The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros.: Box Set

by MJ Nightingale

  As he collapsed on top of her, he thought, there was just one problem. How? How could he get her out from this mess she was under? Taking her into his arms, he curled her beside him. He wanted to hold her, and whisper sweet endearments to her, but all he said was, “That was amazing. Thank-you.”

  * * *

  As Bella slept curled into him, he stroked her back softly pondering this new turn of events. The weight of his choice lay upon him. With her his protective instincts had kicked in.

  He wanted to do nothing but take care of her. They had shared a lot this afternoon while playing cards, and he knew she’d had a very rough road these last few years. Although she mentioned nothing about her arrest, he couldn’t fault her for that. With everything else, she had been one hundred percent honest.

  He’d done the same thing. Yes, there were lies by omission, but those couldn’t be helped. Thinking about Bella and her situation, he eventually faded off into sleep enjoying the feel of her beside him too much. It was something he didn’t know if he could get used to. A woman in his bed every night.

  * * *

  Once more Bella’s night terrors woke Blaze up. He’d been dreaming about her and it had been good. This time though, he was able to comfort her. She was still in his arms. He pulled her to him so she was closer, to soothe her.

  * * *

  It was full dark when Bella felt Blaze’s arms pulling her closer. It woke her from the nightmare she’d been having. The same one she’d been having every night these past few weeks. It was her standing in the rain walking at Grace Memorial Cemetery. Then she was alone in the mausoleum saying goodbye to her mother. Something she’d not had a chance to do. In the background just at the doors with the rain coming down in waves as she said her goodbyes, two deputies stood next to a penitentiary van waiting to take her to prison. And that’s all there was to her simple nightmare, her regret that she hadn’t said goodbye, and her knowledge of what the future held for her.

  When she looked up to see if Blaze was sleeping, his eyes looked down into hers and they were kind. “Are you okay?” he whispered in the darkness.

  “Just a dream,” she answered, snuggling in closer. Blaze reached for her then to comfort her the only way he could. This time he didn’t feel rushed, and took his time. He slowly pulled Bella on top of him and then took her face in both of his hands; he kissed slowly putting everything into that kiss he couldn’t say. He wanted her to feel that this, whatever it was between them, meant something to him. He just couldn’t put a name on it yet.

  Bella responded to his slow leisurely tender kiss. Unlike the first kiss they shared, this one made her feel incredibly melancholy. This was the way she had always dreamed of being kissed by a man in the night.

  They were both still naked, and she soon felt his arousal pressing into her, between them. It was the easiest thing for her to spread her legs, placing one knee on both sides and just slide onto him. As she slowly came down on top of him taking all of him in, Blaze’s eyes rolled back as she claimed him this time. Her being in control was something he liked, a lot. But soon he had his eyes open again. To watch her ride his cock was something he wanted to see.

  * * *

  Bella slid onto Blaze. The feeling of being in control when she didn’t know what the hell she was doing was heady. She knew this was dangerous territory, but this man was too hard to resist, and she didn’t want to. With him, she wanted to throw caution to the wind.

  The man was massive, but somehow he fit. They fit together perfectly. At first she didn’t move. She loved the feeling of fullness, his cock pulsing inside her waiting for her to move, to take them both to paradise. Like him, this time she wanted to see his eyes, and she waited for him to open them. Looking into those blue eyes, eyes that chased away the darkness, the loneliness she’d felt for so long, she recognized in them something she had felt for a very long time. Need. Longing. Connection.

  When she felt her pussy stretch around him, and felt the oneness of their two bodies joined, only then did she begin to move. Slowly, she undulated, rocking her hips and gliding, then sliding back down again. It was exquisite torture of the best kind.

  Her hands lay palm open on his chest and she could feel the muscles ripple beneath the smooth surface of his skin. His first murmurs of pleasure brought her eyes back to his, and there it was again. The raw need.

  “Izzy,” he moaned, and reached for her hands as he pushed himself deeper inside of her. Clasping both her hands in his own, he lifted them above his head, and she needed to stretch across him to keep the contact.

