Dark Illusion

by Daniels, A. J.

  I wonder if this is taking a toll on him too, not being able to claim each other publicly or to his friends and family. I wasn’t lying when I told him I would tell the world if given the chance. I would give up my job at Luca Enterprises if it meant everyone knew Toni belonged to me. I’d pay money to see the smug smile wiped from Reese’s face when he finds out Toni is taken. The bastard doesn’t realize his subtle attempts at getting the COO’s attention aren’t all that subtle. It grates on my nerves having to watch him come on to Toni in the middle of the day in the office and not be able to do anything about it. Even though I’m the one who gets to drop to his knees and suck Toni off behind his office door. To fall asleep next to him every night.

  “Fine. I’ll go,” I concede, and when he turns that smile on me, all the reservations I had about being seen in public melt away. I’d risk my life if it put that smile permanently on his face. “I should get back to work. I heard my boss is a real hard ass.”

  “He’s real hard, alright,” Toni grins, wagging his eyebrows.

  “We need to work on your comebacks, dude.”

  He stands, coming around the wooden desk to pull me into his arms. “Sounds good to me. I’ll be home late but wait for me…naked,” he whispers in my ear, “in my bed,” he adds with a nip to my earlobe.

  “Annnnd now I’m the one who’s hard.”

  He laughs, moving back around to sit in front of his computer.

  “Jackass,” I mumble, adjusting the bulge in my pants before leaving his office.

  ***

  Antonio

  “Remind me again why we’re here if she doesn’t want to leave?”

  Braxton and I sitting in a dark car, outside what looks like a motorcycle club compound. I say looks like because other than that one show on TV, I haven’t been to one but the numerous number of motorcycles out front are a dead giveaway.

  “She showed up at the house with a black eye yesterday.”

  “Shit.”

  Ever since he and Klara got together several years ago, Braxton has taken to Adrienne, Klara’s best friend, like a big brother. She means the world to Klara, so she means something to him. The day he and Klara got married and he pledged to protect not only her, but he was also pledging to protect those she held dear, which means Adrienne, no matter how much she may fight it.

  “New detective is also the Pres’s brother,” he adds out of the blue.

  “Fuck,” I breathe. “And this won’t piss him off more, how?” I ask, not really feeling like starting a war with the new detective who is already making our lives a living hell. He couldn’t nail us with the Belan case – no body, no evidence – so now he’s practically shoved up our asses just waiting for one of us to fuck up.

  Braxton turns to me, cocking his gun. Black gloves gleam in the moonlight streaming in through the passenger side window. “We’re just here for her. In and out,” he says, but somehow I know it won’t be as easy as that. Nothing ever is with him. If the Pres or the VP cross paths with him while we’re here, in and out will be the last thing this will be.

  Stefan knocks on the glass once, twice. The signal letting us know that it’s time to roll.

  “Ready?”

  I nod, slipping on my own gloves and checking the chamber on my pistol. “Let’s do this.”

  I used to wonder what we must look like to an outsider. Two men in dark, pressed suits stepping out of a black car, wearing black gloves and holding pistols. I imagine it must look something similar to a scene in the Boondock Saints. I snicker at the memory of Kai practically begging to watch that movie when he found out what it is I do for Braxton outside of the company. Those Irish have nothing on us, though.

  Braxton and I step through the heavy double metal doors side by side and immediately into the bar part of the compound. It looks like it’s been awhile since it’s seen a hammer and nail or had been polished up. It’s surprisingly empty for being close to seven at night, save for the man behind the bar wearing a prospect patch and another one hunched over the bar.

  “Your Pres here?” Braxton asks the two prospects.

  “N-No,” the one behind the bar stutters, his widening as he takes in the two of us plus Stefan who just walked in behind us. Stefan’s not as big as Alessandro, but he’s getting there fast. I swear the two meatheads have a bet going to see who can bulk up the fastest.

  “Might want to call him,” Braxton announces on his way down the hall leading to the bedrooms.

  “Thought the plan was to not bring more shit down on our heads?”

