Empress in Lingerie

by Penelope Sky

  “Yeah?” I asked. “I don’t want to do something you—”

  “Your mother will love the idea too. It’s perfect.”

  “Thanks…”

  He moved his hand to the center of my back and patted me gently. “I’m proud of you, tesoro. You’re going your own way in life. In my experience, successful people do that. They don’t follow the herd. They become a leader.”

  I gripped my glass and gave a slight nod. “I know where I get that from.”

  “You’re a Barsetti,” he said. “And Barsettis are powerful.”

  “I know. And I want you to know that I’ll pay you back for my education…eventually.”

  “Tesoro, I don’t want your money.”

  “I know, but I want to give it to you.”

  “You don’t owe me anything. What I want more than anything is to die knowing you’re taken care of. That when my spirit leaves this earth, my daughter has everything she needs. Money means nothing to me. You mean everything.”

  “Daddy…” I could never put this man in jeopardy, not when his whole life was directed toward taking care of Conway and me. He was the most selfless man I’d ever known. He would do anything for me, and I would do anything for him. “I love you.”

  He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead. “I love you too, tesoro.” He pulled away and dropped his hand. He took a drink of his wine, shaking off the affection because he wasn’t an emotional man. He only seemed to be that way with my brother and me, along with our mother. “So…are you seeing anyone?” He asked the question with dread, like he didn’t really want the answer. He never asked about my personal life before. But I was almost twenty-two, and he was probably wondering if I was close to finding a husband. I’d never had a boyfriend before, at least one that he met. Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of interactions with boys because my father, brother, and cousin scared them all away. But once I was an adult, my father backed off and stopped protecting me all the time.

  Bones popped into my mind, not because I was dating him, but because he was the man in my bed. He was also in my thoughts, constantly. He’d taken over my life, becoming the person I spent most of my time with. He wasn’t my boyfriend at all, simply my jailer. I was a prisoner, but the only reason it was bearable was because the sex was unbelievable. “No. Not right now.”

  My father drank his wine again, his long-sleeved black t-shirt gripping his muscles. Everyone else in the living room was talking to each other and laughter broke out from time to time. “If you meet a man you really like, I’d love to meet him.”

  I wasn’t sure why my father was mentioning this now. It was like he knew something but didn’t directly tell me.

  “I know I’ve never been very tolerant of men in your life. I was very protective. But you’re an adult woman now, and I don’t want you to be afraid to bring a man to the house…if you love him.” He didn’t make eye contact like he did before, obviously uncomfortable by the topic. And he made it clear he didn’t want to meet someone unless they could be my husband someday.

  “I’ve never been in love,” I said honestly.

  “You will…eventually. I didn’t fall in love until I met your mother, and I was almost thirty at the time.”

  “But Mom was a lot younger, right?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “She’s four years younger than I am.”

  “Well, if I ever meet the right guy, I’ll bring him around.”

  He drank his wine again, emptying his glass completely. “I want you to be with a strong man, Vanessa. He doesn’t have to be rich, but he needs to be powerful. He needs to protect you with his life and love you even more than I do. If he does those things…he’s welcome in this house. And I will shake his hand and gladly give you away when he asks my permission to marry you.”

  Bones popped into my head again. He was the last person who would ever ask permission. He was the last man I would ever marry. He was nothing but a man that I couldn’t shake. So why did I keep thinking about him? “You always taught me to protect myself.”

  “And I stand by that lesson.”

  “Well, I don’t need a man for that.”

  He stared at me with his authoritative gaze. “But I do, tesoro. I need that.”

  I might not live long enough to find Mr. Right. Now that Bones had cast a shadow over me, it destroyed my dating life. It destroyed my life altogether. The only way out of this situation was to kill him. “I actually wanted to ask you if you could give me a gun. After what happened with Knuckles—”

  “Of course. How about a Glock? They’re small and easy to handle.”

  “Yeah, that would be good.”

  “I’ll give it to you before you leave. You need me to go over it with you?”

  “No, I remember.”

  “Alright,” he said. “I can always move you into a different place. Give you some security detail.”

  “No, that won’t be necessary.” Actually, it was necessary for that not to happen.

  “Did something happen, tesoro? Are you worried about something in particular?”

  “No, not at all.” I tried to sound as convincing as possible. “I just realized it was stupid to not have a gun in the house. I thought I didn’t need one when Knuckles came in, but I probably could have killed him if I’d just had one. So, it’s something I should have.”

  “I agree.”

  I went to bed late that night. We kept eating and drinking, and before I knew it, it was two in the morning.

  I went into my childhood bedroom where my queen bed was waiting for me. It had a champagne pink duvet with fluffy pillows and a gray headboard. My furniture was gray too, the subtle colors contrasting against the Mediterranean-style windows.

  Conway and Sapphire went into his bedroom down the hall, and the rest of my family stayed in the guest bedrooms around the house. If we didn’t have a three-story place, it would be cramped.

  I stripped down to a t-shirt and my panties and got into bed. My phone was on the nightstand and I grabbed it, seeing the missed video call. It was a number I didn’t recognize.

  But I had a hunch about who it was from.

