by Bella J
“She didn’t tell you?” He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “She’s mine, detective. I claimed her four years ago when she spread her legs for me with a single snap of my fingers.”
Karina gasped and tears started to stream down her face, her entire body shaking. “Please stop, Enzio.”
I stepped forward. “Take your hands off her, or I swear to God I will kill you.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. A cop shouldn’t go around tossing threats freely. You could get into a lot of trouble for that.”
“And aiming a gun at someone’s head? You can go to prison for that.”
He laughs maniacally. “Who, me? No. I assure you, detective, I have every avenue covered when it comes to keeping my ass out of jail.”
“I have no doubt about that.”
I’m about two seconds away from leaping forward and ripping that goddamn gray suit off his motherfucking ass. If I ever had the urge to murder someone with my bare hands, it’s now.
Enzio pulled Karina behind him and stepped back. “Well, as much as I’d like to stay here and chit-chat, I have shit I need to get done.”
My gaze moved to Karina and she seems defeated, like she has no choice but to keep still. Why is she not fighting him?
“Enzio,” I blurted out and moved closer. “Let her go, man. This is kidnapping.”
Again he started to laugh. “Kidnapping?” He turned to Karina. “Tell him, little lamb. Tell him that you want to go with me.” He leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes closed and her face instantly paled as tears moved down her cheeks. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was petrified of him. I have no idea what he just said to her, but every instinct I had was screaming at me, alarm bells ringing like crazy.
She opened her eyes and more tears slip out of them. “I have—”
Enzio jerked her and she whimpered before looking back at me. “I want to go with him.”
“No, no you don’t. Karina, whatever he just told you, you can’t trust him.”
Enzio cleared his throat. “Well then, now that that’s out of the way, I bid you a good evening, detective.”
I leaped forward. “Karina, no!” But a car drove up behind them and within two seconds Enzio had pushed her into the back and they were gone.
What in the name of fuck just happened?
***
KARINA
Bile threatened to move up my throat as Enzio dragged his knuckles up and down my cheek. We’ve been driving for what felt like hours, but I bet it’s only been a few minutes.
“Oh, how long I’ve waited for this.” His voice was hard, dark, and filled with so much malice, it had the power to make my fucking ears bleed. “If it wasn’t for my father’s need for meticulous planning I would have claimed you years ago.”
“Fuck you,” I grit out between clenched teeth, trying hard not to throw up. The hate that was pulsing through my veins aimed at the jackass next to me was toxically consuming.
He moved his hand behind my neck then pulled my hair tight causing my neck to jerk back. “Keep that fight in you, little lamb, I’m going to love fucking it out of you.”
“What do you want, Enzio? You already had me. You already took from me what I can never give to anyone else.” I tasted the saltiness of my tears as they lap over my lips.
“Don’t you get it, Karina? I’ve always wanted you. I’ve always dreamed about having you for the rest of my life.”
I let out a mocking laugh. “You could have fooled me.”
“That night at the beach house was part of my father’s plan. I just followed orders.”
“And now? Has your father finally given you permission to take what you think is yours?”
He licked his lips as his gaze falls down to my breasts just as his hand slipped from my neck, sliding down over the swell of my breast. “Not exactly.”
I pressed my eyes closed hating his touch.
“Detective Stone left me no choice.”
I jerked my head to the side to face him. “No choice?”
“See, we had this whole plan figured out. But Lorik left me no choice, and I had to act fast. He was taking what is rightfully mine, and unfortunately for my father I could no longer sit by and watch it happen while I wait for him to finally give the order telling me I can have you. So I had to say fuck the plan.”
“What plan?”
“Oh, the plan was to take out your brother first, to take care of the Valenti Underboss. If there’s no Underboss, there would be no one to take your father’s place should he unexpectedly meet his demise.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Your plan was to kill Antonio?” My heart got lodged in my throat as I said the words out loud. It was too horrifying to even comprehend.
He laughed. “Oh no, little lamb. We were planning on taking him out by sending his ass to jail.”
“What? How?”
His hand was still caressing my breast and I wish I had the strength to fight back. But I knew him, I knew how deep his darkness went. There was no way I would be able to fight him.
His thumb drew lazy circles around my nipples over the fabric of my dress. “By framing him for a string of murders. I don’t know if you heard, but there was a murder at Vertigo the other weekend, and your brother has been the number one suspect.”
My stomach turns as I think back to when Lorik and his partner came to the restaurant to question my brothers. They were actually there to question Antonio, not Dante
He leaned in, his vile breath slithering over my skin. “But luckily for your brother I couldn’t wait that long. Framing someone is a delicate matter, and I just ran out of patience.”
My skin crawled as his other hand moved up my inner thigh. Instinctively I pressed my legs tightly together, but he only forced them apart.
“What do you want from me, Enzio?” My voice was nothing more than a shaky whisper, because the truth was, I already knew what he wanted from me. Deep down, I’ve always known.
