“What the fu-?” He had managed before I reached him. I could see the panic in his eyes as he put all the pieces together, and figured out who’d been behind all the chaos in his company in the last month. But he didn’t have time to say anything more, as I smashed his head into the desk and left him unconscious. I wondered how many fights Leo had actually been in, whether or not he would put one up when I came back for him, of if was used to other people dealing with everything for him. I wasn’t going to risk it either way, so I quickly bound him to the chair with the zip ties I had in my back pocket and continued out the door and into the rest of the building. I could hear the blood pounding in my head, and wondered if the veins were visibly pulsing beneath my skin as it felt like they were.
There were only a handful of people in the building, as I suspected. Leo liked to vet everyone he got close to, and it seemed as if he was in-between bodyguards. I took everyone out with ease - they were inexperienced and not expecting my attack, and they made it almost laughably simple. I made it quick for each and every one. After all, they had done nothing wrong to me except work for Leo, a crime that I was guilty of at some point in my life. No, I wanted to save my energy and my anger for one man, and he was tied to a chair a few rooms away. By now, he’d probably be awake again.
I stalked back into the room where I left him, the adrenalin still pumping around my body, but by now, I had a handle on it, oozing barely-contained fury as I walked back through the door. I knew he could read it on my face because he practically recoiled when he saw me again.
“Where are-”
“All dead,” I interrupted him. “The whole organization, Leo. Gone. And you’re next.”
“Anthony-” he tried to reason with me, but I held my hand up. It was the last thing I wanted to hear right then.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” I admitted as I paced back and forth. “I never wanted to come back to killing people, Leo, but you gave me no choice.”
“What do you mean?” he demanded, wriggling his wrists against his restraints as he spoke. He was playing for time - or at least, he thought that’s what he was doing. It didn’t matter how long this took, I was going to finish him off tonight. But I was getting all the answers I wanted before I did.
“You went after Sabrina,” I replied coolly.
“That bitch?” he spat. I felt a cold shiver of anger spread up my back, my scalp prickling with rage as the words came out of his mouth. I looked down at the floor, trying to keep myself calm, then back up at him.
“Yeah. That bitch,” I responded. “I don’t want you near her anymore.”
“Is that it?” He rolled his eyes. He must have known how much danger he was in, but that wasn’t stopping him giving me fucking attitude. “I’ll back off. She and her fucking restaurant are fine.”
“That’s not enough,” I replied quietly. “I need you gone.”
“Anthony, no,” his eyes widened as if it finally hit him what my intentions were. “Come on. It’s me.”
“I know it’s you.” My breath was quicker now, and my words more hurried. “That’s why you need to go.”
“You were the one who took everyone out.” He shook his head, staring up at me in disbelief. “I should have known.”
“Yeah, you should have,” I snapped back, and pulled out the knife from my pocket. “But you’re so fucking arrogant it wouldn’t have crossed your mind that someone like me would take you down.”
“I guess I am,” he sneered, his voice full of disdain. “So, are you going to fucking do it? You going to kill me, Anthony?”
I looked down at my hands - they’d taken out so many people in the last few weeks. A dozen or more had died at these hands in the last month. For a moment, I tried to talk myself out of it, but then I reminded myself. Would one more person really change anything I’d done? Would it redeem me? And would all the people I’d killed be worth it if I didn’t take out the worst of them all?
I could barely remember the details of how it actually went down. All I knew was that, at the end of it all, Anthony was dead. That was the only thing that mattered. My brain had repressed everything else as if to save me from remembering it. As if it was trying to protect me.
As I dealt with his body - wiping off my fingerprints where I could, that kind of thing - one of his gloves slipped off. I realized at that second I had never seen his hands, and a burning curiosity suddenly filled my brain. If I didn’t do it now, I never would. This would be the last chance for me to find out what lie beneath those tacky leather gloves, and find out what he was hiding.
I reached down and slid the glove off of his hand. When I saw what was beneath them, my heart froze in my chest.
Emblazoned on his knuckles was a crude tattoo in the shape of a snake… and I remembered. I remembered what Sabrina had told me about the man who had raped her sister and driven her to suicide. Even though that conversation had been brief, it was emblazoned onto my brain as if it had been put there with a hot brand. He had a tattoo of a snake on his knuckles, he had been a piece of work - surely, it couldn’t have been anyone other than Leo. For a moment, my vision blurred as I realized what I had just found out - he was the one who did, who hurt Sabrina’s sister and everyone around her. I spat on the floor next to him, feeling a sudden rush of relief. There were more than just my reasons for killing Leo. He was a monster, a psychopath, a rapist, and a murderer. The world was better off without him, and as soon as I finished cleaning up his body, I left that place. I closed the door behind me and promised myself at that moment that he would be the last person I ever killed. My most righteous hit.
I walked back across the road to my apartment and felt an odd lightness take over my body, as though I were floating on air. I felt… free. For the first time in over a decade, I felt like I didn’t owe anyone anything beyond the people I really wanted near me. And, of course, Sabrina was safe.
