Maddox (The Italian Cartel Book 5)

by Shandi Boyes

  My begs turn greedy when the removal of his cock is quickly chased by my thumb lapping up the droplet of pre-cum pooling on the tip. He’s heavy in my hand, pulsating with unquenched desire. “I want you to fuck me, Maddox. Hard and fast. I want you so bad.”

  When our eyes catch, something alters in his. “Show me just how bad.”

  I hook my leg around his waist like I’m a gymnast before grinding my aching clit on the crown of his fat cock. The grunt that rumbles up his chest is enough to pull my legs out from beneath me, so I won’t mention the sensation that overwhelms me when he spins me around, curls me over the large bench in the middle of the kitchen, then drives home. “Yes… fuck me, Maddox. Fuck me hard.”

  As he fills me to the hilt, my hands dart out in search of something to tether myself to. I’m freefalling hard. My limbs are heavy and unmovable, and I’m chanting Maddox’s name on repeat, but I don’t need to anchor myself down. Maddox catches me as he always has—as he always will. He won’t let me fall because, unlike every other man I’ve come across, he loves me for me and not what I can offer him.

  25

  Maddox

  While struggling not to give myself a pat on the back for a job well done, I hand Demi her panties I managed to salvage this time around, tuck my still half-mast cock into my jeans, then spray the kitchen counter at Petretti’s with disinfectant spray. Even if I hadn’t spilled my load into Demi’s snug pussy, it would be hygienic enough to eat off within the hour.

  I’m exhausted from a huge day, my muscles are screaming in pain, and we’re in a place I will forever despise more than I’ll ever relish, yet I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t do it all again right now. And no, I’m not solely mentioning my public romp with Demi.

  We don’t just gel together beneath the sheets, we’re so on par that the first thing I felt when she told me she loved me was relief. I was getting worried she was immune to the Walsh charm. The cabin doesn’t give me many opportunities to showcase it, but I gave it my best shot tonight.

  I think our sweaty fuck on a stainless-steel bench announces just how suave my skills are, but just in case, I’ll give you an idea of the absolute bliss on Demi’s face. Her eyes are bright, her cheeks are a hue of pink, and her luscious lips are pulled high at one side. She can’t stop smiling, and neither the fuck can I.

  My plans today went off without a hitch. Nothing will bring me down from this high.

  Except perhaps him.

  “Landon, what the fuck, man?” I stand in front of Demi, not only blocking her from his view but subjecting myself to the full fury of his narrowed gaze. He’s pissed. He isn’t the only one. “Have you heard of knocking? It’s in the bro-code. Perhaps you should take a look at it.”

  “Perhaps you should,” he fires back, his voice unlike anything I’ve heard. “If you know what the fuck it is anymore.” He steps closer to me, his chest thrusting. “Where the fuck have you been, Maddox?” He knows exactly where I’ve been, but he doesn’t give me the chance to answer him. “Saint has been calling nonstop. Caidyn drove out to the cabin. We’ve been trying to reach you for hours, and where do I find you?” He leans to the side so Demi not only hears his reply, she can also spot the disdain in his eyes. “In the last fucking place you should be.”

  “That’s enough, Landon. Leave her out of this.”

  When Demi tries to walk away, equally horrified and embarrassed she’s the sole focus of Landon’s anger, I snatch up her wrist before she can get two feet away from me. Landon may be my brother, but Demi is my girl. She comes before anyone.

  “Apologize to Demi, then tell me what the fuck has you so riled up.”

  “Apologize? You want me to apologize?” When I jerk up my chin, his face goes as red as a beetroot. “Apologize for what?” He once again doesn’t wait for me to answer. “That nothing has been the same in our family since Saint let slip neither her nor her friend was on his radar.”

  When he nudges his head to Demi partway through his comment, her scoff is quiet, but her swallow is loud enough for two blocks over to hear. “That you’re being led by your dick instead of your head.”

  The sex-scented space won’t help my appeal, so I keep my mouth shut.

  “That it’s your fault Caidyn’s insurance claim fell through and that he could face prosecution for attempting to defraud an insurance company.”

