Possessive Daddy: A Dark Romance

by B. B. Hamel

  Tony turned back to the other me. “You’re all idiots. I’m the future of this mafia, me. I’m the future!” Tony was ranting like a child, fuming and turning red. “I’m the one that will save this group! You need more men like me, men willing to do the dirty work, men—“

  Suddenly, a shadow dropped from the balcony and landed directly on top of Tony, smashing him into the ground.

  There was a stunned silence. Gates got to his feet and dragged Tony up with him, holding a knife to his throat. Nobody moved. Gates had a wicked smile on his face.

  “Who’s in charge?” he asked.

  The older man stepped forward. “That would be me.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Matteo,” he said. “Underboss of the Barone Familia.”

  “Matteo. I’m Gates, and you have my girl tied up to a chair.”

  Matteo glanced back at me then looked back to Gates. “You’re here for her?”

  “I’ll let you have this scumbag. Untie her, let us leave, and I won’t cut his throat.”

  Matteo shrugged. All of his men had guns trained on Gates. There were two left, three including Matteo. Tony wasn’t moving and I could see fear in his eyes.

  “Kill the boy. He’s a liability,” Matteo said.

  “And what about the General?” Gates asked him.

  Matteo raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “Your boy here murdered a four-star General today. He left a little girl orphaned.”

  Matteo’s eyes narrowed. “Tony. You did this?”

  Tony grunted. “He was helping them.”

  “Fucking Christ, boy.”

  “It was clean. The cops will never know.”

  Gates pressed his knife closed to Tony’s throat, drawing a small line of blood. “Shut up, shithead.” Gates looked back at Matteo. “I’m sure I can find some proof if I try hard. Plus, that girl probably saw something, definitely heard something, that could implicate your group. Now maybe you kill everyone here, but you won’t get to that girl.”

  “So what do you propose?” Matteo asks.

  “You let me and Piper go. You forget about everything. In exchange, I’ll make sure the girl never talks.”

  “Interesting,” Matteo says, stroking his chin.

  “This is a four-star General,” Gates said. “There will be a serious investigation. I can help steer it away.”

  “You have a deal,” Matteo said.

  “What?” Tony said, anger.

  “But there’s one more thing,” Matteo quickly added. “You must take care of that for me.” He waved his hand at Tony.

  “No,” Tony said.

  “Gladly,” Gates answered.

  Gates drew the knife along Tony’s throat, cutting it open. His blood gushed forward and he fell to the ground, choking.

  It didn’t take long. The blood came out, fast and thick, and Tony choked on it. His eyes were wide as he slowly passed out.

  Gates tossed away the knife. “Done,” he said.

  Matteo sighed. “I was hoping for something cleaner, but okay, fair enough.” He snapped his fingers and nodded at me. One of his men walked over and untied me.

  Gates held his gun ready. Matteo smiled at him.

  “Relax,” he said. “I don’t make deals without following through. You and the girl are safe so long as that murder never comes back to bother me. Understand?”

  “Understood,” he said.

  “Otherwise, we’ll find you. But I’m sure I don’t need to say that.”

  Gates nodded again.

  The goon finished untying me. I stood up, rubbing my wrists, and then ran to Gates.

  I threw my arms around him, crushing my body against his. I didn’t care that Tony was lying dead at our feet, the only thing I cared about was being close to Gates again.

  “Good luck,” Matteo said. He snapped his fingers then turned and left. His men went with him.

  I couldn’t believe it was over. Gates wrapped his arms around me and pressed me close to him. I breathed in his scent and felt shivers run down my spine. He really came back for me, really survived that fire. He managed to talk down a mafia boss and kill his guards. He saved my life again.

  “I love you,” he said.

  I blinked away the tears. “I love you too, Gates. I always have.”

  “I thought about you every day out there,” he whispered. “Every fucking day. I’ll never lose you, never leave you again. I’m done with the military.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  He pulled me away and then kissed me hard. I kissed him back, losing myself in the moment.

  This was what I really had been dreaming about. Maybe not the situation, but the man, the strength. Gates could do whatever he wanted with me and I’d always say yes because I was his. Gates came back for me, saved me, and I know he would do it again and again if I asked him to.

  “Come on,” he said finally, taking my hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We walked toward the door. I glanced back at Tony lying there on the floor.

  “What about him?” I asked.

  “Leave him. He’s not our problem anymore.”

  I nodded and we headed out. We walked back through some hallways and ended up out front of the warehouse. There was nobody else in sight.

  “Do you think it’s really over?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he said. “I do.”

  “Why would they just let us go like that?”

  “Because they know that the General’s murder is going to come under some serious scrutiny and they’re afraid.”

  “Can you really make sure nothing happens to them?”

  He nodded. “I’ll make damn sure they don’t find shit. I already avenged the General’s death. Now I just need to make sure you’ll stay safe.”

  I squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Gates.”

  He took my hips and kissed me again. “Let’s go home.”

  “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  We walked together and I knew it was done. I felt a huge amount of stress lift off my shoulders. Everything that had happened felt like a fake movie, but now that was over and done with. We were going to be together and nothing was going to get in the way.