  It brought her closer to him, and he captured her lips with his. They moved together, in unison. It was sweet, and slow, a true mating of souls. His tongue plundered her and matched the rhythm of their bodies.

  Bella began to feel her release coming, and he instinctively knew to pick up the pace. His tongue darted into her mouth, exploring; his cock thundered in and out of her pussy as she moved ever more quickly. Each time she came down on him he filled her to sweet capacity over and over again. United.

  She was close, so close, and had to break the kiss to let him know. “Oh Blaze, Blaze,” she cried. “Yes, yes.” Blaze used that moment to take her breast into his mouth. He sucked hard to bring her to that pinnacle.

  It sent a shot of pure ecstasy straight to Bella’s clit and helped her orgasm to come even closer. “Blaze, yes,” she cried.

  Blaze took her nipple and rolled it with his tongue. He gently bit it to help her fall over that precipice, and she did. She exploded. “Oh, oh, yessss,” came her cry as he felt the shudders around his cock. Seeing her eyes go wide, her collapse sent him over the edge, and once more that night, he spilled himself into the bounty he was supposed to be chasing.

  Chapter 15

  The Morning After

  Blaze was making his way down the steep incline as quickly as he could, but he still needed to be careful as he didn’t want to injure his ankle any further. It’d been feeling fine this morning, but as he came closer to the small town of Cherokee he felt the tenderness returning.

  He didn’t want to take any chances of reinjuring himself, and he wanted to return to Bella before evening, although he hoped it wouldn’t take that long. He had a lot to accomplish as well.

  When they woke up that morning, he’d informed her he would need to go into town to take care of his rental and make a few phone calls. He couldn’t get service where he was. Seeing a look of disappointment cross her face, he reassured her quickly saying he could stay a few more days.

  First thing he needed to do was call Andreas. His brother had probably expected a call last evening. He’d been lucky to reach him just before his radiator conked out on him. When any of them were out of town, the rule of thumb was to call in once a day. He didn’t need one of his brothers showing up now to look for him and it was one of the reasons he kept checking his cell which he had clipped to his belt.

  So far he’d had no luck.

  Also on his to do list was getting a new rental, something with a bit more power to drive through these mountains. He didn’t like the idea of not having a safe vehicle in case he needed to make a quick getaway. The thought of some Roman goons coming upon them, stranded with no way of escape, worried him.

  Lastly, he wanted to get a few supplies for Bella. She made him a list, and he had mentally added some items of his own.

  The ground began to level out and he was grateful. His ankle was beginning to throb. At that moment he heard his phone notifications go nuts. Service! Hallelujah!

  Sure enough, he saw four missed calls, and several text messages. He checked those first. All were from his eldest brother. He wasn’t happy.

  He hit dial not bothering to listen to the messages just in case the service went out; he could always check the messages later. He was sure they were from his brothers checking up on him and were probably angry in nature, well the ones from Andreas at least.

  “Where the hell are you?” Andreas cursed, cutting straight to
the chase having seen Blaze’s name on his phone.

  “I’m good, and I’ve got the bounty,” Blaze returned.

  “Well that’s good, but why and the hell didn’t you call earlier?”

  “I’m in the mountains, lost service.” Blaze said it nonchalantly. He didn’t want any red flags shooting up in Andreas’s direction.

  “They still have landlines don’t they?” came the quick caustic return.

  “Not where I was, am,” he corrected, and continued. “And before you say anything else, let me report in, in case I lose you.”

  Blaze heard his brother’s frustration crackle through the android device, and just carried on with the story he planned to tell, most of which was true.

  “The rental car I had, cracked radiator, and I was stranded about a mile from the target. She just happened to show up which was good for me as I had no service to get a tow.”

  “How convenient,” Andreas drawled.

  “It was. And then she helped me get it going, but it was a cracked radiator so we knew we couldn’t get it far, so her place was closer to town. We headed there.”

  “Why?” Andreas interrupted gruffly. Had all his brothers lost their common sense? Bring them in, not take them home.

