by Ella Miles
Matteo smiles, too, as he walks to his dresser to get the supplies he needs to stitch me up. She has both of us under her spell. She could get either of us to do practically anything she wanted. If only she understood what was really at stake. That this is much bigger than her.
I take off my bloodied shirt, tossing it to the floor of the kitchen, as I take a seat on one of the backless barstools at the counter. Nina stares at me the whole time with wide eyes that I’m even still standing and not about to pass out on the floor from blood loss. The wound isn’t good, and it hurts every time I breathe, but it is far from lethal. It’s worse than the graze that Nina caused in my shoulder, but it’s nothing compared to what Nina went through with my father. She could have died. I’m merely in a lot of pain.
Matteo returns with a box of supplies and sets them on the counter next to me. I can tell he’s still concerned about my wound from the grimace he has on his face every time he looks at me, but he’s trying to act like it’s no big deal. Matteo starts pulling out the different equipment.
“Are you sure he doesn’t need to see a doctor?” Nina asks Matteo as she stares at my deep wound.
Matteo opens his mouth to answer, but I don’t want them to join sides and gang up on me. I’m not going to a doctor. I never have and never will.
“I don’t need to see a doctor. Matteo is the best. He did a good job of taking care of you, didn’t he?”
Nina nods.
“He has always been the best when it comes to medical care. He would have been a doctor if it wasn’t for being born into this messed up family.”
“You weren’t allowed to become a doctor? Why?”
Matteo brushes off her question. “I can teach you how to stitch him up. It is a good skill to learn. We could use more than one person in this family who knows the basics about medical care for as often as someone gets shot around here.”
Nina’s eyes narrow as she looks back and forth between us, obviously wanting more answers but too concerned with my wound to distract either of us by asking them. “What if I mess up?”
Matteo laughs. “Then, you get to cause my brother here a little more pain. But, since you hate him as much as you hate me, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Nina smiles a little at that while I give my brother an I’ll-kill-you look because my jealousy is going crazy right now. It makes no sense. I have no claim to Nina any more than he does. He helped me save her. She’s never been mine. But, still, my jealousy rages inside like a fire I will never be free of.
Matteo starts cleaning my wound while I memorize every freckle, every look, and every scar on Nina’s face.
“First, you want to make sure the wound is clean of debris before you stitch it up.”
Matteo pours cold, sterile liquid onto the wound, making me wince at the sudden sting.
“Shouldn’t you give him pain medicine first?” Nina asks.
Matteo chuckles. “Do you want me to give you pain medicine?”
He cocks his head to the side with a sly grin because he already knows my answer. I’ve said it countless times before.
“No.”
“My dear brother is a bit of a martyr. He thinks he deserves every bullet he takes and deserves to feel the pain. That it is the only way he will care enough to stop the bullets in the future. I vehemently disagree with him. Not even you, dickhead, deserve to feel this kind of pain,” Matteo jokes as he starts pulling debris out of the wound.
I growl when he does. This is the worst fucking part, and he’s intentionally making it worse to prove a point. He thinks he’s stronger because he knows his limits when it comes to pain. I think I’m stronger because I can take any amount of pain.
He hands the tweezers to Nina. “Your turn. Dig around and see if you can get anything else out.”
Nina takes the tweezers from him but hesitates.
“Go on. I know you want to hurt me for stealing you and fucking you. Now is your chance for a little payback.”
She places her left hand on my stomach, holding the wound open, as her big brown eyes stare into mine. I don’t know what she is feeling. She’s closed off whatever it is to me. But, when she digs the tweezers into my wound, I know.
I growl loudly at the sharp pain that feels like being shot over and over again in the stomach.
“Does that hurt?” she asks sassily even though she already knows the answer from the growls leaving my body and the stinging tears in my eyes. “Good. Now, you know how I felt when you fucked me even though it was for my own good. It still hurt like hell.” She pulls the tweezers out along with a small piece of the bullet. “I think I got everything,” she says.
Matteo studies my wound with a smirk on his face, happy that Nina is just as pissed off at me as she is with him. He takes the supplies he needs out of the box and moves to my back where he begins stitching.
He’s done this countless times, and he knows just how to move the needle so that I can barely feel the sting as he pushes it through my body. The sting of a Novocain shot would be worse than his stitches.
Nina closely studies him as he shows her how to stitch up a wound. I can’t see either of them, and Nina doesn’t say anything as she watches Matteo. It leaves me alone with no distraction.
I try to distract myself by counting the wine glasses hanging beneath the cabinet, but it’s not enough to keep me here.
I feel the adrenaline rush through my body as I’m brought back to earlier tonight. To the bullets whizzing by. Our men dropping as they were hit by bullets. Loyal men who would do anything for us. Men with wives and children dying, all to keep me and Matteo safe. I see the five men I killed. I see every single one of their faces. The terror right before they died. I feel their anger and their fear. Even the last guy who was about to put a bullet in Matteo’s heart. I shot him without a second thought at the time. I would do anything for my brother. But, every time I kill, it makes me want it more. It turns me into more of a monster. Even though I feel their pain, I want more of it. I like the control, the power.
