BOSS_Hard Deal

by Jolie Day

  When he joined her, she curled herself into his side and allowed his heartbeat to lull her to sleep.

  When she awoke, it was still very dark in the room and her face was just centimeters from Anthony’s; his hot breath washed over her sensitive lips, sending shivers down her spine and making her toes curl. Brooke couldn’t help but lean in to brush a soft kiss to his lips, praying that she wouldn’t startle him awake with the motion. To her delight, Anthony responded with enthusiasm and turned them over so that she was beneath him, his hands roaming over her body and setting Brooke’s entire being ablaze…

  Those same fingers were dipping under the hem of her shirt as Brooke pushed scrambled eggs around a pan and she jumped for a split second before she felt Anthony’s lips on her neck. Then, she grinned and leaned back, turning her head to press a kiss to his jaw, her hand automatically reaching out to turn down the heat on the eggs. She hummed as he continued to stroke her body and she could feel that he was getting hard against her backside, a deep, throaty laugh escaping her lips as she turned to wrap her arms around him and press a real kiss to his delicious lips.

  “Mm,” she sighed. “You have to stop.”

  “Why?” Anthony growled in return. “This feels so good.”

  “Because,” she argued, pressing another kiss to his lips, “I’m making breakfast.” Another kiss. “And I don’t want to burn down your beautiful apartment.” Another. “Or the lovely building that holds it.” One more and then she was shoving him away. “Go sit,” she demanded, feeling powerful. “I’ll bring you breakfast.” She turned back to the stove and felt Anthony’s sharp laugh against the back of her neck, before he swatted her softly on the ass.

  When he finally moved away, she turned the heat back up and continued cooking the eggs, before sliding them onto two plates, along with their bacon and toast. She made her way to the table with the two plates and was about to turn to the coffee machine, when she saw Anthony already pouring two cups. He added sugar and cream to one of them and kept the other one black, grinning back at her as he motioned for her to sit.

  Brooke rolled her eyes and allowed him to place the coffee down in front of her, accepting the kiss that tasted of French vanilla coffee with a smile on her lips that perfectly fit against his. Then he sat down in the seat across from her and raised his mug to clink against hers. Brooke giggled and raised hers as well.

  They were halfway through their meals when a thought suddenly came to Brooke’s mind.

  “How did you know where we were?” she asked.

  “The Bianchis haven’t changed their patterns very much in the last couple of decades,” Anthony retorted. “In fact, that was the same warehouse where your father—never mind.” He turned away from Brooke, taking a long sip from his coffee cup.

  She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward. “Where my father what?” she asked, in a measured tone. “Where my father was…paralyzed? We…was it in that room?” His silence spoke volumes and Brooke sat back in her chair, shaking her head. “Oh my god…” she sighed. She blinked down at her eggs for a few more moments, before peeking back up at him. “What exactly happened that night?” she asked, finally. “The night you saved my father?”

  “I don’t know if you want to hear about that…” he evaded, standing up with his half-empty plate and cup of coffee. He placed both in the sink and leaned against it as Brooke turned to look at his back, where she could clearly see the remnants of her own scratch marks across his shoulders and small of his back. She tilted her head and frowned.

  “Anthony,” she said, her voice soft and calm, “I’m a big girl. I can take it.”

  Anthony turned back to her, finding Brooke looking at him with a stubborn expression and he sighed, leaning back so that he was facing her. He took a long moment to gather his thoughts before he began to tell his story:

  *****

  Ten years earlier…

  The three men, who marched in as if they owned the place, very obviously did not belong. Well, at least two of them didn’t. Tony recognized O’Neil immediately; the cop that Carmine had been paying off since his rookie years. The other two were probably cops that thought they were getting the drop on the Bianchi family. He shook his head, subtly; these assholes were about to get themselves killed. O’Neil would probably go first, just for bringing anybody else in here.

  Or, maybe, that was the plan.

  Could Carmine have ordered a personal hit on the other two and O’Neil was just paying up. That must have meant that they were close to getting something on the family. Nobody had ever been this close, let alone a couple of cops who didn’t know the first thing about hiding a wire. Tony clocked at least three of CJ’s goons reaching for their belts, so subtly that the trained cops didn’t even bat an eye in their direction.

  They were obviously working without any backup.

  To avoid suspicion, Tony reached for his own gun, keeping one eye on Carmine and the other on his three sons, who were all exchanging looks with one another.

  The shit was about to hit the fan.

  Business carried on as usual, with Carmine discussing the week’s business in the shorthand that they all used, making sure that the three cops in the room couldn’t possibly understand—even if they were saying anything of value, which they weren’t. The codes he was using were nonsensical and everybody was just waiting for the code word before they would all pull out their guns and sink a couple hundred rounds into the three dummy cops, before fitting them with their new ‘shoes’.

  In his ten years on the Bianchi family payroll, Tony had never killed anybody. It was an impressive feat, to say the very least, considering his main job was intimidation, but he’d vowed that he’d never take a life, whether innocent or guilty. Despite his desperate need for money, Tony knew that he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he did. He’d rather have starved than have any kind of blood on his hands.