  I called the number back, the screen black as the call went through.

  Bones answered, his hard jaw still just as stern in the dark. He was in the bed I used to sleep in, shirtless and on his side. His broad shoulders were chiseled and powerful through the screen, and his blue eyes were still bright even when there was barely any light. “Hey, baby.”

  I lay on my side and propped my phone on a pillow, so I could look at the screen without holding it. “Why do you always call me that?”

  “Because you’re my baby.” His deep voice was raspy, like he’d been asleep when I called.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll let you go then. I just wondered whose number this was…”

  “Don’t play dumb.” He suddenly turned hostile, falling back into his usual stride. “You knew exactly who it was.”

  I did, and I didn’t pretend otherwise.

  “Enjoy your Christmas Eve?” he asked quietly.

  “Yeah, I did.” If he was sleeping in Lake Garda, then he obviously expected me to uphold my end of the deal. He was seven hours away, so he couldn’t do anything with that kind of distance. He really did have me pinned under his thumb. “What did you do?”

  “Went to the pub with the guys.”

  “Who are the guys?”

  “Max, Theron, and Shane.”

  “Do they know about me?”

  “Yes.” He stared at the screen with the same intensity as he did in real life. His black ink couldn’t hide his muscular frame under the designs. In fact, it only heightened it.

  “You didn’t take a woman home?” I didn’t know why I asked the question when I didn’t really care. The silence felt empty, and I felt obligated to say something.

  “Jealous?”

  “Just curious.”

  “No. But I wouldn�
��t bring her here anyway.”

  “And where would you take her?”

  “In the back of my truck. At a hotel. Against the wall of an alley…the bathroom. Wherever.”

  “That’s romantic…”

  “You know better than anyone that I’m not a romantic guy.”

  “And did you screw a woman in the bathroom tonight?”

  A slow grin crept into his lips. “You are jealous. You hate me, but you want me all to yourself. If it makes you feel any better, I feel exactly the same way. I get hard thinking about killing you, but I also want to carry your shit to the car and make sure you make it through the snow just fine. It’s stupid.”

  “Yes…it is stupid.”

  Minutes of silence passed, and we stared at each other through the screen. One hand was underneath my pillow while the other rested on my waistline. My body was covered with the shirt and the sheets, so he couldn’t see my bare skin.

  He broke the silence with his husky words. “So fucking beautiful.”

  I kept my face stoic, but my chest rose with the deep breath I took. We were hundreds of miles apart, but I could feel his presence in the room. I could feel his possession through his voice, feel the sincerity in his masculine tone. I could feel his lips on my body even though he wasn’t really there. I could feel his big hands brush against my skin before he gripped me. He claimed me without being in the room, claimed me from hundreds of miles away. That was the kind of power he had. “What’s your real name?”

  His expression didn’t change as he stared me down. “Bones is my name.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It’s my middle name—and it’s the name I go by.”

  “Tell me.”

  His crystal-blue eyes didn’t blink. “Why? Why does it matter?”

  “Because I want to know. I don’t want to call you by that name anymore. You call me baby. I want to call you something else.”

  “I don’t call you baby because I don’t like Vanessa. You have a beautiful name.”

  “Why won’t you tell me?” I countered.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Why won’t you tell me?” I repeated.

  He stared at me like he was considering it. Then he picked up the phone and held it to his face. “Good night, baby.” He hit the button and hung up on me.

  Christmas was wonderful, like always.

  We had great food, wine, and so many presents.

  I grabbed my wrapped-up painting and then gave it to my mom. “This is for both of you.”

  She smiled at my father before she ripped it open.

  Uncle Cane and Aunt Adelina sat next to the fire, his arm wrapped around her while they both held glasses of wine. Sapphire wore the new diamond necklace Conway gave her for Christmas. Carter was sitting with his maternal grandparents and his sister, Carmen. Lars was sitting in his favorite armchair by the fire, still strong despite his age and full of life. Everyone was quiet as they watched my parents open it.

  My mom ripped off the wrapping then stared at the painting. Several heartbeats passed, and all she did was look. My father stared at it with the same focus, looking at the group photo we took at the dining table last year. Lars was the one taking the picture, but I painted him in anyway.

  Mom’s eyes started to water. “Sweetheart…it’s…”

  “Beautiful,” my father finished. “Perfect.”

  “Amazing,” my mother added. “So much detail.”

  Mom looked at me next, her eyes filled with a thin film of moisture. “My baby girl…so talented.” She handed the picture to my father then extended her arms, beckoning me to her.

  I left the couch then moved into her lap, letting her circle her arms around me.

  She kissed me on the forehead twice and squeezed me. “Thank you so much, sweetheart.”

  My father wrapped his arms around both of us. “That was very nice, Tesoro.”

  “You’re welcome,” I whispered, surrounded by my family’s love.

  “You’re so talented,” my mother said. “We’re both very proud.”

  Maybe Bones was right. Maybe I really did have a special talent. Maybe I could create paintings that made people feel something. My parents were moved by that painting, just as much as he’d been moved.

  Silence passed for several minutes before my mother finally released me.

