His Betrayal: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Omerta Series Book 5)

by Roxy Sinclaire

  "You know, Clay, I'm disappointed in you," he said lazily.

  "And oh how it breaks my heart," Clay muttered, sounding sarcastic, walking into the room.

  Jacque acted like he hadn't spoken.

  "You used to be the best, you know? But you lost your nerve. That's what's been making you moody for a while now, right? I know you think I'm stupid, but that is your whole problem. Your ego is way too fucking big."

  "Sure you're not mistaking me for yourself?"

  "Oh, I'm positive. You surprised me, though, I will give you that. I thought you'd just drop the gun, have someone else do it. I knew you were going to chicken out. Eric and I were talking about it before we even left the house with Jimmy. I told him you wouldn’t do it, that's why he asked you particularly. He's a stickler for loyalty, as you know."

  "And what if I had?"

  "Ah, but see, I've been out with you a few times. You're good at killing, I've seen enough of your handy work to know, but see, you don’t make a very good killer. Ask me why." He answered his own question anyway. "Because you actually feel for your victims. Oh, not always, but I've seen you hesitate to carry out a plan a few times. Usually, there's a woman involved."

  He moved closer to me, and I wanted to take a step back.

  "Uh-uh, don’t even think about it," he said happily, waving his gun at me.

  He went around my back, pressing the gun to my temple as his other hand took my chin in a harsh grip. A sound I couldn’t hold back escaped my mouth as he tilted my face up, tugging on the muscles in my neck.

  "Aw, isn’t that cute. Look, Officer Foley, Clay doesn’t like me hurting you."

  I looked at Clay, seeing his expression had darkened in anger.

  "Why don’t you make some more noise, huh? It’s a pretty expression. I wanna see more of it."

  I didn’t do as he said, and I felt the gun pull away from me. I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain, but I still cried out when he hit me in the temple with the butt of the gun. It wasn’t a light hit, and his hand still held my face. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall.

  "Really, Clay, this cop slut? Eric's got plenty of women, if that's all you wanted, you could have had your pick. Hell, why not live dangerously and have maybe two, or three. I'll admit, the officer does look stunning, but I think she'd have looked better with her clothes ripped off and marked black and blue, and a little red; and not from a beating."

  He whispered that last bit against my neck, and I wanted to squirm away from his warm breath. I could feel tears sting my eyes again, and not because of the pain. Because I could imagine what he was thinking of. If he wanted me black and blue and red and he wasn’t going to beat me up, rough sex would do the trick. He was talking about rape. It was just another form of violence. I couldn’t stop my body starting to tremble, my chest heaving with panicked breaths, even as I managed to hold back the hysterical sobs wanting to get free.

  Oh, God. Please, no.

  I thought I heard Clay say something, but I didn’t catch the words.

  "Hey, Clay," I could hear that maniacal grin in his voice. "Think she wants it? She's acting awfully eager suddenly."

  I whimpered, making another unsuccessful attempt to move away.

  "Think I could make her squeal?" he laughed. "Or better yet, make this little pig oink. Wouldn’t that be funny?"

  "Why are you asking me?"

  "Oh, c'mon, Clay. I saw the two of you having your little fun on the dead man's car."

  I could feel horror curl in my chest, my stomach rolling.

  "I mean, it was just the two of you out there. The sound carried. I do admit I had binoculars on me so I could look out for your cop's meeting with our guy. Then who should suddenly appear but you? I let you leave, took note of your room, and watched you. Then when I noticed you coming back, I went into the room and waited. Thanks for leaving it open for me, by the way."

  I heard Clay curse, loud enough that I heard every creative word. Jacque just laughed harder.

  "Does she even know what you do for a living? How many people you've killed, until you had enough money that you decided you no longer wanted to be a dog like the rest of us. That's why you split, right? You can stomach killing so long as you need the money, but once you have enough, it’s the moral high ground, for you."

  His hand let go of my face, grabbed my arm. Was this guy just goading Clay into a fight, and I just happened to be stuck in the middle?

