by Ali Parker
My phone buzzed, and I glanced down at the screen. Drake.
“I’m on my way. Is anyone hurt?”
Yes. Everyone was hurt. My heart contracted painfully in my chest. The gash on the side of my head was a welcome reprieve from the ache deep inside of me. This shit wasn’t over by a long shot. It was just beginning—again.
“No. Just get here.”
Seeing that Izzy was out cold, I took the opportunity to send one more message to Marcus Blaine. There weren’t many people I felt I could trust right now besides Izzy and my own brother, but Marcus had me convinced he was loyal to me. And I needed someone else in my corner. I sent him a quick message to keep him in the loop.
“I watched the tapes. It was Marco. This stays between us. Watch your fucking back and protect my sister. She’s in over her head.”
The toilet paper was fully soaked through with blood. I stood, feeling a little dizzy from the pain and the adrenaline and the emotions, and went back to the bathroom. I gathered more makeshift bandages and returned to Izzy’s side to watch her sleep.
Her long black curtain of hair was spread out around her on the bed, making her look like a slumbering mermaid. A deadly mermaid. Her lips were slightly parted, and I could hear her soft breath on every exhale.
“What have we done to each other, Bella?”
2
Izabella
All I could smell was him. All I could feel was him. My blood was rushing in my ears, and all I could think about was the ache between my legs; the all consuming need to feel him inside me. It had been way too fucking long.
I was on my back beneath Demetri’s taut, tanned, glorious body. His elbows were buried in the pillow on either side of my head, and his forehead was pressed to mine as he pushed his hips between my open legs. I opened up for him and hooked my legs around his waist, using them to pull him toward me until his cock was resting against my pussy.
“Don’t be greedy, Bella,” Demetri grated through clenched teeth.
“You want me as bad as I want you,” I whispered, lifting my chin to graze my lips over his. He shuddered above me, and his breath smelled like mint. “Come on, D. Fuck me. Fuck me and don’t hold back.”
D growled low in his chest and nipped at my lower lip. “You know this isn’t how this works.”
I tried to ask him what he meant, but as I opened my mouth to speak, he clamped a hand over my lips. Then, in one deep thrust, he was inside me. I whimpered with pleasure as he forced me to take all of him, and the sound was muffled by his palm.
“You don’t tell me what to do,” D said. “You know better than that.”
I moaned beneath his hand, still clamped over my mouth. His inability to do anything but dominate me when we fucked was so fucking hot. I loved how easy he made it for me to give in; to be the woman I was not. Beneath him, I was just me. Just Izabella. I was not an Enforcer. Not a killer. I was a woman who needed to be loved hard and rough, and Demetri knew that about me better than anyone else.
I tightened my hold around his waist with my legs in an act of defiance. Then I bit at the meat of the inside of his palm. A devious grin broke across his dark features. “Thatta girl.”
I smiled against his hand as his hips rocked toward me, grinding in a fluid motion that had me barrelling toward an explosive orgasm.
I mumbled his name, and his smile broadened.
God, there was nothing as beautiful as him.
“Come on Bella, wet my cock for me.”
His words were enough to send me over the edge. My body quivered beneath him as my climax rolled through me. I grabbed the wrist of the hand sealing my mouth and dug my nails into his skin as he continued fucking me like he was punishing me.
He pushed his thumb between my lips and ran it along my teeth. I opened my mouth for him, and he pressed down on my tongue. I suckled at his digit and bit down on his knuckle. He and I were both gluttons for pain, so I didn’t hold back. I bit down hard.
Demetri pinched my lower lip between the bottom of his thumb and his forefinger. I moaned.
He pulled his hand from my mouth and replaced it with his lips. His tongue caressed mine, and I was lost in the moment of how perfect everything was—because everything was with Demetri DeMarco.
A stirring in my belly tugged at the back of my mind. Something was wrong. Something needed my attention.
“Fuck,” D growled above me as he straightened. He grabbed the back of my legs and pushed them back, spreading me open for him. I was so fucking wet. He stretched me with his cock before pulling out and rubbing himself up and down my opening. I was so wet for him. “You want it in your ass, baby girl?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded.
“Tell me what you want me to do,” D said gruffly as he lowered his cock and began pressing forward. The pressure was exquisite.
“Please—”
Something grazed my cheek. I pulled back sharply and snapped my eyes open.
I found myself staring into a pair of dark, beautiful eyes, framed by dark brows and black hair. Confused, I propped myself up on my elbows and stared at the man lying a foot away from me on the bed.
“Drake?” I whispered. My voice was hoarse from crying.
No, from screaming.
The memory of the standoff between me and D downstairs chased away the knot of desire in my belly and replaced it with panic.
I’d fired my gun. I’d fucking shot him. There had been so much blood. My muscles locked in place as terror raced through me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as my eyes darted around the room. “Where is D?” The question lodged in my throat, and I choked on it. Terror. Dark, deep terror washed over me. Did I really want to know the extent of the damage I had done to the only man I had ever loved?