His slimy lips touched my collarbone. “Like you don’t know.”
More tears moved down my face while my stomach felt like it had been filled with concrete. The last time he was this close to me I didn’t know I was about to get my heart ripped out. But now I knew that nothing good could come from being so close to Enzio. The man reeked of malicious, vile intentions.
He looked up, his eyes nothing but black pits of evil. “You will be my wife, Karina.”
I have no idea what came over me, but I burst out laughing at how ridiculous he sounded.
“Excuse me?”
“Laugh all you want, little lamb. But you will marry me, and you will bring the ultimate shame upon your family by marrying a Mancuso. Your father will lose every ounce of respect he has ever earned just because his slut daughter chose a Mancuso over loyalty to her own blood.”
More chills wracked down my body while my spine was nothing more than cold, hard ice. I was starting to feel physically ill because of him
“I’ll do no such thing, Enzio. You can’t make me.”
“Oh I can.” He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket, flipped over the screen and held it in front of my face.
When the video started playing I gasped and placed my hand in front of my mouth. I had to swallow back the bile that was pushing up my throat as I watched the video he and his father made of us that night at the beach house. The son of bitch was carrying it around on his phone? How sick and twisted could one individual be?
“Oh wait, let me show you my favorite part.” He moved the cursor before pressing play and I no longer felt my heart beat. All I felt was pain, panic, and so much betrayal.
“Watch,” Enzio urged and pushed the screen closer to my face.
He forced me to watch the video while tears streamed down my face. He was on top of me thrusting forward, and it was like I could feel everything I felt back then. I could feel him moving between my legs, the sharp stabbing pain when he first entered me. And then I could feel the pain slowly subsiding
until finally…it felt good.
“Look at your face, little lamb.”
I could barely see through the tears in my eyes, but I continued to watch.
“Oh, Enzio…” I heard my own words through the recording, and I knew it was me. It just didn’t sound like me. That person sounded happy, high on sex.
“Karina, I love you,” Enzio said, which I now knew was a complete lie.
“What’s happening?” I was so innocent back then, inexperienced, and when I felt my body climbing I had no idea what was about to happen. Three words that best described me that night; vulnerable, clueless…and stupid.
“Let go, Karina. Let your body guide you.”
And then my scream echoed around the back of the car. I remember that exact moment, the moment my body climaxed and pulsed around him. The moment he made me a woman, only to strip me of all my dignity two minutes later.
Unable to watch anymore, I closed my eyes and cried, but Enzio jerked my head to the front.
“Watch.”
I bit my lip, tasting the metallic tang of my blood on my tongue as he forced me to continue watching how he pumped in and out of me…until finally his back arched as he came.
“I wanted to fuck you without a condom that night. I really did.” Enzio’s voice sounded low, dark, like he was turned on by the thought.
My heart broke all over again, the pain possessing every inch of my soul. It felt like every limb was being torn from my body, my chest being crushed into nothing but pieces of despair.
The pain was too much. The memory was eating me alive from the inside out.
“I wanted to pulse my cum inside that sweet cunt of yours, but my dad wouldn’t allow it. We couldn’t risk having a Mancuso-Valenti bastard—yet.”
Finally he switched off his phone and shoved it into his jacket pocket.
“So,” he continued, “you see, Karina, you will marry me. If you don’t, that little video makes its way to your dad and onto every goddamn social media outlet. I guarantee that the entire world will know about how you betrayed your family within less than an hour. And if that isn’t motivation enough for you, your big brother will find himself in jail quicker than you can say I do.”
My stomach turned upside down and I could no longer force myself to stay strong. I broke. For the second time in my life I broke down in front of this man. Right there in front of my worst enemy I once again turned into nothing but a pathetic woman who now had to atone for the worst mistake she had ever made. I’m no longer weeping, but sobbing, crying so hard that it felt like my body was about to snap in two.
Enzio placed his thumb and forefinger on my chin, but I jerked my face out of his hold unable to stand the coldness of his touch. I would rather be beaten to an inch of my life than experience this man’s touch again.
He laughed. “You can fight me as much as you want, Karina. But you and I both know you will do just about anything to keep this tape hidden…including marrying me.”
Chapter 21
LORIK
Not even the devil himself can keep me from finding her, and if that means facing her father and two brothers, then so fucking be it. They are the only people who could help me right now since I don’t even know where to start, or what to start with. All I know is that Karina is with Enzio and something tells me that she’s about to become the center point of the war that has been raging between these two families for years.
I stopped in front of the security gates of their house with screeching tires, and jumped out of my truck. I kept on pushing that goddamn buzzer, sure it’s going to explode any second.
“Easy on the buzzer there.” A voice came through the intercom and I wasn’t sure whether it was Dante or Antonio.
“This is Detective...” I paused, thinking that I was already approaching this wrong. “This is Lorik Stone, and I need to talk to you.”