“Arlo?” Nina says, standing in front of me.
I open my eyes that I didn’t even realize I had closed and look at the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. A woman who is strong and defiant. The only woman I’ve ever met who has a chance at actually surviving. Maybe she can put an end to this. Finally.
“I need you to sit up straight so that I can stitch up your wound on your stomach.”
I sit up so that Nina has better access to my wound. She pierces my skin with the needle, and I feel it. I don’t groan or growl or even grimace. I welcome the pain because it keeps me here instead of with the pain of earlier tonight.
She moves slowly with unpracticed fingers, allowing me to feel every pierce and pull of the skin as she closes my wound. After every stitch, she pauses and looks at me.
“Maybe you should finish, Matteo. I think he’s suffered enough.”
She begins to hand the needle to Matteo, but I grab her wrist.
“No. I need you to finish.”
She blinks a couple of times as she considers my command and then does as I wish. Every time her hand brushes against my skin, I grow hard, thinking about her naked body. About how strong she feels beneath me. How much she enjoys me in control, even when she says she doesn’t. She loves being tied up and fucked hard.
When she finally finishes, she takes a step back to look at her work. “How is that?”
I don’t look down to see how good of a job she did. I can’t think of anything other than her. And, if I do try to think about something other than her, it’s going to lead to a dark path that I can’t go down.
“I want to fuck you,” I say.
Nina chuckles a little as she puts the needle and thread back into the box. “You’re funny.”
“I’m not joking. I’ve never wanted anything more than to fuck you right now.”
Nina looks at Matteo. “As I said before, I’m not fucking either of you.”
My heart pounds in my
chest, and my cock hardens at just the thought of taking her right now. Tying her up and fucking her even though she said no. I would win. I could have her and everything I’d ever wanted.
I stand up like I’m about to do just that.
“No,” Nina says without a drop of fear.
I stop. I can’t help but do what she says, and she knows it.
She doesn’t smile snarkily, like she should now that she controls me. Her face is sad. She wants to be controlled. It’s the only way to keep her obsessions at bay.
“I want to know what the fuck is going on. What games are you playing? What really happened that night that made me sign my life away to your family? What do you really do for a living? I need answers to everything. Now.”
“You won’t get answers from me. You don’t need answers. All you need to focus on is surviving so that you don’t get hurt again,” I say, staring at the scars and bruises still visible all over her body. A few I’m sure I caused myself when I raped her.
Nina crosses her arms as she glares at Matteo, like one look is going to be enough to get him to talk. But, when I look at Matteo and the softness in his eyes when he stares at Nina, I’m afraid that’s all it will take. Even though it would ruin everything and put Nina at risk even more than she already is. Something that I know Matteo doesn’t want. I’m not sure he can resist her charms anymore. Not after taking care of her this last week.
“I’ll answer your questions. My brother will, too.”
I glare at him. I’m going to kill him if he tells her anything that ends up hurting her.
“We will answer one question for every time you have sex with one of us.”
I grin. Most of the time, I hate my brother. But I’ll owe him the rest of my life for coming up with this idea.
24
Matteo
I don’t know nearly enough about Nina, but I do know one thing for sure. She likes sex just as much as I do. But the only way she will give it to me or my brother is on her own terms.
“No,” she says, but it’s a weak no. It’s the kind of no you say so that people know you aren’t so easily swayed.
I grin. “Fine. I won’t try to change your mind. I have plenty of other women who will gladly fuck me.” I circle her, enjoying how crazy I’m making her. “You might want to sleep in your own room tonight though. The women can get pretty loud when I fuck them, and I wouldn’t want you to have to deal with that.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “If that were true, you would have had women over every night this last week, but you didn’t. You didn’t because you want me, not some other woman. Admit it.”
I shrug. “I wanted you, but you’re not really worth all of this. I’ll just wait until my father breaks you, and then you’ll be begging me to fuck you instead of him.”
She slaps me hard on the cheek. “Stop acting like you don’t give a shit when I know you do. Both of you.”
Arlo just looks at her like she is a queen. She might be a queen that my brother will do anything for, but she doesn’t have quite the same power over me. She doesn’t have me under her spell as much as she thinks she does.
“You’re wrong, sweetheart. I couldn’t care less about you.”
“Fine, you don’t care about me. Arlo does.”
She walks over toward him, swaying her hips as she does. Her ass peeks out just beneath the hem of my shirt that she is wearing. She’s testing me. And I’m about to fail.
When she gets to Arlo, she softly, tenderly kisses him on the cheek. And then his neck. His chest. Down his stomach, carefully kissing his wound as she kneels.
I see it in his eyes. He’s about to give in and give her anything she wants. He’s usually one of the strongest men I know. But not when it comes to Nina.
I understand. I’ve quickly come to care about her much more than I would ever like to admit to her. But he can’t break.
“Fine, you win. I don’t want to fuck anyone else but you tonight,” I say. It’s not a lie. It’s the fucking truth. The whole time I was supposed to be focused on not getting shot and killed, all I could think about was Nina tied up in my bed and how much I wished I had fucked her before I left.
