by Hamel, B. B.
We backed away from the building. Doors opened around us, people coming out of their homes. I saw fear, anger, confusion, and more than one person called the fire department.
Enrico put his gun away. “We should go.”
I grunted but lingered. If we left now, I couldn’t be sure that Jarvis was dead. I wanted to get in there and find out, make sure the fucker was truly dead, but that wasn’t going to happen with so many fucking witnesses around.
I heard the crack-crack-crack of gunfire. It was a brief burst, but unmistakable.
“Fuck,” I growled. “Go get Aldrik. Now.”
He nodded and jogged around the building as a window fell inward and flames spouted out. I took a couple steps back and realized the screams had stopped.
The only sound was the strange purr of the fire consuming the building.
Enrico and Aldrik returned around the building a second later and we were off. I caught a few looks from neighbors, but fuck them, they couldn’t identify me—and there was no proof that we had anything to do with it. I considered texting Cora to let her know that we were okay, but decided against it.
She didn’t need to know either.
We got back to my car. Enrico sat up front, Aldrik in the back.
“Some fucking idiot tried to get out,” Aldrik said, breathing hard, eyes wide with excitement. “But I put him down, boss.”
“Good job.” I didn’t start the car. “Do you know who it was?”
“Didn’t recognize him.” Aldrik shrugged. “Looked like a homeless guy. Definitely wasn’t Jarvis.”
I grunted, a little disappointed. “I need you two to promise me something.”
Enrico gave me a look. “What?”
“Silence. You’ll tell nobody about this.”
Aldrik grunted. “Already forgot why we were out here.”
I looked at Enrico and he nodded once. “Sure, boss, but I’m assuming Christmas is coming early this year.”
“There will be a nice bonus in your stocking.” I smiled as I started my engine. “Don’t you worry about it.”
We drove away without speaking. I knew Enrico would be smart enough to ask for money and I couldn’t blame him—that was how our relationship functioned, after all. They stuck around and worked for me because the job wasn’t too difficult, and sometimes it was even fun, and I paid better than almost anyone else in the city. That was the kind of loyalty I could count on. I knew how much to pay to keep them happy, no guessing, no confusion.
I dropped them off at a safehouse and they went inside, already talking about hitting up an afterhours club. I drove slowly back to my place and parked out front, staring up at the door, and thinking about Cora inside. She would’ve hated me for what I just did—even if I did it for her sake as much as for my own.
Jarvis would burn in that building, and he wouldn’t bother us again. I had to keep telling myself that. He was gone, and she was safe, and that was all that mattered.
I got out and walked up the stoop, my conscience clear, a smile on my lips.
16
Cora
I couldn’t sleep. I heard him leave and lay in bed wondering what he was doing—or who he was killing. I stared at the ceiling and tried to picture a world where it was Reid lying on the sidewalk, his body riddled with holes, his blood all over my hands, in my hair, his eyes glassy and blank, but the thought made me want to throw up.
He was gone for two hours, and when the front door opened, I got out of bed. I didn’t care that I only wore a pair of boy short panties and a tank top. I drifted to my bedroom door as I heard him coming up the stairs and opened it, peering out at his dark shadow stepping into the hallway.
The smell of smoke and gasoline drifted off his body in waves. “What happened?”
He came closer. His eyes shone and I wanted to reach out and touch his cheek. “Do you really want to know?”
I shook my head. He pulled me against him and kissed me, his tongue against mine, his hands on my body, and I let it go, I let it all go.
All my anger, my pent-up rage and frustration, the memory of Alex’s dead body, the memory of the mafioso surviving that attack when it should have been them—the memory of my father, my cousins, all the men around me, I let it all go.
Instead, I clung to Reid. I kissed him, let his hands move on my body, and let him push me into my room. He stripped off my tank top, his hands on my breasts, my firm, pink nipples, and I unbuttoned his shirt. I kissed his chest, his smooth skin, and breathed in his smell—musky and smoky and strange. I gasped as his hand gripped my ass then slipped down my panties and teased my soaked clit.
“You have no clue how far I’d go for you,” he whispered as he slid a finger deep inside then back out, rolling along my clit, his lips against mine. “You have no idea how much I want you.”
I moaned, bit his lip. “I want it too. I’m just… I want it.”
He growled and pushed me back against the bed. He kissed my neck, my chest, licked my nipples and bit them before peeling my panties off. I could see the hard outline of his cock through his jeans and I took off his belt slowly, kissing his ripped stomach. His pants dropped to the floor and I peeled his boxer briefs off, taking his thick cock in one hand, stroking him, staring at his length, my body vibrating.
I took him into my mouth, not thinking, losing myself in the moment. He growled and purred with pleasure as his hand grabbed my hair. I sucked him slow and deep, moaning, tasting him, before he pulled me back and kissed me. He pushed me back onto the bed and dropped between my legs, spreading them wide, one hand on my breast and the other pushing my knees apart. He licked me top to bottom and I felt fireworks spark down my spine as pleasure exploded along my skin.
