“It’s a yacht,” I finally remark like a smartass before I take another bite.
She gives me a cold glare.
“Excuse me?”
I lower my fork, waving it around in the air.
“This. It’s a yacht. Not a boat.”
She shakes her head, rolling her eyes at me.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Carrillo, I didn’t know I was offending your floating toy.”
I take a bite and smile. Never out of words.
Her attitude is like having free entertainment twenty-four seven. She doesn’t give a flying fuck about offending anyone. She speaks her mind whenever she wants. And I could have sworn I saw the corner of her mouth rise in a small smile, responding to mine just now. But it happened so fast, I may have imagined it.
“So this is where you plot all your evil schemes?”
I lower my fork again and narrow my eyes at her. Before I can respond, Liam beats me to the punch.
“None of your goddamn business,” he growls.
It isn’t that she’s unveiled some big secret, but I know he feels the need to put her in her place.
“You know, if you want me to behave, you should stop acting like an asshole. This is a two-way street. You bark, I bite. You don’t bark, I don’t bite.”
“I don’t act like an asshole, I am an asshole.”
“Clearly.” She rolls her eyes.
“Besides, you made a deal with him.” Liam motions towards me. “Not with me.”
I look back and forth between the two of them, wondering who will get worn out first.
“You don’t tell me what to do. I tell you what to do,” Liam continues with a scowl.
I continue eating while keeping my gaze on her, my amused grin telling her how much I’m enjoying this. When she meets my eyes, I shoot her a wink. She purses her lips in annoyance before she turns her focus back on Liam.
“I didn’t tell you what to do, asshole. I asked you a question. Never mind breakfast, my appetite is gone.” She gets up, but Liam snatches her wrist, preventing her from storming out.
“Whoa, sit down.” He roughly tugs her back on to her seat. “Just because you have a question doesn’t mean we have to answer it. Now stay here and eat. Otherwise, I’ll have to shove it down your throat the second Julian walks through that door with your breakfast.” He looks at me with an ‘I told you so’ face before giving her a sarcastic smile “My little brother may think you don’t need a leash, but I sure as hell will take any chance I can get to throw you back in to that broom closet with a syringe in your ass.” He shoots her a threatening glare.
I stare at him while I finish my plate. I know he is only projecting his anger on her because of her last name, and part of me wants to tell him to tone it down, but this could help drive her in to my arms. Her gaze focuses on me, her eyes filled with the same hostility Liam just had until Julian comes in and places her breakfast in front of her.
“Thank you, sir.” She smiles gratefully at him.
“Eat up, baby. And no, we have a different room where we plan our schemes,” I whisper playfully over the table before I shoot her another wink.
If Liam wants to be the bad brother, I’ll play the good brother.
It is the first time she flashes me an undeniably genuine smile before turning to her plate, silently thanking me for a real answer.
“Damn, this looks so good.” She digs in to her plate and stays quiet for the next few minutes as she inhales her food. The more food that goes through her mouth, the more she starts to relax, clearly enjoying every bite on her plate. Her eyes close for a few seconds with every bite, like she is eating the best meal in her life. Like eating those eggs is as good as morning sex. Now I understand the term food porn.
Liam gives me an irritated look, clenching his jaw, nonverbally telling me to stop flirting with her.
Yeah, well, I’m on a mission, so unless he has found Daddy Reyes, he needs to suck it up.
I flip him the bird, ignoring his face while drinking the last of my coffee. She takes a drink from her tea before taking another bite and continuing what’s left on her plate. When she is finally finished, she leans back with a satisfied look. A look I would love to see on her between the sheets. Her eyes roam around the room, letting relaxation enter the toned muscles in her slender body as she drops her arms over the sides of the chair.
“So tell me,” she begins after a while. “Did my dad steal from you? Or are you stealing from him?”
