“Wait! Do you mean Ronnie Sears?” Bella asked stopping suddenly mid-stride.
“Yes. Do you know her?”
“No. Not personally, but I used to work with her mother. I never met Ronnie, but her mom talked about her all the time.”
“Holy shit. Small world.”
“I know. Right?” Bella laughed. “But Springhill isn’t that big. That’s actually where I met Anthony,” Bella admitted, wishing she’d never set eyes on the man because of the danger she was in now.
“Really?” Blaze asked not really wanting to know about her relationship with Anthony, but thinking it might help her situation if she told him more. Any tidbit of information she might recall could possibly shed new light on the case.
“Yeah, but I wish I hadn’t. I was younger then. I’d seen him at some parties but never really talked to him. He was working in the pharmaceuticals department a few floors below me. At first I thought he was okay.” Bella felt uncomfortable talking about Anthony with Blaze. But she didn’t want to hide anything from him.
“I don’t see Anthony Roman working at that kind of job,” Blaze commented wryly.
“He’d taken some sort of six-month course. He really wanted to work for his dad, but his dad didn’t want him in the business. I think that’s why he robbed that bank. He was trying to prove to his dad that he was a big fish too.”
“I guess that makes some kind of sense,” Blaze stated through gritted teeth.
“But he didn’t work there very long. He hated getting up so early. He mostly did deliveries, handled the bio-hazardous waste from the hospitals and doctor’s offices and brought them to be properly disposed.”
“Can I ask you a question, and I’m not judging, but why did you date someone like that?”
Bella sighed. She’d asked herself all the time after the break up and especially after the robbery. Hindsight was always better than foresight. After a moment she replied. “At first I thought he was just a regular guy. He was good-looking.” She saw Blaze frown and looked away but continued to explain what she had seen and Anthony. “He had a lot of friends and for someone like me, new to the area who didn’t have a very large circle, it was fun to be included in a big group. He always had invites to parties, got us into the best clubs and nightspots. It was fun. I was twenty-one, almost twenty-two when we met, and up until then it had been about work and my mom. I moved to Florida right after high school, so I didn’t have a great deal of friends living nearby, and I hadn’t experienced that kind of life before. I had no idea who his father was for the first six months. He never took me to meet any of them, only his younger brother because he came to a lot of the same parties we went to.” They were stopped now at a lookout point and watched the Little Tennessee flow by.
Bella kicked a stone and went on. “He’d hang out at my house on occasion, but he got bored easily. I was realizing I couldn’t keep partying all the time. Then my mom’s cancer came back. I started spending less time with him, because she needed me and I wanted to be there for her. He’d pout and complain and started acting like . . . I don’t know . . . a spoiled thug. I didn’t get it.” Bella explained. “At a party one night, I found out who his dad was. I’d heard the name before, but it kind of shocked me. I asked him about it. He clammed up at first. Then, after a few drinks, he loosened up. Told me his dad wanted him and his brother to have a straight life, but he wanted to follow in the old man’s footsteps. I was honest and told him I couldn’t live his lifestyle. He just laughed and told me not to worry about it. Over the next few months I began to notice things, him taking phone calls and speaking in low tones or leaving the room so I couldn’t hear, disappearing for an hour after getting a text. I just really felt uncomfortable and suspicious. So I broke up with him. Told him I needed to give all my time to my mom which was true. He took it pretty well and after a while said we could still be friends. I’d made a few friends with some of the girls and still got invites now and then. I’d run in to him, and he’d be okay, ask about my mother, but he was dating again, had moved on. A different girl each time. He was changing and I was glad I wasn’t a part of it.”
“Did that bother you?” Blaze had to ask.
“Not really. In the beginning of our relationship, I thought I might be falling for him, but,” Bella blushed and looked down, “I didn’t know what love was then. It was my first real relationship, and I knew he wasn’t the one.”
“Do you know now Bella, what love is?” he asked.
“I think so,” she smiled at him.
