“Well seems to me I’ve wasted my time.” He made to get up.
“Sit down,” I bellowed, my brow creased, my composure cracking. Salvatore pushed Lupe back into the chair. His smile grew bigger and sucked in along calming breath.
“Help and information are two different commodities, which are therefore valued differently. What I need, and will pay for, is information. What I do not need, nor want from you, is help of any kind.”
Lupe’s face twisted in a wicked smile, “Call it what you want D’Angelo, either way you’ll have to pay up.”
“What do you want?”
He watched Salvatore as he spoke, “The redhead from the bar. I want her to suck my dick.”
The lines around Salvatore’s eyes tightened, “We’re not that kind of place.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He leaned back into his seat and laced his hands behind his head.
“I can’t force a woman to do that.”
“Who said anything about forcing? I’m sure if Mr. Delluci over there flashed her one of his smiles and asked her real nicely, she would do just about anything for him.”
I turned to Salvatore. His eyes had darkened, his face full of hatred, “Go get Amber.”
“Are you fucking kid—”
“Go get Amber. Now.”
Salvatore stormed out of the room, thundering down the corridor, “Your buddy over there doesn’t seem happy. Does he have a hard on for her or something?” Lupe cackled.
“He’ll do what he’s told.”
“Yes, he will. Salvatore has always been a very good dog. Speaking of which, how is your mutt?”
“He has a very good memory.”
That shut him up for a few seconds.
“I want to know about Emilio Rocco.”
“Why?”
“That’s none of your business.”
He shifted in his chair and scratched at his collar. His suit seemed cheap, used even. Whatever they were using Lupe for these days, he was not in the higher ups. His fuck up with me would have cost him his rank. To be honest, I was surprised it didn’t cost him his life.
The more I studied the man, the more I realised that he would not be able to help me at all, and he knew that too. A drop of dread sank into my heart and soon it had pumped it around my body, creating a toxic concussion of unease and apprehension.
“This meeting is over.” I stood up.
“So soon? What about my payment?” He didn’t move.
“Why are you here?”
“What do you mean?”
I bent over the table, I put my face to his until I could feel his breath on my mouth, “You know what I mean, why are you here?”
“Because you called.”
“The truth.” I growled.
“Truth is Gabriel, I’m just the messenger.”
“Tell me.”
“Not before I get my cock sucked by a beautiful girl while your loyal dog Salvatore watches.” He bared his teeth in a twisted grin.
I clenched my jaw.
Salvatore barged back into the room, alone.
“Where’s Amber?”
“No one has seen her for a couple of hours.” He looked relieved, but his voice held a tremor I’ve never heard before.
Worry. Salvatore didn’t get worried. Unless…
I turned back to my guest.
“Guess you’ll have to take a rain cheque.”
“Well then, so will you.”
Before he could stand up, my hand curled around his scrawny neck and his mocking eyes dimmed, but they weren’t scared. He seemed almost relieved. “Who sent you?”
“I’ll settle for the dark haired one. The one with the big tits, I bet she can suck a cock real well.”
“Who sent you?”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s too late. For both of us.” He cackled.
“Who?”
“Our mutual friend.”
“He’s no friend of mine.” I squeezed his throat, his breathing became more shallow.
Lupe gurgled, his eyes gleamed with mirth at my words.
“Where can I find him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t fuck with me Lupe,” I warned, my hands tightening around his throat, his eyes beginning to pop.
“There was only one man who knew where Emilio is, but you got rid of him.” Lupe’s eyes shone.
“Stephano?”
“Ding, ding, ding. But, you fucking killed him you idiot.” Lupe started to laugh, a maniacal screeching thing that stank of desperation.
I caught a glimpse of Romeo as he ran towards the door and pushed it open, “I’ve got her.”
“Keep her there, I’ll come find you.” He nodded and left; I turned my attention back to Lupe.
“Trouble in paradise?”
“Mind your own business.” I growled in his face, and he smirked in mine.
I clenched my jaw, my show of indifference long gone, “The message? What is it?”
“You’re fucked, that’s what it is.” He laughed as I released his throat and exchanged a look with Salvatore.
“Cut him loose. He’s no use to us. I have other business to attend to.”
Lupe reached for my hand, “You can’t cut me loose, Gabriel.”
“He needs to go. Now.” I looked at Salvatore, who was already walking towards the crumpled man. Lupe fell at my feet and grabbed at my suit pants.
“Don’t let me go, just kill me please. Don’t send me back.”
“This meeting is over.” I burst through the glass door and made my way to the elevator bank, Lupe’s screaming drowned out by the thick glass walls.
If my thoughts were not so consumed by Mia, if my heart wasn’t anchored so deeply in hers, I would have seen it all sooner and clearer. Maybe, just maybe, things would have turned out differently. But I was lost and blind and totally deranged by the time I found Romeo again.
“Where the hell is she?”
“In there.” Romeo indicated, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet. It was his giveaway—his body couldn’t help but twitch whenever he knew he fucked up. He knew there would be repercussions. He gave me a nervous smile, maybe he thought he redeemed himself. My eyes skimmed over the scratch above his eye, I wanted to tear it open and let it bleed all over the tiled floor.
