“He was concerned about your welfare. I have to admit it was refreshing. However, I am concerned about his future intentions with you.”
“One more fucking word and I pull the trigger, Favero,” I bark.
He doesn’t move. Nicola does though. She whips her head around and her wide eyes look up at me in shock. I watch as her mouth drops open slightly and if this were a different situation, I would love the look on her face, imagining my cock slipping between those parted lips of hers.
“Benicio,” Quirino drawls. “Figured you’d have this place monitored and secured.” He chuckles.
I curse to myself, wishing that he hadn’t said it aloud. I was still trying to keep Nicci in the dark on the security system.
Though, I don’t know why.
She hasn’t even attempted to leave this house since she went to the club, driven by Quirino’s man, anyway. A man that I’m having brought in this very moment by Ermanno.
“You know that I do. Why risk it?” I ask.
He doesn’t even bother looking back to me. It’s as if he doesn’t give a fuck about the power that I wield. The fact that I hold his life in my hands. That I could pull this trigger and end him in a matter of seconds.
Nicola stands to her feet and walks around the bench, making her way to my side. I feel her hand wrap around my forearm and she tugs on me, but I’m too fucking focused on the back of Quirino’s head to budge.
“Leave him alone, he was just checking on me,” she hisses.
“You’re not his to check on,” I spit.
“Yeah? If he doesn’t, then who will?” she snaps.
Turning my head, I keep my gun pointed at the back of the fucker’s head, but look down to Nicola. “Excuse me?” I ask, my voice deep and darker than I thought possible.
She takes a step back, gulping as she keeps her eyes focused on mine. “You heard me,” she says, her voice a bit shakier than it was just a moment ago.
“Quirino. I want you in my office. Now,” I demand.
He chuckles, and out of my peripheral vision, I watch him stand to his feet. “Costa will see you inside,” I state, my eyes never leaving Nicola’s.
“You yell loud enough, Nicola. I will come to you,” he offers.
My finger twitches against the trigger of my gun at his words.
Luckily, for him, he doesn’t say anything else as he walks away from us and toward the back of the house where I know that Costa is waiting.
I called both him and Ermanno on my way here. Giving them explicit instructions on how I wanted this moment handled.
As soon as Quirino is out of my sight, only then do I put my gun back in its holster, my gaze never leaving Nicola’s. The fucking little brat that she is.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Q and my mother?” she demands.
Shaking my head, I narrow my eyes on hers. “It didn’t make much of a fucking difference if you knew or not. She’s dead. Your father’s dead. Plus, he’s receiving money from the famiglia and I want to know why. I don’t know why yet, if you must fucking know,” I seethe.
She lifts her chin higher in the air and looks down her nose at me. Fuck, she makes me so goddamn hard when she cops an attitude like this.
I want nothing more than to put her over my knee, spank her, then fuck her until we’re both satisfied, and she’s too exhausted to throw any more of that attitude my way.
“He loved her, Benicio, and he’s looking out for me. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Shaking my head, I lift my hand and as much as I want to slap some sense into her, I run my fingers through my hair instead.
“Nicola. He followed you to a sex club and instead of talking to you, he chose to tie you up and play you for over a year. He knew exactly who you were, yet never told you who he was. He knew what your father forced you to do all those years, and he never bothered to protect you and save you then. Don’t be fuckin’ naïve.”
She takes a step back, dropping that upturned chin and looking down at her feet. I watch as her shoulders slump and I want to tell her that I got her, that I’ll keep her fucking safe. She doesn’t need Q, she doesn’t need anyone but me.
“But…”
“But nothing. Those are fucking facts. He was playing with you and I don’t know why, yet. I don’t know why he gets way too fucking much money from the famiglia every month. And I don’t know why he would compromise your mother that way knowing what would happen to her if they were ever to get caught.”
She licks her lips, my words working through her head. I can practically see the wheels turning as she goes through everything that I’ve told her. She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, then she slowly lifts her gaze to meet my own.