She keeps kissing him. She didn’t even hear me; she’s so lost in him as he tangles his hand in her hair, the other pulling at my shirt that she’s wearing.
I grab her arm, trying to pull her away from him, but Arlo firmly holds her in place. We are fighting over her like we used to fight over our Hot Wheels cars when we were kids.
Nina smirks and stands up, pulling her arms away from both of us. “That’s what I thought. You both want me.” She crosses her arm. “So, who will give me the better deal? I’ll fuck one of you if you answer all of my questions tonight.”
Arlo looks at me, and I can already read his thoughts. He thinks I’m going to be the one who gives in to her. But I’m not the one to be worried about. It’s clear she has him wrapped around her finger, willing to do anything for her.
“No. The deal is one question for one fuck. I can’t give you more than that. And don’t act like you won’t enjoy getting every answer out of me.”
She sighs but doesn’t argue with him. She knows that anything she says isn’t going to be true. Her cheeks are already flushed from her just thinking about fucking him. She wants him just as much as he wants her.
“What about you Matteo? I won’t fuck Arlo ever again. Just you. We can fuck all night long and the rest of the time I’m here if you answer all of my questions. Tonight.”
I look over at my saint of a brother. To most people, he is anything but a saint. But that’s exactly what he is. He’s the responsible one in the family. He’s literally taken a bullet for me on more than one occasion. Here’s my chance to fuck him over. I could steal the girl he cares about. Make him suffer. Take everything he’s spent his whole life fighting for.
“One fuck a day for one question a day. That’s my final offer.”
Nina pouts, but she knows it will do her no good.
“What do you say?”
Nina looks back and forth between us. “So, the most I can get is one question a day answered?”
I nod.
She looks at me, and then she looks at Arlo. “What if I fuck you both? At the same time? Do I get two questions then?”
I was expecting her to give in to my demands. I was expecting her to fuck whoever she thought she could get more answers out of that day. Or whoever pissed her off less. I wasn’t expecting her to say she wanted us both.
25
Nina
I don’t know why I said that.
I’ve never been with two men before in the same night.
And definitely not at the same time.
But I’m desperate.
For answers. And, as much as I don’t want to admit it, for mind-blowing sex.
Sex with Arlo has been the best of my life. Even when he fucked me against my will.
Sex with Matteo would be just as amazing.
Sex with both of them? I can’t even imagine how I would ever recover from that.
Arlo answers first, “No, I won’t share you. You fuck me or him tonight. Tomorrow, you can change your mind and fuck the other. But not tonight. Tonight, you are either mine or his.” When he says mine, I know that’s what he wants. He wants me to be his tonight.
I want to be his. But I also want Matteo.
How the hell did I go from hating them both to wanting them both? I think my hormones have just gone crazy after I was turned on and then tied to a bed all night long.
Matteo laughs as he always does. Never taking anything too seriously. “No. We have never been very good at the whole sharing thing. You have to choose.”
I look back and forth at each man who both look like they are ready to devour me and kill each other. It suddenly hits me as I’m standing here, being forced to choose between two men, that I both hate and want them at the same time. I don’t know why I never realized that before.
“You’re bo
th lying. You’ve shared a woman before.”
Matteo laughs.
“You’re right. We’ve shared women who don’t matter to us. We’ve never shared a woman we both actually want,” Arlo says. He always tells me the truth.
So, I look Arlo dead in the eye when I say, “You’ve shared me before.”
Arlo looks at me and then at Matteo. “You fucked her the night I brought her to you? The night she almost died!” His rage is more than I’ve ever seen before. His body instantly turns red, every vein pops out on his body, and his nostrils flare.
I know he was just shot, but right now, if they decide to fight, I’d put my money on Arlo.
Arlo does get a punch in before Matteo can tell him the truth. Right to the eyeball. I watch as blood pours from Matteo’s eye and Arlo’s wound. Maybe, if they kill each other, I will be free of my debt.
“I didn’t fuck her, man. Other than a few kisses and tasting her pussy, I haven’t touched her,” Matteo says, clearly not willing to fight his brother right now.
Arlo stops his fist midair, his breathing fast and heavy, not willing to fully back down.
Matteo turns to me. “Have I fucked you?”
“Yes, you both fucked me. After you saved me. You both fucked me the night in the dungeon. You were each there, and you each had your turn. You look so alike. But, after knowing each of you, I know you each had your turn with me that night,” I say testing them to see if my hunch is correct. I don’t have any evidence or reason why to guess that they both fucked me that night. Just a gut instinct.
They look at each other and then at me.
“I didn’t fuck you that night. I wish I had, but Arlo wouldn’t let me anywhere near you,” Matteo says.
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
Matteo turns to Arlo.
“I don’t think he fucked you that night. He didn’t when I was there at least. So, unless he went after you and fucked you after you ran…” Arlo looks to Matteo to answer him.
Matteo puts his hand up. “I didn’t fuck her. You’re the only one who fucked her against her will. All I ever did was kiss her when she thought I was you after art class.”