Wilson eventually stops screaming, stops whimpering, and stops moving. There is a knock on the door, but Benicio tells them to leave us alone. He’s sweating, his breathing coming in heavy pants as he lifts his gaze to meet mine.
“You are not his. You did not have permission to come here, I should punish you as well, Nicola,” he barks.
“I-I’ve never. Not like this, never like this,” I whisper.
He tilts his head to the side, obviously not believing me. Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything else. I hear the cane fall to the floor, then he moves around me and I close my eyes as he unties me.
I start to fall, my muscles too weak to hold my body up, he doesn’t let me hit the floor though, he cradles me like a bride and carries me over to the leather chair in the corner of the room.
Slowly, he sinks down in the chair and arranges me in his lap. I hiss as the fabric of his pants touches my raw ass, but I don’t say anything. I look up at him, my arms around his neck and my eyes focused nowhere but his.
“Nicci,” he rasps. “Why?”
“I need peace, Benny. I need to feel.”
“With pain like that?” he asks.
Shaking my head, I inhale a deep breath before I let it out. “Never like that. There’s one person I see. It’s never like this, not ever.”
“You will tell me in detail what it’s like, later, after you’ve rested.”
“Benny?” I ask. “I don’t know how you found me, but thank you,” I say.
He dips his chin and surprises me when his lips touch my forehead in a soft kiss. “Let’s get you home,” he murmurs.
“Did you kill him?”
Benicio turns his head and looks down at the pile of blood and bruised flesh on the floor. “Probably.” He shrugs.
I lick my lips, then press them against his in a quick kiss. “Thank you,” I breathe. “I don’t know who he was, but I do know that no other woman deserves to have him at her back.”
“Get your clothes on.”
“You know the person that I usually go to, he doesn’t make me undress. It isn’t about sex.”
He nods a couple of times but doesn’t say anything right away. Slipping off of his lap, I try to stand to my feet, but my knees buckle. He catches me immediately and carries me over to the small chair where my dress is folded.
In silence, he helps me dress. I try not to make a sound as the fabric shifts over my wounds. He helps me into my shoes, but the thought of walking across the room, then outside makes me want to cry.
“You will walk out of here, Nicola. Once we’re outside I can carry you, but you will walk out of this room with your head held high.”
“Why?” I ask on a whisper.
He dips his chin, his lips brushing mine. “Because you are Nicola Ricci and you are walking out of here on the arm of the Boss of the Ricci famiglia. You will not show weakness, not ever. That is why you will walk out of here.”
He’s right. I shouldn’t ever show weakness. Not ever. I am Nicola Ricci. I was the principessa of the Ricci famiglia.
I am better than this.
I am better than Wilson.
I am better than what he did to me.
BENICIO
Wrapping my hand around her hip, I hold her next to me as we walk side-by-side out of the room. The bitch from the front is standing right outside of the private room, her eyes narrowed on me. She better watch herself or she’ll be in the same position as Wilson on the floor.
“You’ll need a cleanup crew to take care of the mess in there,” I say, arching a brow.
“What the f—”
Shaking my head once, I hold up my hand. “I’ll be back here tomorrow at one in the afternoon. I expect you to be here along with all of your executive staff. We’ll talk then,” I state.
She presses her lips together tightly and nods once. “I’ll be here,” she snaps. I watch as she turns around, her tight ass marches away in her tight skirt and I grunt.
“She has a nice ass, but can we get going? You can stare at it tomorrow, when I don’t feel like I’m going to pass out in pain.”
I snort. “Squeezing her hip, you’re coming to that meeting as well, passerotta.”
“Why?” she grinds out as she takes one wooden step after another.
She’s in serious pain and I wish that I could take it away, but I can’t. She needs to work through this, save face and show not only the world, but herself, that she’s strong. She is too, so fucking strong, but she needs to find that inside of herself. I can’t do that for her.
“Because you need to be there. Just like you needed to be at the meeting two nights ago. This is all part of you, Nicola. You can hide up in your room or you can be at my side while I take over this entire famiglia, including this club.”
“Wait,” she breathes as she stops in her tracks. She looks up and me, her eyes wide and full of shock. “The famiglia owns this club?”
I arch a brow, looking down at her. “You didn’t know that? I thought that’s why you came here.”
She peeks her tongue out and tastes her lips. “No, I didn’t,” she whispers. “I would have never come here. This was supposed to be my release. A way to get away from my father, from my brother, from everyone. This was for me.”
“Look around, Nicola. Really look around.”
She spins around as quickly as she can, and I stay at her side as she takes in the room. Sure there are people engaging in sex, spankings, whippings, and a number of depraved things, but beyond that, all of these people are either part of the famiglia or tied to it in one way or another.
“How? What about Wilson?” she breathes.
“An associate of ours, at least he was.”
She whimpers, turning around to me and I wonder if she realizes that whoever this mystery man is that she’s been seeing, he’s one of us.
“That’s how he knew my father was dead. That’s how he knew my name. I never told him. Oh my God,” she cries.