  “I’m getting to that part. I had sprained my ankle. It was stupid, you don’t even want to know how that happened, but there was no way in hell I was going to be able to bring her in injured if she tried to struggle. She might have gotten away. It’s better now by the way,” he added at yet another one of his brothers frustrated sighs. He just continued when Andreas said nothing. “She still didn’t know who I was, and I thought it better to keep it that way until I was able to get another vehicle.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Andreas murmured. Now his brother was making some sense at least. “When you bringing her in?” he asked getting straight to the most important part.

  “Well, that’s the tricky part.” Blaze kept his voice even, again not wanting to put up any red flags.

  Andreas didn’t buy it. “What? Just bring her the fuck in. Do I need to come up there?”

  “No. No. Not at all,” Blaze sighed. His brother was definitely domineering and if he suspected anything at all was not going smoothly he’d be up here in a heartbeat, and possibly bring all the brothers with him. “I can handle this, and the girl is as . . .” He paused searching for just the right word, “as meek as they come.”

  “Not a Ronnie then?” he quipped.

  “Hell no!” Ronnie, was his youngest brother’s new girlfriend, er, fiancée and a handful, literally and figuratively as well. In their Italian lingo, they referred to a woman with breasts like that as poppe.

  “Good, we don’t need someone going off half-cocked.” From Andreas’s tone Blaze could tell he was somewhat relieved.

  Blaze continued with his tale. “Well, I ended up spending the night, as I was hurt, and she had no transportation nestled up in the hills. I didn’t travel yesterday, and then, you won’t believe this, the girl falls off a ladder painting her house while I was sleeping. So she gets hurt. I can’t leave her, so I stayed one more night. She’s better now, though still hurting. Again, I still haven’t told her who I am yet. But, she’s not going anywhere that’s for sure, so I am headed into town on foot with a recovering injury to get a new rental, and then I’ll go back in.”

  “Good plan. You coming tonight then. Need me to get Angela to book a flight?”

  “Actually no, I’m going to give her another day or two to heal up.”

  “What?” Andreas’s retort came quick and he sounded angry. Why was he thinking about doing a dumb ass thing like that? “What the hell’s going on there?” he gripped the phone drawing his hand through his midnight black hair. His tell when he was frustrated.

  “Andreas calm down before you give yourself a stroke. This is me we are talking about. The sensible one. Remember.”

  True, Blaze was the sensible one, but crazy seemed to be going on in his family right now. None of this made any god damned sense. “Well, why are you waiting?” he asked slowly as if he were talking to a child.

  “I’m injured. She’s injured. I just don’t want any problems if anything were to happen. You know these Vincent Roman family goons could be around the airports, or looking for her. I just want to be careful, and no one to get hurt. My ankle is good, better, but like I said, I just want to be one-hundred percent. Her too in case we run into trouble.”

  “Why? You see anything suspicious?” came his quick retort.

  “No, Nothing. But just in case.” Blaze waited patiently for Andreas’s next question. He heard him sigh.

  “Okay, okay, whatever. So two days then?” That’s all he the time he would give him.

  “Two days. I may also drive in, but I’ll check in with you in two days tops and let you know either way.”

  “Fine, fine, but if I don’t hear from you in two days I’m coming in. I was going to fly out tonight.” Again, he heard the frustration in his brother’s tone.

  “That won’t be necessary.” Blaze kept his voice up beat. He wanted his brother not to worry. He always seemed to be worrying.

  “Well, you just better check in. Nikko’s still out, one more week, and Gio just flew to New York.” Blaze noticed the snarl undercutting his words when he mentioned New York and that sent up an alarm to Blaze.

  “What? Why?” It was Blaze’s turn to be shocked. What was Gio doing in New York, and why did Andreas sound so unhappy about it?

  “Lisa. . .” his voice trailed off in what sounded like exasperation.

  “What?”

