Cut & Blow: Book 1

by Giannoccaro, Ashleigh

  Dressed in last night’s clothes, my hair in the messiest messy bun and with travel mug of coffee in my hand, I walk beside my freshly showered and dressed boyfriend as we leave his apartment and take the stairs.

  His hair is pulled up tight and high, a perfectly pressed pair of trousers snug on his ass, and the smart shirt and tie make me want to undress him right here. When we make it outside to the car park, my car is where I left it the night before, but his is missing from the spot beside mine.

  “My car is gone.” He says it almost like it can’t be true.

  I look around like maybe it could have moved, but it’s not there. As we get to my car there is paper under my wiper, so I pull it out and unfold it.

  “It’s been towed.” I hand him the notice that was left on my car. This is my fault. Whoever was in my house did this. “I’ll give you a lift to school.”

  I should offer to help and tell him this is my fault, but I don’t. He reads the paper over and over, confused at to why his car would be towed.

  I drive to the school and join the drop off line, with all the soccer moms and PTA members. When we get to the front he leans over and kisses me, a goodbye kiss that would make anyone swoon. The giggling girls come into view as he opens the door, whispering behind books and making googly eyes at him as he steps onto the curb. “Morning Mr Walsh,” they singsong as he goes up the steps.

  A honking horn behind me shocks me back into real life and I drive home to change my clothes and get to work before opening.

  Before I leave my house I text Trent.

  I miss you already. Don’t let all those swoony little teens get you thrown in jail today Mr Walsh.

  Have a good day, don’t worry I’ve only got eyes for one young lady, and she’s legal.

  His message makes me smile. I double check the front door is locked before I go to work. Maybe this can work; fuck my father and his scare tactics.

  Ten

  Set

  RAINIERI

  I have watched them, chewed my nails, punched a wall, screamed, but I can’t stop myself. I can’t stop them, or stop watching them.

  She’s so fucking stubborn and defiant, every move I make to remind her she’s mine goes ignored. I expected her to call the police, or at least her father by now. That little bitch just won’t let him go, no matter what I do.

  When I watch them together my jaw aches from the possessive tension. I want her that way, but more disturbingly I want to be there with both of them, closer, so I can smell them, touch them, hear what it is he whispers into her ear right before she cums.

  I want what they have. This unhealthy obsession is clouding my mind with thoughts and fantasies that I shouldn’t be having. Sick and wrong, the fantasies plague me day and night, scenarios I make up in my head, and my dreams wake me at night tangled in sheets with flashing visions of me sharing her with him. Something is dreadfully wrong with me and I can’t stop it no matter how much I know I should – I don’t want to.

  Guilt drives me insane. I eat less and worry more. I wait every day, patiently for the chance to watch, or a moment to go inside her home and leave a little reminder for her of my presence in her life. I worry that my father and cousins know, that they can tell something is wrong with me, that I have fantasies about my wife and another man.

  Luckily my sister’s departure has the whole family fighting over other things. I feel the storm clouds over my life getting heavier and I know they are going to burst open soon.

  I have had every inch of his life investigated, and every time I think I have something on him, he tells her himself, like the perfect good guy. No secrets, he’s all out in the open. Everything I am not. I hide in the shadows of society and her life; I am not a vegan or a good man. I don’t teach children or love sports – I am who I am, and someday she will have to accept it. Someday soon.

  “Rain, are you listening to me?” my sister, now missing her other half, asks. “You are always on the phone. What are you watching, porn?”

  Close enough. “I have stuff to do, you know w-o-r-k, that thing you never do.” She glares daggers at me and stirs her coffee. “Your twin might have everyone distracted with this runaway nonsense, but I have a job to do.”

  “Whatever, Rain, you’re probably googling your wife’s boyfriend. He’s hot, by the way.” I put my phone down and make eye contact, she has my attention now. “What? I had my hair done. He came in and she cut his hair, then they left. Everyone in that salon was talking about how cute they are, and how serious it is. You better get that shit sorted before Papa or Nonna hear about it.”