  Clay couldn’t possibly be thinking of it, but Jacque's body was tense, belying the relaxed tone of his voice. I could practically sense the excitement in him. He must have thought he could get Clay into a fight this time.

  Clay, don’t!

  I couldn’t get the words through my mouth, though. Jacque still held me, he also still had a gun that he was waving around a little too close to me.

  But Clay couldn’t fight with him. The last time had been bad enough, and he'd had some advantage. I was with him, and I had a gun on me. Even then, we'd only managed to put him down for a moment.

  But I could see Clay gearing to fight him. He was injured and hadn't slept for more than maybe a couple of hours if that. It showed. But I still saw him preparing to lunge forward. He didn’t seem to think the gun pointed at me would be aimed at him.

  "Boss wanted me to take extra special care of you, but how about I start with your lady, hmm?" He murmured the words, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "She is pretty, isn’t she? I can see why you fucked her. Maybe Eric would let me keep her once he's done with her. And once I was done with her, maybe I'd send her to stay with all my other girls."

  I let out a short scream of surprise as my body suddenly went flying. Jacque had tightened his grip on my arm and tossed me aside, I heard his gun clatter in the opposite direction as I hit the ground on my shoulder, hard.

  I scrambled into a sitting position, it took some wriggling, but I made it. I sat up, and wormed back, away from the fight. I glanced around, hoping to see the gun and give Clay some help.

  But then, something blunt came sliding across the floor to me. I glanced at the other two, but they didn’t seem to have noticed. I watched it as it slid to a stop. Then felt my eyes go wide as I realized what it was. My head shifted to the two fighting again, and I thought, in a short lag, Clay caught my eyes, before he was distracted again. He was doing a good job of keeping Jacque at bay, but I wasn’t sure how long he could manage it. I could see him slow, favoring his injured leg.

  I scrambled for the pocket knife, using my hands behind my back to tug out a blade, feel for the edges, and switch until I found something sharp. Then I worked on cutting the rag that tied my hands together. Cutting myself lose wasn’t an easy, or quick, process, and I looked longingly at the way I heard the gun get tossed.

  And then, I looked back to the fight, only to see Clay stumble under a blow to the head. I cursed silently, working the knife quicker, more desperate. And then Clay was going down, Jacque following, hands grabbing for Clay so he could hit him some more.

  I saw him pull back an arm for a punch, and I finally got my hands free. Instead of going for the gun, I got to my feet, holding the knife tightly in my hand, and tiptoed forward, sneaking up behind his back. I was surprised he didn’t notice, that was how focused he was on hurting Clay.

  I remembered what Clay had told me about the carotid artery, the general area of it. Under the right jaw, just slice there and go deep, and I would hit it.

  I hesitated for a minute as what I was contemplating suddenly hit me. This was a man I was thinking of killing. I knew I might have come to it in the light of duty, and I had been prepared for that, but this… I never thought it would happen like this.

  Even as I hesitated, not so far from him, he was still beating Clay up. After a harsh punch that made even me wince, Clay's eyes met mine. It was for maybe less than a second before they slid away. But I'd made up my mind.

  This wasn’t just about me. Killing a man would be terrif
ying, but I knew I needed to do it. Clay risked his own life coming after me, I couldn’t just let some psycho kill him. After previous run-ins with him, I knew just hurting him would only make him madder.

  All that felt like it took ages to come to a decision, though it was probably just a few seconds of quick thinking. I could see Jacque's arm pulling back for another hit. I would not let this one land. As his arm began to drop, I took a couple of quick steps to close the distance, and jammed the knife into Jacque's neck, just like Clay showed me.

  His body froze for a second, and before he could recover and turn back to me, I dug in deeper with the knife. I hit something, because I could feel blood, warm and slippery, dripping on my hand. I pulled the knife back out with a jerk, tossing it to the ground and taking some steps sideways. If he didn’t die, I was going to have to look for the gun.

  He stayed still, though. And then his body fell sideways.