“You’re the detective that came to our restaurant today.”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“What can we do for you, Detective?”
Fuck. There’s no time for this. “Listen, Dante?” I take a chance at guessing.
“Yeah.”
“This is about your sister, so please just open the fucking gates so I can come in.”
“Karina? Is she with you?”
“Goddammit, Dante. We don’t have time.”
“Where is Karina, Detective?”
I rough my hands through my hair feeling like I could pull it out of my goddamn skull.
“That’s why I’m here, for Christ’s sake.”
There’s a long pause, and then finally the gates creaked open. I don’t bother getting back into my truck, and weasel myself through the gates as soon as the gap is big enough. My feet were unable to carry me fast enough as I run down the long ass driveway. Seriously? Who the fuck needed such a long driveway. It’s like having your own fucking scenic route on your way out of your own goddamn estate. By the time you’ve reached the gates you’d probably forgotten where the fuck you were going in the first place.
I finally get to the house and don’t even bother admiring the huge building in front of me. Right now I don’t care that this house was one of the most immaculate, extravagant buildings in the city. I couldn’t care less about how the house represented some or other fucking Italian era.
Just as I started rushing up the stairs Dante came storming out.
“Where the fuck is my sister?”
I hunched over and placed my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. “Enzio. The fucker took her.”
Dante leaped forward and grabbed me by the collar, his eyes shooting fiery daggers right at me. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I told you. Enzio took her. That’s why I’m here.”
“What do you mean he took her?”
I jerked his hands away from my collar. “Just what I said. We were in front of my apartment and he appeared out of fucking nowhere, shoved her into the back of a car and left.”
Dante stepped back. “What was she doing with you in front of your apartment?”
I kept my eyes on him knowing all too well that I was about to fucking throw myself at the wolves. Yeah, I totally went there.
“She was with me.”
His dark eyebrows slanted inward. “Doing what?”
Silence. The heaviest goddamn silence surrounded us, and the second Dante realized that me not answering him was actually his answer, he dropped the longest string of f-bombs I’ve heard in a while.
“Goddammit!” He crouched down with his elbows on his knees, his fists clasped in front of his face.
“Listen, Dante, I know this thing between your sister and me is complicated, but right now we have much more important shit to deal with, like where the fuck Enzio has taken her.”
“Fuck!” He got back up and started pacing. “Did he say anything?”
“Just that she belongs to him and that he already claimed her four years ago.”
“And then he kidnapped her?”
“Yes, well…no. I don’t know.”
Dante stopped pacing and glared at me. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
“She was scared of him, I could see it. But he whispered something to her and after that she told me that she wanted to go with him, and then she did.”
The front door opened, and both Dante and I looked at the door when Antonio came walking out.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.
Dante glanced at me, and then back at Antonio. “It’s Karina.”
Antonio stiffened. “What about her?”
“Enzio took her, and we have no idea where he’s taken her.”
Antonio charged toward us with pure rage in his eyes. “What the fuck do you mean he took her?”
I stepped in next to Dante. “She was with me when it happened.”
He turned his murderous glare to me. “And you let him?”
“Not exactly. She went with him.”
“Freely?”
>
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. But like I told your brother, he whispered something to her and whatever he told her, it convinced her to go with him without a fight.”
Antonio’s eyes went wide, his face ashen. “Do you know what he told her?”
“No, but whatever it was, it was enough to get her into the back of that car with him.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, and the expression on his face was like he just deciphered the entire book of Revelation. He looked at Dante. “He’s blackmailing her.”
Dante rubbed the back of his neck. “The tape?”
Antonio nodded, and I’m a second away from dishing out an ass beating if someone doesn’t tell me what the fuck is going on.
“Mind enlightening me?”
Two pairs of dark eyes glared my way. If I was any other man I probably would have shrunk to a miniature size of pathetic masculinity, but I’m not. I’m a man who would turn this goddamn earth upside down trying to find her. I’d gladly take on the deepest pits of hell if it meant finding her as soon as fucking possible. But I see the Valenti brothers hesitate.
“Listen to me, you better tell me what the fuck is going on and what tape you’re talking about. I need to find her.”
“Why don’t you tell us why you’re so goddamn concerned about her?” Antonio asked, and I gave an intimidating step toward him not in the mood to play fucking games. If punching his face and breaking his nose will get my point across that I’m very fucking determined—and desperate—right now, I’ll do it.
“Whatever is happening between me and your sister is none of your goddamn business. Now either you help me find her, or I will do it my fucking self.”
And then an epic stare-off between two testosterone-laden alphas commences. We glared at each other like whoever was the strongest would stare the other one to death by turning him into fucking ash.
“Okay.” Dante placed his hand on Antonio’s shoulder urging him to back off. “We need to figure out what the hell Enzio’s deal is, and finding Karina is our number one priority right now. You two can kill each other later.” Dante turned toward me. “I think you need to come in and sit down.”