Fearless: Mob Boss Book Two (Volume 2)

by Michelle St. James

  “This patio wraps all the way around the house,” the first voice said, growing fainter. “Let’s see if…”

  Angel exhaled, holding a hand to her chest. She looked back at the computer.

  12:04.

  The computer looked just like it had when she’d first opened it.

  She removed the mystery device from the USB port, and shoved it in purse. Then she closed the computer and moved for the door. She was almost there when it opened.

  “What are you doing in here?” John Lando asked, his eyes narrow with suspicion.

  “Looking for a bathroom,” Angel said. “I was going to use the one in the hall, but someone needed it. Pretty redhead? Tall?”

  He studied her. “You’re Carlo Rossi’s daughter.”

  It sounded like an accusation, but that was probably her own baggage. She lifted her chin. She wasn’t going to let this coward make her feel bad about her father.

  “Yes.”

  He walked toward her, stopped a little too close. He wasn’t tall, but then neither was she. They were almost eye to eye, and while she wasn’t intimidated by him per se, she was very aware of Gino somewhere on the property—and equally aware that he wasn’t some mild-mannered studio executive playing Mob Boss in a movie.

  “You’re with the man who killed your father?” John asked, referring to Nico.

  “We have mutual business concerns,” she said.

  She saw his eyes light with interest. “Is that so?”

  “It is.” She met his eyes, held his gaze. “Excuse me. I should be getting back.”

  He didn’t move at first, and she thought he might call Gino after all. But a few seconds later, he stepped aside, gesturing for her to go ahead.

  She walked as calmly as she could to the living room. When she didn’t see Nico, she headed for the front door, holding her breath every step of the way.

  24

  “I can’t believe you stole John’s car,” Angel laughed.

  “It’s a nice car,” Nico said as they drove up the driveway toward Locke’s house. “And I didn’t steal it. I took it for a test drive.”

  Nico had hot-wired John’s Audi and was pulling down the driveway when Gino ran outside. He hadn’t been worried about Gino calling the police. Angel was still inside, and Nico had seen more than one party guest snorting coke. It wasn’t uncommon in Hollywood, but that didn’t mean John wanted to see it on TMZ.

  By the time Angel emerged from the house, Nico was speeding up the driveway, tucking the car back into its parking place at the top of the path. Gino had tried to take a shot at him with a weak left hook when Nico got out of the car, but he had easily deflected it.

  It was official; California soldiers were soft.

  There had been some commotion with John when he’d found out about Nico’s test drive, but what could he do? The car had been returned safe and sound. He’d apologized and they’d made a hasty exit.

  Nico wasn’t worried that John had caught Angel in his office. They’d search it, see if anything was missing. But nothing would be, and Sara’s access to John’s computer through the DriveHacker would be untraceable to all but the most experienced of security experts.

  “Do you really think Sara will find something to lead us to David?” Angel asked as Nico pulled to a stop in front of Locke’s house.

  His breath caught in his throat as he turned toward her. He never got tired of looking at her, was fascinated by the way her face seemed to change depending on her clothes, the way she wore her hair, how she was feeling that day. She was a mystery he wanted to spend a lifetime trying to solve, and tonight her eyes looked bigger and greener than usual, her cheekbones pronounced under the simple ponytail that somehow managed to be sexy as hell. He hated the worry in her voice, hated that he’d made her a party to the darkest side of his world.

  He took her hand. “I hope so.”

  She looked out the window. “Seventy-two hours tomorrow.”

  “I know,” he said, her sadness like a vise around his heart.

  “What will I tell Dante when he calls?”

  He squeezed her hand. “We’ll figure something out. Sara’s going to work through the night. Maybe she’ll have something by then.”

  “Maybe,” Angel said softly.

  They went inside, and Angel slipped off her shoes while Nico poured them both a glass of wine. He nodded to the patio.

  “Shall we?”

  She nodded, taking the glass he offered, and they sat on the edge of the pool, resting their bare feet on the second step.

  “You know,” she said, “that wasn’t as bad I thought it would be.”

  “Contemplating a life of crime?” he asked.

  Her laughter was deep and throaty, and he felt himself grow hard in response. It was the way she laughed in bed, right after he’d teased her, tasted her, made her come.

  “Hardly,” she said. “I don’t think I’m cut out for it.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” He wasn’t at all kidding.

  She took a long drink of her wine, then surprised him by standing and unzipping her dress. She let it fall to the stone, and he saw that she was naked underneath, hadn’t been wearing underwear all night. She shook out the ponytail, letting her long hair fall to her waist in a cascade of waves.

  His cock stood at full attention as she walked languidly to the deep end, arcing into the water with hardly a splash. He watched as she made his way toward him underwater, her bare body illuminated by the pool light. She came up in front of him and smoothed her hair back from her face, then touched his feet underwater.

  “You don’t think criminals are sexy?” she asked, continuing their conversation as if she hadn’t just prevented his brain from thinking about anything but burying himself between her legs.

  “I think you’re sexy,” he said.

  She reached for his belt. “The feeling is mutual.”