  “You went there?” I yell at her. “Are you fucking crazy? What part of leave her the fuck alone was hard to understand, huh? Tell me, because right now I want to strangle you.”

  “Good Lord, Rain, I had my hair done. I wanted to see what she’s like now.”

  My mind races. She could expose me to Ailee, the fool. “Did she recognize you? Did she know who you are?” I talk through clenched teeth, trying not to let my anger out. I don’t need her to know I’m completely irrational about this.

  “I used a fake name and I don’t think she even looked at me, she was all googoo eyed over her man.” Her glitter-manicured fingernails tap against her coffee cup. “Rain, just go all Neanderthal and carry her out of there, you know you want to.”

  “You have no idea what I want. I don’t have time for a child in my life. I didn’t want her five years ago and I don’t want her now.” The lies keep coming out of my mouth. “She’s my wife, but that stupid piece of paper is all it is. This incessant badgering me to just go fetch my wife has to stop. I do NOT want a wife.”

  Her brow furrows and her nose wrinkles as she looks at me like I’ve lost my mind – I have lost my mind.

  “Rain, you know Papa won’t let it go. He needs her family and that is the only thing tying them to us, keeping them loyal. You are going to have to want her, or pretend to at least.”

  She is right and I know it. The thing is, I just haven’t decided what I want to do about her yet.

  “What’s stopping you?”

  With that single question my sister opens the lid of the jar I’d kept closed tight. There is no hesitation in my answer, because I know what’s stopping me. I’ve known for a while.

  “She loves him, and I know she will never love me. That’s what’s stopping me.” The sad, ugly truth, is I know she will never love me, and who am I to swoop in and take that from her? I am happy to never know love, but she knows it and taking it would kill her.

  Nothing lives after a broken heart.

  Shrugging her shoulders like it’s nothing, she just says, “So take him with her, who’s gonna know?”

  Suddenly the answer to all my problems is as clear as day. The cogs begin to turn and quickly gain momentum, and soon my mind is spinning with visions, ideas, and a plan that is almost as mad as I am.

  “You’re actually thinking about it? I was joking, Rainieri. You can’t kidnap some dude and lock him away in the attic to service your wife.”

  I laugh at her straightforward way of thinking. “No, I can’t, but I could come to some sort of arrangement with them both. One where I get to shut both families up and she gets to stay happy.”

  “Wouldn’t be the craziest thing you’ve done. And you could keep Papa happy enough that he’d finally retire and hand things over to you.” Her brain is working as hard as mine; I see her devious little smile and her fingers tap faster. “You are a persuasive guy, and I am sure if you had to have a little chat with him you could reach an understanding. People know who we are, Rain, so stop dancing around this.”

  Pushing my chair backwards, I slide my phone screen open and hit dial. As I stand I wave a goodbye to my sister.

  “It’s a pleasure, brother,” she retorts.

  Shaking my head I leave her and put a ludicrous plan into motion. My hands tremble and I frantically make lists in my head of all the pieces that need to be in place. Starting with Gina.

&nb
sp; “Gina.”

  “Rainieri, to what do I owe the pleasure of a personal call?” Her rough smoker’s voice crackles.

  “I need you to find a good reason to keep Ailee an hour or two late on Saturday night. And have her friends take her boyfriend with them to the club. He and I need to have talk. Do you understand? Are we clear? And Gina, I know she’s your little favorite lost sheep, but don’t you dare fucking tell her. I am not as nice as my father.”

  “Rain, don’t do this. He’s a good man, you will devastate her.”

  “Gina, just fucking do what I ask. If the two of them listen to me they won’t end up at the bottom of a river. You’d be wise to listen too.” Her breaths are rapid and I know she is thinking of every possible escape plan, not just for her, but for them too. She thinks I’m going to kill him, and I might still, but that’s not what I really desire out of this. “Someone will come and collect her from you when I am ready.”

  I don’t wait for her answer. She knows what sort of consequences she will face if she chooses to mess this up for me. I have few days to get all the pieces where they belong. My silly little sister is far craftier than I give her credit for.

