.
Reaching over, I stroked the fingers of my injured hand down Ash’s face. How was it possible to love someone as much as I did her? It’s as if she was permanently etched on my heart, a tattoo banding around it over and over. She was starlight. She was beauty. She was the epitome of everything I’d ever wanted in life. Ever needed.
“Little star,” I whispered into the still air. “You make me want to be better… but I fear I might disappoint you one day.”
I leant forward and kissed her cheek. She stirred a little, letting out a small sigh as she snuggled deeper into the covers. Everything about her made me happy, but she couldn’t stop this. No one could. The only way to quiet the dark, twisted part of me would be to act on the desire coursing through me.
I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake her, knowing if I did, she’d know what I had planned. My muscles were coiled tight in anticipation. No doubt the boys would be fucking livid. I no longer cared. The only person who mattered to me in those moments was Ash. Protecting Ash. Keeping her out of harm’s way. And that meant ending all threats against her.
There was one huge fucking threat in our house right now. So for me, there was only one course of action.
I moved with precision, keeping my footsteps light as I made my way downstairs. With my hand being injured, I couldn’t use a gun like I wanted to. There were other ways to kill a man. Other methods I could resort to. If I was at full capacity, I might have made it hurt. Tortured him. He deserved no fucking less. I didn’t have time for that. The only thing I had time for was a silent death so I wouldn’t wake the others. So they wouldn’t know until the morning. By then, it’d be far too late.
I slipped into the office to acquire the key for the cell from Quinn’s office. He kept a spare there. He should’ve hidden it better. Walking out of the room, I padded along to the cell and unlocked the door. I pushed it open and stepped in. The prone figure on the cot lay sleeping soundly.
Time for you to meet your fucking maker, you cunt.
Walking over, I stopped at the side of the cot and stared at Carlo. His face was swollen with a bandage across his nose. Quinn had done his best to set it. Didn’t matter. Carlo wouldn’t be alive very much longer. This fucker was done for. Now and forever.
I climbed onto the cot, towering over him and carefully removed the pillow from behind his head, throwing it away. Moving swiftly, I sat on his arms, pinning them to his sides. Before I’d gone into the office, I’d got a plastic bag from the kitchen. Lifting his head, I pulled the bag over it and tied it off around his neck. Then I held my hand over his mouth and nose.
It took a minute for his body to realise he couldn’t breathe. He jerked awake and then he was struggling against me. I could hear him trying to talk behind my hand. The bag muffled his words. I tightened it around his neck. As his body struggled for oxygen, his movements became jerky and weaker. I held on until he went limp and even then, I waited until I couldn’t feel his chest moving below me any longer.
I let go of his mouth and checked his pulse. There wasn’t one. He was dead. A sense of satisfaction and calm washed over me. I untied the bag from his head and got off him. Then I replaced the pillow underneath him and walked out. After locking the door, I placed the key in Quinn’s hiding place back in his office and put the plastic bag in the bin in the kitchen.
I walked upstairs and along the hallway until I reached my bedroom. Shutting the door behind me, I crawled back into bed and settled the cove
rs over me. It had been quick, silent and easy. No fuss. Nothing. I didn’t regret it. I didn’t even feel bad for doing it. I felt nothing but peace.
Carlo was dead.
I’d got rid of him for Ash so he could never hurt her again.
My beautiful little star who was awake and staring at me.
“Did you end it?” she whispered.
I tensed up, not knowing what her reaction would be to the news Carlo was dead.
“Yes.”
Lying to her about it would be worse.
“Thank you, Ror.”
She moved, tucking herself under my arm and wrapping her own around my bare chest, splaying out her hand over my heart which was beating steadily.
“You’re welcome, little star.”
Her reaction surprised me, but then again, Ash never ceased to do the complete opposite of what we thought she would.
“He deserved it, but the boys won’t see it that way.”
“No… they won’t.”
She shifted higher and kissed me, cupping my face with one hand. A need for her pounded in my veins, spreading down my chest and causing me to harden.
“Ash,” I groaned against her soft lips.
“You want me?” she whispered.
“Always.”
Next thing I knew, she’d shifted over me, rubbing herself against my length and driving me crazy. It’s not like I could fuck her in quite the way I wanted with my injured hand. It’d be the first time we’d been intimate since the crash. The first time I felt well enough to be with her like this.
“You killed a man for me,” she whispered against my mouth, her lips brushing across mine. “I never thought I’d ever want that from someone after the way Frank brutalised and murdered men in front of me.” Her hand stroked across my face. “I didn’t know I needed it from you.” Her other hand tugged at my boxers, pulling them down and wrapping her fingers around my cock. “Let me reward you… let me make you feel good.”
“Please.”
She stroked me, making me jerk in her hand. I wanted inside her, feeling her tight, slick heat encasing me.
“Don’t fucking tease me, little star. I need you now.”
I wrapped a hand around her thigh, gripping tightly, showing her I was still in charge of the situation. She would do as I said.
“What part of me?”
We weren’t going to play this fucking game.
“Your tight little pussy. Take your clothes off and sit on my cock.”
Ash sat up, letting go of my cock before pulling off her camisole. She rose up on her knees and tugged down her lacy panties, tossing them away. I stared at her naked body, growing uncomfortably hard at the sight of her tits and the blonde curls between her legs.
“Now, little star,” I almost outright growled.
I couldn’t wait any longer. The moment my cock met her heat, I almost fucking died on the spot. I groaned, feeling her tightness encase me as she sunk down on my dick. The most perfect pussy I’d ever been inside.
“Ror,” she moaned. “I’ve missed you.”
