by Rumer Raines
I was risking it for Oliver, the man I thought I was falling in love with.
Surely, Oliver wouldn’t tell them where to find me. Maybe they already knew. My heart was pounding so hard, it felt like it might explode.
“Are you okay, Bryn?”
I nearly jumped out of my own skin and found Alex smirking at me.
“Yes, is Oliver coming in today?” I asked while glancing around the bar.
“I think so,” Alex replied. The alley door slammed shut and I jumped into his arms. Alex’s eyes lifted as he wrapped his hands around my arm, pushing me away. “Are you sure you’re okay, Bryn?” He looked over at Oliver who stared at the two of us before nodding and continuing to his office. I nodded and waited for Oliver to get to his office before following him.
I walked slowly up the stairs, half in anticipation, half in dread. I didn’t knock, just walked inside. Oliver’s eyes met mine and the silence lengthened between us, making me uncomfortable.
“This isn’t a good time, Bryn.”
I flinched at the tone of his voice. “When will be a good time?” I muttered uneasily.
He hesitated, measuring me for a moment. “I don’t know.” His face was closed as if guarding a secret.
“You obviously know that I have been on the run, Oliver. Should I leave Chicago?” I replied in a low, tormented voice.
Oliver leaned back in his black leather chair and stared at me with confusing eyes. I didn’t know if I saw pity or pain. He closed his eyes and pinched his bottom lip.
“Where would you go? Do you honestly think you can hide from them forever? They are tied up with the Feds, Bryn.”
I gave a choked, desperate laugh. He knew all about the Columbos. I started to think of the cash deposits and how much money Deluca’s brought in. I thought about the suspicious customers and the large envelopes of money that Alex often handed me after meeting with them. More importantly, I considered asking Oliver what exactly the Deluca business did to make money.
“Do you work for them?” I swallowed the despair in my throat.
He sighed heavily, his voice filled with anguish. “No, I don’t work for them. They have their territory and we have ours.”
They have their territory and we have ours. The words replayed again and again…
I closed my eyes, my heart aching. “You’re the Mafia.”
His broad shoulders were heaving as he breathed. “You already knew that shit, didn’t you, Bryn? You’re not stupid. You were asking questions the minute you started looking through the books.”
Oliver was right. I knew this couldn’t be legit. I had seen the signs before, but I didn’t want to believe them. How could I be so unlucky to end up in the same situation I was running from? How could I run from one Mafia family to end up working for another? The knowledge twisted and turned inside me.
I had been around long enough to know there was a code. Oliver would be breaking that code by not telling the Columbos exactly where I was.
“I know this is against every rule there is, but can you please give me twenty-four hours before you tell them I am in Chicago?” My teeth chattered. My body trembled from fear. The office felt like it was getting smaller, colder, and darker. I could feel my throat closing.
“There is a room upstairs. You can stay up there until I figure out what to do. If you have to leave the club for any reason, let me know and I’ll go with you.”
A hot tear rolled down my cheek. “Are you saying you aren’t going to tell them I am here?” I tried to swallow the lump that lingered in my throat.
Oliver walked around the desk until he was standing just inches from me. His hand was rough and gave me a sense of protection as he touched the side of my face. His tall, black-clad figure stiffened.
“I am saying that the only way they will get to you is through me.” His square jaw tensed visibly. His voice was soft but alarming. His fingers slid sensuously over my bare arm. Gathering me into his arms, he held me snugly. I had no desire to back out of his embrace. The mere touch of his hands sent a warming shiver through me.
His lips pressed against mine then gently covered my mouth. My emotions whirled and skidded until there was a knock at the door.
Oliver groaned as he pulled me closer, and I grabbed onto his shirt just wanting to ignore the knock. As the knocking continued, we both realized they weren’t going away. Oliver slowly backed away from me but didn’t take his eyes off me. He turned to open the door, and Alex walked in holding his phone.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked as he smiled, looking between me and Oliver.
“Yes, you are,” Oliver answered. I could feel myself blush.
I excused myself and went back down to the bar. Oliver promised to protect me. I believed that he would. I trusted him. I had learned not to trust anyone, but I trusted Oliver. I hoped I wouldn’t regret the decision.
Oliver
“We have a big fucking problem, Oliver.” His voice was thick and unsteady.
“What is it?”
“The Columbos. They are coming to Chicago to meet with Frank.”
Oh, shit. I knew Thomas said they had contacted him about Bryn, but I didn’t think they would get in touch with Frank.
“What do they have to talk to Frank about?” I replied without inflection.
“I don’t know. All I know is that Frank wants us to be there because he doesn’t trust them. I don’t trust those mother fuckers either.”
“When are we meeting with them?” I asked with deceptive calm.
“Tomorrow morning.”
They weren’t wasting time. They wanted Bryn and they wanted her immediately. Too bad for them, they wouldn’t get her. I had no idea how I’d protect her, but I would. I just didn’t know how the fall out would affect me and the Delucas. Frank and Alex were like brothers to me. I would never have thought a woman could be the cause for a rift, but one may be.
