by B. B. Hamel
I had let a strange man come inside me with the intention of getting pregnant. I was going to have his baby. I wanted him, and was incredibly attracted to him, but this was still so much. To top it all off, part of the mafia wanted me.
I was screwed. There was no other way to look at it. I was screwed and I was going to be destroyed.
I stopped at the first door I found and swiped my card. The light turned green and I threw the door open.
My breath was nearly taken from my chest as I stepped inside the room.
It was humid and large. Plants surrounded me on all sides. It was a green room, or something like a green room. Actually, it was more like one of those jungle exhibits at the zoo, with real plants and towering flowers clustering close to the narrow path. For a second, I thought I had walked outside, but I could see the glass ceiling up above me.
I stepped into the room, my problems forgotten. I slowly walked inside, following along the path.
It was strangely quiet. When I had stepped inside, I’d expected to hear what you normally heard in a forested area: birds, small animals moving in the underbrush, the wind through the branches. But it was silent, like an empty room. I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually inside.
It was beautiful. It must have taken serious work to keep it as gorgeous as it was. I had no clue what its purpose was or why it was in the middle of a mafia mansion, but I was thankful for it. I felt like I was truly alone, and for a second I could catch my breath.
I continued along the path until it came to a small clearing in the plants. There was a bench to my right and a statue standing at one end of the clearing. I felt drawn toward that statue, and I walked over to it.
The woman was beautiful. Long hair, thick lips, a gorgeous face. Whoever had made the sculpture made her look almost life-like. Her clothes seemed so real that I reached out and touched them.
“That’s my mother, you know.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned around and stared at a younger version of the statue. She had long, dark hair and intense, dark eyes. She was beautiful.
“I’m sorry?” I said stupidly.
The girl nodded at the statue. Her face was completely calm. “That’s my mother, Condita.”
“Oh,” I said, glancing at the statue. “She was beautiful.”
“She was,” the girl agreed. I guessed she was around my age.
“I’m Cassidy,” I said.
“I know.”
“Uh, it’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m Louisa Barone. Still nice?”
I gaped at her for a second. This was the daughter of Arturo Barone. She was incredibly famous. I’d heard tons of rumors about her, mostly about how insane she was and how she never left her rooms. She seemed pretty normal to me, although a little weird, and she was definitely not in her room.
“It’s good to meet you, Louisa,” I said finally.
“This room is a shrine to her.” Louisa walked over to the statue and put her hand on her mother’s foot. “My father had it built when my mother died.”
“That’s really beautiful.”
“Not really. My father is a fucking asshole.”
I blinked. “Oh, uh, sorry.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t make him that way. Plus, he knows he’s an asshole; he just doesn’t care.” Louisa cocked her head at me. “Question is, what are you doing here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I was just wandering around. Is this room off limits?”
“Normally,” Louisa said. “But I cheated a little bit. I gave your key card full, unrestricted access to the mansion.”
That surprised me. I blinked, not really sure what to say. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I felt like it,” Louisa said. “I was bored and I heard you were coming.”
“So you just gave me access?”
“Sure. Thought it might be fun having a journalist wandering the halls of the mafia’s compound.” She gave me an eerie smile.
“Uh, I guess so. Wouldn’t your dad be pissed?”
“My dad is an asshole.” She took her hand off her mother’s foot. “And he doesn’t command me. Nobody does.”
“That must be nice.”
“It is nice.” She stepped toward me. I took a step back unconsciously. “I can give you that freedom too, Cassidy. Do you want to be free?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Everyone wants to be free.”
“I can give that to you. I have that power.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
I was beginning to feel incredibly uncomfortable. Louisa’s eyes were burning into mine with an intensity that bordered on the insane. I had the feeling that I should run away, but I didn’t know why. She wasn’t threatening me at all, but she was acting erratically. She made me feel uneasy.
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying.”
Louisa let out a short, sharp laugh. “Of course not. I’m not giving you the whole story. Mostly because I don’t want to. But believe me, Cassidy, I’m the only person in this whole mansion who has your best interests at heart.”
“Okay,” I said. “I think I should go now.”
“Goodbye, Cassidy.”
I smiled. “Bye.”
I turned and practically ran out of there.
Once I was back in the main hallway, I quickly started to retrace my steps, my head spinning.
What was with that girl? Why was she talking about my freedom and having my best interests at heart? I didn’t know her at all. I had never seen her before in my life. And yet she’d been acting like she somehow cared about me and wanted to save me.
It was downright disturbing.
As I walked, I realized that I was lost. I had to ask for directions twice before I finally made it back to my room.
My keycard could open any door. That was an interesting development. I didn’t know what Louisa was thinking when giving me that power, but I couldn’t exactly give it back.
