by J. L. Beck
He drags me into him and then turns me to face the desk. I can’t do anything but flail, trying to find something to grab onto, something to help me escape. When he shoves me over the top of the desk and presses into my ass, fear and desire intertwine again, and I fight back, reaching out to scratch, kick, and hit anything to get him off me.
But he doesn’t budge, not even when my fingers claw into the arm that he brings around to trap me underneath him. His torso is pressed down into my back, and my breasts hurt from the counterpoint from his desk below.
“Let’s get a few things straight here, princess. Sex means nothing to me. Sometimes I use it to clear my head. That’s what happened last night. It also made a point, showing you that you aren’t the frigid bitch you try to play in front of others.” He grinds his hard cock against me, shoving the air out of my lungs in a huff. s. My brain is cloudy with fear and the memories of last night.
“The next thing you need to learn is how to keep yourself alive because right now, you’re doing a shitty job of it. Do you know what Soo would have done if he’d walked in when you threw that wood? Did you consider what would happen if you actually hit me? Of course, not. You act on impulse and not logic. A fucking fatal flaw in most pampered princesses. No one taught you how to keep your mouth shut and your head down to survive.” He growls the last word into my ear and then traps my hands above my head in one of his.
“A word of advice on that front. Don’t attack the man who has the power to break you. Did you even think about the fact that I’m the one who will choose who you get sold to?” He uses his other hand to curve down the side of my breasts and then hip to delve under my shirt. When he cups my pussy, I squirm against him, trying to break free of his hold.
He continues whispering like a lover in my ear. “I could pick someone I know will be so very gentle with you. Or I can pick someone who I know will delight in torturing you until there’s nothing left of the stupid fucking princess he purchased.”
I shiver under him, and it has nothing to do with his possessive hand over my core and everything to do with the devil of a man threatening me like he means it.
He does everything like he means it.
When he grinds his dick into me, I stop struggling and remain still, hoping not to excite him further. All I need is for him to teach me yet another lesson. “I told you last night, I love it when you fight. But there’s a difference between fighting for your life and fighting for your pleasure. This is the difference. Do you see it now?”
I fold my lips together and nod as much as I can, with my cheek pinned between him and his desk blotter. How could I have ever thought things had changed between us? It wasn’t as if I expected him to be a different person, but maybe… I thought by giving in last night, I’d earn a measure of respect.
No doubt he’d mock me for my weakness and find a way to use it against me if I ever confessed such a thing. Arching into me, I can feel how much he enjoys it by the way his body shakes around me. His furious breath in my ear, the vice grip he’s got on my wrists. The next time he slowly slides his pant-covered dick along my panty-covered ass, I push back into him. He lets out a hiss against my earlobe. “Are we done fighting, stellina? You got a little taste of my cock last night, and now you want more?”
I want to shove the fountain pen a few feet away from me into his eyeball, but I keep that to myself too. “I’ll behave,” I say instead.
“Mmm…” He arches again, and I whimper. Ashamed of the noise, I clamp my mouth shut.
So fast that it takes a moment to register, he flips me over, bringing us face to face. His hips press into me much more intimately now, and I have to fight to keep myself from wrapping my legs around his hips to bring him closer.
“A moment more of your time, and I’ll let you get back to your chores,” he says, glancing down between us at my puckered nipples against the fabric of his shirt.
Then I hear a sound I don’t recognize, a small snick. When he brings a shiny blade to the side of my cheek, I flinch away from him.
“Ah ah ah, little one. Careful, one touch, and this will cut your pretty skin so easily.” He traces the point down my scar, slow and steady, until he reaches my lips.
The fire in my veins turns to ice. Terror washes away the lust in a crystal-clear fog. “You won’t kill me.”
He continues tracing the contours of my face with his knife. The sharp edge pierces my skin the tiniest bit, and one drop of blood slides down the side of my cheek. He lifts the knife and surveys his work. It’s barely a paper cut, but he seems satisfied by it.