I stared at the clock after Alex left my office. My mind raced with thoughts of how to protect Bryn. What proof would the Columbos have that she’d killed someone? Hell, did she kill someone? A fucking mobster at that? If she killed him and got away with it, she was more dangerous than she let on. I shook off the thought because I refused to believe that my Bryn was a killer. She couldn’t have done it, could she?
Everyone had a limit. I had my limits and I was sure Bryn did, too. Was she pushed to kill? It didn’t matter because, as far as I was concerned, I was the judge and jury. Bryn was innocent; I didn’t care what anyone had to say about it.
At the end of the night, Bryn and I stood in the alley.
She stared at her red smart car and I smiled at her. She knew exactly what was about to happen. We had to get rid of it. I was going to take great pleasure in pushing this thing into Lake Michigan. She was running, and she was about to get caught. She had to start over, and that meant I would be able to destroy this fucking car. I followed her to the lake where she pulled close enough and got out. Once she was safely in my truck, I gave the car enough of a bump that it went in. I thought I saw a tear fall down Bryn’s face as the car floated away.
Bryn wanted to go to her place to grab clothes, but I told her it wasn’t a good idea. The Columbos were most likely already in Chicago, and if they were, it was very possible they knew exactly where she lived. Bryn didn’t change her name; she just used cash thinking they couldn’t trace her. I couldn’t understand why she thought using her name was a good idea. I guess they didn’t look for her that hard. Unfortunately, when I had Thomas check into her, that brought them to Chicago.
The other thing Bryn had in her favor was she was in Chicago. The Mafia didn’t fuck around on another family’s turf. A few years ago, Alexis Deluca, Frank and Alex’s sister, was dating Noah Hudson. He betrayed us, and we wanted revenge. He lived in Boston, so when he went back there, he was safe. We wouldn’t go to Boston causing trouble for another family. That was their turf. It was the same thing for Chicago. It was the code we lived by. No one pissed
on another family’s grass.
The funny thing was Bryn obviously had bad luck. Who the hell ran from the Mafia and ended up working for them?
I threw back my head and started to laugh. Bryn glanced over at me with narrowed eyes.
“Why are you laughing? I am devasted about my car.” She sniffed.
“You are funny. You are running from the Columbos and end up working for the fucking Delucas. You obviously aren’t the best judge of character.” The teasing laughter was back in my eyes.
“That’s not funny.” Despite herself, she chuckled.
“It is very funny. I mean, who finds the mob in two different states?” I chuckled. She was barely able to keep the laughter from her voice. “I just hope our kids are better judges of character.” My laugh broke off, my eyes smoldered, realizing what I had just said… out loud. Fuck, I think she heard me.
“Did you just say our kids?” she whispered.
The laughter stopped. I was tempted to bang my head against the steering wheel. “Is that what you heard?” I asked, grinding my teeth.
“Oliver,” she whispered, and thankfully my phone rang.
This was probably the first time since I’d met him that Alex had perfect timing. He told me what time to be at the club, which was before opening time so we could meet with the Columbos. He tried to end the call a few times, but I kept the conversation going. Bryn’s eyes were lasered on the side of my head. Eventually, Alex got annoyed with me and hung up. I pretended he was still on so I didn’t have to talk about what I’d let slip.
When we pulled into the alley, I pretended to end my conversation with Alex. Bryn got out and slammed the door. I was certain she realized I was avoiding having any conversation with her, and she didn’t like it.
I led her up to the room above the club. When I explained to her that the Columbos would be meeting with us downstairs the following day, she questioned if she would be safe. No one except the Delucas knew the room existed. More importantly, no one except me knew she would be staying in it. If anything went wrong and the Delucas sided with the Columbos, they could easily pull her address from the employee records. I could take her home with me, but that would be the second place they would look.
I’d hide her in plain sight. No one would look for her at the club. The room was nice and cozy, with a queen-sized bed, a dresser, and a forty-five-inch television. The room was basically used by Alex and me for booty calls. There were some women you just didn’t want to take home. Alex got married, so he no longer needed the room. I did occasionally use the room, but eventually, it got old.
Bryn brushed past me and fell onto the bed. Tilting her head back, she peered at my face. “Can we talk now?” she whispered.
I didn’t want to talk. I knew she was going to ask me about the kids I accidentally mentioned. “We could talk, or we could do other things,” I whispered as I explored her thighs and continued to inch up her body.
My hands slid across her silken belly. I moved further up, my tongue caressing her sensitive swollen nipples. I had her clothes off in record time. She had mine off even faster.
Her body squirmed beneath mine as I grabbed my dick and lined it up against her dripping wet pussy. With one hard thrust, I was inside her. I stilled myself for a second, so she could adjust to my size, as she started to rock her hips against mine. She was impatient for me, and I couldn’t wait any longer before I started pounding into her. With each thrust, she rose to meet me in a moment of uncontrolled passion.
Her breaths came in long, surrendering moans. My hardness electrified her. The feeling of being inside her was almost too much for me. She felt like she was made only for me. My hardness drove into her softness. She opened her legs wider for me, and I held on to the headboard to drive into her harder.