“I have nobody, Benny,” she whimpers. “I have nothing and nobody.”
Tears fill her eyes, and fuck, but I hate to see her cry, not about this. Lifting my hand, I cup her cheek and wipe a falling tear with my thumb.
“Nicola,” I rasp.
“Don’t. You don’t trust me. You don’t even like me. You like how I make you feel when you’re inside of me, but that’s all. I know that what we have is only physical. But, Benny, I don’t have anyone. I spent my days in complete solitude, my nights being your whore and that is my life. It’s depressing and frankly, it’s not a life worth living. I am utterly useless.”
My fingers tighten against her cheek, my grip so tight that I worry about leaving marks on her skin, but in this moment, I can’t help myself. Her words fucking piss me off.
“You think that your pussy is the only thing that I give a fuck about? I can get pussy anywhere, Nicci. Pussy is pussy. Tying girls up is not anything abnormal either, if I want to do that to some chick I meet in a bar, nine times out of ten she’d let me. I want you at my side because you’re you.”
Nicola snorts. It’s unladylike as fuck, and I can’t help but smirk. She’s usually pretty fucking prim and proper, so this is a natural reaction and I find that I prefer those over her well-practiced ones.
“You have me in your bed because every real estate property my father purchased over the past several years is in my name. I know that they haven’t been switched over because I haven’t signed a fucking thing. I also know that the money is still being filtered into my account before it goes elsewhere because I check that shit daily,” she snaps.
My head jerks from her words, but I keep my grip firm against her face. “You think you know everything, don’t you?”
“I know that you told Q not very long ago that you hate me. I know that you’re prepared to keep me as your whore until I no longer serve that purpose. I have a feeling that it has to do with the real estate and whatever else my father has in my name. Also, because I know more about the business than I should, it’s easier to keep me here to feed you information. And if you’re fucking me, then all the better for you.”
I release her, take a step back and run my fingers through my hair again. “You think that you have me all figured out, don’t you?”
“Don’t I?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
Tilting my head to the side, I want to tell her that she doesn’t. Except that would be a goddamn lie. She isn’t wrong in her assumptions.
Granted, I no longer hate her.
That doesn’t mean that I trust her, but I’ve come to peace with what’s happened in the past and I’ve forgiven her actions, she’s proven that she didn’t do it maliciously.
She didn’t have a choice and, honest to fuck, Gavino asked me to spy for him and I did, no questions asked. It’s the same goddamn principle.
I shouldn’t be so fucking angry with her about that, just because I did the one thing a man like me is never supposed to do, I fucking fell for a whore that I bought and paid for.
Refusing to answer her, I reach for her bicep and curl my fingers around her. Tugging her against me, I smirk when she falls against my chest. Just feeling her hands on me makes my cock twitch to life. Dipping my chin, I touch my mouth to hers
in a brush of a kiss.
“You don’t have shit figured out, Nicola.”
NICOLA
Benicio takes a step back from me, his hand still wrapped around my arm and begins to walk toward the house. He doesn’t just walk, he practically sprints, or at least that’s how it feels as he drags me behind him.
“You want to play with the big boys, you got it, passerotta. I’ve been keeping you away from all the shit because you didn’t seem to react well to the first couple of nights where I killed in front of you, but apparently you want to be surrounded by the blood and gore. You fuckin’ got it.”
“Benny,” I call out, trying to pull free of his grasp.
He abruptly stops and turns to face me just before we enter the back door of the house.
His gaze is angry as he looks down at me, his nostrils flaring and for some reason, I want to kiss him, I want him to pick me up and fuck me against the wall, I want all of his anger pounding into me relentlessly. He’s so damn sexy.
“What?”
Licking my lips, I try to remember what it was that I was about to say. I feel like my brain is in a fog, a Benny sex fog and I can hardly breathe, let alone think. Then I remember what I was going to say, but it’s too late, he’s figured me out.