  * * *

  They are so predictable – the group of them come barreling into the club and she’s not with them. I know because I have already checked with Gina twice that she is keeping Ailee distracted, so everything is exactly as I want it to be.

  I give my cousin a nod, signaling that it is time to bring my guest upstairs. My gaze follows the bouncer downstairs and across the floor to the bar where he taps Trent on the shoulder and has a word, pointing up to the one-way glass I hide behind.

  The teacher looks confused and shakes his head, but the big man lifts him off the stool with one hand and little effort. He is marched through the bustling dancers and up the stairs, where his escort punches in the key-code to open the door.

  When he comes into sight he is pale, well, whiter than usual; the vegetarian hipster. She’s cut all his hair off, and he looks older somehow, more manly and less like a boy. Two days of stubble leaves a dark shadow along his jaw, and without the hair I can see his features clearly. The man is very attractive, in a way that is opposite to me.

  “Have a seat, Mr Walsh.” I motion to the chairs opposite me. “You and I are overdue for a chat.” He looks like a scared kid in a thunderstorm.

  “I’m not sure I understand. Do I know you?”

  His voice shakes and I know I have him exactly where I want him – well, not exactly, but we are getting closer. The bouncer pulls out the chair and gently pushes him to sit in it.

  “No, you don’t know me, but you have become very well acquainted with my wife.”

  He looks around the room, confused. I slide a photograph from the camera in her bedroom across the table, one where her head is thrown back in pure bliss as he fucks her against the back of the door.

  “Oh, did she not mention she’s married? And here I thought you just didn’t care. I’m so sorry, she’s such a stubborn woman, but you know that already, don’t you?”

  “I’m sorry, but I am so confused right now.” He looks like a deer in headlights, about to be hit by an eighteen wheeler truck.

  “My wife, Ailee, you know, the woman you’re dating. The one you are madly in love with, that is head over heels for you. She is Mrs R. Calligaris – my WIFE.”

  I am getting agitated. My jaw clenches and the desire to just end this creeps in, but then I imagine his hands on her and that face she’s pulling in the picture, and I can’t do it.

  “She’s not married. I think you have made a mistake.”

  “The ring is in the drawer next to her bed. The wedding album is underneath the purple teddy in the bottom drawer of her dresser, and she wears a charm bracelet with a number on it for every year we have been married; five to be exact.”

  I place the photos of each thing I have described in front of him. The close up of my bracelet on her wrist as she holds his dick to suck it. The wedding picture on the front of the black album. The ring in her drawer. Trent looks at them, and I watch as his world falls apart in front of us. Everything he believed was a lie.

  “So, Trent, you know who I am now? Does the name ring a bell?”

  “You’re a mob boss. Your family are dangerous people.”

  “Good observation. I am not a man to be fucked with.” I place the gun I had holstered on the table in front of me, where he can see that it’s loaded. “I’ve quite enjoyed watching you two, you put on an impressive performance. But I’m going to need her back now. Ailee’s playtime is over and she’s going to be moving home.”

  “Look, Mr …”

  “Rain, you can call me Rain. I’ve seen your dick, it’s like we know each other.”

  “Rain, you seem a little unstable, and to be honest, obsessed. I think you should leave us alone.”

  He looks at all the photos displayed between us, and his little unstable comment has me reaching for the gun. I point it at him, a few inches from his head.

  “I talk, you listen, Trent, that’s how this works. She’s my wife, I will never leave her alone – for better or worse. She’s better and I’m the fucking worse.” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, he smells like fear. He nods a silent yes and I lower the weapon back to the table. “Unless you both want to end up as fish food, you and I need to come to an agreement here tonight. You see, Trent, I can’t give her what you do, the love and tenderness, the normal she so desperately wants, but there are things I need from her – and that means I need something from you.”

  “I don’t have anything. I don’t understand what you want. Whatever you are going to do, do it to me, don’t hurt her. Please don’t hurt her.”