  Air evicts from my lungs in a hurry.

  That was a jab below the belt I wasn’t anticipating.

  “Or how about the fact you’re not the only Walsh fooling around with a Petretti?” I try to talk, but nothing will come out. “But you wouldn’t know about any of that, would you, Maddox? Because you don’t give a fuck about anyone but her.”

  “That’s not true.” Even if he weren’t my brother, he would still have heard the deceit in my voice. It was laced with it. “I can help Caidyn.” I don’t mention it will be with dirty money because that would give Landon more reason to clench his fists. “Saint isn’t a fucking saint. Everyone knows he’s plucked the occasional random out of a crowd.” I take a mental note to apologize to Demi for dissing her friend when I feel the increase of her pulse through our joined hands. “And I’ll talk to Justine.” Landon didn’t straight up mention she is the one messing with a Petretti, but with Demi being the only female Petretti left standing, I put two and two together remarkably quick.

  “Words? That’s your solution?” When I nod, Landon tightens his jaw. “You need more than words to deal with vermin. The Petrettis are evil. Their blood is pure poison. The kindest thing anyone could do for mankind is to stop them from procreating—”

  “Maddox!” Demi shouts at the same time my fist makes a cracking noise with Landon’s nose. Violence shouldn’t be the solution for anything, but I am as sure as fuck not going to sit by and watch him insult Demi like that, especially on her birthday.

  “Go the fuck home, Landon.” When his hands ball up, ready for a fight, I reiterate, “Go. The fuck. Home.”

  Landon works his jaw side to side before he spits out, “When your sister ends up in a ditch, and your brothers are in jail, remember this conversation. I’m warning you things are going to end badly. What you choose to do with that information solely falls on your shoulders.”

  26

  Demi

  I’ve patched up Maddox’s knuckles every fight for the past six weeks. Tonight is the first time I’m clearing smears of his eldest brother’s blood from his hands. He didn’t split Landon’s cheek like my uncle did mine, but he did whack him hard enough to cause blood to dribble from his nose.

  I’m not shocked Maddox responded to Landon’s taunt, I just wish it could have been for any other reason. I can change my name, cut my hair, and wear contact lenses, but no matter how much I alter my looks, my DNA will never change. I am a Petretti, there’s no denying that, and if my intuition is anything to go by, Landon’s niece or nephew will be as well. They may not have the title, but they will have the blood.

  After locking my eyes with Maddox’s, I blow cool breaths onto the iodine ointment dotted across his knuckles. Usually, when we reach this stage of our exchange, my gentle breaths are soon switched to needy pants. That isn’t happening tonight. Maddox is so deep in thought, he isn’t in the cabin with me. His mind is far from here.

  “Why don’t you call Justine? Get her side of the story.” I dump the iodine-soaked cotton balls into the bin at the side of the bathroom before pacing toward the door, eager to give him some privacy to work through his confusion.

  I could use a couple of minutes as well.

  Unlike many times tonight, Maddox doesn’t halt my retreat by grabbing my wrist. He uses words instead. “Landon didn’t mean what he said.”

  “Yeah, he did,” I reply after spinning around to face him. “I just really hope you don’t feel the same way.”

  “I don’t.” His tone isn’t close to being confident. “But she’s my sister, Demi. My baby sister. I can’t let her…”

  “End up with a Pe
tretti like you?” I fill in when words elude him.

  I silently beg for him to shake his head, so you can picture the devastation on my face when he bobs his chin instead. I understand his objective and comprehend he’s programmed to protect his sister, but not even recalling the world’s best day can harness my disappointment.

  “Demi—”

  “It’s fine.” I grit my teeth, silently warning nothing will be off-limits if a single tear falls from my eyes. “I’m fine. Call your sister.”

  I dart out of the bathroom as quickly as Landon stormed out of Petretti’s Restaurant earlier tonight, and for the first time in ages, I don’t shame my tears when they soak my pillow.