  Braxton’s snorts, opening doors to find Ward’s room. “The shit was coming either way after they realize she’s missing.”

  “So, you sign our names like a fucking greeting card?” I hiss, wondering how in the fuck I’m going to explain to Kai that not only is his life in danger for just knowing about the Famiglia, from Trick, but now also, possibly from the Savage Souls MC.

  Stefan has the audacity to chuckle behind us, but it all goes sickeningly quiet when Braxton opens the second to last door down the hall and we come face to face with what’s inside. The three of us leap into action. Untying her limbs as gently as we can without losing speed and what little time we have before Ward gets back with the President.

  “You okay?” Braxton questions when we finally get her untied but Adrienne breaks into sobs, clawing her way into Braxton’s arms.

  “Don’t leave me.” Her plea is muffled against his neck, but we hear it.

  I try not to stare at the bruises decorating her body as I peel out of my shirt and hand it to Braxton to try and wrestle her into. Thankfully she doesn’t put up much of a fight when he gently sits her back on the bed and pulls the shirt over her head. The minute the material pulls down, covering her up, she scrambles from the bed like she can’t get off fast enough.

  “We need to go now if we want to avoid a bloodbath,” Stefan says, but the tension radiating off him says he’d rather stay, and I can’t say I disagree now after finding Adrienne the way we did. Naked, dirty, and bound spread eagle to the bed. When I look at Braxton, I know he’s thinking the same, and if it weren’t for Adrienne trying to hide inside of his chest, there’s no doubt that we would’ve stayed until we eliminated the club.

  “Let’s go,” he nods for Stefan to lead the way, but his message is clear. We will be coming back.

  Antonio

  “SO, THAT’S THE new guy, huh?” Stefan asks, gesturing to Kai with a tip of his beer bottle. “You sure he isn’t a long-lost brother? You guys look a lot alike.”

  “We do not look anything alike,” I scoff bringing the beer bottle to my lips.

  “You could practically be twins,” Rico agrees.

  “Hmm, I don’t see it,” Adrienne pipes up, coming to stand between Stefan and I as we watch Kai and Braxton talk business. Despite the glaring heat, she’s in long jeans and a lighter, long-sleeved shirt. As far as I can tell the bruises on her face have started healing nicely in the last few days, and if it weren’t for the updates I’ve been receiving from Klara, I would think Adrienne was doing okay. “I mean, aside from the hair color. Kai’s eyes are way paler,” she says with a light lilt.

  The three of us turn to look at her but Adrienne continues staring straight ahead at Kai with fucking hearts in her green eyes. She jumps slightly when I clear my throat, a deep blush spreading over her face at having been caught. “I just mean, Toni is so… and Kai is…” She stops suddenly, spins on her heel and marches off to where the girls are gathered around the outside bar.

  I wish, not for the first time, that I hadn’t agreed to wait until the timing was right to strike the Souls compound. Despite her sunny demeanor, it’s clear to me that she’s not the same person she was when Klara first introduced her… before she met Ward. Those fuckers messed her up, but they’ll pay.

  My gaze tracks back over to Kai, where he’s standing with one hand in the front pocket of his jeans, the other casually holding a beer bottle. When he catches me staring, a knowing gri
n spreads over his face. Yeah, we look nothing alike.

  ***

  KAI

  “So,” a curvy blonde says, dropping down into the chair beside me. Full wine glass in hand while another darker-haired woman takes up the seat on the other side. Suddenly, I get the feeling that I’m about to be interrogated.

  “How long?” The dark-haired woman asks. I really should’ve paid attention during the introductions earlier, but Toni’s ass looked so good in those tight jeans and my mind started playing different scenarios of how I could get him on his knees today.

  “How long what?” I ask, trying valiantly to not look in Toni’s direction when his deep, rich laugh reaches my ears.

  “How long have you been in love with our Antonio?” The blonde asks. I think her name is Klara.