“You’re not sure?” Blaze’s voice peaked humorously.
Bella reached out her hand to brush it across his cheek. “I know I don’t want to lose you. I know I don’t think about my problems when I’m with you, I know I’m falling in love. I’m just afraid of making a wrong choice again, and when you fall, you often get hurt.”
“I won’t hurt you, Bella. I promise. I’ll catch you if you fall. I’ll lift you up, always.” He put his hand over hers, the hand that still rested on his cheek. “No one is going to hurt you again. I wish I had known you then, and been by your side when you needed someone, when your mother was so ill. I would’ve been there. Family is everything to me.”
Bella wrapped her arms around Blaze, and pressed her cheek against his chest. This man was everything she’d dreamed of, everything her mother had ever hoped for her. “Blaze, can this be real?”
“I’m real. This, between us, is real.” He held her and pressed a kiss onto the top of her head.
“One minute it’s a nightmare, the next a dream.” He heard her sigh, and he understood that to commit to each other now was too soon, and she had way too much going on to think about the future. He wouldn’t pressure her. He felt confidant she would let him know when she was ready. He was just glad he could be here for her now.
“This nightmare will be over soon,” he promised.
“We have one more day, just us. Let’s enjoy it. Let’s not think about what the future may hold.”
“Okay, baby. Okay,” he agreed. He too was scared for her. But no matter what happened after his brothers arrived, he knew one thing; Bella was going to be in his life for a very long time if he had anything to say about it.
Chapter 24
His
Blaze needed to check in with his brother, and so they returned to the cabin. He let Bella listen in on the conversation. He wanted her to be confidant that his brothers and he would be able to clear her. She sat on the sofa, tucked into the crook of his arm looking out at the amazing view of the mountains.
His brother had texted him earlier saying Nikko and he had been re-working the plan and to give him a call.
“We are going to have Nikko’s cop friend head over to Lemon Trees. That’s one of Roman’s nightclubs, and drop some hints as to your location tomorrow. He is a cop, and helping to bring down the hammer and get the evidence to put these thugs away will help him on the force. He’s in. He will do this when we tell him we’re ready. Can you fax us the layout of the cabin you rented?”
“Why do you need the layout of this cabin?” Blaze asked wondering what his brother’s plans entailed.
“We got to set the trap somewhere. These hit men are probably scouting Cherokee still, we hope. We have a guy monitoring the lawyer’s calls, and big daddy. We know Roman has been talking to someone in North Carolina, twice yesterday, and once so far today. We can’t get what they are saying, but at least with our connections at the cell phone company we have a location.”
Blaze fidgeted in his seat. “We can’t use Bella as bait. It’s just too risky.”
“Yes, I agree. Nikko and I are working on that. These guys are professionals, well, as close to that as they can get. It’s not New York or Chicago mob, but mob none-the-less, and they are all connected. We’re going to need a decoy, and yes, we don’t want to put Bella at risk either.”
Blaze squeezed her thigh as he continued to go over more details of the plan.
Bella hated having
someone else risk their life for her, but just a bit of her terror subsided. She hadn’t known what the guys would do to capture these hit men, but it seemed like they were working out every detail.
Andreas was still talking, and she listened in after covering Blaze’s hand with her own.
“We have to go by the books on this one, completely, and bring on some local PD. We aren’t dealing with some college kid who wants to play big time. These guys are bad. Nikko is going to see if he can get us a contact in Pigeon Forge, and let them know we got us a possible hit man. They can provide back up in the sting, or even take the lead if that’s how they want it. That’s fine with us, but we want in.”
“I thought you said we were just going to use the info to keep Vincent Roman off Bella’s back, let her slip from their radar.”