Sabrina. My chest swelled up with love as I remembered her. She was waiting for me, back in Italy, and finally, I could go to her and tell her that she was safe. She had nothing to fear from anyone anymore. Would she look at me differently, knowing what I had done to keep her safe? Probably. But that didn’t mean a damn thing as long as I knew she was happy and living the life she wanted. If she desired me in it or not, that was another thing entirely, but that was a decision she could make when we saw each other again.
I packed up my stuff that night and left a generous amount in an envelope on the kitchen table for the landlord, enough that she probably wouldn’t come looking for me. I went out to the street and flagged down a taxi, and realized it was the same road I’d first seen Sabrina on. The road I’d been on when my life changed forever.
I let out a sigh of relief inside the taxi, and let my head fall back against the leather headrest. I was finally free. We all were. Now, the only thing ahead of me was a life I finally got to live on my own terms. And I couldn’t wait to get to it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When I saw him for the first time, Lily was asleep upstairs, and I was sitting at the dining table staring at the wall.
It had been just over a month since Anthony left, but it felt like a lifetime. I hadn’t heard from him since he’d left, and I knew that it was probably a matter of no news being good news, but if he’d died…
I couldn’t even finish the thought in my head, flinching at the three words as they hung in the space between what I knew for sure and what I thought I did. I couldn’t be sure whether he was alive or dead until I laid eyes upon him, in whatever state they found him in. And that scared the living fuck out of me.
I ran my hands through my hair, letting it fall across my shoulders in soft waves. Lily insisted on taking me out to some fancy salon she found in the city a couple of hours away from us for a cut, and I had to admit, I liked the way it sat on me. When I looked in the mirror, I admired the way it brought out the shape of my jaw and seemed to brighten my eyes. But like with everything else that had happened since Anthony
left, he flashed through my brain. Would he like it? Would he touch it lightly with a small smile on his face before he kissed me? Would it pull it while we were fucking from behind? It felt as if there was nothing I could know without him, much as I tried to thresh out a life for myself.
I supposed I was so obsessed with Anthony coming back because I knew that if he returned, it meant that my life in America could pick back up again. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Italy; far from it, I adored it. I loved the fact that when we stopped in for coffee at the tiny shop down the road from us, the place was packed out with men so handsome and well-groomed each of them could have passed for a male model (as Lily liked to point out to me with glee). I loved the food and enjoyed the culture we had the money to indulge in, but I had a life back home waiting for me, ready for my return, and I missed it.
Not a day went by where I didn’t go over everything that had brought us to this point, and wonder if there was something I could have done to avoid it. I thought back to when we brought the restaurant, to the fact that we turned down a place on the other side of town. If we’d just gone for that place instead… God, things would be different. If I hadn’t walked home that way that late, dark night, I might have been able to sidestep everything for a little longer. Or, if I hadn’t asked for Lily to come join me, she might have been able to keep her life, to escape the implications all of this had brought for her.
But then, on the other hand, I had to remind myself - if I hadn’t met those men that night, it would have happened another night. A night when Anthony wasn’t passing by. A night when they might have gone on and killed me, and then come after Lily as the co-owner of the restaurant. The thought of not being able to save her, of being oblivious to all of this, made me ache - she had been so good and so kind to me, the type of friend who would drop everything if it made me feel even minutely better. I had always known she was one in a million, but now she was more than that - we were bonded by everything that had gone down, and we shared a link that would never be broken. Soul sisters, as she described it to me one night after a couple of glasses of wine. And I agreed with her.
Having her around was a relief, as it took my mind off worrying about Anthony. I eventually revealed everything to her - about his past, and our relationship. She was a little taken aback, but after everything she’d seen, I guessed nothing was a real shock anymore. When I told her how I felt about him, she hugged me and told me everything was going to be alright. And when she said it, it felt real. For a moment. I could pretend, there with her, that he was on his way back to me as we spoke and any second then he could have walked through the door and caught me in his arms again.
I loved him. There was no doubt in my mind about that. I adored him with every fiber of my being. Yes, there was a part of me that was worried that our love was driven by the adrenalin and excitement of our situation, but then I would remember our first night together at the restaurant, before any of it started, and remind myself that I was falling for him even then. He was the man I wanted to be with, and even when I caught the eye of the handsome guy behind the counter at the bar we’d begun to frequent, all I thought of was Anthony. I had never much been one for pining, but I found myself lying awake at night and wondering what it would be like if he were there with me. Sometimes, if I thought hard enough, it was as though I could imagine his hands on me, the heat of his body next to mine.
I stretched and let out a little yawn, then got to my feet and began to pace up and down the kitchen. We didn’t use it much. Lily pointed out that now was as good a time as any to pick up on all the regional and national dishes this country had to offer, and with all the money we’d been left, I couldn’t exactly disagree, but it was still the place I felt most at home. On nights that I couldn’t sleep, like that one, I would come down and stand next to the enormous picture doors that dominated the room and stare out at the sprawling lawn in front of me. Beyond it, a small cluster of trees and the stream they lined were just visible; I felt myself calm slightly, the closeness to nature soothing my soul. The sun was just setting, and I made my way out onto the porch to enjoy the stillness of the place for a few minutes.
