Maria (Made Men Book 7)

by Sarah Brianne

  It was a pity, a waste to the world, and of a good womb, but the Carusos weren’t getting the message. They’ll get it now ….

  Just how the whole world wept over the death of their favorite Princess Diana, the Carusos would weep over the loss of theirs.

  The girl who thirsted for power had yet to have her biggest role, and since she was looking for one, he would give her the most important one.

  Princess Maria, you will be my martyr, and in return, I can promise two things.

  Eternal love and beauty, forever ingrained in the hearts of many.

  The Italian leather shoes that clung to his feet as he walked slightly creased with each step. Bringing his lips together, he whistled out loud into the frigid night air, puffs of little smoke carrying the tune he sung in his head.

  I’m gonna get you … so pray to our Father … for if I miss … I will only take one shot.

  Seventeen

  Falling in L-word

  Maria shrugged her oversized, black, Givenchy purse onto her shoulder as Jerry opened the back door.

  “What are the plans for the day?” Jerry asked, seeing her usual, uppity dressed self wasn’t as dressed up today.

  Maria paused before getting inside the vehicle, carefully hiding the excitement that had been building since Kayne had asked her out for their first date. If the walk-on-the-line bodyguard had even the slightest fucking inkling of her real plans, he would pick her up and carry her ass right back inside over his shoulder and bolt the damn door.

  “I’m having a spa day. I don’t know what your plans are,” she retorted, sliding inside the Escalade before he could answer.

  The hard slam of the door showed Lucca’s last resort of a bodyguard for her wasn’t happy. Poor Jerry had only been supposed to last a week, yet he saw no relief from her anytime soon.

  Settling behind the wheel, he tried to burst her bubble. “Then I guess we’re both having a spa day.”

  Looking at him through the rearview mirror, Maria hid her smile with a shrug. “Suit yourself.”

  Jerry’s grip slightly tightened on the steering wheel.

  Damn, she missed Todd. That poor boy melted like sweet butter in her hands. Literally. He was the prefect bodyguard, or he had been before One-Shot had taken him out.

  The drive wasn’t long before Jerry rudely pulled the long SUV into one of those new parking spots marked for e-charging cars. Not pushing the locks when he got out made her wonder if he really could smell trouble.

  Getting out the Escalade, Maria breezed through the spa door, relieved to see Olga standing behind the counter.

  “You’re right on time, Maria. Jen is ready for you. I’ll take you on back.” The elegant woman stepped out from behind the marble counter, brusquely taking her arm.

  Unlike the nine steps back that she had grown used to, Jerry stayed right on her stiletto heels.

  “Excuse me.” Olga tried to stop him, using her free hand to airily wave toward a discreet door to the left. “Men are not allowed in the women’s area. You must wait there. I’ll come and get you when Maria is finished with our services.”

  “Well, she will not be using your services unless I’m allowed back there.”

  Olga dropped her arm to turn and face Jerry head-on, her hands on her hips. “That is impossible. Our clientele demands their privacy. If you go through the doors, I’ll be in lawsuits up to my knees. And let me tell you, I haven’t built this business from the ground up for you to come in here and try to manhandle your way in. The moment Miss Caruso entered my establishment, she is under my protection, and I can assure you, her father, and her brother that not a hair on her head will be harmed. I guarantee it.”

  Olga had to take a breath from the one, long-winded breath she had used to get all that out. Smiling sweetly now, she continued, “So, please, go make yourself comfortable in my lounge, and I’ll send Nina in with a caramel latte. Put your feet up, take a nap, or feel free to watch anything you’d like on my television. Like all men, you have no idea the work it takes to make us beautiful. We must keep those secrets to ourselves. Don’t we, Maria?”

  Maria smiled just as sweet. “Definitely.”

  Jerry seemed to be in a stupor. “But—”

  “Nina!” Olga clapped her hands, calling for the other woman behind the counter who had moved hastily to her side. “Take Mr.—”

  “Jerry,” Maria helped her out by quickly releasing his name, which her suit didn’t appreciate.