We just stare at her with what are surely astonished looks, stunned by her laid-back attitude after my brother’s blatant threat. Our lack of response makes the fire in her eyes start burning again. Apparently refueled by her breakfast, she stares me down without blinking for about half a minute, wearing a bold grin while she folds her arms across her body. I keep looking at her, not willing to back down, the smirk on my face growing by the second. Tension fills the room, and in the corner of my eye, I see Liam looking back and forth between the two of us. It’s like a fucking tennis match, and based on the shaking his head, I know his annoyance is growing.
He’s silently pushing me to take over where he ended, but pissing her off is not part of my plan.
Finally, she has enough and gets up, placing her hands on the table with a loud thud.
“It was a pleasure, assholes. Thank you for breakfast. I will be in my cell, not that any of you care.” She scowls before pivoting her ass and moving her feet towards the door.
When she notices Ferry in the kitchen, her body startles for a split second, so fast it’s barely noticeable. He holds her gaze until she walks through the door, then his eyes flicker to mine.
My head moves back to the door while I silently chuckle at the sight of that furious dragon walking out.
I feel my cock pushing against my zipper, wanting to yank her back and throw her onto the table. Fucking her into submission. Hearing her talk like that was sexy. Damn sexy. No other woman has ever had the balls. And she is right. She has more balls than half my men.
“Good cop, bad cop, I like it.” I let out an evil chuckle and finish my coffee.
“I was not ‘bad cop-ing’ her. If I was, I would have punched her in the face for talking back to me. Skinny little brat.”
God, he is such a drama queen.
“Stop being a dick to her.”
“Stop flirting with her.”
“Why? It’s fucking fun.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. If you need to fuck the girl that bad, just do it, and get it out of your system. Don’t ruin my breakfast by making me watch this shitshow between the two of you. It’s like a bad romcom.”
“Last time I checked, we still haven’t found Reyes. She has the answer to finding him. We need her to share this information, but all you do is piss her off even more.”
He shakes his head.
“No, this is different. She is not just a means to an end.”
“Everyone is a means to an end,” I deadpan.
Liam leans back in his chair, his right foot resting on his left knee, his left arm draped over the back of the chair. He looks at me with a frustrated look in his eyes. I’m sure he’s debating in his head what the fuck he should do with me. Whatever he is going to say, it’s probably bullshit.
“What, fuckface?”
“She’s just a job, Kane. Why do you care how I treat her? Is she getting under your skin?”
“Fuck no,” I blurt out.
“Then what is it? Because you’ve never defended pussy against me. It’s worrying.”
“No, what is worrying is that you’re too blinded by hate for that family to see how we should handle this. You want to punish her for Cristina. You want to punish the whole family for Cristina, but we still need more intel. Pissing off that feisty redhead isn’t going to get us any of that.” He gets on my fucking nerves.
He slams his fist on the table.
“Bull. Shit. The fact that you’re lying about it proves my point. You are the one who changed the pl
an by picking her up in some uptown nightclub. That was never part of the plan. You said no distractions, yet you were distracted enough to fuck the girl. So don’t bullshit me about intel. You wanted her, even thought about manipulating her into telling you about Daddy’s whereabouts.” His face is serious and eerily calm.
I did say that. I knew that capturing a Reyes meant we needed to be aware at all times, since they have deception running through their veins. Learning to manipulate while still walking around in diapers.
“She is not getting under my skin,” I growl.
“Then what the fuck is it, because I’m honestly wondering if I missed the wedding just by looking at the way you two shot glares and scowled at each other like a married couple.”
“Did you bump your head on the weights this morning?” I ask incredulously. “Now you’re just making shit up.” I get up and move towards the door.
“Am I? Because you’re making an effort. You don’t make an effort. Ever.”
“I want her to trust me so she will help us find Reyes. That’s all.”
