Beautiful Carnage: A Dark Mafia Bully Romance (The Boys of Sinners Bay Book 1)

by Caroline Peckham

  I stepped away from her and grabbed Guido’s ankles again as I started hauling him towards the back door. Sloan kicked on Mamma’s boots and pulled her coat on before following me out into the snow. I set a path straight for the stacked wood I’d prepared and heaved Guido’s corpse up onto the top of it.

  The whole thing rattled as his weight hit it and I walked away to get the can of gasoline before pouring it all over him.

  Sloan stood staring at the pyre as still as a statue and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on behind those big brown eyes.

  I pulled a match box from my pocket and moved towards her, sliding the canister open. I drew a match out and twirled it between my fingers as I closed the box again.

  Sloan was still staring at the pyre as if I wasn’t right beside her.

  I reached out slowly, offering her the match.

  “You want the honour?” I asked, wondering if this would be a step too far. The point at which she balked, fell back, said no…

  Sloan’s gaze slid to me, her lips parting on a thought which didn’t leave them.

  Her gaze dipped to the match and she reached for it, taking the box in her other hand.

  She looked back to the pyre but my eyes were fixed on her. Watching as she slowly placed the match against the box and drew in a long breath.

  As she struck the match, the flame was reflected in her eyes, dancing in the darkness of her pupils.

  She flicked it and it arced away from her, hitting the pyre and setting it alight with a whoosh of flame which blazed instantly, warming my back.

  Her lips curved into a smile as she watched him burn and I couldn’t tear my gaze from her. This creature of mine. This mystery I ached to unlock.

  As her smile widened, mine couldn’t help but follow and I cupped my hands around my mouth, howling to the moon as the bonfire blazed behind us.

  Sloan laughed, her eyes finally falling on me.

  “Take your shirt off, bella,” I said, my gaze slipping down to her bare legs where they showed beneath her coat.

  “Why?” she asked with a frown.

  “Gotta burn everything with DNA evidence on it,” I pointed out.

  She pursed her lips then shrugged out of Mamma’s coat, handing it to me. I waited until she’d pulled my shirt off too and took that as well, smirking at the sight of her in her white underwear standing out in the cold.

  She reached for the coat again, but I tossed it straight onto the bonfire alongside the shirt.

  “What the hell?” she demanded angrily.

  “Cross contamination,” I explained with a wink as I pulled my shirt off and threw it on the fire too.

  “It’s freezing out here, Rocco!”

  “Let me warm you up then.” I stalked towards her and she backed up a few steps before I caught her.

  Sloan squealed as I lifted her into my arms and kept going until we made it into the shed where I dropped her on her ass on the hood of the Cadillac.

  “You deserve something special, principessa,” I purred, gripping her knees and slowly inching them apart as I looked down at her.

  “Rocco, the door is wide open,” Sloan hissed, looking over my shoulder where the bonfire raged, the heat of the flames enough to warm us even at this distance. There was no view of the house though, the doors didn’t face it and my brothers wouldn’t come out here looking for us.

  “We’re all alone out here,” I promised, tightening my grip on her knees.

  She licked her bloody lip and slowly stopped resisting me, allowing me to part her thighs.

  “Tell me exactly how you want me to make you come,” I breathed, drawing closer to her and slowly pushing her hair back over her shoulders.

  Her lips opened on an answer but she didn’t offer one. I smirked at the challenge she presented.

  “Tell me what your Italian boyfriend used to do to you. Tell me what he did to make you scream and I’ll prove I can do it better.”

  Sloan hesitated a long moment before answering, her eyes skipping back and forth between mine like she was hunting for something.

  “I…well, he never really managed to…not like what you did to me with the…you know. Or when we…”

  “Are you telling me I gave you your first orgasm with an icicle?” I asked her, my lips lifting at the idea of that.

