Dark Illusion

by Daniels, A. J.

  Kai groans, grabbing a hold of my hair and crushing our mouths together even more. When he’s satisfied, I’m not going to pull away or go anywhere, his hands start attacking my clothes. My shirt gets ripped open, buttons pinging off the hardwood floors. His shirt is next to go, I’m not even sure where I throw it but if the crashing of glass is any indication, it must have hit a picture frame on a wall and sent it falling. My jeans, underwear, and shoes follow his. Our hands and mouths are frantic as we try and take in as much of the other as humanly possible.

  This week was way too long to go without the person I love. Kai turns, leaning over at the waist, bracing his hands on the wall as he looks over his shoulder at me in a clear invitation.

  I slick up my fingers from the packet of lube I managed to grab before my pants were yanked down my legs and ease it into his tight hole. Kai groans, his forehead dropping down against the wall with a thump.

  I manage to work three fingers inside him. Kai pushes back taking my hand impossibly deeper.

  “Toni, I need you. Please,” he begs.

  I use the last of the lube to slick up my condom covered dick. I groan as my crown breaches his hole and slowly push forward, past the tight ring of muscle. I feel like all the little touches, all the foreplay, all the unheard whispered words in the middle of the night, the longing looks, the pain, the joy; it all comes down to this moment. The moment where it feels like it is more than just our bodies connecting. It is physical, yes, but also spiritual…emotional.

  We stop trying to put everything we feel into words that aren’t good enough, and instead allow our bodies to do the talking.

  I grip his hips to keep him from moving too soon. I may like it rough, but I’ll be damned if I ever hurt him.

  Antonio

  LIFE IS A funny thing, isn’t it? You’re born, you spend half of it in a classroom with about twenty of your peers, if you’re lucky, you make it out on the other side with a degree, tens of thousands of dollars in debt, but hey, at least you don’t have an addiction problem. Then you’re expected to get married, have two-point-five kids, while putting in a full day’s work at a job you probably hate, but it pays the bills, so you suck it up and just do it. And then… what? You reach retirement age, and you hope your kids don’t put you in a seniors’ home. Then you die.

  At least that’s the trajectory life is supposed to take. But what is the point of it all? What’s the purpose of working day in and day out to pay for bills you never wanted in the first place, but as soon as you graduate with that degree it is like they are handing you your adult card, along with a shiny new credit card bill, car payment, mortgage, and all the other shit that automatically goes with being an adult. But again, what’s the point of it all? What is it exactly we’re supposed to accomplish in our lifetime? There are those lucky few who are able to figure out their purpose in life before the grim reaper comes knocking.

  I am not one of those lucky few. The reaper’s at my door, but I’m refusing to answer it. I may not have done a ton of good in my life, but I’m not ready to let go and give it all up. I realize I’m not ready to give him up yet either, not without a fight. And if it’s a fight Braxton’s wanting, it’s a fight he’ll get.

  When I step out of the bathroom after a ridiculously hot shower, the sheets on the bed are all wrinkled but Kai is nowhere to be found. Throwing on an old pair of gray sweatpants, I make my way through the rest of the condo, but Kai isn’t just not in bed, he’s not in my condo. My phone pings with a message before I have a chance to dial Kai’s number.

  The picture that comes through makes my stomach drop. The beast raises its head from its slumber. Sniffing the air, it can taste the danger lurking. The need to protect what’s ours no matter who gets in our way.

  “Did you get the picture?” Braxton questions after I answer the phone.

  “What did you do?” There’s a warning in my voice. A warning that he may be my brother by duty, but it doesn’t mean I won’t kill him for harming Kai.

  “I did nothing, brother. That picture was sent to me a few minutes ago. If I had to guess? The sender had meant to send it to you.”