I needed this, god, I needed it, and I needed it with him, my husband, my man, the first mafioso that didn’t look at me like I was something in his way, or some kind of object to shove aside. He was the first that made me feel like a person, like I was wanted, and it was glorious, beautiful, right. His tongue lapped along my slit and I rolled my hips, moaning, gasping, groaning his name.
He stood and pushed me further onto the bed, spreading my legs wide as he pinned me down. His weight was intense, his arms and hands so strong, and I felt him push against my spot—then slide deep inside.
I gasped, back arched, as he kissed my neck and fucked me.
“Just like I wanted,” he whispered, “wet and warm and slick. Goddamn, Cora, goddamn, my little wife. You feel like heaven.”
I moaned as he took me, sliding his thick cock in and out, stroking deep inside of me. I kissed him, bit his lip, let him take my body and give me the pleasure I needed. I didn’t care if his hair smelled like burned wood, I didn’t care where he’d been or what he’d been doing—none of it mattered anymore.
I turned him and pushed him down onto the bed, straddling him, feeling him deep inside me. His hands palmed my breasts as I rode him faster, grinding myself down, moaning, sweating. He pulled me closer and fucked me as I rolled my hips, and we moved like that together, slick and gorgeous, his lips against mine, his taste in my mouth.
Pleasure overwhelming, it was too right, too good. I moaned, went faster, harder. He took me deep and licked my nipples. He was night, I was light, and I needed him to make me whole.
He pulled me off, turned me around. I looked over my shoulder as he grabbed my hips and slid deep inside. I threw back my head and let him fuck me, wild and free, and I knew I couldn’t take much more. He leaned over me, pulled my hair, whispered in my ear. “My gorgeous wife, you feel perfect. You dirty girl, you feel like heaven.” He fucked me from behind, fucked me deep and hard, and his fingers stroked my clit until I felt it build, build, build, so high and tight that I knew the fall would shake me deep to my core.
I came as he fucked me, not stopping, not slowing. I came in fireworks, in explosions, and I clenched my fingers down onto the mattress until it hurt, and I still came. He fucked me growling, fucked me groaning, and I felt him stiffen and fill me
, finishing with me, coming deep between my legs.
We fell in a tangled heap on the bed. I panted and curled up against him, my cheek on his muscular chest. He ran his fingers through my hair.
“I need you to know something,” he said after a few minutes of enjoying each other’s naked, sweating bodies.
“Yeah? What?”
“No matter what happens, I’m on your side.”
I looked up at him. I wanted to ask him what he did tonight, but I didn’t want him to lie, and I didn’t want him to tell me the truth.
Instead, I asked, “Do I have to worry about something?”
“I don’t think so.” He twirled my hair between his fingertips. “But I thought you should hear that anyway.”
“I believe you.”
“Good.” He leaned down and kissed me.
“Will you stay tonight?” I felt stupid for asking, but the words came rushing out.
He smiled. “I didn’t plan on leaving.”
“Good.” I leaned my chin against him.
“I’m far from done with you.”
I smiled as he kissed me and I let him wrap his arms around my body.
There were a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t get too deep with him, why I shouldn’t start letting myself think that this is real—but all those reasons drifted away in the night. Maybe they’d return in the morning.
Now though, none of it seemed to matter.
17
Reid
“I know what you did.” Hedeon stood with his back turned, facing the kitchen, and I could see the tension in his body.
Hedeon had never been to my house before, not in all the years I’d know him—he was way too paranoid to show up at an unprotected location. He stuck to his own place for the most part, or he rotated among all the different safehouses we had tucked around the city—apartments, old factories, townhouses, whatever we could find. He wanted his guys to come to him so that he could be on his own turf, and so that he could know that he wasn’t being drawn into an unsafe situation. That level of paranoia had served him well.
Which was how I knew how fucking pissed he was.
“And what did I do?” I lingered by the front door and caught sight of Cora at the top of the stairs. I gave her a tight shake of the head and she backed off, walking as quietly as she could back to her room.
Better she stayed out of this one.
“Really, Reid? A fire?” He turned to face me, anger etched in his tightened lips. “You realize it spread, right?”
“Didn’t burn any of the houses.”
“Almost did. If the fire department hadn’t shown up, it would have.”
“So some abandoned gas station got torched and the lot around it is a wasteland now. What’s it matter?”
“You fired shots.” He said the words through a clenched jaw.
I grimaced and looked away. Aldrik thought it was Jarvis trying to escape—but the dead body had turned out to be some junkie that was sharing Jarvis’s hideout. If Aldrik hadn’t fired on him, then nobody in the city would’ve known we were ever there.
But bullets in a body meant mafia. I wasn’t sure how Hedeon heard it was me in particular, but I guessed he put two and two together. He probably didn’t know for sure, and I could keep denying forever, but I wasn’t going to play that game if I didn’t have to. I wasn’t ashamed of my move—only annoyed I got caught.
“That was a contingency,” I said. “Had to make sure he didn’t escape.”
“And yet he did anyway.” Hedeon’s face turned red and I stared at him with surprise.
“Jarvis is still alive?”