  “No!” she protested. “I’ve had orgasms before! Just on my own. I mean…no, I didn’t mean…oh god.” She buried her face in her hands and my smile widened until I was worried it might just split my face in half. She was fucking adorable when she was flustered and I was getting addicted to making her blush.

  “You wanna show me how you do that, bella?” I purred, leaning close to her ear.

  “What?” she gasped, peeking out at me between her fingers.

  I laughed darkly and reached out to peel her hand from her face. I slid it down her body until I pressed her fingers down between her thighs and she gasped as I increased the pressure of my hand on hers and started making her circle her fingers against herself.

  “Show me how you like it,” I dared her, pulling my hand back and watching her as she fell still.

  “Rocco, I don’t think I-”

  “Do you want me to do it too?” I offered, sliding my fly down and watching her eyes widen as I freed myself from my pants. She inhaled sharply as I wrapped my hand around the hard length of my dick and the sound of her shock just made me want to push her more.

  Sloan stared at me as I slowly started moving my hand back and forth, swallowing thickly as her chest rose and fell with each deep breath she took.

  “This is for you,” I said, my voice rough. “This is how much you turn me on. Don’t you want me to see how I make you feel too?”

  Her eyes slid from the movement of my hand back to my face and she slowly pushed her fingers into the top of her panties.

  Her movements were hesitant, but she slowly moved her hand lower and my pulse pounded harder at the sight of her trying this for me. Because she wanted to please me.

  “That’s it, bella,” I purred. “Can you feel how wet you are?”

  Her hand slid lower still and she moaned softly as she felt it. “Yes,” she breathed.

  “Don’t you want to come for me?” I asked as she fell still for a long moment like she wasn’t sure if she could do this or not. “I thought you weren’t afraid of anything, little warrior,” I challenged.

  “I’m not,” she growled and I groaned as her hand started moving in soft circles.

  “Fuck, Sloan, you’re so beautiful,” I growled as I moved my hand faster, stroking my shaft and running my thumb over the sensitive end as she started to really put on a show for me.

  She moaned lustily, her head tipping back, her long hair swaying as she continued to move her hand in circles beneath her panties. Her other hand moved to toy with her breast and I watched as she slid her bra from her shoulder, freeing herself so that she could tug softly on her peaked nipple.

  I growled with desire. I’d never felt so turned on by any other woman in all my life as I did by her. She was pure and innocent and damaged and dirty all at once and I wanted to drown in the depths of her secrets and gorge myself on a feast of her flesh.

  I slowed my movements before I finished too soon, not wanting this to end, needing to watch her come apart for me first.

  Her moans were getting louder, the closer she got to her climax and I could feel myself aching to follow her over the edge but I slowed my movements further, staring at her as her eyes fell closed.

  “Look at me, Sloan,” I commanded. “Tell me how good it feels to touch yourself for me.”

  Her eyes fluttered open and met mine, but that blush came back before she could utter a word.

  “Does it feel good?” I asked, prompting her.

  “Yes,” she gasped, her movements growing faster.

  “Tell me how wet you are,” I purred.

  “So wet,” she breathed. “For you, Rocco.”

  I growled hu
ngrily at that, my dick twitching in demand as I stroked it once again.

  “Are you about to come for me, bella?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she gasped. “Yes…ahh.”

  I growled with a desperate desire as she pushed herself over the edge with a cry of pleasure and I moved forward to take what I needed. Because my hand was all well and good, but what I really ached for was the tightness of her body surrounding every last inch of me.

  Sloan tipped backwards onto the hood of the car as her orgasm robbed her energy and I growled as I yanked her panties off of her. I pushed her legs further apart and she reached for me hungrily as I drove myself inside her.

  “Oh, Rocco,” she moaned, her legs coiling around me as I pounded my hips against hers, fucking her hard and fast and taking, taking, taking as she cried out in pleasure and begged for more.

