Page 60 of My Solemn Vow (The Mafia Arrangement #1)

ANTONELLA

SHARP AND POINTY

“Hello.” Valor sounds so cruel with such an ordinary word.

Walking in behind him, I see what happens when Valor isn’t here to receive his ‘special shipments’ himself.

A captive, a nondescript, twentysomething male, is sitting in that cruel-looking chair.

He blinks against the harsh light and squints, quickly becoming more alert from what must have been a disappointing nap.

“Let me go! I didn’t do anything. I was to stay with the truck and shoot anyone who comes out. ”

“And that doesn’t seem a little bit problematic to you?” Valor flicks on a tablet, showing camera feeds of the house, and then retrieves paper from a printer and starts flipping through the pages.

“A job is a job, man. Guy paid us good money too. I got kids to feed.” He defends himself. “You get it.”

I take it he’s trying to talk to me.

“No. I don’t.” I shake my head. “Sexist to assume that.”

“And you don’t either. I can hear it in your voice.” Valor tsks condescendingly.

This Valor more aligns with the one Berto says to be afraid of. He hands me a page without looking at it.

Fred Smith. Lives with a roommate. Not communicating with his parents. One sister, lives in Washington. I skim the document... Valor is right. No kids. Can he tell if someone is lying based on tone of voice?

“The kids, not the money, that is.” Valor clarifies. He keeps reading a document but engages the twentysomething in almost casual conversation. “I understand the love of money, Frank. But you took the hit job from an unknown number to kill how many people? For what, a measly ten grand?”

“Fourteen, ten up front, four when the job’s complete, and that was just my cut,” Fred argues.

“My hit men don’t get out of bed to even hear about the mark for a penny less than twenty-five thousand.

That’s strictly consultation fees. That’s such an insult that even if I wanted to let you out of this basement alive, which I don’t, I couldn’t.

” Valor sets the papers on the table and then braces his hands against it, looking at the captive.

“This can go easily, you can tell me everything I want to know, you don’t get hurt at all, and then at the end, when you’ve given me all the information, I’ll kill you nice and painless. ”

“Fuck you!” Fred snaps.

“Awfully bold for someone strapped to a chair in arguably the creepiest basement in the suburbs,” I muse, stepping over to Valor and leaning against him.

Fred watches me like a hawk.

Valor stiffens as he notices. It has his arm snaking around me, holding me close to him.

I turn my head into his chest and murmur, “He may respond better to someone less assuming?”

Valor nods but moves my head away from his chest, kissing my lips, then my cheek, and whispering, “He might, but... I’ve another idea. Have you ever had an audience?”

A chill runs down my spine, ending at my pussy, which throbs with need. I’m already worked up from upstairs. Hearing him count every time I smarted off built my anticipation. Then to learn it’ll be the number of edges and orgasms he’ll bring me through was sexier than it had any right to be.

I clarify as quietly as I can. “Here, with him?”

I miss Valor’s warmth as he steps away to face Fred.

He gets up close and personal with him. “Listen, Fred. I like the hard way. My wife likes it when I start making you less and less comfortable until you’re in so much pain you’re begging to die.

The smell of blood and the sound of bones breaking is an ideal night for me.

You, fighting back... it’s almost like foreplay.

If you’d like to keep that attitude, go right ahead. Make our night.”

Valor is threatening a man, and I’m fucking lightheaded at the thought of how Valor will fuck me. I never considered having an audience. I didn’t like knowing that Marc and his shitty friends would be watching those videos he took of us in the locker room.

But Valor isn’t letting this man leave here alive. Valor and Royal hatched an evil genius plan to literally hunt down those tapes and make sure no one else can watch them again. How am I supposed to not fall in love with a man like Valor?

“Antonella,” Valor purrs. “Could you get something sharp and pointy to play with?”

I walk over to Valor’s tool cabinet and look at the shelves. Many implements are both sharp and pointy, but a shorter, curved knife draws my eye.

I bring it back to Valor and place it in his open hand.

“Cobbler’s knife. Good choice.” Valor praises me but looks at Fred with dismay.

“I’ll start with an easy question. If you answer honestly.

.. Antonella will take off a piece of clothing.

If you don’t...” His words hang in the air with the threat as he tips the knife. “Who contacted you for the job?”

Fred swallows hard and tries to fight in his chair. It doesn’t go well for him. Valor doesn’t repeat himself. He grabs hold of Fred’s hand and slices up, from the webbing of his thumb to the wrist.

The scream echoes around the room, and Valor waits for the noise to die before he tries a new question. “Is it someone you’re afraid of?”

“Listen, man. I just took a fuckin’ job,” Fred groans, his head rolling back and forth.

Valor doesn’t take mercy on him, slicing another line up from between his middle and second index finger.

Fred yowls, “The guy who hired us paid cash but did an in-person pickup with the lead of the crew.”