  So, when things went south, he was the first to draw his gun, but it wasn’t to fire any rounds. Instead, he used the butt of the gun to knock out one of Carmine’s men from behind, making his way quickly to one of the cops, who had his own gun out now and pointed at Carmine’s eldest boy. He got three rounds into the young man’s chest, causing him to fall and begin bleeding out on the cement floors. Tony felt the pang of grief as he watched one of the men he used to think of as his ‘brother’ die, before he realized that CJ had seen the same thing and now had his gun pointed at the back of the cop’s head.

  Tony’s eyes widened and he lunged toward the cop, shoving him to the side just as the gunshot rang out.

  He was too late. He watched in horror as the bullet tore through the cop’s spine and the man let out a roar of pain. Before Tony could check to see that he was okay, he heard the telltale sign of police sirens and cursed to himself, quickly locating a shaken CJ and shuffling his best friend out the back of the warehouse, where a car was waiting for them to make a quick getaway.

  As they sped away, Tony found himself hoping that the cop whose life he’d just saved would be the one to finally bring this organization down, once and for all.

  *****

  Present day…

  “A few days later, I found out that he had lived, but was paralyzed from the waist down. CJ had crippled him, but it was a far cry better than killing him.” Anthony sighed, looking down at his feet. “Still, I wish that I could have done more for your dad. He was only trying to do his job.”

  “And you helped him do that,” Brooke pointed out; “you left that file for him. You gave him all the information he needed to put Carmine away. For good. You’re just as much a hero as he is, Anthony.” She made her way toward him and lifted his chin so that he could look into her eyes. “After all,” she went on, “who knows how many lives you’ve saved just by giving my dad the information he needs to proceed with this investigation? Before you know it, Bianchi will be behind bars and we’ll be safe from any harm.”

  Anthony nodded in agreement. “You’re right
,” he relented. Brooke smiled. “I am a hero.” Her smile dropped and she shoved his shoulder as she began to move away from him. Before she could, Anthony wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a kiss to her lips, warm and full of all the words neither of them had said to each other yet.

  When he pulled away, Anthony was still smiling. “One more great thing about saving your father’s life that day,” he said, “is that it brought us together. And I could never regret that. No matter what.” Brooke smiled and pressed another peck to his lips, before moving out of the circle of Anthony’s arms and backing away from him. “Where are you going?” he asked, his fingers itching to touch her again.

  “I’m gonna take a shower,” Brooke informed him. “Or maybe soak in a bath.”

  “Mind if I join?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do mind,” Brooke retorted. “Because I cooked breakfast and now you can clean the dishes while I wash up. Besides, if you join me, I might never get clean.”

  “What’s the harm in that?” Anthony asked, teasingly. Brooke rolled her eyes and turned, making her way toward the bedroom, putting a little extra bounce in her step as she felt her lover’s eyes rest on her ass. She grinned to herself in triumph, winking at him over her shoulder as she entered the bedroom.

  And closed the door behind her.

  Anthony chuckled and shook his head, returning to the kitchen table to pick up the leftover dishes. He was just about to place them in the sink when there was a knock at the door.

  Reaching for a butcher’s knife, he crept toward the door, glancing through the peephole and then he let out a deep sigh of relief when he saw who it was. Anthony placed the knife into a drawer on the hall table and unlocked the door, giving his guest a big smile.

  “I was wondering when I would see you again,” he greeted.

  *****

  Brooke heard laughter as she stepped out into the hallway and made her way down the hall. She had slipped into a simple sweater and a pair of comfortable jeans, her bare feet being tickled by the soft carpeting as she followed the sounds all the way to the kitchen.

  She found Anthony sitting across from another man, who looked like a statue of David come to life. He was tall and chiseled and devastatingly handsome, with eyes that shot straight through her like an arrow. She found herself a little bit breathless as she greeted him.

  “Hello,” she said, coming up behind Anthony, who smiled up at her and placed his hand over hers on his shoulder. She grinned back at him, before offering her hand to the newcomer, politely. “My name is Brooke,” she introduced.

  “Aiden Carmichael,” the other man replied. “How do you do?”

  “Quite well, thank you.”

  “Tony, you didn’t tell me that your lady was a bombshell. Where’d you find her and where can I get a similar lady?” He winked at Brooke, who blushed profusely. Anthony laughed and shook his head.

  “I’m afraid there’s nobody in the world quite like Brooke,” he said. “She’s one of a kind.” The look he gave her said everything that his lips still hadn’t and Brooke felt her heart begin to pound against her chest. She took a deep breath and bit her lip, trying to communicate everything back to him with the simple gaze of her own emerald green eyes. Anthony pulled her down to sit in his lap and she felt exactly how happy he was to see and have her there. She tried not to blush too profusely.

  “Brooke, Aiden here is one of my investors. In fact, he’s one of the reasons I am where I am right now.”

  “One of the best investments I’ve ever made, I gotta say,” Aiden added, grinning cheekily. “Tony here has made me a fortune in the last year alone.”

  “Not that you didn’t already have a fortune,” Anthony added.

  “True,” Aiden admitted. “But now it’s even bigger. Hell, I could buy my own country to retire to, if I wanted.”