The way she took me was like being welcomed with open arms. Every inch made me twitch. Ash was so fucking stunning like this. Her body bowing backwards as she sunk deeper until she’d taken all of me. Her pussy pulsed around my cock, stretching to accommodate me. She let out a little pant, leaning forwards and planting her hands on my chest.
“You want me to fuck you? Want me to impale myself on your cock over and over?”
“Fuck yes… show me how dirty you can be.”
She smirked and began to rise and fall, building a steady rhythm within minutes. I gripped her thigh tighter, staring up at this beautiful girl. The one who was all fucking mine. Her tits bounced on her chest as she rode me. I wanted to bite those hard nipples. Have her cry out in pleasure and pain.
My hand left her thigh and gripped her arm, tugging her down roughly until her tits were level with my face. I cupped one before indulging myself in them. My lips enclosed around the stiff peak. Her cry when I bit down echoed in my ears.
“Yes, fuck, Ror.”
“So fucking needy, aren’t you?” I murmured. “I swear when I’m better, I’m going to ravage every part of you. Make you scream so fucking loud, the boys get fucking scared of what I’m doing to you.”
She moaned in response, still riding me hard as I continued to play with her tits until her nipples were dark from my ministrations. Seeing her marked again fed me. Made the beast sigh in contentment even as he told me to take more.
My hand brushed down her stomach and between her legs, finding her little bud and stroking it. It’d been too long and I was so fucking close already. The way she rode me, the breathy moans she let out. All of it fuelled the fire.
“Ror,” she cried out, shaking and trembling above me as she came violently.
It set off a chain reaction in me. My body tensed up and then released. My cock pulsed inside her. Waves of pleasure washed over me, making my eyes almost roll back in my head. Never before had I let a woman ride me like this. It didn’t even occur to me to stop her from doing it. Any type of sex with Ash was like fucking heaven and I revelled in it. The beast no longer controlled me like it had before. I just needed her. Nothing else mattered.
She lay on top of me, her head on my chest when she was spent and I caught my breath.
“I love you, little star,” I whispered.
She kissed my chest. I never wanted her to leave this bed. I wanted us just like this, locked together after passion and ecstasy. And she stayed for the longest time. Eventually, she slid off me, going into the bathroom for a few minutes. When she returned, she curled up against me, stroking my side and soothing me.
“Sleep, Ror… tomorrow we’ll deal with everything.”
I closed my eyes. My mind was finally quiet and still after all the turmoil of before. No matter what the boys said when they found out I’d killed Carlo, I knew I’d done the right thing. Frank Russo wasn’t going to listen to reason. But he would listen to this. He would see we weren’t fucking around. He would truly know who he was up against.
The five of us would destroy him. Taking Carlo’s life was only the beginning. Soon… it would be the end. The only end. And that was Frank dead in a pool of his own blood with my little star standing over him.
Xav might call Ash an angel, but really, she was something very different.
A girl who’d had enough of the shit she’d been dealt with.
My girl was wild.
My girl was free.
My girl was the harbinger of death.
Chapter 24
Something felt off this morning when I woke up. I couldn’t shake the feeling as I went downstairs to get breakfast. The atmosphere in the house was almost too still. I glanced down the hallway before I turned to go to the kitchen, finding the cell door open and wondered why. My skin prickled all over as I stalked towards it. Xav and Eric were inside, standing over the cot. Neither of them seemed to be moving or talking.
“What’s wrong?”
Eric almost jumped and Xav’s body jerked. He swung his head around to me, a grave expression visible on his face.
“He’s dead.”
“What?”
“Carlo is dead, Quinn.”
I walked in and came to a standstill next to them, staring at the body on the cot. No question about it. His chest was absolutely still. There were faint ligature marks around his neck. My blood went cold. I only had one explanation for his death and I should have fucking well known this would happen.
“Why did neither of you come get me?”
“We only just got here… I mean, shit, man, I didn’t expect to walk in here and find a fucking dead body you know.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Eric ground out, putting a hand to his mouth before backing out of the room.
Xav and I stared after him before turning back to each other. Eric wasn’t normally so s
queamish. Maybe it had less to do with Carlo being dead and more the result of knowing who had killed him. Hell, even I felt a little ill.
“For fuck’s sake.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t even know what the hell to say right now.”
“What do you want me to do with him? We can’t keep him in here, he’s going to start stinking up the entire fucking house.”
“It’s fucking daylight, how do you propose we move a dead body without the neighbours seeing?”
Xav looked a little put out, but I had no clue right now. It’s not as if I expected to deal with a dead Carlo when I woke up this morning. We knew how to get rid of one. The way we went about it would have a significant impact, so I had to think carefully.
“I don’t really want to stand around here with him if you’re not going to decide right now.”
I turned and walked out, not wanting to stay in the room with Carlo either. Xav followed me, stopping outside and leaning against the wall.
“I’m going to go deal with the culprit, you should go check on E.”
I started towards the stairs not knowing how I would deal with this shit. Not what I needed first thing in the morning.
“Rory’s got balls, I’ll give him that,” Xav called after me. He wasn’t under any illusions about who’d done this, and neither was I.
I sighed, striding up the stairs and along the corridor to his room. Not bothering to knock, I opened the door, walked in and came to a stop by his bed. Ash and Rory were tucked up in each other’s arms, both looking so fucking peaceful it gave me pause. I hadn’t seen Rory look so at ease in years. I wanted to give him hell for what he’d done, but I couldn’t. Watching the two of them made my chest ache. Seeing my best friend, the man who was like a brother to me, so happy… I wasn’t prepared for the relief and sense of contentment it gave me. For so long all Rory had known in life was pain. For him to finally open up his heart to someone and give her his love, affection and care was quite something.
So instead of waking them up, I backed out of the room and closed the door, resting my forehead and hands against the frame.