Mafia Princess

by Bella J.

  More tears moved across my cheek. “Don’t hurt my brothers.” It was all I could think of saying. I didn’t care what Enzio did to me. I just wanted him to stay the hell away from my family.

  Enzio’s hand slipped in between my legs, fingertips brushing against my thigh. “Be a good little lamb, and no one will get hurt. Besides, we weren’t going to hurt your brothers. Well, Antonio, at least.”

  I narrowed my eyes, my heart lodged in my throat. “What are you saying?”

  He laughed. “You always think the worst, don’t you? We weren’t planning on killing Antonio. Just sending his ass to jail. A son in jail would be far more embarrassing than a son in a coffin.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a murderer in town, and your dear brother is currently the number one suspect. And once I’m done, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Antonio is indeed a coldblooded killer.” Enzio grinned and had a sinister look in his eye. Everything about him was screaming evil intent.

  My stomach turned as my mind spun in a million directions at once, trying to make sense of what was happening.

  The murder at Vertigo.

  My brothers being questioned.

  It was all Enzio’s doing. Jesus Christ, he was framing my brother…for murder.

  I sucked in a breath. “Enzio, no.”

  He leaned in, his vile breath slithering over my skin. “Oh, yes, Karina. But like I said, that was the plan. Framing someone is a delicate matter, and I ran out of patience. So I decided to leave the fate of your dear brother in your hands.”

  My skin burned as his fingers moved up my inner thigh. “Don’t fucking touch me!” I pressed my legs tightly together and squirmed trying to get away from him. But he forced them apart, fingertips brushing against my panties.

  “What do you want from me, Enzio?” My voice was nothing more than a shaky whisper, fear running rampant through every bone in my body.

  His slimy lips touched my collarbone. “Oh, I think you already know, little lamb.”

  More tears moved down my face as his tongue lapped against the skin of my shoulder. “You’ve always known. You were waiting for this day to come.”

  I whimpered, biting into my bottom lip when I felt him pull my panties to the side. I tasted blood on my tongue, and my stomach twisted with every vile stroke of his fingers. The last time he was this close to me, touching me there, I didn’t know I was about to have my heart ripped out. But this time I knew. I knew the darkness that possessed him, how evil and manipulative he was.

  Again, I tried to move, screaming for him to leave me alone, trying to push my legs together. But he was too strong, forcing my legs open and tightening his grip at the back of my head.

  “Please, Enzio!”

  “Oh, yes, Karina. Keep fighting me. It’s turning me the fuck on.” He pushed a finger inside me, and I cried out.

  “Please stop!”

  “Jesus. I can still feel his fucking cum inside your pussy. I’ll make sure to fuck every trace of that son of bitch out of you as well.” He forced a second finger into me, and I wept while his touch burned me from the inside out. “After all, as my wife, it would be very inappropriate for you to walk around with another man’s seed between your legs.”

  The blood in my veins froze, my heart a giant block of ice lodged in my chest. “What did you say?”

  He pulled his hand from between my legs, but my body remained rigid. With a grin on his face, he brought his finger up to his nose, inhaling deeply. I fought to keep myself from gagging at the sight.

  “You will marry me, Karina. You will give me what I’ve always wanted, and that’s you on your knees at my feet…every goddamn day for the rest of your life.”

  More chills wracked my body. I felt physically ill, the need to vomit almost uncontrollable.

  “I’ll do no such thing, Enzio. There is no way in hell you can make me marry you.”

  “Oh, I can.” He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket, flipped over the screen, and held it in front of my face.

  When the video started playing, I gasped and placed my hand in front of my mouth. I had to swallow back the bile that was pushing up my throat as I watched the video he and his father made of us that night at the beach house. The son of bitch was carrying it around on his phone? How sick and twisted could one individual be?

  “Wait, let me show you my favorite part.” He moved the cursor before pressing play, and I no longer felt my heart beat. All I felt was pain, panic, and so much betrayal.

  “Watch,” Enzio urged and pushed the screen closer to my face. I didn’t want to watch. I didn’t want to look at how I made the biggest mistake of my entire life. How my innocence was ripped away from me with one big lie and tons of deceit. But Enzio forced me to watch the video while tears streamed down my face.

  On the screen, Enzio was on top of me, thrusting forward. I literally felt everything I’d felt back then. I felt him moving between my legs, the sharp, stabbing pain when he first entered me. And then the pain slowly subsiding until finally…it felt good.

  I remembered how my mind drifted from one place to the other. How one second I felt unsure, wondering if I had what it took to make the man I loved then happy. If my body would satisfy him. And then the next moment, when my own body started to climb, reaching the pinnacle of something I thought was beautiful, all I could think about was how much I loved him. How much he loved me. And then…he tore my heart inside out. Ripped it into pieces of regret and pain. For a few moments, it was the best night of my life…until it wasn’t.

  Enzio tapped on the screen. “Look at your face, little lamb. Look at the pleasure plastered all over it.”

  I could barely see through the tears in my eyes.

  “Oh, Enzio…” I heard my own words through the recording. I knew it was me, my voice. It just didn’t sound like me. That person sounded happy, high on sex.

