by Kyanna Skye
He cut a piece of his lobster tail off and forked it into his mouth. “You’re a clever girl, Jamie. I’m sure that by now that you’ve figured out that the money that I allegedly stole isn’t really gone?” He gave her an approving look. “As you’ve already correctly surmised, misdirection was the key to my success, wasn’t it?”
“How did you do it?” she asked, her mind boggled with the question.
“Think of it as the rabbit in a hat trick, basically,” he said jovially. “It was a program that I learned about in school. A Squirrel Algorithm, it was called. It gathers information, bit by bit, like a squirrel hunting for nuts.”
“Information? You mean money?”
He gave her a salute with his fork to confirm her deduction. “All those bits of information that it collects, it takes and keeps it hidden, like a squirrel gathering nuts for winter. It did it cent by cent, slowly gathering money until it reached the ten million dollar mark. Then it took that money and vanished with it, like a pulling a net filled with fish from the ocean in one go. It didn’t remove the money from Lester & Desoto’s accounts, it just moved it. The money was still there, it just wasn’t where it had originally been stored. And I designed the program to move that money around at unpredictable intervals and to completely random locations. It’ll stay in one place, but not long enough for anyone to find it. It might sit in one account for as long as an hour or as little as a few seconds.”
She nodded at that. There was a strange kind of brilliance in what he’d done, but again she wondered what he could accomplish if he put his mind to it. “That’s why you said that even you didn’t know where it had gone.”
“I left a spile program embedded in the software,” Mr. Rizzuto went on. “The money that I “stole” is what pays for me to be here. It siphons off to pay whatever I need for my stay… bed and board, food, clothes, even this lovely dinner. I wrote the program so that it couldn’t do anything but that.”
“Yeah, I figured that much out,” she said, her mind absorbed in her own thoughts. “But what I can’t figure out is why.” She set her fork down and folded her hands over her plate, looking across the table at this strange man. “Why did you choose Lester & Desoto? What’s so special about them?”
“Because of my father,” he said simply.
“Your father?”
“He worked for Lester & Desoto… the bad news man for people who couldn’t afford to pay their bills. He worked with the banks and took their cars, their houses, their yachts… whatever they had as compensation when the rich and guilty couldn’t pay their bills. And he was good at what he did. He worked for the Bonnano Family doing that sort of thing and he did it for me, Jamie… so that I wouldn’t have to grow up doing the things that were expected of kids like me. I didn’t want to break knee caps or burn down people’s houses. My father didn’t want that for me either. So he opted to do the dirty – but legit – work for the firm. In exchange, my father and weren’t considered to be formal members of the organization. They left us alone.”
His eyes fell and he half-heartedly cut at the remainder of his dinner. “But then that year he was gone, the one I told you about, was when things broke badly for him.”
“What happened?”
He sighed. “I never got the full of the details myself. All I know for certain is that Lester & Desoto had a client that had some rather large legal troubles, one that the Bonnano family was entitled to. They couldn’t pay their bills and they needed a way out. So, somehow, someone made it look like my dad had stolen from them to recuse them of the debt.”
She saw all of the pieces fall into place without the need for further explanations. “He was sent to prison for it… and he died there.” She resisted the urge to drink more of the wine, wanting to keep a clear head. “So you went to school to learn banking and such and changed your name so that no one would recognize you when you went to work for Lester & Desoto. And you wanted to “annoy” your bosses by stealing their money.”
“Ten million is what they accused my father of stealing and it’s what they put him away for. But during the trial, the prosecution pointed out my father’s connection to the old families. There was no defense against that: a man with a hardcore connection to a violent crime syndicate and even his real work was presented as a cover for that. The prosecution got its way and he was sent to prison as a violent offender. In prison, he wasn’t afforded any protection because everyone thought he had stolen from a mafia family. And inmates think that they can score a lot of points by killing someone that wronged one of the old families.”
And he didn’t survive long without help from the inside, she realized. “So when you turned yourself in?”
“I did it fast so the prosecution wouldn’t have time to build a case against me. What I told you about seeing people being laid off and losing their pensions because of what I did was true, Jamie. Up until I saw that, I had no plans to go to jail. I was content to steal the money from the people that my father served faithfully and who also sent him away because he was a convenient scapegoat at the time.
“But after I saw that, I thought about everything that my father did. He sacrificed for me so that I could have a normal life. He wanted me to do good things with my life, and I had just stolen millions because I wanted to get even.” He looked mournful for a moment. “It was that more than anything that made me realize that I’d spat on him. So I turned myself in to atone for what I’d done. And since I had a new name, a new identity, there wasn’t any dirt that they could dig up in time to get me sent somewhere else.”
She registered that as a point against her. If she spoke up about it now, things would change for Mr. Rizzuto and not for the better. It was a terrible weight to hold on one’s shoulders and she didn’t relish the feeling.