“He’s been walking around the fucking city for the last few days, talking shit about how you fucked up and couldn’t take him down when you had the chance.”
I took a step back and leaned against the door, my heart beating fast. I couldn’t believe the bastard had survived that. It was a goddamn inferno, and I heard that at least two bodies were found burned to a crisp.
“How?”
“I don’t know how,” Hedeon said. “He’s got some bad burns on his face and I think he’s in worse shape than he’s pretending, but he’s alive and he’s making a whole hell of a lot of noise.”
I shut my eyes for half a second.
Fucking hell.
For the past several days, I’d done nothing but stay holed up in my place with Cora. Something broke between us that night, some wall that had been built came tumbling down, and we were finally acting on all the tension that’d been growing between us ever since we got fake-married. I took her body, day and night, and made her sweat, made her beg, got her off, and goddamn, it’d been the best few days of my entire life. The girl was insatiable, and although there were still things we hadn’t talked about, issues that I knew would crop up again sooner or later—none of that mattered. We fucked, feasted on each other, and tried to pretend like the outside world didn’t exist.
Now Hedeon brought that little bubble crashing down on top of me.
“I didn’t know.” I looked back up, met his gaze.
“You didn’t know.” He sneered at me. “The fuck have you been doing lately?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“With what?”
“Nothing. Cora. Just— nothing.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve been busy messing around with your new pretty Leone wife, haven’t you?”
“Hedeon—”
“You don’t get it.” He took a few steps closer. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so pissed. “The Leones are livid. They’re going to take her back from you, you do realize that, right? They said no violence, and yet you go ahead and light a goddamn gas station on fire.”
“I was trying to be subtle.”
“Oh, yeah, real subtle. You burned down a fucking building.” Hedeon threw his hands up. “They’re talking about war with us now. They’re talking about ending our alliance. The police department is pissed, the mayor’s livid, senators are running left and right—you realize how much shit we’re dealing with?”
“I was trying to make it look like an accident.” I took a deep breath and let it out. The shit had truly hit the fan and now I had to clean it up. This was my mistake, my miscalculation, and I’d never get back in with the crew if I couldn’t figure out a way to fix it. “I’ll take care of Jarvis.”
Hedeon snorted. “Goddamn right you will. At this point, it’d be worse leaving him alive, stirring up shit.”
“You can count on me in this.”
He took a couple steps closer, his eyes narrowed into slits. “I used to think that was true,” he said, voice soft and almost calm, “but now I’m not so sure.”
“I made a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
I met his stare and we stood there facing off for a long moment until he finally nodded once. “Make sure that it doesn’t.” He walked to the door and I stepped aside as he pulled it open and stood on the top of my stoop, gazing out at the city. “I know where he’s staying. I had some guys look into it.”
“Send me the address.”
“It’s already on your phone.” He looked back at me. “Do it fast and make it clean. No collateral damage. He’s got to die.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
He shook his head and walked down the stoop. I watched him shove his hands in his pockets and amble down the street like he was another local with nothing to do but go for a stroll on a nice, comfortable evening. Hedeon had that quality about him, a strange ability to blend in with his surroundings. It made him extra dangerous.
I shut the door and turned, rubbing my temples. Cora came downstairs as I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a drink.
“I knew you did something,” she said, her voice almost a whisper, “but I didn’t realize you did that.”
I slugged back my whiskey then looked at her. “I don’t need it from you, too.”
“How many people died in that fire, Reid?”
“I don’t know. And I
don’t care.”
Her jaw clenched. “Really? That’s how you want to play this?”
“What do you want me to say? I went out to kill that little fuck for what he did, and I tried to make it look like an accident. I tried to thread the fucking needle and I missed the mark by this goddamn much.” I pinched my thumb and forefinger together.
“There could’ve been innocent people in there.”
“Nobody hanging around with that asshole is innocent.”
“Alex was innocent. And he was—”
“Your friend was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not the same thing.”
“It’s exactly the same thing.” She stepped toward me, fire in her eyes.
“What do you want from me, huh? You want me to be something I’m not?”
“I want you to be better.”
I sucked in a breath, downed another whiskey, and stared at her. I wanted to be better too, but I was being pushed it every direction—by her, by Hedeon, by the city itself. And Jarvis was still out there, despite my best efforts, still breathing, still talking shit, still causing problems.
There was one clear solution, and I knew she wouldn’t like it.
“All right then,” I said, keeping my voice as steady as I could. “You want me to be better? How about you come and make sure that I am.”
She frowned slightly. “What are you talking about?”
“You heard Hedeon, right? I have to find Jarvis and finish him off. I’m saying, how about you come along and make sure nothing bad happens.”
She opened her mouth and I watched the fury slowly drain away, replaced by surprise—and fear.
I didn’t want to scare her. That wasn’t my intention. I had a feeling Jarvis was half dead already, and I doubted he’d have anyone around him at this point, not after that fire, not after the shooting in the street. I’d killed too many of his guys, and he was way too weak at this point to keep more around.
It would be dangerous, but not that dangerous.