I stood outside my room for a second and glanced around me. Any of the doors were mine to open. I could walk in on absolutely anything.
I was still a journalist after all. I could walk in on a huge story.
But no, that was stupid. I was here trying to save my own life, not trying to find another story. I took a deep breath and opened my door.
And then laughed at what I saw.
Sitting at the table, surrounded by trays of food, was Rafa. He grinned as I came in.
“Morning, beautiful,” he said.
I made a face. “Morning.” I shut the door behind me. “What’s all this?”
“Couldn’t decide what to eat, so I ordered it all.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “That’s crazy.”
“I assumed you’d help.”
I walked over and looked at the spread. There were eggs, bacon, pancakes, basically anything you could imagine. There were even little breakfast quiches lined up in a neat little row.
He took a big bite of pancakes. “I just wanted pancakes though,” he said.
“You’re nuts.”
“It’s free food. Who cares?”
I grabbed a plate and took some food. “What do they do with the extras?”
“I’m sure they donate it.”
“Really? The mob donates food?”
“We’re the mafia, not monsters.”
“Good point.” I sat down across from him and started eating.
I suddenly realized that I should tell him about my encounter with Louisa. But as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, I thought better of it.
I didn’t know why. It was just such a strange encounter. I didn’t want to worry Rafa more than he already was, and besides, she was harmless. She hadn’t meant anything by it.
As Rafa started to tell me a story about the time he watched a man try to eat two pounds’ worth of pancakes, I tried to put Louisa out of my mind. She wasn’t important.
Rafa was important. I could
n’t help but smile as he spoke, and I felt my stress slowly disappear.
20
Rafa
I knew she’d like the breakfast buffet.
Truth was, I had ordered it all for her. She was pregnant, and she needed to eat. She was eating for two people after all. I didn’t want to embarrass her, or look like a fucking sissy, so I’d made up that shit about wanting it all.
I smiled at her as we ate. I regaled her with stories from my mafia past, some of them pretty fucking funny, trying to keep things light.
But I could see the stress behind her expression. I knew this was taking its toll. It was a strange feeling, caring how someone else felt about what was happening around them. Normally I went through my days trying to get money and fucking over anyone who got in my way.
Now, though, I was responsible for helping her. Maybe not responsible, but she was in my charge. I had to protect her from Ernesto and his fucking thugs, and nobody else. For me, that was a strange feeling.
“And then what?” she asked.
“Well, the fucking idiot tried to jump over the fence, and ran straight into barbed wire.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. The dog just barked and barked, and he sat up on the fence, yelling for us to help him.”
“What did you do?”
“Laughed our asses off until the dog got bored and went away.”
She cracked up, leaning back in her chair, and I loved the look on her face. For a second it was almost like we were two normal people having breakfast together, doing normal fucking shit.
But of course we weren’t normal. I was as far from normal as a human being could get.
As I finished off my plate and Cassidy tucked into hers, there was a knock at the door. She stopped in her tracks, like a deer caught in headlights.
“Relax,” I said to her. “I got it.”
“Sure. I’m fine.”
I couldn’t help but notice that she was gripping her fork so hard that her knuckles were turning white, but I didn’t say anything. I got up and walked over to the door, opening it a crack.
“What?” I asked.
“Hey there, Rafa.”
It was fucking Ernesto.
“You dragged your own old ass down here. I’m impressed.”
“You’re staying nearby. I figured I should do this myself.”
“Good for you. What do you want?”
“I want to talk to the girl.”
“No.”
“Arturo’s orders.”
“Actually, that’s a fucking lie. I spoke to him this morning, and he didn’t say shit about that.”
I savored the sour look on his face. “Listen, you little jumped-up street rat. You’re shit, you know that?”
“Fuck off, Ernesto.”
“Talk to me like that again and you’ll start a war.”
I glared at him and wanted so badly to beat his old ass down. I wanted to kill him right there in the hallway, but I spotted a few of his goons standing nearby and thought better of it.
“Go away now,” I said.
“Let me in to see the girl.”
“You’re not coming in here.”
Ernesto smiled at me. “One day, you’re going to regret this decision. Don’t for a second think that I didn’t try to do this the nice way.”
“I prefer the hard way, you old sack of dicks.”
“Bye, Rafa, you stupid cunt.”
He turned and walked off. I smiled at his goons and then shut the door.
Cassidy was staring at me, her eyes locked on mine. I could see the fear in the way she held herself.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He’s gone.”
“That was the guy? Ernesto?”
“That was him. But he knows he can’t get to you here.”
“What if he decides to knock the door down and take me anyway?”
I laughed at her, grinning hugely. “I’d love it if he tried.”