  “Where is he?” Throwing on a t-shirt, I don’t bother changing out of the sweats, there’s no time. I grab my handgun from the safe in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom and holster it in the waistband of the sweatpants. I always keep one with me, and have even store one at Kai’s home, when we began splitting our time between my condo in the city and his house here in Hamilton.

  “Stefan is on his way to pick you up. We’ll rendezvous back at my home office and come up with a plan to get him back.”

  “Where the fuck is he, Braxton?” I snarl low, slamming the driver’s side door of the Jag shut.

  “Wait for Stefan. Don’t go getting yourself killed, Antonio,” he redirects, ignoring my question again.

  “Why? So that you can kill me yourself? Tell me where the fuck Kai is.”

  Braxton lets out a loud, frustrated exhale. “I was never going to kill you. You’re my brother, but this isn’t the time to have this conversation. Wait for Stefan, he should be there now.”

  As soon as he says the words, a black Charger peels into the parking lot of my building, coming to a screeching halt right in front of my car, blocking me in.

  “The both of you come back here and we’ll go over details together and figure out the best way to get your man out alive. I mean it, Antonio, don’t go rogue on this one.”

  He’s right. If he had gone rushing right in when we found out where Klara was being held, she might have been killed. If Alessandro went in guns blazing when we found Jessika, she also might have died. Their women are alive because they managed to put their romantic feelings aside and allow years of instinct to take over to get the job done. Could I do that? Am I able to put my feelings for Kai aside and think about this rationally? I don’t know, but what choice do I have right now?

  Hanging up the phone, I grab my duffel bag, click the alarm on the Jag and hop into the passenger seat of Stefan’s ride. I’ll wait and see what Braxton and the men can come up with to get Kai out alive, then I’ll decide if it would be better for me to go in guns blazing or not. Kai is mine. He is my responsibility and I’ll never be able to forgive myself if anything happens to him and I don’t try everything in my power to save him.

  Funny. I used to wish someone would save him from me, and yet here I am ready to maim anyone who tries to take him away from me.

  “So,” Stefan says, aiming the car in the direction of Braxton’s house. “You like the dick, huh?”

  “I haven’t killed anyone in a very long time. Don’t want to break that streak with you,” I warn, but Stefan chuckles.

  “No need for threats. I’m not one to judge, Fratello.” Stefan eyes me as we pull up to a four-way stop sign. “I fancy a dick or two myself every now and then,” he says with a wink before continuing on through the stop sign.

  It’s not every day that someone you’ve known for a decade has an opportunity to shock you, making you consider if you ever really knew them to begin with. But color me shocked at Stefan’s confession.

  “Does Braxton know?”

  “Si. Caught me with my pants down in the back of the restaurant.” Stefan grins like he’s proud of the fact he was caught fucking in the back of the restaurant owned by the Famgilia. “Braxton… he’s not his father, Toni. He might surprise you.”

  “I’ve known Braxton De Luca my whole life. He’s exactly like his padre.”

  Stefan makes a disapproving sound at the back of his throat, stepping out from the car and locking it behind us. Clapping me on the back he steps up beside me as we make our way up the front walkway of the house.

  “Just be honest with him. What do you have to lose now anyway?” He gives my shoulder a reassuring squeeze then pushes open the door and disappears down the hall way leading to Braxton’s home office.

  ***

  “Patrick ‘Trick’ Alveraz,” Braxton says, slapping a fil
e folder down on the desk in front of me. “Does that name sound familiar?”

  “He’s the guy who held Kai against his will almost ten years ago.” Leaning forward I grab the folder and flip through the typed pages.

  “He also owns the phone that sent the picture of Kai. He was just released several months ago.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Handing the folder over to Stefan, I lean back in my seat and cross an ankle over my knee. “It was Kai’s testimony that put him behind bars. They didn’t have enough physical evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt so instead they convinced Kai that with his testimony about what happened, they could put Alveraz away for a long time.”

  “So, what? He came after your man for putting him away?”

  “I would.”