  She unzipped his pants, releasing his cock and taking it in her hand. The feel of her cool palm on his sensitive flesh made him harder. He recognized the shine in her eyes, the manic energy lurking there. It was a danger high, and he’d had plenty of experience with it. In a life or death confrontation, the body was primed and pumped, hell bent on its own survival. It took a while for all that energy to dissipate after the threat had passed. When it did, it was a hell of a crash, but until then, Nico had found the only cures to be working out and fucking.

  And he had no plans to visit Locke’s gym with Angel.

  She stroked his shaft, working her way in between his legs until she could reach him with her mouth. He couldn’t have cared less about the fact that she was getting his pants wet as she leaned in, flicking her tongue against his tip.

  He reached out, pinching her erect nipples as she closed her mouth around his head, tonguing him at the top until he had to fight the urge to thrust his hips upward.

  “Angel…”

  She dipped her tongue into the hole at his tip while she sucked, then slid down the length of him, taking him in her mouth. She had every inch of him captive, and she grasped the base of his cock while she moved over his shaft, working him like she always did, knowing exactly what he wanted, and exactly how.

  When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he put his hands on either side of her head and forced her to look at him. She needed to burn off the adrenaline coursing through her veins, and she wasn’t going to do that by giving him a blow job—even if it was the best blow job of all time.

  He stood, dropping his pants and stripping off his shirt.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, looking up at him, her eyes bright with lust. She was as breathless for him as he was for her. He would see it in the quick rise and fall of her chest, her perfect breasts glistening with water in the light of the pool.

  “I’m getting ready to lick your pussy until you come,” he said. “And then I’m going to fuck you until you come again.”

  “Where are you going?”

  He ignored the question, walking to
the deep end of the pool, giving her the same show she’d given him. The truth was, he needed some time to cool off. If he let her touch him again now, he was going to come. And he wasn’t planning on doing that until he’d taken care of her.

  He dove in, the water sliding against his naked body as he swam toward her. He could see her bare legs on the pool step. He came up between them, kneeled on the step in front of her. She was his nirvana, his addiction, and his goddess, and he would gladly worship at the altar of her body until the day he died.

  He put his hand at the back of her head, pulled her toward him, plunged his tongue into her mouth. She was just as eager, and she slid her arms around his naked body, the water slipping between them as she swept his mouth with her tongue, pressing her body to his like she couldn’t get close enough. Finally he pulled back, looking her in the eyes as he lowered himself into the water in front of her and spread her legs.

  The water lapped gently against the folds of her sex, and he leaned in, closing his mouth all at once over her pussy, cold from the water. She cried out, arching her back for him, pushing against the warmth of his mouth. He kept it tight against her, covering her with his tongue, sucking her clit until she moaned, moving her hips in time to his rhythm.

  He slid two fingers into her as her orgasm built. The feel of her tightening around him sent a bolt of lightning to his cock. He could almost feel himself there, feel her clenching around him as he pushed into her. He needed to be inside her. Needed to feel her come for him while he took possession of her body, while he drove out all the bad things that had brought them to this place.

  He sucked harder and pressed a finger against the blossom of her asshole.

  “Oh….oh, god, Nico…” she gasped. “Please… I can’t….”

  He lifted his mouth from her while he stroked and pressed. “You can’t what, baby? You can’t stand it?” He lapped at the glistening petals of her sex. “It feels good, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes… Oh, god, yes…”

  “Then come for me, baby,” he said. “Come while I eat your pussy. And then come again when I fuck you.”

  He closed his mouth around her clit and sucked, pressing harder against the perfect circle of her ass. He knew the moment she tipped over the edge. She shuddered, her body tightening against his fingers, his mouth, her hips lifting as she sought to get closer to his mouth, needing him to consume her as much as he needed to consume her.

  When the last vestiges of her orgasm had passed, he knelt between her legs, grabbing for his pants to get a condom. She leaned back on her arms, her eyes glassy.

  “I want it, Nico.”

  He positioned himself at her opening and looked in her eyes. “Tell me what you want, Angel.”

  She didn’t look away. “I want you to fuck me.”

  He pushed into her just a little. “Like this?”

  She moaned, arching her back. “Fuck… please. I need it.”

  “You need what?” he asked, pushing into her a little more.

  “I need your cock inside me, Nico. All of it.”

  He leaned over her wet, naked body and thrust his tongue into her mouth while drove into her. She cried out, and he felt his cock grow harder still. Then he was thrusting and driving, somewhere else entirely, in a place where there was nothing but Angel’s warm body enveloping him, welcoming every inch as he plunged into her, taking her with a ferocity she seemed to demand as she met his thrusts, grabbing his ass and driving him all the way inside of her.

  He reached down with one hand and stroked her clit while he took her, and he felt her begin the climb all over again, his own body matching stride, keeping pace until she screamed. Her body tightened around him as she came, and he poured himself into her, still driving, wanting to get everything out of her, wanting to give her every bit of him.

  They collapsed together, Angel slumping against the pool step while her hands dove into his hair. He pulled her down into the water with him, cradling her body in the water. He stroked the hair back from her face as she rested her head against his shoulder.

  “Now you’ll sleep.”