  Lisa was Gio’s ex-girlfriend, his one love, who’d left him to marry another man. She’d eloped and come back married. They weren’t even broken up at the time. It had come as a shock to all of them. They had grown up with Lisa, had been neighbors and life-long friends. Gio dated her on and off for six years, all through high school, while he was in the academy, and through his first year as a police officer. Everyone expected him to propose after she graduated from college.

  “Can you believe she tried to off her husband, and who does she call to bail her out of Riker’s Island?” Andreas spat the words out. He was clearly disgusted with the woman and her attempts to lure Gio back into her life expecting him to come to her rescue after nearly ten years.

  “Fuck, no way!” Blaze didn’t blame Andreas for being pissed. Hell, he was too. She had really sent Gio on a spin, crushed him, and they thought he wouldn’t recover from it for a while. Surprisingly, it had been his parent’s deaths that brought him back around. He got his drinking under control and cleaned up his act.

  “Yes, fucking way. That’s why I’m so pissed right now. I’ve got one brother recovering from a bullet wound and he is in love, and you go missing, Gio in New York getting drawn in to Lisa’s bullshit.” Blaze heard the anger and he felt his own anger level’s rising. Lisa was bad news.

  “Well, don’t worry about me. I’ve got this,” he tried to set his brother free from at least one worry even though he knew it was no use. Ever since their parents had been murdered, he’d taken over the family and was the most difficult of watchdogs for all of them, more so than any parent.

  “Sure,” he dragged out the word. “I won’t worry, yeah, just get your ass home, and keep me posted as much as you can.”

  “Will do. And if you hear anything about Gio, you keep me posted.”

  “Okay, talk to you later then. I’ve got to get some work done around here. Stay safe.”

  With that both brothers hung up. And both worried.

  The phone conversation ended just in time. Blaze had enough on his plate without having to worry about Gio getting screwed up again by being brought into Lisa’s nightmare. They had all once loved her. And, they all resented her for what she had done to their brother. She’d been like a sister to them; they’d been neighbors, the proverbial girl next door, and then she’d gone and married the local rich boy and left Gio seriously fucked up. Only
his parents’ deaths had shocked him back to reality. Andreas wanted a united front. They needed to stick together for Nikko, the youngest, who was still in high school when the murder happened and for him too. He’d just started college. But Gio was scarred badly. He’d never had a serious relationship since, and women had become mere toys to him to be used, and then thrown away.

  Who was he to argue? He’d done the very same thing, learning from his brother, and going through a very similar experience with Nicole, and Alex, a friend to both of them. Betrayal sucked, and it had taken a lot from all of them.

  Ugh. But he had to focus now. He had a job to do, and as he turned the sharp corner at the end of the long and winding road down from Bella’s, he saw the first houses off in the distance. He also saw what appeared to be Clara’s store, and she lived right next door according to Bella. He’d stop by and fill her in, and hopefully, her husband, Joseph, would not have left for work, and be willing to drive him to a rental car place. He’d make the calls to his own rental car company when he was at the new place to come and pick up the disabled vehicle.

  Hopefully all would go according to plan.

  * * *

  Luckily it did, and Blaze was headed back to Bella’s by three-thirty in the afternoon.

  Clara had been quite suspicious at first, seeing this stranger who claimed to be a friend of Izzy’s, and then after having her husband drop him off at the nearest rental agency which was forty-five minutes away, she pointedly told him, she would be driving up to check on Bella herself. He was able to cajole her into good humor, by telling her what wondrous healing properties her balms had evoked in him, and showing her the scars on his hands it had helped to soothe. He’d told her the whole story of Bella finding him, and seeing the scars had added truth to his ludicrous, but very true story.

  The car rental situation took longer than expected. There was a lot of paperwork to be done. After that was accomplished, it was noon, and he still had some shopping to do. It had taken an hour to find a place that sold modest refrigerators, and then he wanted to stock it with food. He bought the cheapest refrigerator he could find, and was assured it would fit into the king cab pickup he rented. He’d been tempted to buy her a stove as well, but didn’t want her to think he was overdoing it. After getting the small GE compact refrigerator into the truck and secured, he was directed to a Piggly Wiggly’s to do his grocery shopping.