“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” I crossed my arms and turned away. “I’ve nothing to say to you, unless you’re about to tell me that you’re going to let me out of this dump, in which case I’ll just say ‘see ya.’”
“That’s not what I was about to say.” He sighed. “Listen, Bianca, I wanted to apologize for doing all of this. Believe me, if I would have known what Carlo, Luigi and Nino were up to, I never would have had them take you. I took care of them.” He nodded his head and looked me in the eye.
I cocked my head at him. “Is that it? Is that all you have apologize for? The fact that those three men treated me like I was some kind of piece of rare sirloin and nothing more?” My fury was rising with every word I spat at him. “Don’t you think that you need to apologize for taking me in the first place? I don’t know what the hell I did to you, but what I do know is that I don’t deserve this. And you can bet that my roommate, Adelaide, won’t let you get away with this. I’ve talked to her about what to do if I suddenly disappear, and I know that she’s on the phone with the authorities even as we speak. If she didn’t already call them. They’re going to be led straight to you.”
“Adelaide isn’t a problem,” velvet voice said. “Or at least she won’t be as soon as you give her a call and tell her that everything’s okay. That you’ll be home in a couple of weeks. You’re going to tell her that you decided to go skiing in Switzerland over Christmas Break.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying to me. I was going to provide my own alibi? I was supposed to be the person who would soothe and calm the waters that would inevitably be churning because of what this jackass did? Seriously? “Nothing doing. Now, as I see it, you have two choices. Either you let me go, or Adelaide will be after the reasons for my sudden disappearance like a dog after a goddamned bone. I’m certainly never going to help you keep my kidnapping secret, just so you know.”
At that, he pulled out a gun. “You will call Adelaide and tell her that you decided to go skiing over Christmas Break, and if you don’t, your brains will be all over this hardwood floor.” He cocked the gun for emphasis.
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ve already been gone for…”
“Less than 24 hours. You’ve stayed away for as much as three days without talking to Adelaide, so I can almost guarantee you that she’s seen nothing amiss yet.” He continued to point the gun at me, and I felt my resolve folding like an accordion.
“How do you know that I routinely stay out for days at a time?”
He looked annoyed. “I know your movements. I’ve been having you trailed for months. Again, I’m sorry that I didn’t choose the right guys for this mission. If I would have known what they were going to do, I certainly wouldn’t have ever sent them after you.”
“No, you would have just sent somebody else.” I turned my head away from him, not wanting to see his beautiful face looking at me. Looking into me and seeing my fear. “God forbid you actually would have just left me alone.”
“Bianca, again…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re sorry. You’re so sorry.” I stood up off the bed, determined to make at least one last stand. Maybe making the stand would get my head blown off, maybe it wouldn’t. I was hoping that this guy had a brain in his head and knew that icing the daughter of the second most powerful Mafia boss on the Eastern Seaboard would invite a war that he wouldn’t be able to finish. “You can keep those sorries to yourself, because I’m not buying what you think that you’re selling.”
At that, he grabbed my left arm, his strong hand digging into my skin. Although that was painful, because he was gripping me so hard, I looked into his eyes and had to look away. There was something in those eyes – penetrating, intelligent, passionate – that made me feel uncomfortable. And there was something that was so familiar in them, too. Like I could look into those eyes and start to feel lost in them. That was the last thing that I wanted to have happen.
“You don’t want to challenge me,” he said, his face just inches from mine. “I need your cooperation, and if you don’t want to give that to me willingly, then I’m going to have to get it some other way.”
I rapidly jerked my arm away from him and, before I could even think about it, I found my hand slapping his face. Then my other hand clenched into a fist, and I swung at him, but he caught that wrist in mid-air. He looked down at me, shaking his head while staring at me with those eyes.
“I said, you don’t want to challenge me.” He showed me his gun again, just for emphasis. “You might think that I won’t ice a princess, but I’m going to do what I have to to make sure that your old man stays out of my business and away from my territory. I hope that I make that perfectly clear.”
I narrowed my eyes, wanting to kick him, punch him, knife him in the groin. He was responsible for my being molested in the van. He kidnapped me, put me into this tiny room with nothing in it but the four walls, a tiny bed, and a bunch of clothes. I did nothing wrong, and he was apparently only after my father. To say that I was angry at that point understated the matter. I felt my rage burn my neck and face white-hot, and it didn’t help matters that he was currently holding both of my wrists tightly.
I spat in his face, my saliva going right into his right eye. He didn’t say a thing about this, though. Didn’t yell or scream or get his gun. He simply took a Kleenex out of the box that was on the ledge in the armoire and wiped his eye with his left hand while continuing to firmly hold my right wrist.
“Listen,” he said, looking me right in the eye. “I’m going to leave you here in this room to think about your predicament. You’re not getting out of here unless you agree to cooperate. That’s a fact.” Then his face softened, and, for just one second, I saw just a hint of humanity peeking through. “Listen, I am sorry, truly sorry, that you’re mixed up in this. If there was some other way of accomplishing my goals, I would have taken it. I don’t want a war with your father. I want a truce. I want a treaty. I’ve tried to get his attention in other ways, and these other ways simply haven’t worked. I realize that you’re completely innocent, and that it’s bullshit that you’re here.”