Drake pushed himself up and sat at the edge of my bed. He looked back at me over his shoulder, and his eyes held a balanced mixture of pity and regret. “D texted me. He said you’d need—”
I moved forward and struck him across the cheek before I realized what I was doing. The resounding slap of my palm on his cheek hung in the air between us as he pressed a hand to the already reddening skin.
“You fucking lied to me,” I snarled. “All this time.”
Drake put his hand on my chest and pushed me down. “I know. And I’m sorry. But I was doing what I thought was right. There was no good in telling you about our parents.”
“Fuck you,” I spat. All these lies were becoming too much. The dishonesty and death threatened to suffocate me. “There was no good in telling me you were my brother?”
Drake glanced down. “It was a mistake. But I thought I was making the right call.”
Drake leaned forward, and I heard him pull something out of a bag between his feet on my bedroom floor. He stood and walked to my television set. He had an old tape player and a few cassettes which he plugged in and set up on the TV. I watched with anger bubbling in my chest. I resisted the urge to cry as he pressed play and came to sit back down on the edge of my bed.
He looked back at me. “Just watch these. This is what D was trying to explain to you before… well, you know.”
“D’s lost his fucking mind. He was going to kill my brother.”
“I’m aware. Marco is my brother too, Izzy.”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. “And you have nothing to say to that, other than you have a long-lost brother you now want to fucking claim? He tried to kill Marco! He was acting like a rabid dog.”
Drake ignored me and turned his attention to the TV, which started to play.
My breath hitched in my throat as Freddy’s terrified voice filled the room. I turned my eyes to the TV and watched as my heart fluttered nervously in my chest.
“I don’t have long. I can feel it.” Freddy glanced around and jerked a little. “I’ve done everything he’s told me to do, and I’m still not going to survive this.” His voice broke and tears filled his eyes. “He told me to divert the shipments, that we needed to fuc
k up the narcotics ring, and I did. He promised me that he wouldn’t let anything happen to momma if I did, but he lied. He fucking lied!”
“Freddy,” I whispered, pulling myself to the edge of the bed beside Drake and then slipping off the side to sink to the floor. I sat with my knees pulled to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.
“Izzy, if you see this, I didn’t hurt momma. I loved her more than… more than any of you. I just didn’t have a choice. He didn’t tell me why, and I’m too dumb to figure it out. He said he would hurt you if I fucked up. He killed momma because I messed things up. I should have just listened the first time.”
My heart restricted in my chest, and my eyes started to burn as Freddy smacked himself in the head and cursed himself. I wanted to reach through the screen and hold him and tell him I loved him. I wanted to promise him that everything would be okay. Tears blurred my vision.
But nothing was okay. He was dead.
I looked up at Drake, who was watching me instead of the TV. I hoped like hell I had my façade in place. I didn’t give a shit who was in front of me. Being strong and capable was all that mattered in the moment—or at least pretending to be.
“Who?” I whispered. Who was behind this? Who was Freddy talking about? D?
Drake shook his head and brushed his hand down his handsome face. “Just watch.”
“Please don’t hate me.” Freddy sobbed. “Just find the tapes and find me. He’s trying to tear the family apart, and he’s going to do it, Izzy. He killed momma, or had momma killed, but he was there.”
I sank my face into my hands and peered through my fingers at my brother. He was in a horrible state. His fingers were dirty. He was dirty. His eyes were wild, and his hair was a mess. What I wouldn’t give to save him from the horror of what he was going through.
“He has a goddamn video of the night she was raped and killed.” He reached up and pressed his fists to his ears. “I can still hear her screaming. I can—” His uncontrollable sobbing made it impossible for him to speak.
The sound of a door cut through the tapes. Freddy stood up and turned, putting his ass in front of the video recorder.
“What are you doing?”
The new voice made me feel instantly ill. “No,” I whispered. Drake moved closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “No.”
“Just working on some Youtube content,” Freddy said hurriedly. “You know. Pot smokers like me love this shit.”
“Stop it and get back to work. You have a job to do. Find Thomas, and set up this next shipment to him. Fuck this up, and I swear to God, I’ll drag your ass down to the alley where momma died and make you watch my boys do the same to Izabella. Is that what you want?”
“No,” Freddy whispered. “Please, God, no.”
Drake gave my shoulder a squeeze as the screen faded to black.
I pressed my hands to my mouth as bile rose up my throat. No. No. No. Not my brother. No. Please God. No.
My bedroom door opened, the click of the lock giving way so incredibly softly.
I glanced over, a storm raging inside me, to see D standing there, silhouetted by the bright lights in the hallway behind him. There was a bit of dried blood on the side of his neck and his ear, but the real injury of what I had done to him lay in his eyes.
“Bella,” he said softly.
That was it. I came undone. A sob broke free of me, and I buried my face in my hands as I pulled my knees tighter to my chest, drawing into myself like I could escape the truth if only I made myself small enough. Once the crying started, I couldn’t stop. The tears poured out of me as the realization of what Marco had done to all of us slammed into me.
I could see D coming for me through the space between my shaking fingers. He dropped down to his knees and wrapped his arms around my shoulders before pulling me into his chest. “I’m sorry,” he said, his chin on top of my head.
I curled up in his arms and hid my face in his shirt as I cried harder than I could ever remember crying. Fuck this life full of misery and pain.
