"Don't do this." I swallowed my sadness and shook my head. "You're all I have left of them. Don't make me choose between you and Grace, Dad. It would have been you a few months ago, but it's not anymore."
"I know." He opened his eyes and stood up straight. "I made sure of that. No one could get away with killing me but you, Erik. Only you, my son." He nodded. "And it's time. I've built up an intolerable amount of hate inside of you, and now... I'm going to kill your woman and your child with her. You can't let that happen."
"Just move away from her, Dad. Stop this shit. We can figure things out." I glanced over at Grace, and our eyes met. She understood all too well what was happening. My father was ready to die, and the only man he'd let take his life and live to tell about it was me. I swallowed hard and nodded at her, trying to reassure her that if things went to hell any more than they already had... I'd kill him. She was my number one focus, and I loved her with a swell of emotion that scared me.
"Listen to me."
I turned my attention back to my Dad. "No, you listen to me."
He flipped the safety off the gun and moved it down to rest against Grace's belly as she cried out again. "No! You listen to me. This syndicate is what it is because of your mother's sacrifice. It's here and standing strong because of my sacrifice, because of your sister's death and your skill. It's yours to continue. You don't have a choice, Erik."
"Yes, I do." I put my finger on the trigger as sadness filled my father's face.
"No, son. Forgive me for the safeguards I've put in place. It's only for your own good. No one walks from a syndicate and lives. The other families will come to devour you, to snuff out the last seed of our name if you don't stand strong." He lifted the gun back to Grace's pretty head. "If you walk away, I have a triggered hit on you and Grace. Don't try me in it, Erik. There's no warning, son. Death will show up in the middle of the night and leave you bloody and bare. It'll force you to hear the screams of your children as they are destroyed, Erik."
"Please stop," Grace cried out and sagged in my father's arms. "Please. Erik. Make it stop. Please."
"Dad. Please." I turned my attention back to my father as he nodded at me and took a deep breath.
"It's me or her, son. I'm tired. I don't wanna do this anymore. My demons are too much. Choose now. When I get to three, I'll choose."
"No. Dad. Fuck." I took a few steps toward him as he jerked his gun just behind Grace's head and fired it, hitting the wall beside her. She screamed so loudly it echoed in my ears, and I didn't wait to fire my weapon.
It hit him square in the head, and he closed his eyes as if relieved before sinking to the ground beside her.
A scream ripped out of me as I turned and crumpled to the ground. I'd lost everyone I loved because of this fucking syndicate, because of misunderstandings and vengeance. I had to walk away, but his final words rang in my head.
I'd always be trapped. Both of us would.
Epilogue
Two weeks later
Erik
The last two weeks had been a blur.
We buried my father in the graveyard he'd picked out for him and my Mother. Delaney's little grave was on the other side of him. I couldn't shake the fact that I'd been the one to put him in the ground. Though the sorry bastard had planned it that way, it didn't make sleeping at night any easier.
I woke up every night drenched in sweat, my heart racing and a scream on the tip of my tongue. The only thing that got me through was having Grace, Cole, and Kane beside me at all times. Solitude was overrated and left me lost. It wouldn’t be forever, but for now… I needed all of them. To feel secure. To feel complete. To feel alive at all.
"Erik. Can I get you a drink, baby?" Grace stood at the doorway to my father's office, both of us trying to figure each other out.
"No." I shook my head and averted my eyes from her. I had to find a way to let her go. She didn't deserve to be stuck next to me in the hell that was to always be my life. I reached out as my phone buzzed, seeing a message from Cole. He needed to talk. It could wait. Everything could wait.
"Please talk to me." She walked over to my side of the desk and sank down on her knees as she reached out and ran her hands up my chest. "Please. I love you so much. I'm sorry for everything that's happened, but you're not getting rid of me."
"Grace." I reached out and cupped her beautiful face in my hands before leaning down and pressing my lips against hers. I rolled my tongue deep into her warm, wet mouth before sucking at her bottom lip and enjoying the sound of her whimper. I hadn't touched her in a month, pleasure something I wanted to deny myself of as long as I could. It was sick and wrong, but I was too.
"Baby, open up to me." She pushed me back and crawled up into my lap, sliding her legs around my waist and pressing her breasts to my chest. "I know what all of this means, and I'm right here. Look at me, Erik."
I gazed up into her warm brown eyes as my cock grew hard and my pulse picked up. She smelled so good. Like heaven. "I'll figure out a way to get you out of this. I'm not raising my son with ten guards around us."
"And I'm not raising him without you." She leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose, surprising me a little. "Wake up and take charge of our life. It's the only one we get. If that means you're a fucking mob boss, then so the hell what. At least we can be together. I'm not going anywhere."
"I'm a monster. My father made sure I would always be one." I ran my hands down her back and cupped her perky little ass, gripping it tightly and rolled my hips. "I wanna bury myself so deep inside of you that you whine and beg me to pull back out."
She licked at the side of my throat and rolled her hips. "Do it. I need to feel you so fucking bad right now."
Her nipples pressed against my chest as the scent of her arousal reached my nose and caused my mouth to water.