  I sputter and choke on the huge sip of beer I just took. My nose burns from the beer threatening a return appearance through my sinuses. I lean forward in my seat and try not to cough up a lung. I hear those things are vitally important to living.

  Once I’m sure I’m not in danger of suffocating via beer inhalation, I lean back in the chair and wave off Toni’s concerned expression.

  “I’m not,” I wheeze still trying to catch my breath. “I’m not…” I try again but my words cut off because in this moment, I realize that I can’t bring myself to deny how I really feel. Son of a bitch!

  “That’s what we thought,” the dark-haired one says. I’m pretty sure her name is Jessika. I should probably ask but I’d feel like an ass asking for their names again now.

  “Look,” Klara says squeezing my shoulder reassuringly. “Your secret’s safe with us. I had a feeling he was keeping something like this from us, but it wasn’t until I saw you two together. Saw how you looked at each other when the other one’s not watching, that I really knew.”

  “Toni doesn’t…” I start then stop because I have no idea how to navigate this.

  “He doesn’t want my husband to know,” Klara says with a small smile and a knowing look at… Jessika? “For as long as I’ve known him, Antonio has had a habit of overthinking things. To the point of blowing them up. I’m not saying this isn’t huge, because it is. But he needs to trust that when Braxton says we take care of our own, he means it. Well,” Klara pauses, taking a healthy sip of her wine, “with one exception but we don’t talk about him.”

  “And that was different,” Jessika chimes in. Klara nods.

  “Just, take care of him, okay? Antonio’s always been the one to take care of everyone else. I’m glad he finally has someone to take care of him for a change.”

  Well, fuck. What the hell do I say to that? No? Yeah, right. I’ve heard stories of Jessika’s expertise with a knife. I like everything where they are, thank you very much.

  “I will,” I say before chugging back the rest of my beer.

  ***

  “What did two of the Sanderson sisters want?” Toni asks, handing me a plate filled with fresh fruit. I’m momentarily grateful he didn’t load it up with all the other sweet, pastry desserts there are until I get another look at the dessert table that is. I side-eye him, but Toni laughs and shakes his head. Fucker. I’ll get my chocolate cheesecake. This healthy eating shit is for the birds.

  “Sanderson sisters?”

  “Hocus Pocus,” he says, like I’m supposed to know what he’s talking about. “Really famous Halloween movie from the 90’s.”

  At my blank stare, Antonio places a hand over his heart and feigns a heart attack. “Please tell me you’re joking and that you have actually seen it.”

  “Sorry,” I mumble around a piece of pineapple. My lips twitch at seeing him so bent out of shape over an old movie.

  “Well, we’ll just have to rectify that tonight.”

  “What if I had plans for us tonight?”

  Toni’s eyes narrow at me, a cute little line appearing across his forehead. “No. Nope. You will not distract me with…” he leans over until he’s whispering in my ear, “sex things.”

  I can’t help it. I laugh. “Sex things?” I say, quietly making sure nobody overheard. “What are you? Twelve?”

  “C’mon,” he grumbles, taking the plate from my hand and placing it on a nearby table.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To rectify the horrid situation,” he replies, dropping my hand as soon as Braxton and the other men come into view, but not before I notice Klara and Jessika watching us with matching grins. It’s official, I’m fucked.

  Thankfully, a commotion at the back gate steals everyone’s attention so nobody notices when we sneak out. I do turn around just in time to see a big guy with olive skin and tattoos covering his arms throw Adrienne over his shoulder before stalking away while she yells at him to put her down, and nobody seems to be helping her.

  “Uh, Toni.”

  He stops after opening the passenger side door of his Jag for me, glances at the man and Adrienne, and then back to me when he shrugs. “Guess Mathieu found out some stuff,” he says by way of explanation, confusing me even more. What stuff? “The two of them have a lot of shit to figure out but I’m glad he’s finally stepping up. Maybe now we can get rid of Ward,” he says, backing out of the driveway. Toni goes on to explain that Mathieu was Adrienne’s on again off again beau for a number of years until she finally had enough of his drug use and left him. He says that was the wake-up call Mathieu needed because he checked himself into a year-long rehab program with Braxton’s help right after she left. Then last year, he came back for Adrienne but she still refused to give him the time of day. Mathieu stopped trying for a while and it looked like he was going to relapse, but Toni guesses Mathieu recently found out Ward’s been sniffing around Adrienne and has had enough of her stubbornness. I’m still left with more questions like who’s Ward? And what does he mean by ‘get rid of?’”