  The night swallowed us, and for the first time I felt like I was really going home.

  Epilogue: Piper

  I could smell something burning in the other room. Ever since the events of three years ago, I was pretty jumpy when it came to fires. I wasn’t in the cabin when it started burning, but the image of Gates in there never left me.

  I stood up and sighed. I hit pause on the show I was watching and walked around the corner.

  “It’s okay!”

  I looked into the kitchen. Gates grinned back at me bashfully.

  “What happened?” I asked him.

  “I was trying to make you some grilled cheese for lunch,” he said. “Tyler got in the way of that, though.”

  I smiled. Tyler was strapped to Gates’s chest, hanging from his little baby Bjorn. He put his hands out toward me and made some noises. Sandy was sitting at the table, coloring furiously in her coloring book.

  “What did he do?”

  Gates shrugged. “Just the usual cute stuff. Wanted to play. I got a little distracted.” He motioned over at Sandy. “She was supposed to be watching the food, but she got distracted.”

  “Give me that baby,” I said, smiling. “And don’t let Sandy near the stove, you big goof.”

  “Take him. Please. I’m begging you.” He laughed.

  I laughed too and went over to Gates. I kissed him quickly on the lips then unstrapped Tyler from the Bjorn. I hefted him into my arms and he giggled. Gates walked over and sat down next to Sandy, looking over her coloring.

  Three years and we were safe. A lot happened in those three years, but I never forgot about that night at the warehouse, about what happened with Tony. Almost every night I thought about him, and I was happy he was dead.

  The m
ob never bothered us. Gates managed to pull some strings and get himself involved with the investigation into General Maron, but they never found anything that implicated the mob. Gates told me that they assumed it was a terrorist attack in retribution for the General’s work, but nobody could confirm that, either.

  Which was obvious, since it wasn’t true.

  Gates meanwhile only had to keep an eye on everything and never actively discouraged their alternative theories. But through his work on Maron’s case, he realized something important. Well, two important things.

  First, he wanted to join the Military Police. Because of his exemplary service with the SEALs, his application was fast-tracked, and soon Gates found himself behind a desk.

  He never actually said that he missed the field, but I knew he did. Sometimes I caught him standing outside in the back yard, staring out into the desert. We lived in Arizona, and our property backed up to a wide expanse of beautiful, pristine desert area. Neither of us ever wanted to live in Arizona, but the military stationed Gates there, and we weren’t about to complain.

  The desert grew on me. I liked how cold it got at night, and I liked how beautiful it was during the day. People imagined deserts as these places with no life, but that was completely wrong. Deserts were full of activity and life, from tiny mice on up to huge cacti.

  Life was easy in that house together, or at least it was until I got pregnant.

  Which leads me to the second thing Gates learned during his investigation.

  Sandy looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back. “How’s it going, sweetie?”

  “Good,” she said.

  “She’s very good at coloring,” Gates said.

  “I know. She’s an impressive girl.”

  Sandy beamed. She looked just like her father, General Maron.

  As soon as it was possible, Gates adopted Sandy. Nobody batted an eye when it happened, since Gates was already so protective of Maron’s orphaned daughter. I never thought I’d be taking care of a little girl, let alone a stranger, but I took to it pretty quickly. It helped that Sandy was such a nice girl, quiet and sweet, totally unlike her little baby brother.

  Tyler didn’t bring trouble. He just was trouble. Like his dad, Tyler was a handful from the beginning.

  And I loved it. I loved being busy. I had a good job, but when Tyler came along, I found that being a mother became my job. Not that I thought having a career was the wrong move, it just wasn’t what happened for me. Gates’s job kept him busy and supported us, and besides, I had Sandy to watch out for.

  At night, Gates would keep me warm in our bed. And during the day, Tyler and Sandy would keep me busy, busy, busy.

  And I loved it. I didn’t know that was what I wanted. I thought I wanted to read the weather on TV forever, and maybe I’d go back to meteorology. Maybe one day I’d figure out how to have it all.

  I sat down with Tyler and bounced him, making faces at him. I hit play on my show and leaned back on the couch, playing with Tyler and watching TV.

  This was the dream. This was my dream. It was more right than I could have ever imagined.

  Ten minutes later, Gates came into the room followed by Sandy. She had a cute little pink bow in her hair and she was wearing her favorite yellow dress. Gates had a sandwich on a plate which he put down on the coffee table in front of me. He sat down next to me and took Tyler, smiling. Sandy curled up on the other side of me, resting her head on my shoulder.

  “Second time’s a charm,” he said.

  I picked it up and took a bite. It was absolutely delicious. “What would I do without you?”

  “Starve,” he said, and laughed.

  “I helped!” Sandy said.

  “Of course, sweetie.” I kissed her forehead.

  “Not as much as I did, though.” He grinned at me.

  I kissed him and Tyler made a cooing laugh.

  This was my family. This was my world. I didn’t want anything more than this.

  Gates was never going to leave me again. I knew it was a hard decision, but he chose me over the military. I never imagined he’d make that decision, but I was incredibly grateful that he did.

  I couldn’t wait to spend every second of every day with my son and my daughter and my gorgeous husband. I couldn’t wait to grow my family.