His eyes lock on mine, and I try to wiggle away. “I don’t have to kill you to keep you in line. Remember that. Pain is a powerful motivator for anyone, especially a princess who has never had a real taste of it.”
He leans in, so he’s almost touching my mouth with his. If I lift up an inch, I’d be tracing the words with my own lips as he says them. “If you want me to be the one to show you the true depth of pain, then keep acting like a spoiled brat. Otherwise, do your chores, follow my orders, and you’ll be just fine.”
I don’t know what to say so he won’t hurt me, nor do I know what to say to get him off me, so I remain silent this time. All the fight in me is tempered for the moment. It isn’t as if he’d make it a fair fight, anyway.
“I think we understand each other,” he finally says and shoves away from me.
Sucking a full breath into my lungs, I try to calm my erratic heartbeat. A chill washes over me at his absence. When I look up, he’s already walking out the door, buttoning his suit jacket like he didn’t just threaten me.
“Clean up this mess,” he calls back.
With my face flushed, tears trailing down my cheeks, stinging along the slight cut, I climb off the desk. At first, my legs wobble until I stand tall and get my bearings again. I want to rush back into my room, to hide there for the rest of the day, but I’m stronger than that. I won’t let him push me into a corner.
Quickly, I clean up the mess on the floor, even scooping up the tiny bits of wood which the stack shed when I’d sat it on the floor originally. Once everything looks immaculate again, I glance over at his desk.
On the edge, it’s sharp point gleaming in the morning sunlight, is the fountain pen he abandoned when he got angry. I quickly snatch it up, cap the end, and shove it into one of the gloves I’d been using to handle the firewood.
Before I can betray myself, I rush out of the room and hide it between the mattress of my bed and the bed frame. It’s not a great weapon, but it’s something. And even if the last thing I do is drive it into Nicolo’s eyes, I’d die happy.
16
Nic
The sound of Beethoven blasting at a ridiculous volume tells me exactly where Soo is hiding out. He’s been conspicuously absent for the last couple of days, and it grates on my ever-unraveling patience that I have to hunt him down to work out plans.
As my biggest warehouse, and where most of Lucas’s trade goods are kept, it’s a place Soo frequents. His studio apartment is set up in the back of the warehouse, near the loading dock that leads out to the river. He enjoys seeing the water through his windows at night.
Unlike most warehouses, this one is lined in concrete and steel with rich rough cedar lining the floors and some walls used to separate holding areas. It makes the entire building smell like a forest, and the entire place echoes the moment anyone so much as breathes inside it.
I march across the planks to Soo’s little holding. He’s already lowering the volume on Symphony Number Five in C Minor as I approach.
“Rough Day?” I ask, stepping into his sanctum.
He’s decorated his little place in maroons and golds. There’s a solid couch in one corner, where he usually sleeps. More wood and stainless steel make up a small kitchen to the side. There’s a bathroom in the back with a similar color palette. But near the door, against a glass wall showing the entire warehouse, is a bank of computers Soo wields effortlessly to conduct his b
usiness. And mine.
He shuffles over and hands me a bottle of water. “The usual. Seen Lucas?”
I shrug, not wanting to admit to yet another argument between us, resulting in Lucas running off to sulk. Or dismember someone. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. I’ll send him to come find you when he shows his face at the house again.”
Soo nods and hops up onto his counter. His bare feet dangle over the edge. His gray sweats and white T-shirt tell me he is about to go to bed, and I’ve interrupted. Not the first time, and it won’t be the last. He’s grown accustomed to my strange hours by now.
“We need to discuss plans,” I say. “Some things have changed since our little run-in with the Gardello kid.”
Soo nods and crosses his arms over his chest. There’s a faraway look in his eyes, and I let him have a moment to think. It usually pays off.