My head jerks with her words. “As soon, and I mean as soon as we get through the door at home, you’re telling me fucking everything,” I grind out.
“Okay,” she murmurs.
I don’t let her walk slowly, not anymore. Instead, I wrap my hand around her hip and force her legs to move quickly as we make our way out of the club.
I know without a doubt that there are at least a dozen eyes focused on us, but I don’t give a fuck. We’ll be back tomorrow and by then I’ll know everything that’s happened, and I can take over this club and run it the way I want to, which means Nicola will never step a foot inside ever again.
Once we make it to my car, I lift my hand to the driver who, true to his word, is waiting right where I left him. He lifts his chin, then brings a phone to his ear before he starts the car engine and takes off down the road.
It doesn’t take us long to get back to our place. It is ours too, at least for now. Until I take a wife, until I figure out what I’m going to do with her. Until my world fucking ends all over again because I know without a doubt that I won’t be able to keep her.
Fuck.
I’m such a goddamn pussy for her. I killed for her. One of the richest men in the city is laying in a pile of bruised and battered, bloody flesh because he dared to touch her, dared to make my Nicola hurt.
Parking the car in front of the house, I turn to Nicola. “Stay in your seat.”
Tugging the door open, I unbuckle her seatbelt and slip my arms beneath her body before I pick her up. She wraps her arms around my neck as I make my way inside.
I don’t bother taking her up to her room. In fact, I think that I’ll have that part of the house blocked off from now on.
I want her next to me, with me, fucking me, every single night. No more bullshit of her living on her own floor and me being down here wishing she were next to me.
I’m fucking done giving her time or giving her space. She needs to come to terms that this is happening and that she is my possession.
Setting h
er down on the edge of the bed, I take a step back and look down at her.
“Now, Nicola, you need to tell me just what the fuck is going on.”
Chapter Eleven
NICOLA
I don’t take the opportunity that I want to look around Benicio’s space. But from what I do see, he’s completely gutted my father’s bedroom and in just a couple of days he’s transformed it and it no longer resembles what once was, I’m grateful for that.
He’s watching me, waiting for me to answer his demand. He wants to know what’s going on, and part of me wants to tell him everything, but another part wants me to keep it hidden.
This is the only part of my life that I’ve been able to keep a secret, though now that I know the club was famiglia owned, was it ever really a secret?
The one time in my life that I thought I had an inch of freedom, I didn’t. Dipping my chin, I look down at my hands in my lap. Twisting my fingers together, I inhale a deep breath before letting it out in a whoosh.
“I don’t know who Q is. That’s who I’ve been seeing for over a year. It’s not sexual, never has been. He just helps me,” I admit, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Helps you?” Benicio asks, sounding suspicious and rightfully so. If I looked at my situation from the outside, I would think that I was full of shit as well.
Lifting my head, I find his eyes with my own. “After you left. After I put my foot down and told my father I wasn’t going to be his puppet anymore. After six months of feeling lonely, isolated, depressed and desperate. I needed to grab ahold of what control that I could, and I ventured into the club that I’d heard whispered rumors about. I was searching for something, Benicio. I didn’t know what, but I found what I was searching for, in Q.”
“Why don’t you know his name?” he asks, ignoring or avoiding everything else in my story, other than my mention of Q.
Pressing my lips together, I let out a huff. “The club’s rules are to keep some part of your face covered, and if you wish, your identity remains a secret as well. We kept our identities secret. But when you arrived, he informed me that he knew my name, my father’s name, that he was dead and that he knew where I lived.”
“You didn’t tell me, because?” he snaps.
Clearing my throat, I lift my chin in defiance. “Because you didn’t need to know. I trust Q. I don’t trust you,” I state.
He tilts his head to the side, his eyes searching my own. I wait for him to become angry, to scream and tell me that I should trust him. That I don’t have any choice but to trust him. He does and says neither. He just watches for longer than I’m comfortable with.
My fingers fidget, twisting together as my anxiety begins to take over. I take shallow breaths as I wait for him to say something.
Watching him, I try not to get lost inside of his deep blue eyes, but I fail. I always fail when he looks at me. There is something about Benicio, something that always makes my breath hitch, always makes me warm and always makes me lose my head when I’m around him.
“You trust a man that hasn’t given you his first name, yet knows details about your life that you hadn’t even known yet. A man who sends you into that place knowing damn well that he won’t be there to protect you and the men that are, they’re only there for two things. To hurt or to fuck, maybe hurt and fuck, but they aren’t there for anything else. He let you go in there, Nicola. He let all that shit happen to you tonight.”
I flinch at his words, my body jerking. He’s right. I was nervous going in there alone, knowing that the club was exactly what he described. It’s a place where people go to practice their kinks, fuck and be themselves.
I am definitely not the norm in there. A woman who just wants to be tied up, restrained, but not touched sexually. I just want to find my ground, find a sense of control, reset my emotions.
Tears fill my eyes as I continue to stare into Benicio’s blue depths. “I don’t know who he is. I thought that I could trust him. I thought that he would always protect me. It’s been a year, he’s never tried anything with me, he’s never hurt me either,” I say through trembling lips.