But first, Mia.
I barged into the changing room.
Mia stood towards the back of the room, giggling with Amber. Her shoulder leaning against a locker. Their laughter died down when they saw me. Amber’s hand shot to her naked breasts and her smile vanished.
“Out! Now.”
“Gabriel…” Mia started. I shot her a look that silenced her, and my gaze pivoted to Amber.
“Now!” I smashed my fist on a nearby locker, my knuckles clanged against the metal, reverberating off the narrow white walls and echoed like thunder in the room. “Wait outside this door, don’t move!”
Amber grabbed a shirt and scampered out of the room, looking at her feet, remaining silent.
I slammed the door behind her and clicked the lock into place, uncertain if I was locking us inside or the rest of the world outside. I stalked deeper into the cool room, Mia retreated.
“Where the fuck have you been Mia?” It came out as a long crazed growl.
“I’ve been out with Amber.”
“And you ditched Romeo again?”
“Well…”
“I. Told. You. I need to know where you are at all times.” I struggled to get the words out, my jaw locked together in a crushing clench.
“And I told you, I am my own person.” She folded her arms across her chest and tried to be brave, but her voice quivered and she took another step backwards.
I crept further into the room, my nostrils flared and teeth ground till I could almost taste powder in my mouth, like I was licking fine gravel, “Did I not explain myself to you clearly enough?”
“Gabriel…”
“I fucking own you. You belong to me. You a
re my property and therefore I must know where you are at all times.” Heat rose through me and I clenched my fists at the side of my body.
“I’m not your fucking prisoner Gabriel.”
“No. But I’m yours.”
We were going to be cellmates in the prison we had crafted for one another. Although I knew all too well what that felt like, I didn’t care. Mia would have to learn to love the bars and bare walls she had built with her choices. There was only one way to protect her, and that was to put this beautiful bird into my gilded cage. She could have everything in the world, except for what she really wanted—fresh air, the ability to be her own person, and freedom.
That was the price she was going to pay for loving me and it would eat at her each day, like peeling layers of flesh until she would be reduced to nothing but bones.
Her back touched the far locker and she had run out of room to retreat, “What are you talking about?” She cleared her throat.
“You have taken my heart and sealed it in a vault somewhere inside of you. I cannot function without my heart.”
“Gabriel—”
I cut her off, “I cannot work, or think, or concentrate, or fucking breathe not knowing where you are—where my fucking heart is. Each time you disappear, you are killing me slowly.”
“I’m sorry.” She stammered.
“I don’t give a fuck about your sorry.” I slammed into her with my body, pinning her against the locker. Her ass smashed into the metal, setting off another chain reaction of angry clangs. “Now, tell me where the fuck you went and what the fuck you were doing.”
I loomed over her, her large eyes looking into mine. My entire body tight and angry.
“I just went out with Amber.”
My hand slapped the locker by her ear and the angry metallic boom resonated through us both, “Try again.”
“I was with Amber.”
My hand slid around her throat, “Where?”
“Gabriel…”
“Where?” I growled. I sounded like a crazed beast, starved and demented.
“Here, I was down here with Amber the whole time.”
“Why?”
“Gabriel…”
“Why?”
“I just needed girl time.”
“I told you,” I breathed in her ear, “Do not go anywhere without Romeo. I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.”
“I already have a shadow, I don’t need another one.” Her eyes slanted into slits.
“You will do what I say.”
“Or else?”
“Or I will have to punish you Mia.”
“I need to be free Gabriel.”
“You gave that up when you said you loved me.” Her eyes flashed with anger.
“I was just trying to surprise you.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“I thought you might like this one.” She bit her lower lip.
Something pinged at the back of my brain and crawled its way to the forefront of my thoughts, “You said something about a surprise when Simone died.”
“Yes.” She wrapped her hands around my waist as my fingers closed around her throat. I wasn’t going to soften. Rage rumbled through me, a brewing storm of uncontrolled fury.
“Tell me.”
“Punish me.” She challenged.
I growled at the huskiness of her voice, “Don’t distract me Mia. Tell me.”
“No.” She licked her lower lip and glared at me.
My hand plunged into her hair and pulled her head back forcefully, exposing her neck, causing her back to arch, “You want to be punished Mia?”
“Mmm hmm.”
I ripped her shirt from her body, the tattered material falling like broken wings on either side of her and gasped at her naked torso. I scratched a long finger from her neck to her nipple leaving a long red, angry mark in my wake and pinched her already hardening nipple. I wasn’t gentle or kind. I was angry and desperate. She groaned at the touch, feeding my anger.
I tightened my grip on her hair and yanked hard, forcing her back to arc more her hips against mine. Mia was caged against the cold metal. I stretched her to her limits; her body fighting my grip. She wavered, unbalanced against the wall, my hips, and her tip toes her only anchors.
I dipped my mouth to her breast and took her nipple between my teeth, tugging and releasing, pinching and biting, rolling and sucking; until her moans became whimpers and I could feel her pushing into me, her body begging for more. Until the dusky tips of her nipples were tight, throbbing peaks that quivered as I neared them.