  Having Her

  Clay

  I saw Lara sneak up to us with the knife in hand. Jacque never even noticed, entirely focused on beating me to a pulp. When she dug the knife into his neck, I rolled away to avoid the blood spatter.

  I watched as Lara pulled the knife out, and blood gushed out of the wound. His face looked stunned, and then he toppled sideways.

  I was seriously tempted to kick the body. I wanted to, anyway, but my dominant leg was the one hurt. I let the bastard get in far too many hits, and now I had even more bruises and aches to go with the gunshot wound.

  A glance at Lara's face made me curse. The bastard had no right to touch her. Eric wouldn’t have outright told him to mess with her, but I didn’t doubt he would have casually suggested it, and Jacque would have been all too eager to comply.

  I was way past pissed off; I was furious.

  "They all just need to fucking die."

  "Hey, now," Lara said, placating.

  I hadn't meant to say the words out loud, but I would not take them back. I licked around my cheek, felt where the inside had been cut by my teeth with one of his punches. I couldn’t spit the blood out—I didn’t want any of My DNA in this place—so I swallowed it with a grimace.

  I'd have to wipe down the door handle as we left. It was all I'd touched.

  "What, Lara? It's not a lie. The whole Randolph family needs to be put down, and I wouldn’t mind killing every member of that family. None of them are right in the head, anyway. Do you know that Eric Randolph's sweet little wife, victimized as she has been by the supposedly smarter public for being married to such a brute, helps him with some of his out of town operations? Or that she has a nephew not that much older than Jimmy who helps her?"

  "No, I… did not know that."

  "Because nobody knows. That is how good they are with the acting. Jimmy doesn't even bother, but people just think he's a brat, spoiled by his family."

  I could see the skepticism in her face, and I snorted.

  "Yeah, he's plenty childish, but he's more than just that. But the general, dumber public looks up to that family, and they are rich. Enough to buy police compliance if not protection."

  "But if someone really considered it—" she complained, but I raised a hand, cutting her off.

  "How long do you think it would take to get any concrete evidence? He makes sure all his t's are crossed, all the i's dotted. Ties up all loose ends, even if it means innocents must die. How many more people are hurt or dead before he is put behind bars? Him and the rest of his family? Because even with him gone, it's not like they will suddenly stop."

  Lara scrunched up her face in concentration. When she winced, a hand rising part way to her cheek, but pausing and dropping it back down, I wanted to kick the bastard's body again.

  She gingerly moved around the body, giving it a wide berth, coming over to me.

  "I don’t know about any of that, but what I do know, is that there will be no more wanton killing. Besides, you've said it yourself. He's insulated. If you go up against him, there is a possibility that you might die. I don’t want that."

  Her hand carefully touched my cheek. I wasn’t made of broken glass, though. I touched her hand, molded it to my cheek. There was a light ache, but if she didn’t mind touching me, I wasn’t about to say no.

  No one had ever cared if I ended up dead or not. Part of that was my fault, but even before, when my life was normal, no one had ever given a damn. So, I made sure I didn’t give a damn right back, pushing away all who tried to get close.

  I couldn’t make myself push Lara away, though.

  "We," she paused, a shiver worked its way up her body, and I thought her skin turned a little green. "We need to get out of here."

  She made an abortive move to turn around but then forced herself to stop. I scowled.

  "Don’t feel sorry for that piece of scum, Lara. Did you hear him mention his girls? When he doesn’t outright kill a woman when he's through with her, he sends her to one of his buddies who runs a prostitute ring. Only it's even worse than that. The clientele they serve is just as psychopathic as they are and they thrive on hurting people, violent sadistic bastards without an outlet. If they didn’t end up dead there, they ended up broken."

  She looked horrified. "How the hell does this kind of thing go on and no one thinks to stop it."

  "Because they are careful not to let people know. Are you beginning to understand just how bad all this is?"

  I wasn’t going to give her all the gory details, but she had to realize the kind of scum she was dealing with. I was sure Jacque was her first kill. I wasn’t going to let her regret doing it. He deserved a lot worse.