  “Jerry, then. Relax. Tuesday is our men’s day. You really should see our esthetician for a treatment. And your nails are a wreck. Are you married?”

  “No,” he snapped, curving his hands in a fist to either punch Olga or to hide his freshly bitten nails.

  Giving him a pitying glance, Olga took Maria by the arm again. “I’m not surprised. Monique will have you cleaned up in no time. I’ll schedule you for the first available appointment.” She turned quickly to her assistant. “Nina, see to Jerry. I’ll get Maria settled and be back.”

  Without giving Jerry an opportunity to speak, Olga ushered Maria out of the lobby through the frosted double doors.

  It was everything Maria could do to keep a straight face and not to cackle with laughter at the expression on Jerry’s face.

  Waiting for the door to close before clutching Olga in her arms, she had one thought: I would die for this bitch.

  When the coast was clear, she finally gave her the biggest hug. “Thank you. I owe you.”

  Olga grinned. She had clearly enjoyed herself back there. “You owe me nothing. I’m more than happy to help. True love is on its way, darling.”

  “Nope,” Maria corrected her from using the L-word. “It’s just a first date.”

  “Even better.” Olga was clearly not deterred. “Loves just in first bloom. Enjoy before the shine wears off and you two are fighting over a diamond necklace he gives you, which belongs to his mother that you didn’t want, because it was so ugly.”

  Oddly specific, but … “Okay.”

  Leading, Olga took her to a side door that had an exit sign hanging above. “Stay here. I’ll see if he’s here and make sure the coast is clear.”

  Waiting impatiently for Olga to motion for her that it was safe, she felt something inside her tingle. Fuck, am I nervous? Looking down at herself to see if she needed to fix anything, she didn’t know if she liked her decision of wearing designer jeans and the white, soft leather jacket. Her best asset was her long legs, and she always felt like it was a sin to cover them up so much. She couldn’t even think of the last time she had worn jeans, having had to pull them out from the back of her closet.

  She toned down her usual clothes to something more … normal. Since Kayne hadn’t said where he was taking her, she was guessing it wasn’t a five-star restaurant. Plus, she didn’t want her clothes drawing attention to herself. Her father would swallow one of his cigars, lit end first, if he found out she had gone on a date with one of Leo’s teachers. She didn’t know what she was hoping for, but she hoped it kept her somewhat incognito.

  Given the signal, she gave Sadie’s friend another hug before she slipped out the door.

  The single pound of her heart radiated through her body at seeing Kayne leaning casually against a navy Dodge Charger, waiting for her.

  “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”

  Kayne’s eyes brightened as they slid down her body. “Nope. You’re right on time.”

  “Don’t get used to it. I’m notoriously late.”

  Opening the car door for her, he smiled. “I like a woman who is honest.”

  Sliding into the car, Maria didn’t reply to that, as honesty wasn’t exactly her middle name. She had already told him one of her faults; that was enough for a first date. She didn’t want to overwhelm him so soon.

  Kayne didn’t close the car door yet, looking suspiciously at the back door that she had just exited from. “Why do I get the feeling you just ditched your cousin in there?”

  It took
her a second to remember that she had told him at the dance that Jerry was her cousin, who was staying close by her since the wedding fiasco. All she had given Kayne was an address and had told him to park in the back. He hadn’t figured out exactly where that was until he pulled up, finding out it was a spa, not a home. She had a strange feeling that “not overwhelming him” was going out the window.

  “B-Because I did.”

  “All right.” Kayne laughed, closing the door with a thud.

  By how quickly he had accepted that answer, she carefully watched him slide in on the driver’s side. That rough boy in him was so evident when they weren’t on school grounds. She studied him, knowing Kayne wasn’t the slightest bit dumb.