  “But you won’t.”

  “Well, you know me, Tony,” Aiden said, “I’m all for the thrill of the game. Even if I lost it all tomorrow, I’d still be going.”

  “Have you visited my casino yet?” Anthony asked. “Perhaps you should, being an investor and all. And if you happened to play a few games of high-risk blackjack…well, I’d very much appreciate your many investments.”

  “Ha, ha,” Aiden said. “Very funny, Tony. Investing and gambling are different and you know it. I make calculated risks when I invest in certain businesses and organizations. I don’t fritter my money away on a chance that I can’t precisely calculate in my head. In fact, the biggest risk I ever took was your casino and look where that got me.” He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned, while Anthony laughed.

  “I’m glad I could be of service to you, my friend. You deserve a little success after the crappy childhood we had.”

  “You two grew up together?” Brooke asked.

  Anthony nodded. “Same block. Childhood friends. It was him, me, and CJ Bianchi; the three musketeers. Of course, CJ and I went in one direction and Aiden went on to college to study advanced mathematics and get a degree in economics.”

  “I used what little money I could save up after college to invest in some stocks and bonds and before I knew it, I had a cool million bucks. Not bad for a kid of only twenty-five, huh? Especially since, I only went up from there. Now, thanks to people like Tony and their multi-million dollar businesses, I’ve long since entered billionaire status.”

  “Impressive,” Brooke said, with a nod.

  “Thank you, dear.” Aiden nodded at her gratefully. “I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”

  “I would expect nothing less,” Anthony said.

  “So,” Brooke asked, “what brings you to our neighborhood?”

  “Oh, just dropping by to talk to Tony about today’s headline.” Anthony reached for the paper that Brooke hadn’t even noticed lay on the table, flipping it over to the front page, which clearly showed Carmine and CJ Bianchi being led toward FBI vans, as well as a trail of goons behind them.

  The headline read: “Father and Son Mobsters Spend Quality Time in the Slammer”. The article was about some information that had just come to light about Carmine’s “Little Black Bank Account” and the list of names a mile-long of cops, lawyers, doctors, and more that had been in his pocket for the longest time.

  “Thankfully, Tessa’s not on the list,” Anthony commented and Brooke’s head snapped up.

  “Tessa?” she asked. “Why would she be on the list?”

  “Her mother had an affair with Carmine Bianchi; he’s her biological father,” Anthony explained. “She’s never really liked to talk about that kind of thing. In fact, if it was up to her, she would never have accepted a penny from him. Her real father—the man that raised her—died a few years back, leaving her and her mother with a mountain of bills to pay. So, since Carmine never gave her a dime, she decided that he should pay up.”

  “She’s been extorting Carmine Bianchi?” Brooke gasped. “Doesn’t she know how dangerous that is.”

  “It’s Tessa,” Anthony laughed. “Of course she does. But a Bianchi never hurts his own family, so she knew she’d be safe. He must have been paying her mother under the table, because I have never seen her name on any bank statements.”

  “But if she was getting money from Carmine, why was she working for you?”

  “Carmine only gave them enough to pay for rent and utilities. Food and heat was up to them to cover and her mother’s been in a home for the last two years with early onset dementia. Tessa’s all on her own.” Anthony shrugged. “So I gave her a job, the second my casino opened. Offered her more than she should probably be making and made her swear not to let Carmine or CJ know.”

  Brooke smiled lovingly down at her boyfriend. “You really are a saint, do you know that?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Aiden laughed. “Saint Anthony. That’s what all the old Italian grandmas used to call him when he’d help them take their laundry off the lines and save their cats from falling out of trees.”

&nbs
p; “Better than Aiden Einstein,” Anthony shot back, but both men were smiling and laughing.

  Aiden reached forward and patted Anthony’s hand. “It was good to see you, old friend,” he said. “I’m glad that you’re finally free from their clutches. You deserve all the happiness in the world.”

  “As do you, my Irish friend,” Anthony replied, but his smile was genuine. The two men stood and shook hands. “Don’t be a stranger, A,” Anthony said.

  “Same goes for you, T,” Aiden retorted. “And enjoy your lovely lady here. Treat her right or a certain billionaire might just feel the need to sweep her off her feet.” He winked at Brooke, who blushed, before making his way toward the door. “Have a good day, friends,” he called over his shoulder. “Be happy and enjoy your peace while you still can.”

  Before Brooke could ask what he meant by that, the door was closing and Anthony had taken her lips in a passionate kiss. All thought disappeared from her mind as she reciprocated, kissing him back with fervor and allowing the man to lead her back toward the bedroom, where they spent the rest of their day.

  *****

  Months later…

  “What’s that?” Brooke asked as she padded out into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was wearing another one of Anthony’s dress shirts. It was open, revealing her lacy underwear—not that either of them minded. Anthony was setting out plates filled with bountiful pastries and other breakfast delicacies. There was a wide grin on his face.

  “I ordered breakfast,” he said. “From the café downstairs, I got us some egg white omelets, danishes, croissants, muffins, crepes, fresh fruit…you name it and we’ve got it.”