  All conversation ceases as we turn to the man who, before now, was standing in the shadows, pretending to hold the wall up with just the strength of his back. Alessandro pushes off the wall and steps forward.

  “Sounds like this Trick character is living in a fantasy where he believes Kai is in love with him. Then he gets thrown in prison by him. Either he’s operating under the assumption that Kai was forced to make up those allegations or he thinks that-”

  “Kai betrayed him,” I finish.

  “Either way, this guy isn’t going to stop until he’s dead and my guess is that he’ll be ready to take Kai with him because if he can’t have him.”

  “Nobody can.”

  Stefan slaps Alessandro on the chest, grinning. “When did you get so philosophical?”

  Alessandro grunts, taking a stand beside Braxton. Feet shoulder-width apart, arms crossed. He looks like the Italian version of Mr. T, all he’s missing is the black van.

  “All right, so what’s the plan?” Rico asks, moving to stand behind me, squeezing my shoulder in a sign of support.

  Braxton’s quiet as he eyes every man in the room. Slowly, one by one, each of them stands and moves to form a united front behind me.

  “You said it yourself, Boss,” Stefan starts. “We’re family and family protects its own.” Several grunts of approval sound from the men behind me as we face off five to two.

  “Look, it doesn’t matter if you agree with my lifestyle choice or not, but I’m going in there with or without your help. If it were Klara, you would’ve already been out there.”

  After a few more beats of silence, Braxton shifts in his seat. “You’re right. I would be. We’ll go get your man. Then after, you and I are going to sit down and discuss why you felt the need to hide this from the Famiglia.” His voice says the Famiglia, but his eyes are asking me why I kept this from him.

  Mason sighs heavily from his spot in the corner behind Braxton. Running a hand down his face, he straightens up. “Just don’t fucking get caught, this new detective is already proving to be a pain in my ass when it comes to putting all of you behind bars. Don’t give him a reason to.”

  “Aww, Mase,” Stefan says feigning innocence. “We would never do such a thing.”

  Mason snorts, slapping Braxton on the back then heading for the door. “Don’t get killed,” he says before the lock snicks back into place behind him.

  ***

  Kai

  I wake to a wet nose pressing against my cheek followed by a curios lick and the smell of wet dog and damp earth. I groan, rolling over onto my back and waving away playful licks from a dog without a collar, when everything starts coming back.

  I was hiking up at Hilton Falls when partway up, I felt like I was being watched. I didn’t make it more than several feet when something slammed into me from behind and I blacked out. It didn’t take long for me to realize that something wasn’t right. My vision won’t focus and even though I know I’m lying down, it feels like the world is spinning and I’ll fall over at any moment. Fumbling for my phone in my front pocket, I manage to pull it out and dial one number before everything fades to black again.

  Antonio

  “WHAT THE FUCK’S your problem?” I yell, shoving Sean back into the wall of the waiting room.

  “You!” He yells, shoving me back. “You’re my problem! You should’ve just stayed away from him after Belize. You don’t deserve him. He’s too good for you.”

  With Kai laying in a hospital bed down the hall, his life hanging in the balance, I’m not fully in control of myself right now. Which is probably why I find my fist flying without any conscious thought, right into Sean’s jaw. Several feet pound behind us until I’m being yanked off Sean’s body.

  When the fuck did we fall to the ground? I don’t remember hitting him more than once but when my vision clears, Craig is bent over Sean, trying to help him stand. Blood pours from Sean’s nose and the side of his lip, bruises already forming all over his face. The guy will probably have a black eye or two.

  “Maybe you’re right,” I say, pushing Stefan’s hands away and righting my clothes. “But that’s his decision to make, and as long as he wants me, you can guarantee that I’m not going anywhere.”

  Sean spits out a wad of blood tinged saliva, still eyeing me like I’m nothing more than the dirt on the bottom of his shoe. “Did you ever think he’d be safer without you around? If you loved him like you say you do, you’d leave him the hell alone.” He sneers at me but turns and heads for the visitors’ bathroom.