I felt my anger dissipating as I looked into his face. He looked absolutely sincere when he was speaking those words, and I suddenly realized that he was sympathetic about what I was going through. He wasn’t completely cold-blooded. There was a heart in there, a beating heart.
I bit my lip, not knowing what to say or do. “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
And, at that, he turned on his heel and left.
Four
Lucca
I felt sick as I left Bianca’s room. I hadn’t really seen her up close before – I had only seen pictures of her that were taken by a long-range lens by some of my soldiers. These pictures didn’t do her justice. They didn’t show the quizzical and warm light in those beautiful green eyes of hers. They barely showed how her breasts swelled above her flat stomach, and how her legs seemed to go on forever, even though she wasn’t all that tall. These pictures didn’t show how she had an unconscious habit of twirling her black hair, thick and lustrous, around her delicate finger, with the tip a bright shade of pink. The pictures barely showed her bee-stung lips and cheekbones that could cut glass.
They certainly didn’t show how intelligent she was. How she had an unquenchable spirit that was going to certainly be my undoing if I wasn’t careful. It was that spirit that drew me in, that made me hard just thinking about my encounter with that beautiful girl.
It wasn’t just her spirit drew me in, though. It was that there was a certain vulnerability that she desperately tried to hide. She was so proud that she wasn’t going to let me see how frightened she was, but I knew. I could see it. She had on a mask that she had carefully constructed, a mask that she probably needed all of her life. She wasn’t about to take that mask off for me, but she didn’t have to – I could see behind it.
I sat down on the couch and made myself a neat scotch and shook it
up in the glass. It was October, so the leaves were falling, blanketing the massive yard that was just outside my home. I had brought Bianca to my Connecticut house, because this was the place that had the underground bunker that I hoped I never had to use but knew that I was close to having to do just that. I was happy to be here anyhow, because I needed to get away from the city. The apartment in the heart of Manhattan, on the Upper East Side, which I bought after selling the apartment that Gianni left to me, was a place where I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. Being out here in the country was so much more pleasing to me.
Plus, this house was sprawling and had fireplaces everywhere. The fireplace that was in the master den was where I came to relax, and that was where I landed after my encounter with Bianca. Watching the fire, stoking it, and letting the warmth seep into my skin was how I concentrated best. Being in front of the fire was my favorite thing next to being on the lake that was on my property. I had a boat that I would take out whenever I was feeling out of sorts, and I found that relaxed me almost as much as sitting in front of the fire.
I closed my eyes, feeling the whiskey burn the back of my throat while relishing the warmth that was emanating from the flames. I wasn’t expecting Bianca to grab ahold of my imagination like this. I certainly wasn’t desiring for that to happen. If there was one thing that I learned from my brother Gianni, it was that you had to close yourself off. Look at people as merely faceless beings. I did that when I worked for Franco and I had to hit all those judges and bad guys. They weren’t human to me. I had to do the same thing with Bianca, because I certainly couldn’t take my eye off the ball. If I took my eye off the ball, then everything would get messed up. I had to have the ability to hit Bianca if I had to. If Benito refused me, then I would really have no choice. He had to believe me to be as ruthless as he was. Just as Benito wouldn’t hesitate to hit one of my men or associates, I couldn’t hesitate to do the same to him. Only when Benito knew that I wasn’t weak could I feel comfortable.
I was playing a dangerous game, I knew that. Was it a desperate game? I didn’t know. I only hoped that I wasn’t going to end up playing checkers while Benito played chess. That could very well happen, considering the disparity between Benito and me. Benito was in his 60s and had been in the business his entire life. He had become a capofamiglia after his own father died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 75. Before that, he had risen through the ranks, just like my brother Gianni had – from associate to soldier to capo. He had remained as a capo for many years, commanding a platoon of about 80 soldiers and over 150 associates.
In other words, he knew his shit and had been around for a long time. On the other hand, I only worked as a soldier in Palermo before getting instituted in this job. Of course Benito was going to think of me as no more consequential than a sand-fly.
He forgot that even sand-flies knew how to sting, and sting hard. And sting him was exactly what I planned on doing. When he least expected it.
After about an hour, I went back to see Bianca. There was something about her that drew me to her room. I made the excuse that I was going to take dinner to her, and I really was – I knew that she had to have been hungry, and I had prepared pasta and salad for her, along with a bottle of wine. But, really, I wanted to see her.
I walked in the room and I startled her. She had apparently undressed, in preparation for taking a bath, and she hadn’t yet wrapped a towel around her. Maybe she wasn’t going to wrap a towel around her at all. Why would she? She had a private bathroom, so presumably there wasn’t going to be anybody around that would invade her privacy.
I swallowed hard as she made no attempt to dress or hide or duck into the bathroom. She stood there, straight and tall, her black hair falling over one of her breasts, her green eyes defiant. She bit her lower lip and I glanced away. I felt my heart pounding as I walked toward her. She backed away with every step I took towards her, her chin up, her eyes still fixated on mine.