There’s another reason I’d said no distractions. I didn’t want to be stuck with the same fuck for weeks on a boat. No woman can ever hold my attention long, so keeping anyone around longer than a day while on the ship would’ve been a burden. I didn’t expect the job was going to be so goddamn tempting, and I sure as hell didn’t expect me to be banging the shit out of her before she was even forced on our yacht. I’ll admit, I do want to fuck her again. I want to fuck her fucking brains out. I want to hear her scream my name while my dick is buried inside her. But I have no feelings for the girl. I just need her to have feelings for me so she will lead me to her father. She is just a means to an end. Leverage to get back what belongs to me. A play toy, just to mess with until we hit the Spanish shore. I need her to get comfortable, to gain her trust and make sure she starts talking. If I get to fuck her in the meantime, great. But as soon as her deadbeat dad gives me my stones back, I will never see her again.
“Will you be able to pull the trigger?” he asks.
I glare at him, frustrated that he has the guts to even ask me that. The blood in my face is so heated, I feel like it’s scorching my skin. Like I wasn’t there when all that shit with Cristina went down. Like I ever put pussy in front of our agreements. I want to punch the shithead in the face because he’s calling me out on shit he did. Not me.
“In a heartbeat,” I finally say as I make my way out of the room.
“Keep denying it, jackass,” he shouts before humming the wedding march while I walk out.
“Shut up, asshole.”
Callie
Four Days Ago
I step out of the elevator and adjust the ladies in my top before I wave my hand in front of my face, hoping to get rid of the flushed feeling in my cheeks. It’s useless because it’s not just my cheeks that are on fire. I still feel a set of eyes burning a hole in my back, giving me goosebumps all over my body like someone put a firework up my ass.
In a good way. A really fucking good way.
I’m shocked my body reacts like this just from kissing him. It’s like we formed a physical connection as soon as our bodies connected. An undeniable connection. Even now I can feel his energy forcing itself on me, even though he must be at least thirty yards away from me. My eyes narrow a bit to focus through the rainbow-colored strobes, hoping to find a path to get to the bar. The club is packed with people dancing their hearts out on the illuminated dancefloor. The twenty-yard long bar opposite of the elevator is less crowded, so I move around the dancefloor to find my cousin who is probably glued to it, waiting for my arrival.
I notice Imogen’s wavy blond hair on the left side of the bar and make my way over to her. She is sitting on the shorter side of the white back lit bar, having a clear view of the VIP deck. The same deck a handsome as fuck tattooed man is occupying with the rest of his army. She is wearing a black skintight mini dress that brings out all the curves of her slender body. I shoot her a smile, pushing away any more thoughts of my elevator escapade, realizing I don’t have time to fuck around. Literally.
“Fuck, Gen, you weren’t kidding.” I eye the bottle of Belvedere vodka that is being placed in front of her while I take a seat next to her. The bottle is laying in a bucket full of ice with small bottles of soda surrounding it, and two tall drink glasses are placed in front of us.
“No, no, no.” She waves her hand in the air while speaking to the bartender, ignoring me. “You take those back and get us some tumblers while you’re at it. We have too many issues to be mixing shit tonight.” She picks up the bottles of soda with her red, freshly manicured nails and gives them back to the bartender with a serious expression before she turns her body to me. The severe look on her face is replaced by a sympathetic smile full of pity before she wraps her arms around me in a tight hug. When I try to peel her off my body, I notice a pair of arctic eyes glancing at me from the deck. I feel my heart skip a beat and quickly look away, pulling myself out of her grip before I take a seat on the bar stool next to her.
She lets out a big sigh then picks up one of the tumblers the bartender sets down on the bar, starting to fill them with ice.
“Shoot, girl. And don’t you dare leave anything out.” She lifts the bottle and pours the vodka until the top of the rim.
“God, I’m in so much shit.” I grab the glass and drain the entire thing down my throat in seconds. The liquid burns my throat, instantly warming my organs with a tingly feeling. It settles me a little, but not enough to make me ignore the bad feeling in my gut or the longing between my legs when I notice the gorgeous bad boy glancing at me again.
I don’t even know his name.
I force myself to ignore his intense gaze, turning my focus back to my cousin.