Benicio takes a step toward me, then another until I have no choice but to spread my thighs to allow him to take yet another step toward me. I never break eye contact with him. He lifts his hand and cups my jaw, his thumb touching the center of my trembling bottom lip.
“You can trust no one in this world, Nicola. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
“I didn’t know he was of this world,” I admit on a whisper.
He shakes his head. “Not the famiglia, just the world in general, Nicci. You cannot trust a soul.”
“But I can trust you?” I ask, arching a brow.
He snorts. “Especially not me, passerotta. I’m probably going to be the one who destroys you, crushes you into a million pieces. Just like I have a feeling you’re going to finish the job you started on me two years ago,” he rasps.
His thumb is still touching my bottom lip, and it’s so hard for me not to taste his skin. I want to taste every square inch of him.
My entire body trembles with need. It’s been two years since I’ve felt his touch, since he’s been inside of me and I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.
While he may have hated me the past two years, not once did I share the sentiment with him. Benicio has always been a fond memory, the love of my life, the one that I was forced to watch walk away. My biggest regret in life.
“I think that I wouldn’t mind, Benny. At least I would be destroyed in the best way possible. By the only man I’ve ever felt anything for.”
“Don’t say shit like that,” he hisses, dropping his hand from my jaw. “It’s hard to fucking hate you when you talk like that.”
Slowly, I stand to my feet, my weak legs shaking as I force myself to straighten my back and tip my head to look into his eyes. Lifting my hand, I touch my palm to his chest.
“Don’t hate me, Benicio. Hate the situation we were in, hate my father who put us there. But don’t ever hate me or what we had. Don’t taint those moments we shared,” I whisper.
He shakes his head, taking another step back and my hand falls from his chest, my knees knocking as I try to keep upright. “That’s where you fucked up in your speech, Nicola. Those moments we shared, you tainted them, not me. You.”
“If I could take it all back. If I could have been stronger, then I would, but Benicio, I was only eighteen. I’m still only twenty, you need to cut me some goddamn slack,” I shout.
I watch as he places his hands in front of his face, putting them together like he’s praying, his eyes lifting to meet mine.
“I know,” he mutters. “I’ll be back.”
Without another word, he turns from me and walks out of the bedroom door. He slams it closed behind him, then I hear a lock click into place. My eyes widen.
Slowly, I walk over to the door and turn the knob, trying to pull it open. It doesn’t budge. He’s locked me in his bedroom.
That asshole locked me in his bedroom.
BENICIO
Locking her inside of my bedroom, I smirk. I’m sure she’ll be good and pissed that she’s locked inside, but I can’t trust her not to leave the house. I have some searching to do, and I need to know that she’s safe.
Shoving my hand in my pocket, I palm her phone. I’m going to bust this fucker wide open and find out exactly who this Q is and why the fuck he’s had contact with her over the past year. Then, I’m going to beat the fucking shit out of him for leaving her vulnerable tonight.
She was hurt. I’m trying not to think about the welts that mar her gorgeous ass from that cane. The only consolation is that I beat Wilson to death for daring to harm her.
Seeing her up on that cross, wearing just her bra and panties, her eyes full of terror and tears streaming down her face, it was enough to rip my heart out of my chest.
I thought that I would want to see her hurt, but I don’t. Not like that. Nicola looks hauntingly beautiful w
hile she cries, but not when she’s in pain, not when another man is the one making her cry.
Sitting down at my new desk, I power on my computer and then her phone. She has several unread messages from Q. Just seeing his name on her phone causes my stomach to clench.
Q: SORRY I WAS UNABLE TO COME TONIGHT.
Q: I HOPE YOU GOT WHAT YOU NEEDED.
Q: MY DRIVER SAID THAT SOMEONE ELSE TOOK YOU HOME.
Q: PLEASE REPLY SO THAT I KNOW YOU’RE SAFE.
I think about not responding at all. Then I decide to make the fucker suffer a bit.
I’M FINE.
Tapping on the info section of Q’s name, I scroll down until I find his number. It’s local. Tilting my head to the side, I pull up my highly illegal reverse number lookup program and enter his number.
It doesn’t take long, only a few seconds for his name to appear. Quirino Favero. The name doesn’t look familiar, but he’s part of the famiglia somehow or he wouldn’t have access to that club.
Flipping over to a different search database, I put in his name and his address pops up. I’m surprised to see that he lives in an extremely nice area of town, real estate is listed as a prized commodity. I know without even searching that his home is a townhome, it’s ritzy, too. Interesting.
I run a property owner search and smirk. It’s this that tells me exactly who he is, at least on paper. I didn’t recognize the name, I don’t need to know it, yet.
All I need to know is that this house is owned by the Ricci famiglia. I haven’t had time to look through all the real estate holdings, and since the famiglia owns all the higher member’s homes, I haven’t taken the time to search. I’ve been focused on businesses.
Finding a name in my contacts, I lift my phone to my ear. He doesn’t even have to say hello, in fact, he doesn’t have time.
Becoming his Possession: A Zanetti Famiglia Novel Page 9