  The horrors of the mafia chasing us down, the terror that Tony brought into my life, that was all gone. Gate swept it all away with his muscular, protective arms.

  I had a new life with my amazing man. That was all I really needed.

  I couldn’t stop smiling.

  Raging Hard: A Stepbrother SEAL Romance

  1

  Claire

  The bass made a booming thud in my ears, rhythmic and hypnotizing, as I leaned back in my plush-covered chair behind the VIP rope. I sipped my champagne, feeling totally out of place in the club despite everything being owned by my dad.

  “Oh my god, bitch, I love this,” Lydie said, practically screeching in my ear.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, girl! It’s hot as fuck.”

  I could agree with that one. It was hot as hell in the club considering it was jam-packed with people all writhing away to the music. Other than that, though, it wasn’t my scene. I wasn’t against partying or any of that, but I preferred something a little quieter, maybe a spot I could actually think and hear people when they spoke. Not this mass of drugged-up strangers all trying desperately to get in with each other.

  “See him?” Lydie cut into my thoughts, leaning over me. “That beefcake is totally checking me out.”

  She winked and waved at the guy, and he grinned back at her.

  “Ew. Are you joking?” I asked.

  “Hell no. Look at those muscles!”

  “Lydie, he’s like fifty.”

  “Thirty at most. And who cares, so long as he takes care of himself?”

  I laughed and eyed up the guy. He probably was in his mid-thirties and wore expensive-looking madras shorts and an expensive-looking white Oxford shirt with an expensive-looking watch, all of which I knew Lydie absolutely had noticed before she saw his muscles. He was tanned and preppy and good looking in a really conventional way, and I could totally see him doing Jaeger bombs with his bros or possibly killing a hooker by mistake. The longer I looked at him, the more sure I was that he had killed at least one hooker in his lifetime.

  The Outer Banks were full of guys like him, especially in the clubs and restaurants my dad owned. They were all the same, money managers and investment bankers and hedge-fund assholes all trying to get blackout drunk and impregnate the first thing they could find.

  Of course, once they got their rocks off, they disappeared the next morning. Which was fine, if you were into that. And Lydie was, or at least she pretended she was. Truthfully, I hadn’t seen her go home with very many guys at the end of the night. She was more bark than bite.

  Me though, I was totally disgusted by the whole thing. It felt like such a weird transaction; plus, I’d never met a guy I was into enough to want to risk getting choked to death or something by a psycho I’d just met. Those hedge-fund assholes cared more about coming on your back than they did about making you feel good.

  Not like I had a lot of experience, mind you, but I’d noticed a thing or two in my time.

  “Oh, and he has a friend,” Lydie said in a singsong voice in my ear.

  “No way, Lydie.”

  “Come on. They’re cute and clearly rich.”

  “Not my type. Not even close.”

  She made a face. “What is your type, anyway? Or do you just bang your calculator every night?”

  I laughed, shaking my head. It was the summer before our senior year and Lydie was always making fun of me for putting studying and classwork ahead of everything else. Especially ahead of sex.

  “Seriously, Claire, when are you going to put out? It’s more than time.”

  “I’ll ‘put out’ eventually. Just not with those guys.” I made a face at her choice
of words.

  “Come on! We have to pop that cherry before you end up a spinster.”

  “I don’t mind knitting, though.”

  “Oh sure, it’s all knitting and book groups until you die of a heart attack alone in your house and thirty cats eat your body.” She paused to sip her drink. “You do not want to be remembered as the dead cat lady.”

  “Gross. I don’t even like cats.”

  “It doesn’t matter; cats are attracted to virginity. You’ll end up with hundreds!”

  I laughed and shook my head as Lydie began to wave at the two prep school douches. They came over and Lydie got the bouncer to let them through into the VIP. I sighed, annoyed that she was already ruining our night, and took another sip of my champagne. I had looked forward to a night out with just her and me, but she clearly had other intentions when she had insisted we go to my dad’s club.

  “Claire,” Lydie said, “this is Mike. And I didn’t get this one’s name.” She giggled and jabbed a finger into the original guy’s chest.

  “I’m Tommy,” he said, smiling at me.

  “Oh, Tommy. Guys, this is Claire. I promise she’s more fun than she looks.”

  I rolled my eyes at her as Tommy held his hand out. I shook it, and he suddenly brought it up to his lips, kissing my knuckles.

  Shivers of disgust ran down my spine. He basically left a snail trail of saliva on my skin, totally violating my personal space. It was a harmless move, but it was totally gross and unasked for. He was the absolute opposite of charming. He radiated smarm and self-importance, and really he just made me more depressed than anything else.

  I wasn’t usually such a party pooper, but I was in a particularly bad mood. The truth was, I didn’t want to be back in the Outer Banks. I didn’t exactly get along with my insanely controlling father, let alone want to spend my summer with the upper-crust assholes he was always bringing around.

  But three nights ago, I got a call late in the afternoon. It turned out that Dad had eloped with his new girlfriend, this ex-model named Lucille. I didn’t know much about her, aside from the really basic things Dad had told me over the phone.