“Another,” I demand, giving her my empty glass while she still holds the bottle. She pours the vodka into my glass once more before she puts the bottle back into the bucket.
“Callie girl, you’re freaking me out.” Her baby blue eyes are widened, and her complexion is as white as snow.
I take a sip of my second glass then close my eyes for a few seconds, doing my best to let the woozy feeling settle in my head. When I open them again, I have a completely misplaced feeling of confidence pumping through my veins.
“Summer Kent,” I say while I take another sip.
She brings her glass to her mouth but stops in her tracks when she hears me say the name she doesn’t want to hear.
“Goddammit Callie, I told you not to rush things,” she snaps, slamming her drink back on the bar. “Easy peasy, you said.”
“Well, it was easy peasy. I just didn’t anticipate the fucking queen of Soho to have a thing for Gino DiMaro.”
“You’re shitting me”
“Nope,” I reply, popping my P. “June wedding, apparently.”
Gen shakes her head in disbelief before she throws the vodka down her throat all at once, just like I did a minute ago.
“Told you Cristina didn’t give you enough info. You should’ve done more research, Callie.” Her tone is condescending and pissing me off.
“I know,” I sigh, annoyed.
“And you already sold the necklace, right?” I close my eyes at her question, not able to respond with anything more than a grunt. Of course, I sold the damn thing. I didn’t have much choice.
“Girl, what happened to waiting a month before you sell? Making sure the dust has settled? You’re the one who taught me that.”
“Yeah, well, I kind of freaked out when that tax guy presented me that two-million-dollar invoice, remember? Not to mention the hospital bills that I kept finding in my mailbox. He threatened to foreclose on my condo to cover the bill. I had to do something, and he wasn’t cute enough to sleep with,” I explain before taking another sip of my drink.
“Damn, I loved that old witch, but she really screwed us over, didn’t she?”
“Correction,” I retort, pointing my finger at my chest. “She screwed me o
ver. Being the oldest granddaughter and all.” I loved our grandmother, but when she was on her deathbed a month ago, she could have warned us about the towering debt that was hovering above us, just waiting to sweep us away in this ride of misery. We barely had her six feet under before we found out about the 150 grand she owes in hospital bills. $150.000?!
She was eighty-five. I mean, at some point you just have to stop trying.
Just face it, old lady, cancer beat the crap out of you.
I know it’s a bitchy thing to say, and I don’t mean shit about it, but damn, I really wish she would have given me a head’s up about her lack of insurance. At first, I figured we could just sell the house to cover most of it, but when that IRS jackass showed up on my doorstep, I knew we were fucked. I needed to get myself a mark and fix this.
ASAP.
So I did.
Or so I’d thought.
Fuck.
“Stop the pity party, drama queen.” She playfully swats my arm and rolls her eyes. “We are in this together. I shouldn’t have let you deal with it by yourself, anyway. We will fix this. What does Distucci want? Can’t you talk to Ronnie? He always had a thing for you. Maybe he can buy you some time.”
I chuckle at her remark. She still doesn’t know the complete story regarding this situation, so I can’t really blame her for her fucking ridiculous suggestion. All our lives, we were taught to manipulate, steal, cheat, and deceive, and most of all, to be smart about it. I sure as hell haven’t been ‘smart’ about this one.
“He wants to buy me,” I tell her with a raspy voice because I can barely get the words out of my throat.
Gen furrows her eyebrows, looking at me with confusion.
“I don’t follow.”
“He wants me.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling the nausea swirling in my stomach just thinking about having Ronnie on top of me. “I will be his if I don’t deliver in fourteen days. He made it very clear. Fourteen days, or I will be the next Mrs. Distucci. By force.”
She sucks in a breath, clearly in shock. “That motherfucking son of a bitch. Yo, bar boy!” she shouts across the bar. “We need a bottle of tequila to go with this vodka. Pronto.”
Chasing Fire (The Fire Duet Book 1) Page 7