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MAEL

I held her in my arms and let her cry.

Every tear I felt on my skin was a vow made to ensure her father and Leo suffered the worst fate possible.

I didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything I could say that would make her feel better about this; I knew that. I fucking knew that, but it didn’t stop me from feeling so fucking helpless. I wanted to kill someone.

It had been a long time since I had felt helpless.

I lost track of how long we lay there in bed. But eventually, the tears stopped, along with the sniffles, and then she was just silent. I would have thought she had fallen asleep if I wasn’t so in tune with her every moment. I knew she was still awake.

She pulled back after a while. I looked down and took in her swollen, red eyes, puffy cheeks, and flushed skin.

She was fucking beautiful.

I ran my fingers through the soft strands of her long brown hair, waiting for her to speak first.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Now,” I said, cupping her cheek and bringing her face close to me. I heard her breath catch. “We go home.”

“Home?”

“My home. Your home. We go back home, and I’ll protect you for the rest of my insignificant life.”

Her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t think your life is insignificant.”

I offered her a small smile. “And you stay mine. No matter what.”

She needed to know this. I wasn’t going to let her go. I was never going to let her go. This wasn’t going to be like her relationships with other men. There would be no breakup. No running away. And as soon as I was able to put a ring on her finger, there would be no divorce. I would never let her go.

“Aren’t you afraid I am just agreeing to go back with you because I need your protection?” she asked.

She was cute if she thought that would deter me. “I don’t care. Use me, however and whenever you want. I don’t care as long as you belong to me.”

And no one else. She was mine and only mine. I had never had something that belonged so wholly, so completely to me, but she was it.

She blinked. I could see her thoughts spinning a thousand miles an hour inside her head. Then she laid her head back on my chest, and I wrapped my arms tightly around her.

“Okay,” she said softly. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

I opened the door to my apartment and waited for her to go inside.

She hesitated, taking in the space as if she were looking at it for the first time. I patiently stood where I was.

She turned back and looked at me. I didn’t say anything.

Slowly, she took a step inside. I locked the door behind me, pretending I didn’t see her flinch from the sound.

“I’m going to put our bags in our room,” I said. I was about to walk past her when she grabbed my arm, halting me.

I turned and looked at her.

Fuck, but she looked so lost right now.

She opened her mouth but closed it when no words came out.

I put the bags down by my feet and turned to her, lifting her up in my arms. I walked toward our bedroom.

“What about the bags?” she murmured.

“They can wait,” I said, putting her down on her feet when we reached the foot of the bed. I pulled at the sweater she was wearing. She barely had time to resist before I had the sweater off her. I threw it on the floor. She looked at it, then at me.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I asked, tugging on her shirt. “I’m getting you comfortable.”

“By getting me naked?” She let out a small gasp as I moved my hand around to the back buckle of her bra. I unhooked it and pulled the fabric away, letting it join the rest of her clothes as my eyes honed in on her hardened nipples.

She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest. I tugged on her arms until she was bare to my gaze once more.

“Don’t hide,” I said, bending down and licking one hard nub with the flat of my tongue.

She arched toward me slightly, her hands moving to my hair, pulling on the strands roughly every time she felt my touch. I smiled against her skin.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“Mael.”

“That’s right, baby. Say my name.”

I hooked my arms under her knees, pulling them up until she fell back on the mattress.

“Mael!”

I grinned at her as I stood by the edge and tugged on her jeans. She wiggled her ass, helping me get them off her. I stood back and took in my girl when she was completely naked.

And suddenly, it was just too fucking much. I wanted to be inside her. Now .

I quickly pulled off my clothes, haphazardly throwing them on the floor. She lifted herself up on her elbows and watched me. Her eyes darkened as she looked up and down my body, stopping on my dick, then licked her lips. Fuck me.

I fucking loved the way she looked at me.

She could deny it all she wanted—she could even fear me—it didn’t fucking matter because she wanted me, and that was all there was to it.

“Spread your legs, kitten,” I gritted out, grabbing myself and stroking up and down the length.

She spread her legs, letting me see the view of her wet, bare cunt, just begging for my cock. I didn’t wait. I fell on top of her and drove inside in one hard stroke.

I didn’t give her the chance to get her bearings straight.

I fucked her.

I fucked her the way I wanted, the way I needed.

Without mercy, starting with hard, fast, and short thrusts of my hips that had her moaning out my name.

She clenched down on me every time I pushed back inside her. I could feel her cunt gushing for me. Fucking hell.

I fucked her long and deep, letting her feel everything. “Look at me,” I said.

She opened her eyes and gazed at me. Her eyes killed me.

They fucking killed me every time she turned them my way.

“I want you to know it’s me fucking you,” I said.

Her breath came out in a broken, stuttered exhale as she nodded. “You. Yes, it’s you.”

“Fuck,” I gritted out, fucking her harder. She wrapped her legs around my waist, pushing her hips up to meet me, as if she felt the same frantic, desperate feeling.