Benny lowers his head, his lips touching mine briefly. “I’ll fuck you in that blood and gore, Nicola. If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ve got.”
Jerking away from him again, I shake my head. “Gross,” I hiss. “Don’t hurt Q just because he dared to talk to me, don’t be like Mauro.”
Benicio snorts. “If I were like Mauro, I would make him pay me to converse with you. Don’t ever compare me to that fucking asshole ever again,” he roars.
My entire body trembles at his words. He must sense that he went too far. Benicio reaches for me, wrapping his hands around my arms and pulls me against his chest.
A million memories flitter through my head, all of which make my stomach clench. Benny buries his head against my neck and I feel his lips moving against me, I can hear his voice, but I can’t make out his words.
He shakes me slightly as he lifts his head and looks into my eyes. I blink a couple times, my mouth opening and closing, but nothing comes out. Then, as if I’m watching from a distance, he lifts his hand and slaps it across my face.
“Snap the fuck out of it,” he demands.
Blinking, tears fill my eyes, but not because he’s hurt me. He hasn’t, at least not physically. “He did all of that, didn’t he? Took money and sold me off to whoever wanted a piece of me?”
“You knew that, Nicola.”
Nodding, I lift my hand, placing my shaking palm against his chest. “I know, but hearing it aloud. It…”
“I shouldn’t have said that. I was angry, baby.”
“You were just being truthful.”
He shakes his head. “Truthful or not, it crossed the line. You were a victim of your circumstance. I shouldn’t have said a fucking word. You were a child.”
“Would you really keep me at your side? Could you?” I ask, changing the subject.
He tilts his head and I watch as his lips twitch into a small smile. “Shit keeps going the way that it has, I could see it, passerotta.”
“What about your future wife?”
Benicio dips his chin, his lips gently brushing mine. “Maybe you’re her?”
“I couldn’t be, don’t give me false hopes,” I breathe.
“Have faith in me, Nicci. I always get what I want. The way that I want it. If this works, then I won’t want any woman to be my wife except for Nicola Ricci. The fucking principessa of the Ricci famiglia and my goddamn queen.”
Shaking my head, tears don’t just fall, they stream down my cheeks. “Don’t,” I whimper. “Don’t make me those kinds of promises, Benny. You can’t call me a whore in one sentence, then say you want me as your wife in the next. It doesn’t work like that.”
He grins, nipping my bottom lip as he straightens his back and looks down into my eyes. God, how can he be so beautiful? I don’t know, but I kind of hate him for that in and of itself.
“Haven’t you learned anything yet, Nicola?” Tilting my head to the side, I watch him, waiting for him to continue. “You’ve been mine since I first laid my eyes on you. If you’re going to be at my side in business, I’ll find a way to have you at my side forever. I think that Gavino can be persuaded to give me what I want.”
“How?”
“Leave that up to me. Now, let’s deal with Favero and his driver.”
Without another word, he wraps his hand around mine and with a lot less urgency, we make our way inside of the house. He even stops at the side of the door to allow me to slip my high heels back on.
Then as the king and queen that he’s proclaimed us to be, we walk with our backs straight and our heads up toward his office where there are a group of men waiting for a meet.
Chapter Eighteen
BENICIO
Favero and the driver are already sitting in my gold velvet office chairs when I guide Nicola into the room. I hear her breath hitch behind me at seeing Quirino for the first time without a mask, in the light.
I don’t know what that hitch means.
Maybe she recognizes him, maybe she thinks he’s handsome, it doesn’t really matter much to me, because this will be the last time that she ever sets her eyes on him.
I make my way over to the chair that’s behind the desk, guiding Nicci to stand next to me while I sink down into the leather seat and take in the men across from me. They both look completely bored, unaffected by their positions.