“We thought about it, and decided we might as well go for the whole enchilada. It’s go big or go home. It’s too risky to leave him out of jail. Might as well put him behind bars with his sons. We get this attempted hit on tape, these dudes trying to whack her, good video equipment, and sound, pull in the Tennessee PD and prosecutor’s office to arrange for the decoy, someone who looks enough like Bella wearing a vest, and when they shoot we all come in, and take them down. We just got to plant the seed about where you are staying and have you use your credit card at the resort when we are ready to lure them there. We have the Tampa PD drop your name at the club, say his buddy is chasing down a runner in Tennessee, so the bad guys are looking for your trail to get to her.”
“It sounds like a solid plan. Details seem to all fit. But you think Pigeon Forge PD can find someone who looks enough like Bella to fool them? The hit men got a pretty good look at her when they fired on us the first time. She’s doesn’t have the blond anymore the way it looks in the mug shot. It’s all dark brown.”
“Good to know,” Andreas was all business. “And, yeah, we think we got someone.”
“Alright then, anything else I need to know?”
“Gio is coming in around noon. He got an earlier flight. So we will come in on the six o’clock leaving here, and should be near you by ten. I know you only booked for a few nights, so go ahead tomorrow and book another couple more nights, and use your credit card this time. That way when Nikko’s friend plants the seed at Lemon Trees, if they do a little digging, it won’t spook anyone. In case they know you are the bounty hunter already, we will be there tomorrow, so wait as long as you can to book it, and we will take turns running surveillance the first night, but we want this to go down the day after when we can get the assistance we’re gonna need from the Pigeon Forge people.”
“Okay, what about Bella?”
“You’ll need to move her the day of the op, and we will make the switch with the Tennessee PDs people. We’ll take her somewhere secure, close by, and you and the decoy will be the bait.”
He heard Bella’s gasp, and gave her hand a reassuring a squeeze. He just nodded while he tried to focus on what Andreas was saying.
“They’ll probably come at night. We will also have our Tampa connection drop the hint you’re running with her, and have gotten involved with the skip. So we put you and the decoy in the bed. The cabin set up is great by the way. We got the specs on line from Angela just now, and that loft, if the bedroom door is open should give us a clear view to where the bed is placed. I plan on being up there with Gio, maybe some PD too. They have to have some say in this and of course the glory, but that doesn’t mean anything to us.”
“Right. Good, sounds good.” Everything was falling into place and so far, to Blaze, it all sounded solid.
“I’ll put Nikko on perimeter or babysitting. Ronnie is driving me bat shit crazy here whining about him just recovering and I’d better not put him into any dangerous situations. Like I would!”
Blaze nodded and winked at Bella. Hopefully, she was reading between the lines. Andreas was always so good at looking at things from all angles, and planned these takedowns out so no one got hurt. In fact, Nikko getting shot had been the first time anything had ever happened to them in the past two years. And thankfully, it had been a clean shot.
“I know you’re careful. You always are,” Blaze spoke with confidence, for both his brother and Bella’s benefit.
After they finished discussing a few more ideas, they hung up. A lot was going down on Andreas’s side, but they were to sit and wait. Bella still wasn’t completely comfortable with the plan. “Why do you have to be a decoy too?” He saw the worry on her face, and although he was feeling much better about the whole thing now that they had a plan, he knew he had to play this part.
“Bella, those guys got a good look at me, and they’ll have all kinds of Intel on me by the time they arrive. We’ll get someone from the PD here to play your part, but using two decoys is too risky. I’ll wear a vest, and it’ll be fine. You are the target, and that is where they will shoot first. I’ll be okay.” He tried to reassure her.
“But what if they shoot at you first, or don’t shoot you on the chest.”
“I’ll wear a cup,” he teased.
“Please don’t, Blaze, don’t tease. Not about this. I just want to think this all out. What if they shoot for the head? You or the decoy could be killed! I can’t lose you, and I can’t have another person’s death on my conscience.”