  His eyes water with tears of fear and love, and his desire to protect her is what I was banking on.

  “No one has to get hurt, but some things have to change. For starters, the two of you will be moving in with me tonight. Your roommate got a note that you are going to stay with someone awhile, but will still pay your half of the rent so he’s not homeless. Her apartment is being packed up as we speak. You can give her all the love she fucking needs and keep her happy, and I keep my family happy when I show up everywhere with my beautiful, supportive, devoted wife.”

  “Are you insane?”

  “There you go again …” I flip the safety off the gun for emphasis. “… calling me crazy. Trent, there is an option two. That goes like this – the man watching her right now gets a call from me and we watch on FaceTime while he puts a bullet between her pretty eyes, and then I push this gun up against your cotton teacher-shirt and plug your bleeding heart full of holes. We can go with that option. A dead wife is far less hassle to me, really.”

  “No, no don’t hurt her. Kill me if you have to, but leave her.”

  “But if I kill you my wife will hate me forever. I don’t need her any more defiant than she already is. Your job is to make this easier, make it better. Fucking love her and let me be the bad man she’s always believed I am.”

  “The alternative is we both die?”

  Oh, he’s stupid for teacher. “I thought you are a teacher? You are pretty thick for a teacher.”

  “Mob etiquette 101 isn’t exactly in our curriculum. Fine, whatever, I didn’t plan on dying today, but I can’t fucking promise that I can keep her happy in all this – whatever this is. I am pretty pissed right now, she fucking lied to me. She let me fall in love when she knew you were married. She had no right.”

  “No, she didn’t, but Trent, it’s in your best interest to make it work. By that, I mean if you’d like to hang onto your pulse a little longer.” He shakes his head and hangs it in defeat, and I know he loves her too much to say no. As angry as he is, he wouldn’t stand by and watch her die. “Let’s have drink while we wait for Ailee to join us, shall we?”

  He just looks at me, doesn’t answer, so I order him a vodka and wait. It won’t be long.

  “How exactly does this all work? I don’t want an
ything to happen to her. I don’t understand this.”

  I don’t understand it myself and I’m not sure how it will all work. All I do know is I want them, I want them both together, under my roof.

  * * *

  Ailee comes in through the back door with one of my cousin’s henchmen guiding her. Every time he lays a hand on her she swats it off and cusses at him.

  Her eyes are scanning the room, I have no doubt for Trent, or something else, because by now she must know that something is happening.

  “Hello, Darling,” I greet as she stands at our table, slack jawed, fists balled and ready to fight with all that defiant feisty fire she possesses.

  “You cold lying bitch. I told you I love you, that I wanted a life with you, and you couldn’t tell me you were married. You lied to me every single day,” Trent snarls.

  Her mouth opens but words don’t come out, she’s panicking as her eyes fall on the gun between us.

  “Shut up, Trent, you two can have your lover’s quarrel later. Right now the three of us have an arrangement to discuss. We need to bring Ailee up to speed.” I make sure she has no choice but to sit down right beside me, on my side of the table, and when she does I place my hand on her thigh. Staking my claim, letting him see with his eyes who she belongs to.

  Her lip quivers and she bites back tears as Trent glares at her, his anger and heartache now visible on his handsome, fresh face.

  “I am disappointed in you, Ailee. You weren’t truthful with Trent about us, and that hurts him and me.” She doesn’t answer me, her gaze locked on his as she mouths ‘I’m sorry’ to him, and he shakes his head as if it’s not enough. “I understand it, the attraction. He’s young, good looking, and nothing like me. I am not all innocent and wholesome, now am I, Ailee?” She looks at me now, absolute hatred radiating off her. “Have I been unfair, wife? I trusted you. I let you live your life and do what you wanted. Instead of taking my gift and treasuring it, you went and fell in love, and don’t either of you try and lie. I know you love each other, but you see, Ailee, I had to stand by and watch you, I had to love my wife from a distance – because I loved you enough to let you go. I shouldn’t have done that.”