  This girl was like the sun and I was burning up the closer I got to her, but I couldn’t get enough either. I was drowning in the depths of her and all I wanted was to crawl deeper, get further beneath her skin and wear it for my own.

  I gripped her hips as I continued to pound into her and she cried out as I wrung a second orgasm from her body and her nails bit into my forearms, spilling blood. Her head fell back as she was overwhelmed and I groaned as I fucked her like I’d never get to do it again. Like I needed to brand my name on the inside of her and make sure she could never remove the scar.

  I was building closer and closer to my own climax but I wasn’t done with her yet and I moved my hand between us, circling on that perfect little raised bump at the apex of her thighs.

  “Shit, Rocco,” she moaned, half begging for more, half protesting she couldn’t take it. But she could take it. I’d set her flesh alive with pleasure and tear every inch of satisfaction from her before I’d stop.

  She was tightening around me, crying out, pawing at her breasts, my arms, fisting her hands in her hair as she tried to find some relief from the intensity of what I was doing to her.

  “Come for me, baby,” I demanded. “I can’t stop until you do.”

  She didn’t have words, only more moans left her lips but she grabbed my forearms and I felt the keen slice of pain as her nails broke the skin again and the scream that left her had me exploding too.

  My weight fell over her as I pulsed inside her and I panted heavily in pure bliss as I stole a kiss from her perfect mouth.

  “Holy shit,” she mumbled almost incoherently.

  And I laughed darkly, feeling pretty fucking pleased with myself for what I’d just done to her.

  “Do you still want to leave me, bella?” I whispered, my lips brushing her ear and my stubble catching on a loose strand of her hair.

  “Never,” she sighed.

  “Do you mean that?” I asked, my heart leaping with hope in a way that it had absolutely no right to do.

  I shifted back just enough to look into those big brown eyes and she swallowed thickly. “If there was any way that it could be so, then yes,” she agreed in a soft voice.

  “What if I just never let you go?” I offered. “Your family can go on believing you’re my captive but really you’ll be my…”

  “What?” she pressed, demanding an end to that sentence.

  “My Sloan,” I breathed passionately. “We could just be together. Here, in the city, you could choose whichever one of our properties you want to make our home.”

  “Your family would never accept that,” she replied. “Even if mine stopped trying to rescue me.”

  “So we leave the city,” I offered, the warmth of her body making me feel willing to sacrifice anything just so that I didn’t have to ever let her go. “Spin a globe and pick a destination. The North Pole, the Sahara desert, I don’t care. If you’re there I want to be there too.”

  “That sounds like heaven,” she admitted slowly, brushing her fingers along the side of my face.

  “More like hell with me at your side,” I reminded her. “But I’d make a palace surrounded by fire and brimstone right in the depths of it for you if you’d really come.”

  “I would,” she breathed.

  And even though that didn’t mean anything, even though we had no plan or no way to even try and do this impossible thing, I couldn’t help but feel a flood of relief at her words. Because when I’d bet my brothers that I could make her love me, I’d never once considered that I might fall for her too. And now that I had her, I knew there was no coming back from it.

  If you cut me open, her name would be branded right on the blackened lump of my heart. And though there wasn’t much to it, I would still happily cut it out for her and lay it at her feet. Because if there was one thing left in this world that I wanted to do with my life, then it would be to worship at this goddess’s altar.

  Mountaindale was a three hour drive out of Sinners Bay and pretty much the perfect place to come and hide out if you were a kidnapping scumbag. The town was central, but countless cabins and manors lay up in the mountains with their owners coming and going regularly. It was a small enough place for people to notice strangers, but we weren’t a rare enough occurrence to draw too much attention. Plenty of folks came up here for weekend getaways and romantic breaks in the snow.

  Of course, I didn’t exactly look like I was on a romantic getaway with my face beaten half to shit and a scowl deep enough to bury treasure inside it.