“Don’t you know how to knock?” she asked. She put her hands on the swells of her hips and puffed out her chest just a little bit.
There was something about her demeanor that I took as her wanting me to look at her. To really look at her. My eyes traveled from her beautiful face down to her breasts, one of which was covered by a lock of her black hair. They were large and rounded, her nipples erect like two pearls. They were perhaps a bit too large for her frame, but they were natural. She spread her legs a tiny bit as my eyes traveled from her perfect breasts down to her flat stomach and on down to the tiny patch of hair that led down to her vagina, the very thought of which made me so hard it was uncomfortable. Her legs were solid, that of a runner, and her feet were delicate and perfect.
As I gazed at her perfect form, I saw a slight smile play upon her full lips. She raised one of her eyebrows as she finally reached behind her and took her towel, that was laying on her bed. “You never answered my question,” she said as she slowly wrapped her towel around her. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
I cleared my throat, feeling embarrassed that I had walked in on her like that, yet feeling more aroused than I had ever felt in my entire life. I touched my cock, which was standing up straight in my pants, and Bianca noticed it and smiled again. “Of course I knock, and I’m sorry I didn’t this time.”
She nodded her head slightly towards me. “I’m not.”
She dropped her towel as she walked towards the bathroom, showing me her rounded ass and firm back. As I stood there, rooted into the ground, she turned her head towards me and beckoned me slightly.
I followed her into the bathroom and put my hand on the small of her back. It was warm and I felt her firmness. My hand traced down her ass, wanting to go farther, yet holding back. She spun around and faced me. I put my hand on either side of her cheeks and my lips gently enfolded hers. She sighed and closed her eyes as her mouth eagerly met mine.
It was no time at all before I had her up on the vanity, while she eagerly spread her legs. My hands enveloped her breasts as I trailed my kisses down from her mouth down to her chest, my lips wrapped around the pearls of her nipples. I touched myself, feeling my cock growing harder and larger with every passing moment. She wrapped her legs around my back and threw back her head. I touched her inner folds, savoring the feeling of wetness on my fingers. I felt her pussy contract around my finger as they explored her clit and pussy lips. My mouth hungrily made its way down her stomach, down to her clit while she moaned.
Then, just like that, she put one of her perfect feet up to my chest and pushed hard. I wasn’t prepared, so I fell over backwards. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked. She raised her right eyebrow as she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her. “You surely don’t think that I’m just going to drop my panties for you, do you? I mean, come on. I’m your fucking prisoner, but that doesn’t mean that I’m your property. You might think that, but you have another thing coming.”
She reared back her head and then spread open her legs, confusing me. Her fingers spread open her pussy lips, and she put one perfect nail inside of her and then licked it off. I could feel my cock getting rock hard as I watched her, which, perhaps, was the point. “What are you doing?” I asked her. “You just told me…”
“I did tell you. You can’t have this,” she said, pointing down to her clit. “I want you to suffer, though, by not being able to have it. I want you to squirm just watching me.” She knew exactly what effect she was having on me, and she was milking it for all it was worth. “How does it feel to be so frustrated? To want something that you will never have?”
I put my hands on her shoulders, determined that I was going to have it. I wasn’t going to take it, though. No way would I put Bianca through that after what had happened to her in that Van. But I was going to have it. She was going to want it, and I was going to give it to her. I was going to give it to her hard. And slow. And every tempo in between.
She looked at my hands, which were gripping her shoulders, and looked back at
me. My lips met hers again, this time with more urgency. More passion. She closed her eyes and moaned as my mouth grazed her skin, my lips going from her mouth to her nose to her hair and back again. I felt like I couldn’t stop, but I knew I was going to have to. I knew that I was going to have to because I knew that she was going to make me stop. Until she did, though, I was going to keep kissing her because I felt compelled to do it. Drawn to it like I had never been drawn to anything before.
Sure enough, she put her hands on my chest and pushed hard. “I have to take a shower,” she said indignantly. “So you have to leave.”
I drew a breath, not wanting to leave. I wanted to follow her into the shower and soap up her beautiful body. I wanted the warm water to wash over us as my cock slid in and out of her tight pussy. I wanted her to groan and scream my name.
Yet the gentleman in me prevailed. If she wanted to take a shower in peace, I was going to let her. “I apologize,” I said, “for getting carried away.”
She twirled a lock of her black hair around her finger, a habit that she had that I was already finding endearing. “You’re a funny guy,” she said, stepping into the shower. “I wonder if you try to fuck all your hostages.”
As she turned on the water, and I heard her singing lightly, her voice sweet and melodic, I felt stung. She was more than a hostage to me, much more.
I couldn’t tell her that, though.
Five
Bianca
As I stood under the shower, the hot water washing over me, I thought about the encounter with Lucca. On the one hand, I felt angry with him. Was he serious? He fucking had me kidnapped, yet he thought that I was going to fuck him? I shook my head, wondering what was in his brain. Did he just feel entitled to take me? Like I was property to him, just because he had me taken off the street?
Lucca: Azzarra Crime Family Book Two Page 3