  “Shh, stay asleep. I’m just grabbing a glass of water.” I balk more from the dishonesty in Maddox’s tone than recollection he finally came to bed. I’ve watched the clock for the past three nights. Not once has he come to bed before the little hand reaches one.

  Things have been awkward between us. It isn’t uncomfortable enough to have me worried we won’t come out the other end shaken but okay, but it has ensured I haven’t shared news about a possible stowaway with him.

  Not all the awkwardness is Maddox’s fault. We’ve barely had a moment to talk. Saint and Caidyn have been blowing up his phone since news of his exchange with Landon hit their ears, and Sloane’s issues with Saint have kept the battery on Maddox’s laptop at a constant low. We have so many other people’s problems coming at us from all angles, there’s no time for us to mull over our own issues.

  My heart breaks when Maddox runs his fingers through my hair as he has a minimum of once a week for the past six weeks. It usually lulls me to sleep within a couple of seconds. It doesn’t have the same effect this morning. There’s too much tension in the air for any amount of nurturing to work.

  Once I settle my breathing to indicate I’m asleep, Maddox sighs heavily before he clambers out of bed. The disappointments keep coming when he fails to tug on a pair of pants. He usually sleeps naked. He hasn’t done that since Friday night. We haven’t been sexually active since our sweaty romp in Petretti’s kitchen. I guess confirmation from your big bro you’re sleeping with the enemy is enough to turn any man off.

  I wait for the hinges on the front door of the cabin to creak open before I slip out from beneath the sheets. My tiptoe across the floorboards is done in silence. Not even my tug on the old wooden shutters Maddox has kept closed the past six weeks makes a peep. It’s as quiet as a graveyard at midnight, meaning I have no troubles overhearing Maddox’s conversation with Rocco.

  “You knew he was going out with her, didn’t you? That’s why you said Dimitri was occupied.”

  Rocco doesn’t balk at his accusation. That’s a clear sign Maddox is on the money.

  “Your sister is an adult, Ox. Who she dates is none of your business.” He opens the hatch at the back of an SUV before pulling out a gym bag. If my blurry head isn’t leading me astray, I’m reasonably sure it’s Maddox’s gym bag. “Furthermore, he has no interest in your sister.”

  “Ha!” Even with Justine being his sister, Maddox’s rejection of Rocco’s claim isn’t odd. Justine is beautiful. She has exotic eyes, pure, untouched skin, and hair the color of lava. Saying Dimitri is disinterested is the equivalent of saying he’s going on a sabbatical from sex. Never going to happen. “If he isn’t interested, why fucking bother? Guys only bring out the charm for one reason, to get into a chick’s pants.”

  Ouch.

  One little sentence and all the good memories from the past six weeks are pushed to the back of my mind.

  When Rocco remains quiet, having no plausible excuse to deny his claims, Maddox hits him with a stern finger point. “Tell Dimitri to stay away from my sister or our deal is off.”

  Rocco shakes his head like Maddox’s comment didn’t have half the steam it did. “No can do. This is bigger than you and a half-assed threat, Ox.”

  “It won’t be half-assed if he doesn’t step the fuck back.”

  With furled lips, Rocco forcefully shoves the gym bag into Maddox’s chest. “How about you remember who the fuck you work for?” I step back when his eyes stray to the window I’m camped behind.

  I can’t hear anything Maddox or Rocco says next. The large wooden pillar holding up the cabin’s roof is too thick. I can assume it isn’t pleasant since they get into a bit of a tussle. It isn’t violent enough for me to intervene, but it’s clear neither of them is willing to back down from their beliefs. They’re as hotheaded as each other.

  I hear my pulse in my ears when Maddox’s final shove is chased by him sliding into the driver’s seat of a midnight black Buick. He floors the gas. Even if he still believed I was asleep, he couldn’t anymore. That’s how brutal the tires on his ride flick up the rocks in the driveway.

  Once the taillights of the Buick disappear, Rocco drags his fingers through his hair before shifting on his feet to face me. He stares straight at the slat I was peering through earlier, announcing my watch has been busted before he digs a white paper bag out of his jacket and places it on the top step of the porch.