"I have to collect from Thomas, Grace. I can't wipe that slate clean. That's how this shit works." I cupped her from behind and ran my fingers by her pussy, playing with her lips as she glanced up at me, worry filling her eyes.
"You have to kill him? My brother?"
"No, baby, but my father left explicit instructions as to what your brother's punishment is for stealing from my family." I used my free hand to brush her long dark hair back. "He's going to become a different man because of it, Grace. I can't stop that."
"Just don't kill him, Erik." She leaned in and kissed me softly. "If you could save him, would you?"
"For you? Yes." I lifted her up and sat her on the desk before standing up. "Lay back and open your legs for me."
She moaned low in her chest and laid back, the position jutting out her small breasts and giving me a good view of her swollen stomach. It wasn't too much to notice, but I loved it all the same. Reaching up, I ran my hands over her tits and down to cup her abdomen.
"Wrap your legs around me, kitten." I leaned forward, making sure not to rest on the baby too much. "Forgive me for anything my father leaves me to do. I can ignore the rest of the world, but I could never get past you looking at me with hate or disgust."
I ran my hand over her legs and moved back to undo my slacks. My fingers played along the edge of her panties as I worked my boxer briefs over my hips and took hold of my cock.
"I don't know if I could ever stop loving you." She gripped the edge of the desk and pulled until her ass was hanging off the edge a little.
"It's going to be a bad day for both of us if you ever do." I reached over and grabbed a pair of scissors from my father's desk, cutting her panties straight across the front so I could access her fully.
"Why didn't you just take them off?" She gripped my hands as I pressed into her and growled.
"I wasn't thinking. You do that to me."
Her wetness wrapped around me and the world disappeared for a moment. The sound of her sweet moans mixed with the delicious electricity building in my stomach was enough to force away any tainted thought.
"Do you think some desires are best left uncovered, Erik?" Her questio
n came out in between soft pants and loud moans as I fucked her deep and hard.
"Maybe some are, kitten, but not ours. I'm going to open up every secret place within you and explore it for the rest of our lives."
She screamed my name as I reached up and gripped the base of her throat, her back arching and pussy contracting as she came hard for me.
She would be my comfort. My peace. My kitten.
For the rest of our lives.
No matter what happened.
She was mine. Forever.
The End…
It’s about to get nutty up in here! This story was SO much fun. It shows a glimpse of The Castaletta Syndicate from Chicago (which you’ll see below in the previews) and The Cooper Syndicate from California. Ali and I are thinking about writing the Cooper Syndicate in 2018, and hopefully wrapping up the Castalettas at the end of 2017. We were obviously mafiosos in a former life, or so we tell ourselves. So up next… enjoy these sneak peeks of my other books. Hope you find something you can snuggle up with.
RAS: I have a love for singing Keith Sweat in the car. Ali says that I am tone deaf but I don’t hear it. Someone que the ba-dum-chi drum.
Toxic
Sneak PeekA Look Behind the Curtain
Till Death Do Us Part
Nathaniel Hayes is the type of man who takes what he wants without asking. Life hasn’t ever been a willing servant to his desires, but that’s soon to shift. When his latest scheme turns deadly, he is more than willing to push to the edge of his limits for wealth. Finally, the two things he has always wanted are within his grasp, but which will he choose? Love or Loyalty?
Jenna Webb is wedged into a life of pretentious f*cks, who are more concerned with the appearance of being somebody rather than doing it… She’s exhausted from over-the-top dinner parties, materialistic suitors and hypocrisy at its finest. The last thing she wants in her life is another pompous alpha male pretending to be someone he isn’t. When offered a chance to live fully alive, will she take it? Will it be worth the cost?
True freedom isn’t always what it’s chalked up to be. Especially not when vows are involved…
Chapter 1
Nate
"All I'm saying is that this is getting old." Ashley dropped down on the couch adjacent to the one I was lounging on. "Don't tell me you don't understand. It's always me going out on a limb."
I lifted my eyebrow and tried to hold back the tongue lashing the wayward bitch deserved. "It's always you because that is the way we planned this shit from the beginning. I should have recorded our original conversation. You didn't want me marrying some random rich bitch and leaving you here to sleep alone at night."
Mikey poked his head into the living room from the kitchen. "Are you guys seriously fighting over who's doing what again?"
"Always." I got up and walked toward the scent of red meat frying. "You almost done with lunch? I'm fucking starving."
"Nate. We're not done." Ash got up and followed me into the tiny kitchen. The apartment was nothing to write home about, but it was part of the cover. We didn't need anything fancy. We were hood-rats from the poor side of New York. We hadn't done anything to legally earn the money we had tucked away between the old mattresses in the bedroom. We had to be careful.
I jerked around and gripped her arm, tugging her against me and narrowing my eyes. "Yes, the fuck we are. You wanted to be the bait, so shut the fuck up with this noise. Understood?"
Her blue eyes widened a little, but that was the extent of her reaction. She was too tough to cry. She'd been through too much already. Crying was a weakness neither of us could afford, nor one I would put up with.
"I don't get it," Mikey started as he glanced over from the stove, his big belly almost touching the dials. Sorry bastard was going to die of a heart attack just like his daddy did a few years back.