“You still want to go through with this plan? Once the five catch wind of your auction and the Ricci girl is actually sold, things are going to hit the fan pretty quickly.”
I skirt the edge of his workstation and plop into the rolling chair in front of it. “Of course, I want to continue with the plan. Why the fuck would I bother with a plan if I didn’t intend to see it through?”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Shit changes and plans adapt. We both know that fact well.”
I run my hands through my hair and focus on dulling the sharp edge of my anger that rose to the surface at his chiding tone. “The goal has never changed. This is war, and I want Ricci face down in a puddle of his own blood before I’m through with them all. I don’t care about the other fuckers as much as I do him. Got it?”
Soo holds his hands up in surrender, his water bottle tucked tight into one. “I’m not saying you don’t get revenge for your family. All I’m asking is if you still want to carry out your plan the way we have been heading? As of right now, we might have to move things anyway, if only to remove suspicion from you until you pull off this auction. There are already rumors going around about Celia and the Gardello heir. Some of his brothers are saying he wouldn’t have run off with her. We were counting on that story until we were ready for our big reveal.”
I give him a non-committal noise and roll myself forward to brace my elbows on my knees. “Give me a few hours, I’ll think of something on that to cover our asses.”
“He’s not my only concern,” Soo adds.
I glance up at him and the wary look on his face. “Oh, come on. What the fuck else? Did I come over here to talk plans, or you playing therapist now?”
Soo huffs and sits his water bottle down. His way of giving both of us a minute to think about our next words. “Again, that’s not what I mean. But, I have noticed you’ve been spending some alone time with the girl. You’re growing attached.”
I can’t sit here and listen to him accuse me of… what? “Are you asking me a question or making an observation? What?”
“Maybe I’m drawing your attention to a problem which needs correcting before you carry on with your business.”
I shove out of the chair, cross his kitchen to the bar, and pour myself a glass of amber liquid, not even looking at the labels. Sufficiently fortified, I turn back to my friend. My best friend, I remind myself. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. Everything will continue as planned. The girl will get sold at auction in a couple of days and be the catalyst to bring down the rest of those old bastards.”
Soo nods, but I’m looking at the back of his head, so I can’t see if he believes me or not. It doesn’t matter. He’ll do what I say until I tell him otherwise. He’s always been reliable in that regard, unlike my wayward brother, Lucas, who looks at my plans and somehow interprets them to mean something completely different from what I lay out.
“Did Lucas get the supplies to draw in our special guests?” I ask as I come back around to take my seat again.
Both of us relax at the new subject. “Yeah.” He nods toward the warehouse. “It’s all stacked in the back. Did you have a plan for how you want the auction laid out?”
I swig back a sip of the whiskey and consider his question. I’ve planned the actual auction thoroughly. But when I get to the part where all those men are staring at her, touching her, something in me boils over in a rage. If I can keep them from touching her, I can handle it, but my carefully forged control can’t handle someone else touching something that belongs to me: the girl, my guns, anything. I’d feel the same no matter what merchandise I’m offering.
“Yeah, we’ll start at midnight. She’ll be blindfolded and in a dress. No one touches her but me until the auction is over and they remit payment. I don’t want any of those old fucks getting ideas about things until they’ve paid for the right.”
Soo nods. “And afterward?”
I smile. The afterward is the part I’m looking forward to. “We clean the house and burn it down. They’ll come hunting, but they won’t even realize we’ve snuck in their back doors and are waiting for them when they come home. I can’t wait to show that bastard Ricci pictures of his little princess all trussed up and ready for sale. And then the pictures of his friends and business partners, the ones doing the bidding for the privilege of taking her.”
Soo leans back on his hands on the counter. “Now you sound like yourself. Once they rip each other apart, we’ll swoop in and clean them out before you can finish things off. I already have my contacts in the police on standby, ready for the eventual body count, or…” his mouth lifts in a grin, “the missing persons reports.”