  “You know who my father and brother are, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Kayne didn’t even flinch, taking the key that he put in the ignition.

  Sitting back, she continued to study him. “And you’re not scared?” A smart man wouldn’t want to take the mafia princess out on date behind her family’s back.

  The engine was quiet when he started the car, as if it wanted to hear his next word.

  “No.”

  “Well”—Shit, he just got a thousand times hotter—“I like a man who’s honest.”

  “Good to know.” He smiled slightly before he whipped the car out of the parking lot, quickly leaving the salon in the dust.

  It took Maria too long to notice that he started driving out the city. “So, where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  That should have been the part where she thought twice, or even got remotely frightened, but Maria didn’t, wasn’t in the slightest. Call it …

  ASPD.

  Brave.

  Naïve.

  Flat-out fucking stupid.

  In lust.

  Or falling in L-word.

  Maria sat in that fucking car, not really knowing who Kayne Evans was but not giving it a thought in the world that he would hurt her because, every time she was around him, her heart finally beat, telling her that he wouldn’t. Hell, she couldn’t have been happier that he was driving out of the city, not knowing the last time she had left the confines of her birthplace.

  Focusing on the confident hands on the steering wheel, she stared at them, wondering if it was just her imagination or were those the exact same hands that had caressed her during her dream? The slightly misshapen pinky was the same one, which she was staring at now.

  Kayne looked at her from the corner of his golden eyes. “Is something wrong?”

  Fuck, why are my cheeks getting hot?

  “No.” She cleared her throat and adjusted her crossed legs. “Sorry for staring, but did you hurt your finger?”

  “A long time ago.” Flaring out his fingers on the steering wheel, he looked down at it while also showing her how it was just ever so bent inwards. The crook of his knuckle went out, making it look like his pinky was at an acute angle. “Like I had said, I used to get into a lot of fights.”

  Fuck. She must have it bad to have noticed it subconsciously and given him the same pinky in her dream.

  “You never got it fixed?”

  Shaking his head, he laughed and returned his hold back on the steering wheel. “Just wrapped it up myself and, knowing me, I probably just moved on to the next fight. None of us kids from Blue Park really had any money to go to the hospital. Our parents told us to dust it off. I strangely like it now. It reminds me of who I used to be.”

  “You were that bad?” she asked, still in disbelief, even with the proof right in front of her face.

  “I was. I got pretty close to spending the rest of my life behind bars, like my father and brother.”

  Maria had to lick her bottom lip that was becoming dry. “How close is pretty close?”

  “Pretty fucking close,” he assured her, dropping his teacher façade for a moment. “I got myself into juvey a couple of times, but the last time, I thought I might’ve been there for good. And since it wasn’t my first offense, they were threatening to charge me as an adult. I got lucky when my teacher bailed me out, vowed to put me on the straight and narrow, and gave me one chance.” He stressed the importance of those final words.

  “What do you think changed in you?” Maria wanted to hear what he thought as she wondered if he realized he hadn’t really changed at all if she could see what was underneath.

  “Discipline. The one thing that I lacked in my life.”

  Sad with that answer, she truly felt that he was just so good at masking his old self that he believed it. Kayne seemed to think that part of him died, yet Maria could see that part of him still lived dormant, waiting for the day it would be resurrected. And I have every intention of waking him up.

  The curve of her lip turning upward made her have to look out the side window.

  “What about you? Any lasting effects from having a father like Dante and a brother like Lucca?” he asked, taking his eye off the road to look over at her.

  Hearing about the troubles of his father and brother had her dropping her guard and answering honestly. “Nope. I guess, fortunately for me, I was born a woman, so I was never given the chance to possibly fuck up my life.”

  Confusion had him repeatedly turning his head between the road and her face. “How so?”

  Trying to think of how to politely put it without giving too much away, it took her a second before she spoke. “Women can be easy targets in my family’s … line of work. My mother died for my father’s sins, and since that day, I have been put on a shelf, so to speak, forced to put up with decisions made for me.”