"Surprise, surprise." Ash jerked from my grasp and walked to the fridge, her long blond hair dancing behind her.
My eyes moved over the curve of her ass, and I couldn't remember the last time I had her on her knees, but something told me if she kept up with her bitching, it wouldn't be long. Someone needed to shut her up, and I had the proper tools for making it happen.
"Fuck you, Barbie." Mikey shook his head and turned to face me. "I don't get why you guys keep having this fight, man."
"Because Ash is a girl, buddy." I patted his chest and moved around him to grab a beer before Ash could close the fridge. "She's got estrogen and shit."
"Fuck you both." She walked out of the kitchen after giving us both a 'go-to-hell' look.
"You couldn't handle us both." Mikey snorted and I rolled my eyes. The girl could handle both of us and a couple more thick dicks. She was a whore on her best day.
"What are you confused about?" I popped the top on the beer and leaned against the counter. "I mean, right now... in this moment? What's fucking with that empty skull of yours?"
"There are two jobs in yours and Ashley's scheme. One of you had to find a rich fucker and marry them, and the other one kills the spouse off when it's time."
"I already know this." I tilted my head to the side again as he wiped his hands on his t-shirt.
"I know, but Ashley isn't a killer. She's being stupid wanting to trade spots with you, or is she wanting you to do both, because that's-"
"I'm right fucking here." Ash appeared back in the opening of the kitchen, her hands on her hips, her eyes filled with the same torrent of emotions I'd seen far too often on her pretty face - anger, disappointment, disgust.
"And he's right," I barked. "You make no goddamn sense right now. Is your current cock not keeping up? You've been a little too bitchy lately. Wanna share the reason?"
"Yes. I. Do." She walked across the kitchen and slapped me before I realized what she was up to. Never in the twenty-something years of knowing her had she ever hit me.
I reached up and gripped the base of her throat as I walked toward her, moving her out of the kitchen.
"Don't ever hit me again." I pressed her against the wall as her eyes fluttered closed. Bingo. She wasn't getting fucked the way a slut like Ashley liked to be fucked. That's what all the fuss was about. Funny enough, I couldn't just leave it at that. Her thinking she had the right to hit me needed to be nipped in the bud.
"I'm angry," she whispered and slid her hands over my hips. "And I miss you. Stop pushing me away. I know something is up with you."
"Nothing is up." I ground against her as my cock grew thick and hard in my jeans. I hadn't felt the warm wetness of a woman's lips in a few weeks thanks to Ashley's newest hubs wanting to wine and dine her day and night.
"You're lying." She glanced up at me, and a million memories moved behind my eyes. She was my childhood, my first lover, my best friend.
"Hey, if you guys are gonna start fucking, please, for the love of all things holy, just do it in-"
"Shut it, Mikey." I glanced over at him, my fingers still wrapped around Ashley's neck. I turned back to her. "You wanna play wife to these rich guys, or you wanna pick up a gun and snuff out some innocent young girl who reminds you of your sister, Ash? Which is it?"
The light in her eyes died a little, and I wanted to hate myself for hurting her, but I couldn't. She needed to remember that we were just friends, fuck-buddies, business partners. There was no white-picket fence at the end of our crime spree where she and I would exchange rings and end up growing old together. No future I could see had that ending in it.
I didn't love her like that.
"I don't know. I hate living over there with him, Nate. It's not my place, you know?" She gripped my ass, massaging hard like I liked it.
Electricity shot across my lower stomach and I stifled a groan. It had been too long.
"I'm gonna let you go, but only so you can sink to your knees." I leaned in and brushed my nose against hers, playing the bastard I was. "Be a good girl and drink deeply, yeah?"
"Asshole," she whispered and lifted up, pressing her soft lips to mine. "I hat
e you sometimes."
"I know you do. Knees." I spun us before releasing her and pressing my back to the wall.
She dropped to her knees, her tight miniskirt riding up her thighs as she frantically tore at the button on the front of my jeans. I swatted her hands away and worked my jeans over my hips. A groan left me as she moved up and ran her cheek by my length.
"Awww... really? Shit," Mikey groaned and turned his back to us, walking back into the kitchen.
"Not now, man." I slid my hand into Ashley's thick blond hair and used my grasp to bring her in closer as she gripped my cock and leaned in to suck it deep into her mouth. Pleasure danced across my exposed skin and left my knees weak. I needed to find a few bitches to spend my nights with until our latest scheme was over and my whore was back where she belonged - in my bed.
Her fingers dragged down the top of my thighs lovingly as her face contorted and she gagged.
"Such a big dick, Ash. You're such a good little slut." I pulled her closer and deep-throated her as she moaned low and guttural.
I rolled my hips, massaging her throat in short, hard thrusts. She took it like a champ, but she always did.
"I hate you guys," Mikey mumbled from the kitchen.
I glanced over to find him leaning against the door frame, a thick hamburger in one hand and a tent in his pants. He took a deep bite of the burger as I turned my attention back to Ash. Mikey had seen more than his share of my intimate moments thanks to being my best friend. He was good with them unless they were with Ashley. He couldn’t stand her.
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