  “Karina, I love you,” Enzio said, which I believed with all my heart back then. But it was all a lie, a ruse so he could use me.

  “What’s happening?” I was so innocent back then, inexperienced, and when I felt my body climbing, I had no idea what was about to happen. Three words that best described me that night—vulnerable, clueless…and stupid.

  “Let go, Karina. Let your body guide you.”

  Then my scream of ecstasy echoed around the back of the car. I remembered that exact moment, the moment my body climaxed and pulsed around him. The moment he made me a woman, only to strip me of all my dignity two minutes later.

  Unable to watch anymore, I closed my eyes and cried, but Enzio jerked my head to the front.

  “Watch.”

  I bit my lip, tasting the metallic tang of more blood on my tongue as he forced me to continue watching how he pumped in and out of me…until his back finally arched as he came.

  “I wanted to fuck you without a condom that night. I really did.” Enzio’s voice sounded low, dark, like he was turned on by the thought.

  My heart broke all over again, the pain possessing my soul. It felt like every limb was being torn from my body, my chest crushed into pieces of despair.

  Enzio continued to watch, his eyes growing darker with lust. “I wanted to pulse my cum inside that sweet, tight cunt of yours. But we couldn’t risk having a Mancuso-Valenti bastard—yet.”

  Finally, he switched off his phone and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

  “So,” he continued, “you see, Karina, you will marry me. If you don’t, that little video makes its way to your dad and on to every goddamn social media outlet. You will be known as the Valenti slut whose pussy ended up on every mobile phone, every computer for perverts to jerk off to. Imagine the shame your father will feel walking down the streets, wondering if any of the unfamiliar faces surrounding him had seen his innocent little girl opening her pussy so she could get fucked.”

  That was the moment everything came crashing down. The moment everything i
nside me died. I couldn’t even fathom the idea of my father seeing this tape. It would kill him. It would tear my entire family apart.

  “Oh, and just in case that isn’t motivation enough,” he turned in his seat to face me, “if you don’t do exactly what I say, your big brother will find himself in jail quicker than you can say ‘I do.’”

  My stomach turned upside down, and I could no longer force myself to stay strong. I broke. For the second time in my life, I broke down in front of this man. In front of the devil himself, I turned into nothing but a pathetic woman who now had to atone for the worst mistake she had ever made. I was no longer weeping, but sobbing, crying so hard it felt like my body was about to snap in two.

  Enzio placed his thumb and forefinger on my chin, but I jerked my face out of his hold, unable to stand the coldness of his touch. I would rather be beaten within an inch of my life than experience this man’s touch again.

  He laughed. “You can fight me as much as you want, Karina. But you and I both know you will do anything to keep this tape hidden…including marrying me.”

  Chapter 21

  LORIK

  Not even the devil himself had the power to stop me from finding her, and if that meant facing her father and two brothers, then so fucking be it. They were the only people who could help me, since I didn’t even know where to start, or what to start with. All I knew was Karina was with Enzio, and something told me she was about to become the center point of the war that had been raging between the two families for years.

  I stopped in front of the security gates of their house with screeching tires and jumped out of my truck. I kept on pushing that goddamn buzzer, sure it was going to explode any second.

  “Easy on the buzzer, there.” A voice came through the intercom, and I wasn’t sure whether it was Dante or Antonio.

  “This is Detective…” I paused, thinking I was already approaching this wrong. “This is Lorik Stone, and I need to talk to you.”

  “You’re the detective who came to our restaurant today.”

  “Yeah, that’s me.”

  “What can we do for you, Detective?”

  Fuck. There’s no time for this. “Listen, Dante?” I took a chance at guessing.

  “Yeah.”

  “This is about your sister, so please just open the fucking gates so I can come in.”

  “Karina? Is she with you?”

  “Goddammit, Dante. We don’t have time.”

  “Where is Karina, Detective?”

  I roughed my hands through my hair, feeling like I could pull it out of my goddamn skull.

  “That’s why I’m here, for Christ’s sake.”

  There was a long pause, and the gates finally creaked open. I didn’t bother getting back into my truck and weaseled myself through the gates as soon as the gap was big enough. My feet were unable to carry me fast enough as I ran down the long-ass driveway. Seriously? Who the fuck needed such a long driveway? It was like having your own scenic route on your way out of your goddamn estate. By the time you’d reached the gates, you’d probably forgotten where the fuck you were going in the first place.

  I finally reached the house and didn’t bother admiring the huge building in front of me. I didn’t care that this house was one of the most immaculate, extravagant buildings in the city. I couldn’t care less about how the house represented some fucking Italian era.

  As I rushed up the stairs, Dante came storming out.

  “Where the fuck is my sister?”

  I hunched over and placed my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. “Enzio. He took her.”

  Dante leaped forward and grabbed me by the collar, his eyes shooting fiery daggers right at my forehead. “Where the fuck is she?”

  “I told you. Enzio took her. That’s why I’m here.”

  “What do you mean, he took her?”