  But last night, the Romeros had made their first mistake. Rocco had shown his face out on the east docks and caused a scene big enough to draw federal attention. Not that the cops had actually shown up. They circled nearby but didn’t attempt to intervene until they knew he was gone; even law enforcement knew better than to tango with the families that ruled this town.

  He’d tied a guy to a shipping container and proceeded to aim fireworks at him like it was a Fourth of July parade.

  Everyone was talking about it and half the city had seen the fireworks lighting up the night sky. The damn theatrics had gone on for nearly two hours until Rocco had gotten to the bottom of whatever the hell had been bugging him and in that time, I’d arrived at the docks.

  I’d spotted his car – the same fucking one he’d stolen my bride in – parked up just on the edge of the marina. Everyone in Sinners Bay knew to stay the fuck away when Rocco Romero lost his shit so the whole place had been abandoned.

  I’d parked up in the shadows and waited. And it hadn’t been long before the chief motherfucker himself had come sauntering out of the docks with his asshole brother Enzo right beside him. The two of them had been laughing their heads off like a pair of fucking lunatics and hadn’t paid nearly enough attention to their surroundings as they’d leapt into their car.

  Even better than that, they must have been in a hurry to get back to this town because they’d headed straight out onto the highway and taken a direct route right here. To the middle of nowhere. If they owned a property up here, it sure as hell hadn’t been on the list I’d taken from the accountant. Which meant it was a well-kept secret. And the perfect place to hide the Calabresi Principessa.

  I didn’t believe in luck. I made my own. And I was sure as hell that they’d just led me straight to my bride.

  I’m coming Sloan. Soon I’ll have you back in my arms.

  I’d managed to tail them as far as this town, but then I’d lost them at a set of traffic lights. But that was fine. I couldn’t exactly tail them right up to their front door without them noticing, but I sure as shit knew I’d tightened the net.

  They were here somewhere. I could practically smell them on the breeze.

  The snow had fallen still and all that was left was great white mounds of the stuff piled at the roadside.

  The crisp morning air made the cuts on my face sting and I cursed beneath my breath. The Romeros would pay for all they’d done to me. They’d even taken Coco from me and I had no idea what had become of the fierce little pup now. But if they truly thought that that little display back at their other property would put me off, then they were seriously
deluded. The only thing that would keep me from my destiny was death. And even then I’d try my best to haunt them from beyond the grave.

  They were about to regret leaving me alive.

  I’d spent last night in a motel on the outskirts of town, paying cash and saying little to the guy who ran it. He wasn’t going to have the information I needed. But someone here would.

  I weighed my options as I drove through the town, eyeing the various stores and wondering which of them would hold the key to this mystery.

  I couldn’t afford to make too much of a scene. I needed to figure out where the Romeros’ house was without them hearing about me from some busybody or lookout they were keeping close.

  The general store and diner were probably good bets, but they were busy too. I wouldn’t go unnoticed asking questions in there.

  As I reached the end of the high street, a hardware store caught my eye. If I was a fucked up little Romero keeping women hostage in my basement, then I’d probably need those kinds of supplies. Rope, duct tape, a little bit of psycho shopping definitely would have been in order.

  I pulled up outside the store and gazed in through the glass shopfront as I waited for the few customers inside to leave.

  Within fifteen minutes, the shoppers exited and the only person I could still see inside was the old guy behind the counter.

  I got out of my car and walked up to the door.

  A little bell rang to announce my arrival as I pushed it open and I turned back to twist the lock behind me, flipping the sign around to closed for good measure.

  I moved through the store and walked up the aisle which led to the counter, picking up a length of chain as I went.

  “Good morning,” the guy said, not looking up from the monitor beside him.

  “I’m hoping you can help me with something,” I said slowly, closing in on him.

  “What’s that?” He turned to look at me and balked as he took in my battered face. A week had done a lot to heal the damage caused by Enzo and Frankie, but the bruising was yellow and angry, almost looking worse than it had at first.

  “I’m looking for someone,” I said.