  Antonio

  THE CONSTANT BUZZING on the nightstand wakes me from a very promising dream of devouring Kai up against the entryway of his house in Hamilton, but when I crack open an eye and see a mop of onyx hair on the pillow beside mine, I know it wasn’t a dream at all. Neither were the ten uninterrupted days we spent blocked off from everyone except each other.

  I’m sporting a dopey grin at the memory of Kai pleading with me to suck him harder, of his moans and grunts of approval when I finally entered him. My dick twitches at the memory too, hoping for a repeat.

  “’Ello?” My voice comes out gruff and sleep ridden.

  “Antonio?”

  “Siobhan?” I sit up, causing the covers to slip down my naked torso and pool just above my waist.

  “Antonio?” Her panicked voice asks again. I can tell she’s breathing hard, and the faintest sound of feet running can be heard through the phone’s speaker.

  “Yeah, I’m here, Bee. What’s going on?”

  The lamp on the other side of the bed clicks on and Kai’s worried eyes find mine. He raises an eyebrow in question but all I can do is shrug. I can’t give him any answers if I myself don’t know, but right now Siobhan has my instincts on high alert.

  “My dad… I…” is all I hear from the other end before the line goes dead.

  “Siobhan! Fuck.” I dial her right back, but it just rings a couple of times before I’m bumped to voicemail. When I dial again it goes straight to voicemail.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure. She was saying something about her dad before the line went dead,” I answer him, not looking up from my phone. I plug her number into a tracking app but it doesn’t come up, which means the phone is off. That worries me because Siobhan never turns her phone off. Never.

  “Go,” Kai says, palming the side of my face until I turn to look at him. He kisses me gently. “Go,” he repeats. “Go find her.”

  “Kai-”

  “She obviously needs you, Toni. I know you don’t have feelings for her. I think you’ve made that perfectly clear,” he smirks, his lids lowering at the hint of last night’s activities.

&
nbsp; “I love you,” I murmur against his lips.

  “I know, and when you get back you can make leaving me alone in this big bed up to me,” he grins playfully, cupping the growing bulge beneath my underwear.

  “You don’t play fair,” I groan.

  Kai laughs, scrambling away from my grabby hands and out the other side of the bed. Naked as the day he was born. I lick my lips, eyes wandering over the expanse of his back, down his narrow hips, and to a butt that still has my handprint on it. A very unattractive, unmanly whine escapes when he closes the bathroom door with him on the other side.

  Siobhan better be close to death because if this is another one of her games to get me over to her house, I may kill her myself.

  ***

  I return to the GTA and search the city high and low, down every dark alley, in each and every sketchy nightclub that Siobhan has been known to visit just to piss off her father, the Mayor of Toronto, but nothing.

  It’s like she decided to just up and disappear one day. Her phone is still turned off, so I can’t track her. Her house is still immaculate as ever, there wasn’t a thing out of place. Which makes me think whoever took her – if anyone took her – must have known that she had moved out of her father’s house and into her own, or they had been watching her and knew her routine.

  It isn’t fucking hard to do. Siobhan likes structure. She gets up at eight, is showered, dressed, and eating breakfast by nine. Her daily yoga class starts at nine thirty, so she is usually out of the door by nine fifteen. After the gym, her day usually entails meeting up with her socialite friends for lunch or to shop, or both, then she inevitably ends up at one of the nightclubs downtown. Frequency is her favorite club to visit.

  How the fuck I know all that is a mystery. She is just someone I used to satisfy a need. But somewhere along the way, she must have stopped annoying me enough for me to actually pay attention to what she did and the things she said.