  The pressure Kayne used to hold on to the steering wheel seemed to lighten. “Nothing is stopping you from making your own choices, Maria.”

  At the cautionary tone in his low voice, she turned her head toward him. She thought she saw Kayne turn his head to smile, but she might have imagined it.

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “It never is.” Kayne lifted his hand from the steering wheel to show off his pinky. “Usually, it takes a lot of pain and soul searching.”

  Maria decided to lighten the mood, knowing what it would take for her to be able to walk away from her family and her so-called life. It wasn’t what she wanted, per say, but she was still Maria-fucking-Caruso. “Breaking that little pinky couldn’t have hurt that bad.”

  Kayne almost roared with laughter, turning his face back to the road. “It hurt like a motherfucker, and it still does when it rains.”

  “Mr. Evans”—Maria playfully dropped her jaw—“I’m truly shocked that coarse language keeps escaping your mouth in my presence.”

  “I’ve got news for you, Maria”—Kayne shot her the most sinister smile she had seen from him yet —“I didn’t say I left all my childhood behind me. There’s still a lot about me you have yet to find out.”

  Oh, I plan on it. That smile took her out, giving two thuds in her chest that had her missing the warning shot he gave her with his eyes.

  Before she could see it, the speed bump his Charger went over grabbed her attention, and she saw the entrance that Kayne was driving through.

  “I haven’t been here in so long …,” Maria mumbled breathlessly while she slowly unbuckled her seatbelt as Kayne got of the car.

  Chills pricked every hair on her arms, making them and her come to a standstill. Well, in her case, a sit still.

  Opening her car door, a worried look marred his face.

  “Maria?” When she hadn’t answer, Kayne leaned down, looking at her more closely. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah, I just ….” It was an odd feeling, or maybe it was a sensation, but looking at the botanical gardens, it was like she had seen a ghost. “My mother used to take me and Lucca here every year in March when it opened for the year.”

  “It opened today.” His voice was soft at revealing that bit of information. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—We don’t have to stay. We can go anywhere else you’d like.”

  “No, it’s fine
.” She shook her head and that bizarre feeling. “How did you …?” Turning to look at him now, her heart thudded at how close his handsomely boyish face was to hers from leaning over.

  “Leo told me you might like it. If I had known the circumstances, I wouldn’t have taken you here, Maria.” He reached down, grabbing her soft hand and giving it a light squeeze. “Like I said, we don’t have to stay.”

  Looking at his hand on hers, she could feel the brokenness in his pinky. She began to smile. She felt like it strangely fit.

  “No, it’s perfect. I couldn’t have thought of a better first date myself.”

  “Good.” Kayne’s concerned expression slowly disappeared as he continued holding her hand to help her out of the car.

  Maria took a deep breath, reminiscing over the light, flowery scent that wafted toward her after not being here since her mother’s death. Not knowing if it was nostalgia or the aphrodisiac of the flowers, she felt herself starting to go soft. She couldn’t believe what she said next.

  “This is so sweet.”

  “Of me or Leo?”

  She tightened her hand on his that he had yet to let go. “Both.” But maybe a little bit more of Leo.

  She couldn’t help thinking about when she was a young girl and her mother had brought Leo home from the hospital. Seeing his pretty blue eyes, he had looked prettier than the infamous Gerber baby. As far as she was concerned, to this day, the only thing God gifted this world was her baby brother.

  “I don’t know if I’ve been called sweet before, but I’ll take it if it makes you happy.”

  “It does,” she assured him, still seeing the hint of worry in his eyes from having brought her here.

  She didn’t want to tell him that her mother’s death hadn’t affected her like it should have. Truth was, it had affected Lucca way more than her, and that was the real shock.

  Maria was the one to lead Kayne, taking him to her favorite part of the just-budding gardens. Every time the wind even slightly stirred, snow-like cherry blossoms rained down upon them.