  Stunned, I drop down into the seat behind me. Sean is right. If I loved Kai even a fraction of what I claim, then I would walk away and not drag him deeper into this life. He looks to me to protect him and I failed. If I can’t protect him from an ex, what the hell makes me think I can protect him from the bigger monsters circling us every day, just waiting for their chance to strike.

  “Whatever it is you’re thinking, stop. He’s not right, Antonio.” Siobhan laces her fingers through mine, resting our joined hands on my thigh.

  “He’s already left me before, Bee.”

  She laughs, but it doesn’t sound real. It’s more like a ‘you really are stupid’ laugh. “He’s never truly left you, Antonio. That man is over the moon about you. The two of you have come so far, don’t let some jealous friend come between that now.”

  “We almost didn’t get there in time. Siobhan, you should’ve seen…” I cut myself off before telling her about the condition Stefan and I found Kai in. She doesn’t need to know that shit.

  “Stop torturing yourself with what ifs. What matters is that you did find him, and he’s going to pull through. And when he does, you’re going to be the first person he’ll want to see.” Siobhan lays her head on my shoulder, hugging my arm with her other hand. “Don’t pull away from him, Antonio. You both deserve to be happy… with each other.”

  “And what about us?” I ask, turning my face into her hair and placing a kiss on the top of her head.

  “What about us?”

  “Are we good?”

  Siobhan lifts her head, her eyes glowing with unshed tears, and a small smile pulling at her lips. “We’ll always be good.”

  Braxton clears his throat, drawing our attention over to him and it’s then I notice a doctor in blue scrubs and a white coat making his way to us.

  “Are you the family of Kai Black?”

  Siobhan gives my hand one last reassuring squeeze before letting it go to allow me to stand. The next few minutes go by in a blur. I can see his mouth moving and I know words are coming out. Words that I should be paying attention to, but the only ones my ears pick up are full recovery and see him now. When I don’t immediately move in the direction of the room where Kai is located, Siobhan gives me a gentle nudge with another smile that tells me it’s going to be okay.

  “We’ll wait out here,” Klara says with a sleeping Liliana curled up on her lap.

  ***

  I pause in the doorway to his room, taking a minute to revel in the fact that he’s alive. When my phone rang and his name appeared on the caller ID, I thought it was Trick playing some sort of sick joke, especially when I answered and there was no one on the other end. It didn’t take l
ong to track down his phone and when I saw that the last known location was up at Hilton Falls, the guys and I immediately jumped into cars and headed up.

  It took us over an hour to get up to the hiking trail and another while to hike until we found Kai passed out in the middle of the trail. Not once during that time did I stop praying that he would make it. That I would get another day of seeing his smiling face staring over at me when I woke up in the morning.

  “Stop being a creep and get over here,” his groggy voice calls from his spot on the bed.

  Drug overdose is what they diagnosed him with when they first brought him to the emergency room via ambulance. When we found him on that trail he was barely breathing. I was half afraid that one of us would’ve needed to start CPR before the paramedics got there. I knew the diagnosis was bullshit. Kai stopped doing drugs after the situation with Trick went down ten years ago. That’s what he had told me and I believed him.

  After they cleaned him up and got him moved into a room outside of the emergency department, the nurses found what looked like a needle prick mark on his neck. They weren’t so quick to dismiss my insistence that Kai didn’t do drugs.

  Meanwhile, that son of a bitch, Trick, is still out there. Stefan and Rico are busy trying to track him down right now and part of me wishes I was out there combing the streets with them so that when they find the snake, I can be the one who takes him down. But a bigger part of me can’t think of being anywhere else right now than beside Kai.

  I ease down onto the bed beside him and wrap an arm around his middle while burying my nose into the side of his neck needing to reassure myself that he was alive, that he was here.