“Tell me Mia.” I pinched—pulling, rolling, hurting.
“No.” She whimpered against me. I snarled.
I grabbed her shoulder and, in a smooth harsh motion, flipped Mia around and crashed her body into the locker. It slammed and clanked in a rumble like thunder clouds before the storm. She gasped at cold metal as it licked her skin. I pinned her body with mine giving her no way to move, caging her with my taught muscle and broad shoulders. My hand slipped into her underwear and found her wet pussy. She groaned at my touch as I flicked my fingers across her. I could feel the tension mount in all her muscles. Her legs stiffened and her back tightened, her hips tried to push and grind against me. I locked her in place—teasing, swiping, flicking, and skimming. My fingers exploring inside her, along her soft delicate wetness, all around that one place her body was begging me for.
“Tell me Mia.” I barked.
“Gabriel.”
My hand slipped out of her underwear and the hand in the hair yanked forcefully, pulling her torso away from the lockers and against my chest. My hand returned to her nipples, now cold and hard. She groaned as I tormented her endlessly, until her legs quivered and her whimpers became helpless mewls.
“Tell me.”
“I wanted to surprise you.” Her voice was breathy and uneven as she struggled to speak, my assault on her nipples unrelenting, agonising, torturous pain and devastating pleasure.
“She was teaching me to dance,” she sucked in a breath, “For you.”
My breath hitched but my hand did not fall away, instead I intensified my assault, pinching harder and rolling unmercifully, teasing until she was ready to shed tears.
“Apologise Mia.”
“For what?”
“For disobeying me.”
“Gabriel.”
My hand plunge back into her underwear and she whined like a broken thing, “Gabriel please.” I flicked my fingers around her, grazing, trailing, circling—start, stop, stroke. “Gabriel please.”
“I don’t want you to beg, I want you to apologise.” My scratched voice hoarse. I wanted to finish her, to be buried inside her, her quivering body a desperate invitation.
“I’m sorry Gabriel.”
“For?”
She moaned as I pulled my hands away again.
“For disobeying you.”
I waited.
“I belong to you, and I will never disappear again.”
“Good girl.” She had apologised, but she still asked to be punished.—and punished she was going to be.
I ripped at my jeans, my hand never leaving her hair. My body still pinned her in place. My hard cock sprang out of its confines and I bend down guiding myself inside her.
I pounded into her, unrelenting. With each pound of my hips the lockers clanged and crashed, and soon I had created a thunderstorm so fierce I could feel the electricity travel through me like lightning. The noise clapped and rumbled around us as the violent storm ripped through me. Until the sky opened up and I came inside her, violent and angry. She moaned her disappointment, her throbbing need unanswered.
When I was done, I ripped myself away from her and tucked myself back in, “Final warning Mia, next time I won’t be so kind. Now stay here till I tell you otherwise.”
She was still glued to the lockers when I stormed out of the room. Amber stood by the door looking at her feet. Her small shirt barely reaching her waist li
ne.
“Look at me.”
She lifted her head, her eyes darting from me to the wall and back again.
“Where were you?” I growled at her.
“Just a quick coffee and then we hung around here.” Amber looked sacred. I must have looked the animal I felt I was.
“Go get yourself cleaned up and take the rest of the week off.”
“But…”
“Full pay, and I’ll tell Salvatore.” As she turned to leave, I grabbed her arm, “Tell Mia to get ready for her dance. Romeo will escort her to Sin in ten minutes.”
She nodded and scampered back into the change rooms.
I found Romeo standing at the end of the corridor, he had a knowing look on his face that fell as he saw mine. “Next time you lose her will be the last. I want her at Sin in ten minutes, I don’t give a fuck if she tells you she’s ready or not, you get her there.”
“Yes boss.”
“Ten minutes.” I growled at him
I didn’t stick around to hear his excuses.
I stormed into Sin and barged into the office; Salvatore sat with his head in his palms still looking over paperwork.
“Amber was with Mia.” A chunk of worry seemed to fall from his heavy shoulders, “Now, close Sin and get everyone out.”
“But…”
“Now!”
“Gabriel, whatever personal shit you—”
I didn’t let him finish the sentence before I closed the distance between us and plowed him into the wall, the air cascaded from his lungs in a thud. I pushed against him, our eyes locked and my breathing heavy and shallow. My eyes bored into his, “Now.”
He clenched his jaw, holding whatever rebuke he had and tipped his head. The conversation was over.
I released him and he straightened his jacked and raked a hand through his hair, flaying me with a look of distain as he left the office to go shut down Sin.
Ten minutes later I sat in front of the stage, looking at the empty space. The dimmed lights made the large space feel small. Intimate.
The darkness was sliced by yellow light as Romeo escorted Mia inside. He urged her on as she reluctantly walked inside wearing a robe and an angry expression.
I looked to Romeo, “Wait outside.”
He nodded and left the club, leaving only Mia and myself inside.
The darkness engulfed everything but the stage, where a solitary beam shone on a pole.
Broken Parts (A Dark Romance) (Parts of Me Book 3) Page 10