“And now you sound like yourself,” I concede. No one can hide a body like Soo can.
The dust of the tension settles between us, and I toss back the rest of the liquor and set the glass by his keyboard. Immediately, he hops off the counter, snaps it up, and takes it to the sink.
Under my glare, he settles on the counter again. “What? It’s sensitive equipment.”
Even though I don’t want to talk about it, I level him a look and nod a few times. “I’ll admit, killing the Gardello kid probably fucked our plans up a bit. I know we were counting on him running around blowing money a little. Drawing out the Romeo and Juliet angle between the two of them so their families would start making moves sooner. Are they doing anything yet? Have your spies picked up anything?”
He shrugs. “No, they’ve been quiet. I think we seriously underestimated the indifference they have for their offspring. Like I said, the only ones causing a stir are the Gardello brothers. And I honestly think they were hoping to get a cut of whatever money was coming his way after he married Celia.”
I consider this news. “So, it’s about the money, not the man himself? Can we throw some money at them another way? Throw them some winnings at one of our casinos. I know they frequent The Rainbow Pearl more than the others at the edge of town.”
Needing to stretch my legs to think, I stand and pace a circle around his kitchen. “If we can get the brothers out of the picture without killing them outright, then it will give us a little more time to put things in place. After that, it won’t matter anyway because they’ll be tearing each other’s throats out to save their own skins.” Soo remains quiet while I pace, since I’m talking to myself more than him right now. “Do it that way, then. The oldest brother is the one who would have wanted some of the cut. Let him win a little and see if that gets him off his questions.” I halt and swivel back to face my friend. “Or…”
“Or?” he prompts.
I quickly unhook my cufflinks, stuff them in my pocket, and roll my sleeves up.
Soo raises his eyebrow in a silent question.
“What if we scrap the plan entirely and go at them from a different angle?” I say.
“We’ve been working on this one for a long time. Did you have something else in mind?” His faith is unwavering, and I clap him on the shoulder. A show of gratitude, the only reassurance I can provide him.
“It’s not about the girl. In ca
se you’re thinking of going down that road again. But what if we don’t target the heads directly? We head straight for their children just like we have with Ricci.”
Soo hops off his seat now and heads to his computer. In seconds he’s got screens of security cameras up and others containing spreadsheets and notes. “Marino has three children. Greco has two—twins. Ricci, we have covered. Gardello has five…” he smirks, “four now. And Bianci just has himself and therefore no one to target to get to.” He spins to face me in the chair. “What are you thinking?
I continue my pace across the floor, letting the data flow in and assimilate. “Marino is an easy target. His daughter is too well protected. He actually cares about her safety, unlike Ricci. We should target his oldest son: Dominic. He’s being groomed to take over. The Grecos are a little different. The twins run the family together, and the rumors are…” I break off, trying to think of the word. “Disturbing. From what I’ve heard, the twins crippled their own father and run the family together, together.”
Soo nods. “That’s what I’ve heard too.”
I shake my head as we don’t have time to deal with that clusterfuck. “Gardello we can still hit with the casinos, but what if we do it the other way? Force them to shell out their money instead of winning. It might keep them all occupied for a while. Every brother has a substantial debt racked up. Bianci is the wild card. I need more time to think about how he plays into things. Technically, my fight was with his father. He rarely involves himself with the family businesses anymore.”
Typing in a furious stream, Soo speaks up. “I have something to help with that.”
I pause and face him. When I have a plan, he always has what I need to wrap things up in a tight little bow. “What’s that?”
His lips curl up into a grin, and he jabs his finger at one monitor. A woman in a slinky red dress sitting on one of the Gardello brothers’ laps is displayed on the screen. “This is one of my spies on the casino floor. One of the paid girls. She gets a little extra on the side when she picks up anything I might want to know about. The other night she was working with Dominic Marino, and she caught him mentioning a meeting with one of his brothers. It looks like the families are about to have a reunion.”