“So when you pleaded no contest in your trial, it happened so fast that the prosecution or someone wouldn’t have the time to buy the judge or anything. And they didn’t have time to research you and find out who you really were. And if they did,” she said, closing her eyes and realizing the true depth of her being sent here, “they couldn’t formally acknowledge it because then they’d be humiliated for letting something like this slip right past them.”
That’s why they sent me here knowing as little as I did, she realized. It wasn’t because of my theories; they just wanted me to get this information out of him! “Bastards,” she muttered under her breath.
“And that’s why they sent you, I’d wager. And now you know the truth,” Mr. Rizzuto said as if he were reading her thoughts. He paused and set his fork aside. “I do appreciate you being honest with me, Jamie. But now, as they say, the time has come to conclude affairs.” He put folded his hands together. “What do you plan to do?”
“Do?” she asked, caught off guard by the question.
“About me.” He had a look on his face that bordered on fear. “This third party that you’ve mentioned before, I gather that it’s Lester & Desoto and all of your interest in how I grew up and all was your attempt to discover if I truly was who they feared and how best to slip the information of their missing money from out of me.”
She felt a tremendous amount of guilt building up within her. Yes, that was why she had been sent here, but discovering his true identity had never been on her agenda. And yet she had managed to get that out of him as well.
Oh, look at that… another of my little tricks worked without me even fucking realizing it!
That he could see through her, now that she had formally given over the truth of who she was and what she was doing here, felt like a knife in her back, but one that she had sharpened herself. She still had only the obvious conclusions: either give him up or don’t.
“You have to either report success, which will end with me being sent to trial again – this time for capital fraud – and it will send me to another prison. Naturally, I’ll be found guilty with the information that you, as an attorney, are obligated to disclose and they’ll put me away for life – or a
s long as I last. Or, you don’t… and I don’t have to think hard about what the ramifications would be for you if you did.”
That dug the knife deeper. She wanted to help him, but he was openly acknowledging that she had to think of herself as well. The tenderness evoked from that thought was enough to make her loathe herself.
He simply sat and waited, watching her. She could feel the weight of his stare as if every twitch of her muscles would yield an answer to his question. The moment of truth, literally, had come. She could either tell the truth and support the firm she worked for, sending a man that was – in her view – innocent after a fact to another prison where he, like his father, would not survive. Or she could lie, deface the firm she worked for, and allow a thief to go free.
“So?” Mr. Rizzuto asked after what felt like a long time, but she knew couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.
Sitting there, watching him as he watched her, she felt a nervous pang inside of her. She knew what she should do, and she also knew what she wanted to do. It was an interesting conflict to hold within herself. And in the span of a few heartbeats, she made her decision. And an impulse unlike any she had ever known overcame her.
“Dominic,” she muttered as she sprang up from her chair and reached across the table. She seized him by the collar of his prison-issue shirt and pulled him towards her like a starving woman reaching for a hot meal. When she drew his lips to hers and an excited gasp left her, not realizing how badly she had wanted this very thing.
She ran her fingers through his neatly combed hair, reducing it to a tattered mess. His lips were warm and inviting, his tongue flicking into her mouth with eager anticipation. She could feel the heat of his body even from across the table.
He responded with equal intensity. In a move that both enticed and excited her, he casually threw off the expensive silken tablecloth that had covered their table. The remnants of their pricey dinners and even the fine bottle of wine and mood-setting candles were cast away like so much garbage as he yanked her towards him, bringing her to rest her knees on the table before him. The kind-hearted gentleman that she had known was replaced but what she could only describe as a lustful savage.
She loved it.
He slipped his hand into the collar of her shirt and casually ripped the fabric wide open, revealing her torso beneath. With a loud tear, the fabric fell away and his hands eagerly found her bra, ripping that fabric away with equal enthusiasm. Her breasts bared and floating freely he buried his face between them, cupping her breasts with his hands and moaning with delight as he did so. All sense of gentlemanly conduct seemed forgotten.
She was glad for that.
She felt amorous, overcome by a desire that it seemed even she didn’t know was building within her. Something that went beyond carnal lust sprang up within her and for the first time, she felt glad that she had worn her casual clothes today. She had enough sense to realize that one of her more pricey suits wouldn’t have survived this encounter, but for her casual clothes she knew, she wouldn’t lament their loss.
He massaged her breasts, his grip firm but gentle as he expertly pinched her nipples between his fingers, making them hard. His tongue licked at the tender spot between her breasts, his breath was warm and soothing. The coolness of the night air, despite the heat of the summer day, did nothing to dispel the heat he was radiating.
Her hands found the hem of his shirt as he turned his attention to her left breast, taking the tip of it into his mouth. Gingerly she lifted his shirt from off of his body, exposing that muscular form that she had thought about only a few times before now. Free from his hands and mouth she settled upon the edge of the table, allowing her legs to dangle over the side.
His mouth again sought hers out and she could almost taste the fine wine that they had been sharing upon his breath. But the kiss was far more intoxicating, for every second that it lasted she wanted more. She craved more, yearned for more of his lips and tongue as they darted madly around her own mouth.