“See, Fred, was that so hard?” Valor scoffs.

He looks over his shoulder at me. His eyes are warm and focused. They turn that slightly yellow-gold color. The one that matches his wolf.

I grab hold of the waistband of my yoga pants I’m willing to sacrifice for this sort of work. They slide down my thighs, and I step out of them. My shirt is long, covering my underwear and ass completely.

Fred is hardly in a state to admire, but he does raise his head and look at me.

Valor sets the knife down on his workstation and comes to me.

“Seems like I owe you five edges and six orgasms,” Valor says loudly enough for Fred to hear.

He fists his fingers into my hair and moves me, forcing me forward, then around to the table, where I’m well within view of Fred as Valor shoves me down against it.

I close my eyes, the feeling of being manhandled raising my heart rate. The white underwear I’m wearing surely has a wet spot from the arousal I’ve been trying to crush all night.

Valor pulls my panties down, exposing my ass. “See how wet she is for me, Fred? My wife is hot from watching you get tortured. If you tell me everything you know quickly... you won’t suffer. I’ll let you watch before I kill you. You can get to watch her come all over my cock.”

Effortlessly, Valor pushes his fingers into my pussy.

The feeling builds between my legs, and I try to hold off my growing desire, but Valor scolds me.

“I can feel you clenching on my fingers. You’re close.

If you come without permission... I’ll triple the eleven you’ve earned and take it out on your ass with my hand and belt. ”

“Oh, fuck,” I whisper.

“You two are sick fucks,” Fred murmurs.

Valor laughs, full and deep from his belly. “Don’t think I can’t see your hard-on. You think we’re sick fucks, but you’re the one being tortured and you still want to fuck her.” Valor brings his hooded gaze to the hand at my pussy as he strokes my inner walls. “Which... I can’t say I blame you.”

Valor withdraws his hand from me, and I look over my shoulder at him. With heated eye contact and a smirk, he swipes his tongue out, licking away my arousal. “Mmmmm.”

When Valor steps away, I push myself up from the table and exhale a shuddering breath. My shirt falls, and I pull my underwear back in place.

The loss of Valor’s touch is a blessing because it stops the growing orgasm. Maybe. The release from his hand on my ass was unique. I felt free. Would the belt be the same?

He heads over to his tool cupboard. “Who was your crew leader?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Fred snaps back.

“You don’t know who your crew leader is?” Valor looks at me, and we share the same ‘what the actual fuck’ look between us.

“All I know is that he calls himself Viper, and he sets these kinda jobs up from time to time.” Fred panics, talking more as Valor goes back to looking through his tool cupboard. “I know he said he met with a guy. Viper said the guy — ”

Valor turns, coming back with another tool I had considered. It’s more of a punch of some nature.

“He said the guy looked like a typical businessman, suit all done up, graying hair, older guy. Apparently had big money, which is why he could pay a crew so much.” Fred’s words come out in rapid fire.

“Did Viper mention this guy’s name?” Valor growls. He pushes the implement against Fred’s hand.

I look away as Valor works. Only hearing Fred’s yowling.

“I don’t know. All he said was old white guy.”

“Where is Viper?”

“Dead. I heard on the radio before you grabbed me. Someone said, ‘They shot Viper.’ I’m betting the guys are wondering how we’re gonna get paid. Please.”

“I believe you,” Valor tells him. “But if you don’t know his name, then you’re not useful to me. We’ll find Viper and his things without you.”

“No,” Fred whines.

With my back to them, I can only make out Fred’s barely understandable begging and whatever Valor is doing to torture him further.

“There, now you’ll get to bleed out nice and slow while I take great care of my wife.”

Valor’s footsteps draw closer to me.

He sets the implement far away from me before drawing my face to look at him instead of the table and his ‘tool.’ “It’s okay to not enjoy the same bloodlust the way I do. You’re perfect nonetheless.”

Perfect. I can’t even stop my stupid heart from fluttering.

Fred groans. Whatever Valor did to him didn’t kill him.

“Moderately slow bleeding out,” Valor explains. “I wanted to give him a little time to watch as I fucked you over my workbench. I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long. Never thought I’d have a woman so willing to walk down here with me. ”

“Is it funny that I lose confidence when it actually comes to the killing?” I force myself to glance over at Fred, but Valor guides my chin back to him before I get to look that far.

“No, princess. I’ll make a killer out of you yet. But not today.” His words are spoken with the same admiration one would promise undying love or affection.

It awakens something deep in my soul, and I rise up to my toes and kiss him. Valor lets it happen. He’s sweet and tender as he kisses me back.

I’ve fallen in love with him, and while I’m sure that thought will never be reciprocated, nor will it be voiced to the world, it doesn’t change how I feel. Valor Cavanagh is exactly the kind of man I was made for, and I’ll live or die by his side.