“All they gotta do is come in, with guns, then they got intent. It won’t come to bullets getting fired. But if it does, Bella, you don’t need to worry. The hit men are going to be looking in here and seeing no movement, they’ll head to the bedroom and see me and the decoy. As soon as they enter the room all hell will break loose and the decoy and I will hit the dirt, get onto the floor. They don’t stand a chance. Also, these guys will wait for night fall, less chance of being seen, sneak in and try to take you, well her, while we are in bed. We’ll have PD in the loft, in the closet, in the bathroom, and they will swarm down on them. The place will be crawling with the good guys.”
“I don’t know, Blaze,” she rubbed her temples. They were pounding as she thought of everything, all the possibilities, what might go wrong.
Blaze knew she would worry no matter what he told her. And so instead, he scooped her up and pulled her onto his lap. “We can talk and worry about this tonight or tomorrow. I don’t want you getting stressed out about this right now. Remember we were going to enjoy this day.”
“I know,” she spoke the words softly looking up at him, this incredible man, who was about to risk his life for her, and she buried her head against his chest.
“Hey, I gotta an idea. How about we go check out that hot tub.” His eyebrows suggested more than just a bath. “It’s big enough for two.”
Bella smiled, and then surprised him by jumping off him; she sprinted, and yelled, “Beat you there.” And she did.
* * *
The water swirled around, and moved in a smooth wave like motion, enveloping them. Blaze washed her taking his time, and she returned the favor. She put her hair up into a loose bun on top of her head, not wanting to wet it, but she could already feel the curls forming wet tendrils that cascaded down her neck.
Sitting astride Blaze, she was coming undone as well. He had his knees up to keep her from slipping off of him. She rocked on his cock, and it was slow going as she lifted, and dropped, and lifted and dropped onto his engorged penis. The build was so slow and had taken so long, the orgasm that finally shattered her and racked her body was beyond intense.
Her pussy clenched and squeezed his shaft so hard he felt like he was fucking her for the first time. Her orgasm was so powerful, and she screamed while he pulled on the nipple he gripped with his teeth. Her head thrown back, she cried, “Oh, my god. Oh my,” drawing out each syllable as she quaked around him. “Yes, yes, yes,” and it went on. Her muscles tightened, her excited clit, overexposed from the heat of the water, and the constant attention from his hand had her body in spasms as one orgasm became two. She was nearly delirious when a third over took her.
Seein
g Bella explode over and over again brought on his own release. Blaze shot his come into her, grunting at the pure animal pleasure of having her for his mate. She was beautiful, she was wanton when she needed to be, and she was his.
Chapter 25
The Marinos
The night passed all too quickly for Blaze and Bella although it was filled with passion, each of them reaching for the other during the night more than once. And because of that they had slept in.
Bella was up first. Blaze had done so much for her, she wanted to be the one to make him breakfast. She tiptoed into the kitchen so as not to wake him, and peered into the refrigerator.
She grabbed the eggs, bacon, and juice and put them on the counter. She took out the frying pan and placed it on the stove, and got the bacon onto baking sheets into the oven. With that started, she prepared coffee, and put bread into the toaster, but would wait to finish after she had the eggs in the frying pan.
While waiting for the coffee to brew, Bella thought about all that had transpired the day before. She was nervous about tomorrow, but tonight as well. Meeting Blaze’s brothers for the first time terrified her. They were his family, and she knew they might judge her for who she had been involved with. She desperately wanted to make a good impression.
Blaze told her not to worry at all about Nikko. He would welcome her wholeheartedly. He was recently engaged and living with his fiancée. They wanted to wait at least a year before the wedding. And Gio, too, was easy going. He was a joker, and constantly teased everyone; he warned her not to take him seriously at all. Blaze also admitted he was worried about Gio. He hoped whatever happened in New York had gone off without a hitch.
It was Andreas who was the brooding one. He rarely smiled, and always seemed to be in a bad mood. That’s how strangers would perceive it, those who did not know him. But when he relaxed he could be just as jovial as Gio, and on those rare occasions it was like they were young again. Andreas carried a lot of guilt about their parents, and so had stepped into their role even though they were all nearly grown when it happened.
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