  25

  The sky was still dark when her phone rang on the nightstand the next morning. She was immediately awake, and she sat up, and pressed the button to accept the call with one hand while she nudged Nico with the other.

  “I hope I didn’t wake you,” Dante said on the other end of the phone. He sounded almost pleasant, like they were old friends.

  “I’m awake,” she said, waving away Nico’s hand as he reached for her phone.

  “I hope it’s because you’re keeping Nico company while he makes plans to hand over the New York territory to me.”

  Fear clutched at her chest. This was it; the moment she’d been dreading. The moment when she would have to rely on Dante’s non-existent empathy to buy more time for David.

  “I need more time,” she said.

  “That wasn’t our deal.”

  “I know, she said. “But I… it’s not as easy as you think it is. Nico won’t give up the territory. Not even for—”

  “Not even for you?” he finished.

  “Not even for me.” Resentment sucker punched her from behind, and she immediately shoved it aside. Stupid. She knew Nico was doing everything he could to rescue David, and she didn’t want him to give up the territory for Dante.

  He was messing with her. Getting under her skin.

  “Must be tough to fuck him knowing he doesn’t give a shit about your brother.”

  She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, forced her voice steady. “Can you give me a couple more days?”

  He didn’t say anything right away, and for a minute she thought he’d hung up.

  “Go to the Ripley’s museum in Hollywood tomorrow at six pm,” he finally said. “There will be gift shop bag on the floor near the Human Salamander.”

  “The Human Salamander?”

  “Am I speaking Chinese?” She jumped as he shouted into the phone. She heard him take a deep breath, like he was trying to gain control of his temper. “Just go there. You’ll know it when you see it.”

  “Okay,” she said, torn between being relieved that he seemed willing to negotiate and freaked out by his choice of meeting places. “Is… is my brother okay?”

  “Coming alone gives you a better shot at that,” he said. “Tomorrow. Six pm.”

  He hung up before she could say anything else.

  She set her phone down, and Nico kneeled in on the floor in front of her, taking her shaking hands in his.

  “He wants you to meet him?”

  “Yes… no… I don’t know.” She got up, pacing the floor. “He wants me to come to the Ripley’s Museum in Hollywood tomorrow at six.”

  Nico’s eyes registered surprise. “Ripley’s?”

  She nodded. “At the Human Salamander.”

  Nico exhaled his rage, and his eyes turned cold. “What a sick fuck.”

  “He said there would be a bag waiting for me with instructions.”

  “With instructions?” Nico asked. “He used those exact words?”

  She nodded. “And he said to come alone.”

  “He can say it all he wants,” Nico said, his voice threatening. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you within a mile of that asshole alone.”

  “You have to,” she said. “David’s life might depend on it.”

  “I can’t do it, Angel.” He left the room, headed for the kitchen.

  She followed him, watching as he started to make coffee.

  “You don’t get to make this decision, Nico.” She wedged herself between him and the counter, forced him to look at her. “Not this one.”

  “I can’t risk it,” he said. “I can’t risk you.”

  “Dante could have killed me a long time ago. He needs me free to get what he wants.”

  “I don’t like it.” His amber eyes were almost feral.

  She reached up to hold his face in her hands. “I don’t like it, either. But you h
ave to do this for me.”

  His eyes turned cold, and she knew he was doing what he always did in a tough situation; weighing the odds, calculating, looking for the best answer in a field of shitty ones.

  “We watch you come and go from the street,” he said.

  She shook her head. “If he sees you, he might kill David.”

  “And if he takes you, how will you help your brother?”

  She hesitated. He was right. She knew it, she just didn’t want to believe it.

  “How can we be sure he won’t see you?”

  “He won’t,” Nico said. “That much I can promise you.”

  The steel running through his voice told her all she needed to know. “Fine. But you have to stay out of sight. We can’t afford to piss him off. David can’t afford it.”

  “You have my word,” he said.

  She nodded. “Who’s we?” she said, remembering his choice of words. “You said ‘We watch you come and go from the street.’”

  He met her eyes. “I said I’d keep you safe, Angel, and that’s what I intend to do. Even if it takes an army to do it.”

  26

  They sat at the table, drinking coffee and pouring over the reports from Sara’s search results until the sun started lightening the sky. Then they went for a swim in the ocean below the house. It was felt cleansing, and Angel emerged from the water feeling calmer and more centered.

  Luca arrived before noon, accompanied by two gargantuan men named Marco and Elia, and Sara Falco, the hacker who had been working behind the scenes to find information on Dante’s location. Angel had been surprised by the entourage until she remembered Nico’s words the night before. The army he was deploying was small—for now—but she had no doubt he would call in as many people as possible to keep her safe.

  “The problem with Ripley’s,” Marco said after Nico had briefed everyone, “is that you can’t see shit once someone’s inside. I don’t think there’s a single window past the lobby.”

  He was huge, but she had gotten used to that—Nico seemed to surround himself by men big enough to break the average person in half with their bare hands—but it was his eyes that got her attention. Cool and gray with the steady gaze of a man who didn’t let much deter him, they told her everything she needed to know about why Nico had included him on the team. He wore his black hair shaved close to the head. Angel wondered if he’d been in the military.