Just as I sat down, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. My head snapped up - what the fuck was that? I scanned the grass in front of me, peering down to see if someone was hiding in the foliage, and felt my scalp prickle with fear. I hadn’t been able to truly relax after all that had happened; finding myself jumping at shadows and watching over my shoulder for anyone I perceived as dangerous. I had a nose for it now, and it was one that I found was hard to switch off.
I saw some movement again and got to my feet to give myself a better look at the horizon. That’s when I saw him.
He emerged from the trees and made his way up the grass towards me. I blinked a couple of times, not entirely sure I was seeing him at all - he felt like a mirage, like I’d willed him into being by sheer force of will. But then, I heard his voice echoing up towards me, and I knew it was him.
“Sabrina!”
I took off across the grass, not paying any attention to the fact I didn’t even have shoes on and pulled up my nightdress so that it didn’t get caught up underneath me. We were sprinting towards each other - it was ridiculous as we’d spent so long apart, but I couldn’t bear not to be with him for even the few seconds it took us to collide.
We crashed into each other, and as soon as we did, he hands were all over me. He brushed the hair back from my face and slid a hand around my back, pulling me close, and I grabbed for his ass and his face and his arms, anything that I could grab on to. I felt dizzy and wobbly on my feet as if I was in shock, but then our lips finally found each other and nothing else mattered.
We fell to the ground at once, and he was on top of me - feeling his heat against the cool dampness of the grass beneath me was intoxicating and exciting all at once. Lily flickered through my mind, but then I remembered she was in bed. Not that it would have stopped us if I was being honest.
“I missed you so much,” he murmured urgently against my mouth, his hand sliding my dress and parting my thighs. I spread my legs and kissed him hard, knowing he didn’t need a reply, knowing that he could feel it in the way I grabbed for him.
I wasn’t wearing any underwear, and he skimmed his fingers lightly across my bush before finding my clit and drawing quick, soft circles against it. I raked my fingers over his back, tugging at his blazer, desperate to get at what was underneath. He sat up and tossed it aside, along with his shirt, and returned his hand between my legs. I ran my hand across his shoulders and his arms, as if fulfilling an addiction to him, and arched my hips up to meet his fingers.
He slid them inside of me obligingly, and I let out a cry that seemed to echo out around us for miles. He kissed down my throat and found my breasts, sucking and biting hard, leaving me squirming beneath him. I awkwardly slid my hand down between his legs and shuddered with visceral desire when I felt how hard he was beneath his slacks.
“Fuck me?” I moaned into his ear. I couldn’t wait any longer - I needed to feel him inside me. He planted a kiss on my jaw, firm and passionate, and quickly stripped himself down and sheathed himself. In the last rays of the sunlight, he looked divine - lit by the golden rays, it was as if he was part of a dream or fantasy. I prayed that I would never wake up from it, and pulled him down onto me, drawing my legs up so I could wrap them around his waist.
He watched me as he entered me, taking his time as he slowly pushed himself into my pussy. We let out a simultaneous groan, and then laughed at our synchronicity. Even after all this time, it was as if we were one brain, one mind. At least when it came to screwing.
He ran his hands over my bare legs, leaving gooseflesh in his wake, and then began to move inside me. He started slow, taking his time as if savoring the feeling of being inside me once again. I slipped my hand between my thighs and began to masturbate, remembering all the times I’d done exactly that lying in my bedroom after he left and dreaming of this e
ncounter. I had gone over again and again what it would be like in my head, and none of that had even come close to how fantastic and all consuming this was.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath grazing my neck and making me squirm. I turned my head to kiss him, slipping my tongue past his lips, and soon enough we were lost to it once again. I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, but it felt like an eternity and far too soon at the same time.
Suddenly, I found myself teetering on the brink of an orgasm. I opened my eyes and gripped his back, as if clinging on for dear life, shifting my hips and pulling my legs back to allow him deeper.
“You want to come, baby?” He nuzzled my ear lightly, and all I could do was nod. He moved faster, deeper, keeping up a pace until I finally, finally came.
My legs clamped tightly around him as I reached my climax, my cries strangled and almost silent. I remembered the last time we had fucked - how worried I had been, and how terrified I was that it would be the last time we ever had sex. That it would be the last time I ever saw the man I loved. But now he was back, and my relief felt palpable - it moved through my body as my orgasm subsided, my limbs relaxing around him and my body calming. A few thrusts later, he came inside me with a small, gorgeously sexy groan directly in my ear before pulling out of me. He laid next to my side, and pulled me in close, kissing me hard. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back, and I honestly believed at that moment I would have been happy never letting go of him again.
PREGNANT FOR A PRICE: Kings of Chaos MC Page 66