When her cum started to drip out of her, it took a few more thrusts before I drained myself inside her.
Bryn
I was so tired my nerves throbbed. Oliver was distracting me with sex, but I couldn’t complain. He was sleeping next to me, and the only thing I could think about was his “kids” comment. I always thought of Oliver as right here and now. I never considered that I would have a future with him. My heart swelled with a feeling that I had thought was long since dead.
Was Oliver my future? This sexy man who laid next to me could be the one for me. The only problem was that he was from the same life I’d been trying to get out of. The thought barely crossed my mind before another followed.
The Columbos were in Chicago, and this wasn’t a family vacation. They were here looking for me. They would be downstairs while I hid upstairs. Oliver said it was safe for me to stay here, but how could it be? Once they walked into this club, chances were they would come back. What would Frank and Alex Deluca say when they found out the family wanted me for killing the perfect son? I had nothing to do with it, but would they believe me?
“Bryn, what’s wrong?” His brows knitted as he watched me.
“I was just thinking about the Columbos. They will be here in a few hours, and I just don’t think it’s safe for me to be anywhere near the club.” Fear clawed through me.
Oliver took a deep breath and pulled me to his hard chest. Warmth spread through me as my legs tangled between his.
“You don’t have anything to worry about, baby. This is the safest place for you to be. They will come and talk to Frank, and once they are gone, I’ll talk to him.” I could feel his muscles tense. “Do you know what happened?” he whispered as his fingers moved down my spine.
“Steven promised me that he wasn’t involved in the business. I believed him. When I came home one day, he was dead. Someone shot him, but I found him. I didn’t know what to do, Oliver. I couldn’t call anyone. I didn’t trust anyone. I checked his pulse, and he was dead, so I ran.” Embarrassment stirred within me. The man I loved had been killed, and I’d done nothing.
“Why would you run, Bryn?”
My throat thickened with sobs. “I was promised to them.”
Pain gripped my chest. I could feel the difference in the way Oliver’s eyes looked at me. I was promised to that family, by my father.
He always gambled too much; it was his obsession. My mother and I begged him to stop. Of course, he never did. He would always lose more than what we had. One night, he somehow managed to borrow money from the wrong people. When the Mafia loaned money, it wasn’t at the standard interest rates. You owed more from the interest than you borrowed to begin with.
He couldn’t pay them back. I doubted anyone could ever pay them back. He started calling in sick from work and was afraid to leave the house. He knew they were looking for him. My mother and I had no idea what he had done. We only knew that he had lost money and owed someone, but it never occurred to us it would be the Mafia.
When my mother asked me to talk to him, I was in for a surprise. He looked like he hadn’t slept for months. He had dark circles under his eyes and he reeked of booze. The curtains were all closed, but he kept peeking outside. While I was questioning him, there was a knock on the door. He told me not to answer it, but why wouldn’t I? Two men marched into the house and one pulled a gun. I begged them not to kill my father. One of the men pointed the gun at me and told me to sit down and shut up. The other man grabbed my father by the collar and pulled him out of the house. I was told not to call the cops or he would be mailed back in pieces. One of them told me that, if I did as they told me, they would return him. I didn’t like the way his eyes looked me over, but I listened. What other choice did I have? I sat and cried, praying that my father would return alive and unhurt.
A few hours later, I heard tires squealing and I ran to look out the window. My father was lying out in the front yard. I helped him inside, his face bruised and bloody. He confessed that he had borrowed money from the Mafia. He couldn’t pay back the money, and they were going to kill him. Shame washed over his face when he explained the deal he had made to pay off the debt.
Sorrow closed in my throat when I t
hought of my father promising me to the family. The Don wanted to retire but wanted his son to be married before he took charge. It was either marry a stranger or let them kill my father.
Steven Columbo wasn’t what I expected. He was nice and kind and appeared to be a good man. He promised me that he wasn’t going to take his father’s place as the Don. His father thought he would, and he wanted him to believe it would happen. He wanted his father to retire, and then he planned to turn the family business over to someone else. He didn’t want that life, or so I thought.
He was very good to me and my family. Steven Columbo cleared all my father’s debts. I started to love him and trust him. He protected me and my family. We never wanted for anything. But every fairy tale must come to an end, and so did the idea of a perfect Steven. I started to notice small changes in him, especially after we were living together. He had meetings late at night, and suspicious people would come to our home. My gut feeling was that he had been lying to me all along. He was going to take over as the Don. He was the criminal that he promised he would never be.
I decided I was going to leave him. I had no other choice; I wasn’t going to marry into a crime family. I was going to talk to his father, the DON, first. I wanted to make sure that my father’s debts were paid. When I told him that I was leaving Steven, he forbade me from doing so. He told me that I was going to marry his son, and the only thing that would separate us was death. Two days later, I found Steven’s dead body.
My vision blurred as Oliver pulled me closer. They would never believe that I didn’t kill Steven Columbo. They wanted blood for blood, and it was going to be mine.
Oliver
He shrugged dismissively as Frank questioned him. “Are you telling me that this girl managed to kill Steven Columbo?”