“Oh God, Mael!” she cried out, her head thrown back and exposing the column of her throat. I leaned down and took a bite of the skin there. I could feel her pulse kicking in beneath my lips, and she jerked against me. I bit harder, leaving my mark on her. She hooked her nails into my skin, scratching down my back, leaving her own mark.

“Mine,” I growled against her skin. “Say it.”

“Yours,” she gasped out. “I’m yours.”

Her words set something primal inside me loose. I pounded into her harder, my hand moving down to her hips, gripping her there hard enough that I was sure she would bruise. I wanted her to think of me every time she saw the marks on her body. I wanted her to be proud they were there ’cause I sure as fuck would be seeing her scratches on me. Mine.

Every thrust was like an imprint of that word in my mind. She was mine, and that was all.

As I continued to drive into her, she clenched her walls around me and arched her body in pleasure. I could feel her getting close. Her breathing turned ragged, her moans getting higher.

“That’s it, baby,” I praised, my lips moving over to her ear. “Come for me.”

She shattered, crying out my name like a prayer, her body convulsing around my cock. The sensation pushed me over the edge, and I soon followed her, expelling all my cum inside her.

She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me down closer to her. I buried my face in her neck, taking in her scent and feeling something inside me settle.

As long as she was here, everything would be okay.

* * *

It was past midnight, and Lia was fast asleep in my bed.

I didn’t want to leave her, but I had to go.

I stood by the edge of the bed and looked down at my girl, listening to her breathing and letting it calm me like nothing else had ever managed to do before.

I leaned down and pressed a kiss on her lips. Her face twisted slightly from the move, but she didn’t wake.

I smiled and straightened, walking out the door without looking back. I headed down from my apartment, finding Theo already there, waiting in his car. I got in, and he drove off without a word.

The Sicilian bastards weren’t hard to find. We could locate a group of them hanging around in midtown Manhattan.

Most of the restaurants around were owned by them, and more likely than not, they would be conducting business there, on full display for everyone, as if to say they didn’t give a fuck if you knew or not.

But that wasn’t where we were heading. Theo drove to the Hunts Point neighborhood in South Bronx, famously known for housing one of the largest food distribution centers in the world… and high prostitution and drug deals.

Theo pulled up to the corner in front of an old, decrepit building and turned off the car to avoid drawing attention to us.

“This is where they’re having the meeting?” I asked.

Theo shrugged. “Brings less attention to themselves.”

I nodded. I trusted Theo. “Then let’s go.”

He stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder. “Are we really doing this?”

“What?”

“Infiltrating the Cosa Nostra?”

I grinned. “Yup.”

“You do realize we are vastly outnumbered, right?”

“It’s a good thing we came prepared.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah, because those bastards aren’t carrying guns as well.”

I laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re scared, little brother.”

“Of dying? No. But I don’t think you would want to do anything that might prevent you from making it home to Lia, would you?”

That took away all my amusement. I looked off to the side. “It won’t come to that.”

I could see Theo nodding from the corner of my eye. “I hope so. Just… be cautious. Be less… you. ”

“Are you saying I’m not cautious?” I asked as he opened the door and got out. He bent down until he could meet my eyes. The streetlamp nearby allowed enough light for me to see him.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he responded, closing the door behind him and leaving me in the silence of the car for a beat before I got out. We crept to the building, where made men stood guard in the front. Getting past them wouldn’t be easy. Good thing we weren’t planning on entering through the front door. We walked up to the building next to it and went inside, quickly moving to the back door that led out to an alleyway between the two buildings. We scaled the building using the fire escape ladder until we hit the roof.

Theo had already been by earlier and managed to leave the door on the rooftop open.

When we got inside, I followed Theo’s lead, taking the stairwell down seven stories until we reached the basement.

I could hear the loud chatter of the men before I saw them.

It almost looked like a party.

We stayed pressed against the wall and waited for the meeting to begin.

The Cosa Nostra was ruled by Giovanni Tacchini for the last fifteen years. Tacchini came from the original Cosa Nostra in Italy until it was rumored he was putting a group of men together for an uprising to take on the head, Dante Giordano.

The uprising never happened. Giordano chased Tacchini out of Sicily before he could betray him, despite Tacchini’s claim of loyalty and innocence, even to this day.

It didn't matter if the rumors were true or false. A whisper was all it took, and now the fucker had settled in New York and was somehow working with Briggs and Lia’s father.

I didn’t know how it all worked, but I was going to find out sooner or later.

It didn’t take long for Tacchini to show up. He was a brute of a man.

Dark hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. And if his size didn’t draw attention, the thick black mustache he sported undoubtedly did. He wasn’t forgettable.

That shit could get him killed.

But he had ruled over this organization for more than a decade, and it was getting big.

He stood atop a small makeshift podium as if he needed help to make himself taller.

I took in the man from head to toe. Theo was notably tense beside me.