  He farewells me with a bob of his chin before he signals for the brute who watched the exchange between Maddox and him with a smile on his face to join him in the SUV.

  I wait for the taillights of their car to disappear before collecting the package on the porch. I know what’s inside. It’s confirmation I can’t hide from the truth a second longer. I’m moments away from either ruining the Walshs’ reputation or saving it.

  Maddox’s behavior the past couple of days has me unsure which result I should root for. Both have the potential to end one way—disastrously.

  27

  Maddox

  My back molars smash together when I take the corner Dimitri’s compound is located on too quickly. The back tires of the Buick slip out, dragging me and $100K worth of coke toward the slippery rock-edge. This is my last run. I’m fucking done with Dimitri and his family’s shit. It’s time for me to take Demi away from it all.

  The ten thousand I earned tonight on top of the fifty thousand I’ve put away the past couple of months doesn’t seem like much, but Demi’s birthday celebration proves she doesn’t need expensive things to be happy. She simply needs to be anywhere but here. My brothers constant interference the past three days assures me of this, much less Rocco’s threat that if I don’t jump on cue, he’ll advise Dimitri to leave me defenseless to Col’s wrath.

  I was so fucking ropeable, I told Rocco to bring it on, confident Col couldn’t make matters any worse. Demi has been unusually quiet, my sister is acting like a brat, and even the seclusion of a cabin in the middle of nowhere hasn’t given me a single minute to sit down and take a breather. It’s been one thing after another, and I’m about ready to snap.

  Lucky for me, I know the perfect person to take my anger out on.

  “Is Dimitri in?”

  A brute with a skull full of tats notches up his head before he requests for me to pop open the Buick’s trunk. When he twists his semi-automatic weapon around so it hangs off his back, I remove a gun from the glove compartment. It isn’t the one I purchased on Demi’s birthday. I borrowed this one from one of Dimitri’s crew during my first stop this morning.

  Only a fool enters a gun battle with his fists at the ready.

  I’m not surprised to find Dimitri seated behind a big desk, wrangling paperwork. Drug lords don’t sleep during peak business hours.

  After taking in my balled fists, Dimitri locks his eyes with my face. He knows why I’m here, but he acts as if he doesn’t. “The funds from last month’s fights will be deposited into your account by the end of business Friday. I don’t have any intel on the fighters being brought forward for next month.”

  “I’m not here about our arrangement.” Hoping there’s some kind of man hidden beneath his grouchy exterior, I slot into the chair across from him before hooking my right ankle onto my left knee. “Is it true you’re using my sister as bait?”

  His s
coff is silent but oh-so-fucking gratifying.

  His ship has a leak because I just removed the first plug.

  “Whatever do you mean?” Dimitri asks, acting stupid.

  “Don’t play the dumb card with me, Dimitri. You might have all the stupid fuckers around here believing you’ve got the hots for my sister, but I know there’s more to it than you’re letting on. You paid the dessert menu more attention last week than you did Justine, yet you’re trying to organize another date. Why?”

  Even before Rocco let slip during our tussle this morning that I have nothing to worry about because Dimitri has no desire to bed Justine, I had an inkling Dimitri’s interests weren’t as they seemed. Caidyn said over and over again during a three-hour-long teleconference yesterday that Dimitri drooled over the dessert menu more than he did Justine last week, yet we still needed another two-hour-long conversation about it. I’m fucking wrecked, and all I’ve done the past three days is talk.

  Dimitri slightly tilts to his left. A telltale sign he just drew his gun on me. “She isn’t in any danger.”

  “That wasn’t what I asked.”

  I wink, then lean forward, my composure too frayed to feel fear. In the heat of the moment, I slid into the driver’s seat of the Buick and took off like a bat out of hell. I wasn’t bolting from Demi. I was eager to get this stage of our life over and done with. I just really fucking hope she doesn’t misread my disappearance in the wrong manner when she wakes up. Things have been tough the past three days, but knowing she’s there, ready and willing to lend me an ear once the shit stops raining down on me made everything a little easier to swallow.