Costa stands behind the driver and Ermanno behind Favero. Both could kill these men in seconds and literally nobody, except us, would be the wiser. But, I don’t want them dead, at least not yet. I have a feeling that they have valuable information.
“Do you finally want to tell me what the fuck you know? Why you’ve received a stipend and why you have a man under you?” I ask, keeping my voice cool and calm.
“Do you want to tell me what your plans are with Nicola?” Quirino asks.
I shake my head. “It’s not your business,” I snap.
He knows how to get to me, but he won’t, not this time. I’ve told Nicola as much of my plans as I can. She knows what she means to me right now, she knows that this is where she is meant to be. He will not get between us, I won’t allow it, not anymore. Never again.
“What if I told you that the only reason Mauro Ricci kept me alive was to punish me?”
I snort. “I would call bullshit, because he paid you a hefty amount every month, so I don’t buy it.”
“So, you’re at least a bit smarter than you look.” He smirks.
Tilting my head to the side, I refuse to respond to his failed attempts to offend me. Reaching into my inner jacket pocket, I pull out a joint and light it. This fucker gets my blood pressure up, and I need to fucking relax.
“You’re going to smoke that in front of me?” he sneers.
I shrug a shoulder. “Does it offend? Better for me than cigarettes. I’ll smoke whatever the fuck I want, in my office and in my home.”
He growls but otherwise doesn’t respond to me. Instead, he quietly waits. He wants me to show my hand, but I’m not playing a game. I want to know what ties he had to Mauro, other than being his Underboss and his wife’s lover. He had something over the old man and I want to fucking know what it was.
“Tread lightly, ragazzo,” he warns.
Arching a brow, I smirk. “I don’t think that I will. What I will do is ask nicely, one last time, before I start spilling blood.”
“You think bloodshed scares me?” Quirino asks.
I shake my head once, then use the only thing that I found useful in that fucking file. Something that I’ve been keeping close to my vest the entire time. Something that not even Nicola knows. Something that shocked the absolute fuck out of me, but maybe that’s why Mauro did it, for leverage.
“No, but I think kn
owing where your baby is buried might get some goddamn answers from you?”
He stands so fast, that my head jerks back slightly. Nicola gasps beside me. Costa and Ermanno both draw their weapons and are ready to end this fucker if he so much as flinches in a threatening manner toward me.
“What did you just say?”
“Your driver there knows,” I say, jutting my chin toward him.
The driver pales and I smirk. He hasn’t been just a driver, he hasn’t been a trustworthy friend, either. What I found out with just an hour of digging is that this motherfucker was sent to keep an eye on Quirino and report his every move back to Mauro.
The only thing that he didn’t tell Mauro, that I could tell, was about Quirino and Nicola’s rendezvous and I can’t figure out why. He held that close to his vest for a reason. I want to know. I want to know fucking everything.
Quirino slowly turns his gaze from me to focus on his driver. “What the fuck?” he rasps.
“I’m only entertaining this back and forth for a second, then I just want fucking answers,” I state.
“Mauro Ricci was my boss, and that is who I am loyal to. I owe nobody in this room a damn thing,” the driver announces, lifting his chin and looking down his nose.
I snort. “Mauro Ricci is dead. He was a tyrant and a downright asshole. He was a child abuser and a piece of shit. If that’s what you’re loyal to, then I don’t want you in my famiglia.”
His eyes widen as he watches me. I can feel Nicola’s gaze on me, but I don’t look over to her, if I do, I’ll want to kiss her, hold her—fuck her. I can’t right now. Soon, just not right this second. I need to focus on work, on whatever the fuck this shit is.
“Where is my baby buried? I don’t give a fuck about betrayal, about loyalties. That is what I care about,” Quirino snaps.
Nodding my head, I take a drag from my smoke and let it calm me from the inside out. “I’ll tell you when you give me what I want to know. Why did you get a stipend from Ricci?”
Becoming his Possession: A Zanetti Famiglia Novel Page 14