  Conway sighed. “I give them a grandchild, but Vanessa is still their favorite…”

  “Leave her alone,” Sapphire said. “That was really sweet.”

  “I got my dad that nice gun holster,” Conway argued.

  “Well, a gun holster isn’t as touching as a painting,” Uncle Cane said. “Vanessa’s gift kicks our asses.”

  Aunt Adelina swatted him on the knee. “Don’t talk like that.”

  “What?” Uncle Cane asked. “Everyone here is an adult—except the little one inside Sapphire.”

  My mother picked up the painting and carried it to the wall. There was already a picture there, something that had been hanging there since I was young. It was a painting of water lilies in a pond. She quickly removed it because it was the same size and replaced it with mine. “There…that’s perfect.”

  “What are you going to do with the old one?” Carter asked.

  Mom shrugged. “Throw it away. It’s trash compared to this.”

  “Uh,” Conway said. “That’s a Monet…”

  “Whatever,” Mom said. “Doesn’t compare to an original Barsetti.”

  9

  Bones

  I sat at my desk in front of the roaring fire, enjoying a large decanter of scotch while the snow fell outside. It was Christmas Day, and I spent all afternoon pretending it was just another day.

  But no amount of pretending could change reality.

  This was how I spent all my holidays—alone.

  Vanessa was with her family, drinking and having a merry time.

  I might be doing the same thing—if my parents were alive. If I had a chance to have siblings. Their happiness should be my happiness. I shouldn’t be nursing my regret with booze. Sometimes it made me so spiteful I wanted to go over there and kill them all.

  Including Vanessa.

  But I kept my distance and tried not to think about their joy.

  Vanessa kept asking what my real name was, but I didn’t see why it mattered. I was Bones, plain and simple. No one called me by any other name. My passports didn’t even have my real name either because I traveled under different aliases. It was easy to remain above the law when you weren’t really a person.

  The sun set, and the night deepened, but I stayed in my office.

  Thinking about my last Christmas with my mother.

  She went to work on Christmas Eve, picking up a client from the street. Money was tight that month, and we were being evicted. She had to find the money somewhere—and she wanted to get me a toy for Christmas.

  So she met a client that ended up killing her and leaving her in a dumpster.

  My mother never came home.

  It wasn’t until three days later that the landlord came for his money. He discovered me, called the cops, and that’s when they found her body in the dumpster. I was sent to the orphanage.

  No one could judge me for hating this stupid holiday.

  No one could judge me for hating Vanessa.

  I should just fucking kill her.

  Slit her throat and be done with it. I should put her body in a dumpster just the way my mother was tossed aside.

  But I knew I never would, no matter how angry I was. I was far too obsessed with her, far too infatuated with her. When she wasn’t with me, I thought about her. Now I counted down the days until she returned. When I fucked her, I didn’t think about the horrible shit in my life.

  I just felt good.

  She was like drugs and booze—but with a better high.

  My phone rang, and I immediately looked at it in the hope it was her. But it was Max. “Yeah?”

  “Caught you at a bad tim
e?”

  “It’s Christmas—so yes.”

  His past was just as dark as mine, so he didn’t question it. “I think I might have a lead on the guy who killed your mom.”

  I sat forward, my elbows moving to the desk. “Yeah?”

  “I think it may have been Joe Pedretti. My sources say he has a thing for prostitutes—and he kills a lot of them. He was in the area the night your mother died. I can’t confirm it with complete certainty, but there’s a good chance it was him. I’ll look into it more.”

  “That name sounds familiar.”

  “Yes…because he’s the leader of the Tyrants. They do business with the Russians, transferring weapons and drugs back and forth across Europe. I hate to say it, Bones, but he’s pretty untouchable.”

  “No one is untouchable—not for me.”

  “He’s got at least a hundred men working for him—all heavily trained. He’s got lots of money. He has a relationship with the cops just like you do. He’s not as big as the Italian mob or the Skull Kings, but he’s not a guy you should piss off.”

  “I don’t give a shit. If he killed her, he’ll pay for it.”

  “Let me confirm it before you do anything stupid, alright? And even if he did do it, you still shouldn’t do anything stupid. You’re only putting yourself at risk and the other guys on the line. Your mother is dead, plain and simple. She’s not coming back, the cops don’t care, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your mother wouldn’t want you to die for her when she’s already dead.”

  Everything he said made complete sense, but it didn’t change my mind. “She’s family, Max. I don’t care if she was just a prostitute. She was my mother and did the best she could to take care of me. Now I’ll take care of her.”

  He sighed over the phone. “Bones, maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”

  “No. I needed to know. You don’t have to be involved.”

  “I’m already involved. I’ve got your back—you’ve got mine.”

  Because we were blood brothers.

  “Just take some time to think about it. You’ll realize it’s pointless.” He hung up.

  I set the phone down and balled my hands into fists. Rage pounded in my temple and my heart. The man who screwed my mother and then slit her throat was walking free. I had to dump his body into a dumpster just the way he did for her. Little did he know, he picked the wrong woman to fuck with. Little did he know, her little boy would grow up to be the foulest monster in the world.