He didn’t think we should get involved, but I didn’t care either way. I just wanted Briggs’s head, and if I had to go through an entire organization to get it, I fucking would.

The chatter died off quickly as Tacchini raised his hand.

“As you know,” he began, his booming voice loud enough to make it over to where we hid in the back. “We’re having some trouble with the Camorra who had settled in Boston several years back. They want our territory here in New York.”

As soon as Tacchini said it, angry shouts and protests rose among the men. He raised his hand up for their silence once more before speaking.

“Quiet. I am just as angry as you are. It is enough that we have the Abbiati family to deal with already here in New York, but now the fucking Camorra wants to get involved? We need to deal with the problem if we want the East.”

“Yes,” one man shouted from the front. “What are we going to do?”

Tacchini smiled. I assumed he thought it was charming. I just saw someone who had no trouble using his men to gain more power.

“I have a proposition. The Camorras are getting out of control, and we need to stop them before they can step foot in New York. The only way to do that is by killing off the head.”

Ah, so that was where he was going with this.

“Bring me Miguel Gallo’s head. Any man, I don’t care if you are a foot soldier or a capo, if you bring me his head, I’ll grant you one favor. Any favor.”

And to have the favor of the capo dei capi was better than anything else these fuckers could ever achieve in their lifetime.

I smiled.

Theo moved in close, whispering in my ear. “Don’t even think about it. Gallo is rumored to be a brutal man who would kill first and ask questions never. It would be a suicide mission for any of these fuckers.”

“Luckily,” I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulder. “I’m not like these fuckers.”

* * *

Theo fumed the entire ride back home.

He could throw a fit or give me the silent treatment all he wanted, but my mind was made up.

I knew what the next course of action should be, and nothing could change it, not even if he brought Lia up. He pulled into the parking garage of my apartment building and parked the car.

I looked around the empty space. It was hitting three in the morning, and not a soul was in sight. I let out a small sigh, already tired of the night.

“Just say it,” I said, breaking the silence.

“You’ve always been reckless when it comes to your safety, but this one definitely takes the cake.”

“It’ll be fine. We made it out of the last situation unscathed.”

“And you think we’re just going to keep getting lucky?”

“Briggs is still out there, living his best fucking life. You really want to stop? After all these years?”

“I don’t fucking care anymore!” Theo yelled, slamming his fists on the steering wheel. I turned, taking him in fully. Theo rarely ever loses his cool. “I don’t care about Leo fucking Briggs anymore. I don’t care about all the shit we endured. I just care about you! What the fuck am I supposed to do if something happens to you?”

“It’ll be fine, Th?—”

“No, you don’t know that.”

I let out a small sigh, reaching over and cupping his shoulder. He tried to shrug me off, but I held firm, waiting until he looked at me.

“We can just leave this all behind, you know. We can go somewhere and start new. You, me, and Lia,” he said softly.

I shook my head. We could fly halfway across the world, and Briggs’s ghost would continue to haunt me. I didn’t think it would stop once I killed him with my hands, but it would be something, at least.

“I need to see this through, and I need you by my side.”

My eyes took in his face, the image of him as a little boy haunting me. We had the same blue eyes, but others had always said my eyes were too volatile, even when I was young; Theo’s eyes just looked lost to me. People called him cold, but all I saw was someone who didn’t know who he was.

A surge of protectiveness came over me. “You don’t have to get into this mess. I can handle it on my own, I promise.”

He was already shaking his head before I could finish speaking. “No fucking way. Where you go, I go.”

“Even to hell?” I joked.

“Even then,” he answered seriously.

I let out a small sigh. “We’re going to be alright.”

“How would you know that? We’re talking about the fucking mob. We have never inserted ourselves in the middle of any mob wars in the East for a reason. It never ends well for anyone involved.”

I shook my head. “It’ll be fine.”

“How would you know?”

“Because.”

“Because?”

“It’s our karma for enduring all that bad shit in our childhood.”

Theo didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed. I grinned.

Theo spent most of his waking—and sleeping—moments in a fog of stoicism. It was nice to see him laughing, even if the fucker was laughing at me.

“You don’t believe in that shit,” he said, finally catching his breath.

“Sure I do.” I ruffled his hair, something I’d done when we were younger.

He moved away and glared at me, making my smile widen.

“Go get some rest,” I said, opening the door and exiting the car. I was about halfway to the elevator when I heard the car door slam behind me. I turned around in time for Theo to wrap his arms around me tightly in a hug. I froze for a moment. How long had it been since he sought out comfort from me like this?

Long enough that I had forgotten how it felt. I wrapped my arms around him and patted his back. “It’ll be okay.”

He didn’t say anything in response. He pulled away first and returned to the car without looking back at me. I stood there and watched as he drove away, feeling a heavy weight settle uncomfortably on my shoulders.

And I was suddenly tired.

I just wanted my bed and Lia close to me as I tried to chase a few hours of sleep, and that was all.