  I jerked his hands away from my collar. “Just what I said. We were in front of my apartment, and he appeared out of fucking nowhere, shoved her into the back of a car, and left.”

  Dante stepped back. “What was she doing with you in front of your apartment?”

  I kept my eyes on him, knowing all too well I was about to fucking throw myself to the wolves. Yeah, I totally went there.

  “She was with me.”

  His dark eyebrows drew together. “Doing what?”

  Silence. The heaviest goddamn silence surrounded us, and the second Dante realized my not replying was actually his answer, he dropped the longest string of f-bombs I’d heard in a while.

  “Goddammit!” He crouched with his elbows on his knees, his fists clasped in front of his face.

  “Listen, Dante, I know this thing between your sister and me is complicated, but right now we have much more important shit to deal with, like where the fuck Enzio has taken her.”

  “Fuck!” He got back up and started pacing. “Did he say anything?”

  “Just that she belongs to him, and he already claimed her four years ago.”

  “And then he kidnapped her?”

  “Yes, well…no. I don’t know.”

  Dante stopped pacing and glared at me. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “She was scared of him. I could see it. But he whispered something to her, and after that, she told me she wanted to go with him, and then she did.”

  The front door opened, and Dante and I looked at the door when Antonio came out.

  “What the hell is going on here?” he demanded.

  Dante glanced at me then back at Antonio. “It’s Karina.”

  Antonio stiffened. “What about her?”

  “Enzio took her, and we have no idea where he’s taken her.”

  Antonio charged toward us with pure rage in his eyes. “What the fuck do you mean, he took her?”

  I stepped in next to Dante. “She was with me when it happened.”

  He turned his murderous glare to me. “And you let him?”

  “Not exactly. She went with him.”

  “Freely?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. But like I told your brother, he whispered something to her, and whatever he told her, it convinced her to go with him without a fight.”

  Antonio’s eyes went wide, his face pale. “Do you know what he told her?”

  “No, but whatever it was, it was enough to get her into the back of that car with him.”

  “Jesus Christ,” he muttered, and the expression on his face was like he just deciphered the entire Book of Revelation. He looked at Dante. “He’s blackmailing her.”

  Dante rubbed the back of his neck. “The tape?”

  Antonio nodded, and I was a second away from dishing out an ass beating if someone didn’t tell me what the fuck was going on.

  “Gentlemen, mobsters, or whatever the fuck you like to call yourselves. Mind enlightening me?”

  Two pairs of dark eyes glared my way. If I were any other man, I probably would have shrunk to a miniature of pathetic masculinity, but I wasn’t. I was a man who would turn this goddamn earth upside down to find her. I’d gladly take on the deepest pits of hell if it meant finding her as soon as fucking possible. But I saw the Valenti brothers hesitate. They didn’t trust me. But that was just too fucking bad. “Look, I don’t care if you’re hiding weapons of mass destruction in your goddamn back yard, but I will kick both your asses if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on and what tape you’re talking about…right fucking now!”

  Antonio took an intimidating step forward. “Why don’t you tell us why you’re so goddamn concerned about her?”

  I stepped closer to him, figuring if I had to punch him in the goddamn face to get my point across, I would do it. “Listen to me. Whatever is happening between me and your sister is none of your goddamn business. Now, either you help me find her, or I will do it myself.”

  An epic stare-off between two testosterone-laden alphas commenced. We glared at each other as if whoever was stronger would stare the other one to death by turning him
into fucking ash.

  “Okay.” Dante placed his hand on Antonio’s shoulder, urging him to back off. “We need to figure out what the hell Enzio’s deal is, and finding Karina is our number one priority right now. You two can kill each other later.” Dante turned toward me. “I think you need to come in and sit down.”

  Oh, fuck me sideways.

  ***

  KARINA

  A part of me always knew it was only a matter of time before my mistake would come back to haunt me. I’d had sleepless nights over what happened between me and Enzio four years ago. Crying myself to sleep became part of my nighttime routine for months after that night. Eventually, it got easier, or I just got better at suppressing the pain and compartmentalizing the memories. But now, after watching that tape, all the pain came rushing back as the memories resurfaced. The only difference was back then all my pain was directed at Enzio because of the way he hurt me, the way he broke my heart. Now my pain was consuming me because I knew it was my own damn fault for being here in the middle of this mess. It was because of a naïve mistake I’d made that I was currently staring at the man I hated most.

  “Something on your mind, little lamb?” He leaned back casually in his chair and unbuttoned his suit jacket.

  I glanced around the room. It still looked exactly as I remembered. Beige walls, white carpet, king sized bed covered with gold and chocolate-colored sheets. The only things missing from this picture were the hundreds of candles he lit that night, which at the time I thought was the most romantic gesture. But now I knew it was simply another brick he laid down while paving his road to my ultimate humiliation.

  I walked toward the window and stared outside. It was dark, but I knew somewhere in the distance was the ocean, waves crashing over a few rocks to the left, while water calmly covered the sand just a few feet away. Amazing how the ocean could seem so calm and beautiful on one side, and then if you looked just a little further, you’d see its anger, the violence and destruction as it slammed against the rocks, the sound thundering through the air.