  "We just need to work to put him in jail next to his son. I will testify at Jimmy's court case, and I will make sure he is found guilty. If it can be tied back to Eric—"

  I sighed, feeling way too tired for this.

  "Even if that worked, think about it. He has connections. There is no way they can keep him in prison, Lara. What about the past twenty-four hours hasn’t gotten through to you? Look at what's already happened. The shit at the club, your partner, your friend who will be found, but none of it will be tied back to him. Every piece of evidence brought against him in a trial can only be circumstantial. You would only be painting a bigger target on your back."

  The situation was frustrating, the grandstanding between us only working to making us both even more frustrated. Lara stood still in front of me, her body radiating tension, and I had no intention of backing down, either.

  But… I was glad she was okay. I could feel the vise that had clamped in my chest when I realized she was gone, release in my relief. And she hadn't stopped touching me, even with that light frown on her face.

  Suddenly, I wanted us out of there. But not for the right reasons; I just wanted us alone so I could get my hands on her.

  I grabbed her hand, pulled it away from my face, and turned for the door, dragging her behind me. I stopped to wipe the handle with my T-shirt—I almost forgot—then dragged her all the way outside, avoiding the other dead bodies. I didn’t touch anything else, so I directed us to where I parked the car. When I was sure she wouldn’t end up seeing something I didn’t want her to, I hugged her body to mine, wrapping my arms around her, tight.

  But even that wasn’t enough for long. I pulled back, taking her face between my hands, careful of the bruised side, and I brought my mouth to hers. We were both going to have pretty faces tomorrow, but I didn’t give a damn just then.

  Lara kissed me back throwing her arms around me, holding her body tightly to mine. I answered her moan with a growl.

  "Fuck, Lara…" I didn’t finish, didn’t even know what I wanted to say; instead, I held her face, angling for a proper kiss.

  But we weren’t even close to the car yet. I pulled away, dragged her to where I'd parked the car. We had sex on the hood of that car the first time. The area I parked in was dark and secluded, and no one would be coming by, not for hours. It was perfect.

  I dragged her into the back seat after me, and we were tea
ring at each other's clothes. Cleaning the car out was going to be annoying after, and I was doing a stupid thing again, but I couldn’t make myself give a damn.

  I managed to get Lara mostly naked this time, though I lost patience with the bra and just pulled the cups down so they held her breasts up and out for me. I got my T-shirt off, undid my pants, and tugged her into my lap. I moaned as I first took one nipple into my mouth, then the other. One arm held her around the waist, even though with her hands clutching my back, there was no way she would fall. My free hand went between her legs. She was wet, ready, easily taking two of my fingers, moaning and riding them.

  Fuck. I moved my hand out of the way, held her by the hip, and dragged her down until her ass hit my thighs, taking me all the way in. I leaned my head back on the seat, closing my eyes and trying to get some measure of control or we would be done too fast. It had been too long, and I couldn’t seem to get enough of Lara.

  Lara didn’t wait for me, moving her body up and down in my lap, her inner muscles rippling around my cock. I cursed and held onto her hips, thrust up as she moved down, and we set up a quick rhythm that worked for the both of us. This position was another new one for me, and I realized quickly that I loved seeing Lara like that, her face twisting with pleasure, her body moving on top of mine.

  It drove me wild.

  We came together, Lara throwing her head back on a moan, and I leaned forward to tongue her nipples again, my chest rumbling in satisfaction as we both found release. Then she just fell on my chest, spent. We needed to get out of there, but there didn’t seem to be so much need for hurry.

  "I understand…"

  Her voice was so low, I thought I imagined it. But then she repeated it. I ran my fingers through her soft hair, taming some of the wildness.

  "What is it you understand?"

  "Why you want to kill them. I did, too, when he just shot Gabe with me right there. And I just killed a man. It's disturbing, but…. I don’t regret doing it. Or thinking about doing it some more."