His fingers found the button of her jeans and he pulled it wide. He inserted his fingers and slipped inside her panties and she was surprised to find that she had already become wet. No man had ever gotten her this excited this quickly before. She moaned as his fingers caressed her, slipping inside her with ease.
He expertly found her clit and massaged it as his tongue worked in her mouth. It was hard to determine which had a more profound effect on her body, his tongue or his fingers. She felt the pressure of his fingers inside of her, sending city-leveling tremors through her body while his tongue, mixed with the hot moistness of his wine-sweetened breath, poured like lava into her mouth, melting her from the inside.
“Oh, god, yes,” she whispered into his ear.
Spurred by her words, he withdrew his fingers from inside of her and hooked them over the hem of her jeans. He pulled them and her panties down in a single swift motion as though their lives depended upon his speed. The coolness of the table, which she now realized was metal, kissed at her skin but the warmth of his body countered the sensation quickly as he dropped to his knees before her and used his mouth to finish what his fingers had started.
His mouth was even warmer as his lips closed around the folds of her vulva, his tongue licking at her clit. He hooked his arms around her legs and using his hands kept her legs pried apart, his fingers again adding to the magic of his mouth as they too dipped in and out of her. His depleted beard tickled and pricked at her, but she found no discomfort in it as it drove her further into the depths of her pleasure.
“More,” she whimpered, “more.”
He obeyed, plunging his tongue deeply within her. However and wherever he used his mouth was equally heady as it had been when first she had kissed him. He moaned as he lapped at her pussy, his mouth hungrily devouring her. She relished the feeling, never knowing another like it. She arched her back, rolling her hips against the force of his mouth and running her fingers through his already matted hair.
He took advantage of that as well. His hands stretched out to find her breasts, once more massaging them as though he were offering her some life-altering treatment. His fingers opened and closed like the folding petals of a flower over her breasts, sending more and more shivers down her back.
She hooked her legs over his shoulders and his tongue plunged deeper still inside of her. He expertly traced the inside of her vulva and mons as though he’d been practicing for her all day. She felt her toes begin to go numb and the curious tingling sensation she felt when her foot fell asleep slowly marched its way up her legs to her pelvis. The reaction was like none that she had ever felt before.
After what seemed a terribly short time, he pried his lips away from her and slowly he licked his way up her body. His tongue lost none of its heat as he moved further and further north along her body, his tongue tracing the route he took until finally, he reached her mouth again.
She saw him eagerly tug open his prison-issue trousers as his cock rose eagerly from inside, hard and ready for her. She felt her anticipation rising within her as he slowly rested the weight of his body on hers.
God, he’s so warm!
His mouth gently covered hers, his tongue softly probing the inside of her mouth once more as he slid inside of her. She moaned softly as he did so, feeling a gentleness there that matched her personality that instantly drove her to the edge of her control. He was hard and she could feel him growing harder still as he slowly began to rock back and forth upon her. His hands sought out hers, grasping her at the wrists and keeping her from moving.
He was domineering in that manner, something that no man had ever done to her, and she loved it. He reminded her of a powerful Viking, finding a wench that he wanted and taking her as only a true barbarian could. She found no trouble in that.
She began to grind her pelvis against his, keeping in time with his thrusts. She closed her eyes, lost in the passion that they shared. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a tiny voice was screaming, “Fool! You�
�ll be disbarred for this! You’ve done the dumbest thing that you could have ever done and crossed a line!”
She didn’t care.
She had an amazing man with her now, and they were making love underneath the starry skies of a Colorado landscape. And not just any man, but one that was well built, had principals and had a bad-boy streak in him that she couldn’t help but admire, as well as desire. Most women dreamed of things like this. But she had gone and done it and the larger part of her mind didn’t care for the repercussions.
She had made her choice and she was glad of it. She had no idea how she was going to reconcile the issue with her employers, but for the moment, she had no other concern but for him.
All she cared to do was encircle Dominic with her legs, holding him against her while he plunged in and out of her. She didn’t care that their bodies were entangled together on the roof of a prison where, as she best understood it, inmates were not allowed this kind of intimacy and were they to be discovered, she would most certainly suffer for it. None of that mattered. All that mattered was the two of them here and now.
He pushed himself up on his hands, looking down on her as he continued to thrust inside of her. She felt her body grow tense and sweaty, the cool night air blissfully kissing at every bead of moisture that formed on her skin.
She cradled his face in her hands. They were so close together that she could look into his eyes. She didn’t see the lust of a man long imprisoned looking down on her. She saw something else, something more profound. She saw the eyes of a man that had grown attached to the one that he was with. It was a feeling that she was all too familiar with and she was certain that he could see the same look reflected back at him through her eyes.
“Did you know that this would happen?” he whispered to her.
She shook her head. “No… did you?”
“No,” he said, grunting his answer. “But I’m glad it did.”