How could Marco do this to us? To momma? To Freddy? How had such an evil remained hidden within him for so long?
“Why did you both lie to me?” I managed to ask between sobs. “How can I trust you? Why would I have trusted you?” I gained a little bit of my voice back. “I would have believed you down there had you not planted fucking seeds of deceit. Goddamn it, D. I could have killed you.”
“But you didn’t, baby.” He pulled me in tighter.
“This is my fault,” Drake said. “It was because of me. I was selfish. I didn’t want Joe to find me.”
“It’s on both of us,” D said, his voice rumbling in his chest beneath my cheek.
I sniffled and tried to nuzzle in tighter to him as I gathered the front of his shirt in my fists and clung to him for all I was worth. I had never felt so incredibly weak.
“Bella,” D whispered, tucking his thumb under my chin and forcing me to look up at him. I didn’t want to look him in the eyes. I didn’t want to confront the pain that I could see in his gaze. I could barely make out his face through my tears. He wiped them away with shaking fingers. I’d never felt his touch be anything but firm. “It’s a fucked-up situation, but it’s ours. And all that matters is you. Despite everything—despite all of it and how hard I’ve fought against it—you’re all that matters. Trust me. We will figure this out together.”
“Figure what out?” A deep voice drew our attention to the open bedroom door.
I felt D tighten his hold on me as we all looked upon my father, whose broad shoulders and impressive height filled the doorframe. He took a step inside and crossed his arms across his chest.
“I said, figure what out?” He repeated, his voice full of menace. My poor Papa. He couldn’t take much more, and the news we were going to share was going to cripple him—much like it had me.
3
Marco
The lights from the Castaletta mansion blazed in my rear-view mirror as I peeled down the driveway, reminding me that I would never be able to call that place home again. Not after everything that had just gone down.
“What a fucking nightmare.”
Tears stung the corners of my eyes as Izzy’s scream rang in my ears.
What had I done?
I never wanted her to get caught in the middle of this fucking mess. I wanted to keep her as far away from it all as possible. I’d known when it all started how hard that would be. She was our Enforcer, after all, and she was too clever for her own good—a quality that got her into too much trouble. It was a miracle I’d been able to keep her separate from the plans for so long. It was only a matter of time before it all came to a head.
This just isn’t how I wanted it to all go down, or how I wanted it to end.
“God fucking damn it!” I slammed my fist against the steering wheel several times.
She would never understand why I did what I did. She would never be able to see why we needed to take the trash out—to cleanse the Castaletta family and give us a fresh start.
I sped out of the driveway and down the street, desperate to put as much distance between myself and the house as I possibly could. It was only a matter of time before someone was sent to come after me. Everyone would have come running when they heard Izabella screaming. If I was lucky, they would be preoccupied with D and taking care of him—and hopefully removing his corpse from the hallway. If anything was going to go right for me tonight, my fingers were crossed that would be the case. If Demetri was dead, I had a lot less to worry about. His death would cripple Izzy, and the syndicate would scramble to replace him.
I would become a second priority. I could be so lucky…
Once I had been driving for a good fifteen minutes, I pulled my phone out and sent a text to Adam Cooper. If I had any chance of getting out of this shit storm alive, it would be with Cooper’s help. As if fate decided to shine down on me, the California syndicate Don was in our neck of the woods for a quick trip.
; I’d seen Adam’s number scrawled across a notepad in my dad’s office a few days earlier and was grateful I had the foresight to program it into my phone for future use. Izzy was supposed to meet with Adam the following morning, and it was crucial that I made it to him first. I sent a quick message. “It’s Marco Castaletta. You free to meet? It’s important.”
I only made it another three miles down the road before my phone chimed.
“The Moonlight Bar. One hour.”
I didn’t bother messaging back. I switched directions to head to the bar with a growing sense of nervousness rising in my throat.
I hadn’t been back there since I went to clean up the mess Izzy made with Parker when she put a bullet between his eyes. I’d torched the place to make sure my sister had left no evidence. I tried to make a point of never going back to places where the Castalettas had followed through with a hit, but this time, I had to make an exception. Adam was my only shot at coming out of this mess with my head still attached to my shoulders.
I arrived outside the hotel just under the one-hour mark Adam had given me. I gave my car keys to the valet and hurried up the steps to slip in the front doors. I crossed the lobby and went straight to the elevators, where I punched the button for the top floor where the Moonlight Bar was located. Nobody got on or off, and I rode straight to the top with nothing to distract me from my spiralling thoughts.
If Izzy got her hands on those fucking tapes, she was going to be gunning for me. It wouldn’t matter that we were family. She would bring down all her wrath on my head, and I was sure that there was nothing that would stop her from putting a bullet in my skull like she did Parker’s. Hell, at this point, she might even take pleasure in offing me.
I couldn’t blame her.
But I could sure as hell try to keep myself out of her grasp.
The elevator doors chimed, and I stepped off and made my way across the foyer to the double doors that read “Moonlight Bar”. I could hear music playing on the other side, and it increased in volume as the doorman pulled open the door and nodded politely to invite me inside.