“You can’t take on his whole gang.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll make them think twice about it.”
She sighed, putting her fork down. She crossed her arms. “What are we going to do, Rafa?”
“We’re going to finish eating, maybe take a walk around campus. I don’t know. We’ll fucking kill time.”
“Not today. I mean about this situation. We can’t just keep sitting around.”
“No,” I agreed, “we can’t.”
“Tell me you have a plan.”
“I have a plan.” I sat down across from her. “You won’t like it, though.”
“Tell me.”
“I spoke with Arturo this morning. He wants information, and he doesn’t care if you have it or not.”
“How does that help?”
“We know what we need to get you out of this. If we get Arturo some information, we can exchange that for your freedom.”
She was quiet for a second, chewing her lip and staring at the window. “We can’t,” she said finally.
“What are you talking about?”
“We can’t help them, Rafa. We can’t do that to the Spiders.”
“Fuck the Spiders. I don’t give a fuck about them.”
“I do. I care about them, and I care about the women in this city.”
I sighed. “Cassidy, we can’t help anyone if we’re dead.”
“True, but we’re not worth anything compared to the Spiders.”
“The Spiders are my fucking enemy.”
“Are they?” She stood up. “I’m not so sure. You’re not involved in human trafficking, are you?”
“No,” he said, “I’m not.”
“Then they aren’t your enemy.”
“The mafia is my fucking family. I may not agree with everything, but I’m loyal. I don’t go against my family.”
“Your family is wrong, and you know it.” She paced toward the living room. “I can’t give them up.”
“We don’t need to give them up. We just need something.”
She sighed, shaking her head. I got up and moved toward her.
“I don’t even know how to contact them.”
“You contacted them before. You can do it again.”
She bit her lip. “They messaged me.”
I paused. “When?”
“Recently.” She looked at me. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“I suspected it.”
“They offered me protection. I turned them down.”
I nodded, not surprised. The Spiders would definitely want to protect someone like her.
What surprised me was that she had chosen me over them. She seemed to think that the Spiders were good guys and that my people were all bad. She didn’t really know the Spiders, and yet she still had chosen me.
Maybe she realized that I was the only person who gave a fuck about her in all this. The Spiders would probably ship her off to China and hide her in some fucking rat’s nest. They didn’t give a fuck about her.
“If we can contact them again, maybe we can explain. They can give us something.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“We tell the Spiders what we need. They feed us information. We give it to my bosses.”
“Wouldn’t that be lying?”
“Who the fuck cares? The Spiders could lie, or they could give us something real. Either way, we need something.”
She stared at me. “Why are you doing all of this?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “You’re carrying my baby.”
“Maybe, but I wasn’t before.”
“True.” I walked over to her, getting closer. She took a step back. “Maybe I’m tired of all the violence for no reason. Maybe I want a reason.”
“Why am I your reason?”
“You know why.”
“Because you want to sleep with me.”
“That’s a big part of it.” I got closer to her, inches away. I took her by the small of her back and
pulled her roughly against me.
“You just want to keep fucking me.”
“You’re damn right I do,” I whispered in her ear.
And then I kissed her hard. She kissed me back, our lips moving together as my hands held her against my body.
Desire erupted through my skin. Everything disappeared except for Cassidy and her perfect body pressed against mine. I could feel my cock getting harder and harder as we kissed.
Slowly, she pulled back and looked at me. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“Trust me. You’re right. The Spiders aren’t my personal enemy. If we do this right, we don’t have to fuck them over.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll trust you.”
“Good.” I went to kiss her again, but she squirmed her way out of my grip.
“Let me get my laptop from my bag,” she said.
“We can do that later.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “Let’s do it now before I change my mind.”
She disappeared into the bedroom and I was left there with a hard dick and some serious frustration.
Which I fucking loved. I could handle a little teasing.
Mostly because I knew I was going to get what I wanted in the end.
21
Cassidy
I slowly got my laptop from my bag, willing myself to calm down. My pussy was soaking wet and I was breathing deeply. I wanted to go out there and get down on my knees until he gave me exactly what I wanted.
Instead, I had to get myself under control. Things were getting difficult, and I couldn’t let myself get too distracted.
I didn’t want to destroy the Spiders. Rafa clearly didn’t care either way. He seemed mostly motivated by keeping me alive and getting in my panties, which I definitely wasn’t complaining about.
I trusted him the most of anyone. I couldn’t explain it, but I was drawn to him. Even though the Spiders were doing good work in the city and he worked for violent thugs, I knew Rafa cared about me. Underneath all that bravado and swagger, he definitely cared.
Why else risk so much for someone? He had to care. I had to believe that.