Page 3

CHAPTER 3

Alessandro

E leven years ago.

“I’m out of ammo, Ale.”

Ignoring Pasquale calling me that stupid nickname, I turn my head to see him waving his gun limply. He knows I don’t like it, and that’s exactly why he still uses it. Brothers are the most aggravating subspecies of humans.

I lean my head back and squeeze my eyes shut, my mind racing. “I have one bullet left.”

“I hope you’re saying your last prayer because I don’t see us making it out of this.”

“Shut up, Pas,” I snap. “We’re not dying. At least not here and not now. I’m thinking. Give me a minute.”

A bullet wheezes past my shoulder, and I shift closer to Pasquale.

“Fuck these Russians,” he snarls. “Do you think backup is coming?”

I snort. “We’re on our own here, man.”

“Don’t these assholes run out of ammo?”

He sounds so disgruntled that a laugh slips past my lips. “Not when they have a whole crate of it behind them, which is why we’re going to have to draw them away from their source.”

Grey eyes narrow at me. “I’m afraid to ask how.”

I smirk at him. “Scared?”

“Shaking in my boots,” he replies in a drab voice.

“In three, we’re going to make a run for it, or at least that’s what we want them to think. We’re going to circle back to that truck and get weapons.”

Pas groans. “You’re going to get us killed.”

I shrug. “Would you rather sit here till they grow balls and get closer?”

He drops his head back against the wall and groans. “Fine.”

“Take the left, and I’ll take the right.” I gesture behind me. “And Pas, don’t you dare die.”

He shoots me a small smile, and then we press our heads together briefly, two nineteen-year-olds trying to be brave even with the dead bodies of their mates littering the docks.

“One…two…three,” I count.

And then we’re running faster and harder than we’ve ever run in our lives. For the next hour, all I hear is the sound of blood rushing in my ears and gunshots ringing around the warehouse until the last of the Russians is bleeding out on the floor.

I eye the shoulder Pasquale is clutching. “Are you alright?”

He grimaces, his face pale. “I think that’s enough excitement for the year.”

I huff. “Let’s go home and get that shoulder looked at, brother.”

As I make to walk past him, he grabs me by the arm, halting me. “You saved our ass back there.”

I shrug. “One of us has to become a capo, and we can’t do that if we’re dead, can we?”

Pas huffs. “I guess not.”

“It’s you and me in this,” I say, my voice coming out somber. “You’ve got my back, and I’ve got yours.”

Pasquale holds out his hand, and I clasp it firmly in mine.

“Let’s get out of here,” I tell him.

An incessant beeping snaps me out of my reverie, and I open my eyes and blink at the monitor in front of me. My gaze shifts to the flashing intercom machine on my desk, and I tap the button.

“Boss,” one of my men’s voices says, “Dayna’s here.”

I lean back in my chair. “Send her in.”

“Yes, boss.”

My mind isn’t on the blonde bombshell that’s currently stepping into an elevator that will bring her to my penthouse apartment, though. It’s stuck in the past, stuck on Pasquale.

Some days, it feels like his memory is slowly being eroded from my soul, but on other days, he haunts me.

My fingers curl into fists, and my jaw clenches. I promised I would always have his back, and yet…I let them take him away from me. I failed my brother.

And I continued to fail him as time went by without getting revenge on those who had wronged him.

But vengeance is finally at my fingertips, and I’m going to stop at nothing to bring down the man who is responsible for making me fail Pasquale.

My gaze shifts to the monitor and takes in the woman at the corner of the screen, the woman I’m watching on the secret cameras I installed in her house.

Sienna D’Addario, or Sienna Marino, is the daughter of my enemy and the woman who, for a brief moment, made me lose all my senses.

She is far too beautiful for her own good. It’s a pity she’s going to end up as a pawn in my mission of vengeance.

I have to applaud Ivan for doing a tremendous job of keeping his weaknesses well hidden. He really made me work for it.

I watch her settle at her tiny dining table with a cup of tea and a book. For someone so young and so achingly beautiful, she spends far too much time at home. I know this because I’ve done little more than watch her for the past few days.

Even under threat of death, I will never admit that watching her has become an obsession.

I should let my men handle this, but I tell myself this revenge is personal, so I have to be hands-on with every part of it.

Bloody liar , my subconscious mocks me.

A soft knock reaches me, and I raise my head to see Dayna at my door, wearing a coy smile. From the top of her slicked-back blonde hair to the red strappy heels on her feet, every inch of her drips with sexual promise.

“Alessandro,” she purrs, “I’ve missed you. I can’t believe you didn’t even bother to call.”

And then she undoes the button that holds her mink coat closed and shrugs it off her shoulder, leaving her wearing nothing but that smile.

My cock stirs in my pants, and I spread my legs a little to give it room.

“Dayna,” I say, “do you need something?”

She gives me a hurt look that’s as fake as the rest of her. “Is that what we are to each other, darling? Just people who show up when they need something from each other? I’m offended.”

“Well, I’m not one to care if I offend you or not, now, am I?”

“I hate when you do that,” she whines. “You’re so heartless, baby. It’s not like I’m trying to entrap you or anything.”

We both know she wishes to become more than a hookup, and one of these days, I’ll finally have to remove her from my life…or at least from my bed.

But that day isn’t today.

“Quit your whining, Dayna. Come and show me how much you’ve missed me,” I command.

The blonde doesn’t waste any time crossing the room, sashaying toward me with her pupils blown with lust.

She drops to her knees in front of me, settling between my spread thighs. Red-manicured fingers slide from my knees up to my belt buckle, and she makes quick work of it.

“I have been dreaming about this for days,” she pants. “Salivating over the memory of your fat cock sliding past my lips.”

All while my memory assaults me with scene upon scene of the brother I had been too impotent to save. The heat that had begun to rise inside me flickers out just as quickly as it had come, and I’m left with the urge to toss Dayna out.

With a smirk, she pulls my flagging cock out, and delight lights up her eyes. She likes a challenge as much as I do.

Eagerly, she palms me, expert hands running up and down my length until my nagging failure is pushed to the very back of my mind, and I’m rock hard in her grasp.

“God, Alessandro,” she sighs, “I can’t wait to have this monstrous cock split me in two. You always give it to me exactly how I want it.”

“Less talking,” I grit out, my hand digging into the back of her head and pushing her down on my pulsing member.

Her painted red lips part, and I’m immediately surrounded by the wet heat of her mouth. She lets out a throaty moan.

Dayna doesn’t want it easy, so I don’t go easy on her. My hand tightens in her hair, and I begin to move her head up and down, pushing as deep into her as I can go.

She takes my cock hungrily, moaning around me and letting me slide into her throat. Saliva pools and flows out of her mouth, and tears run down her eyes, trailing mascara down her cheeks.

“Fuck!” I grunt. “That’s it. Take it.”

Her moans get louder as I drive into her over and over again. Then, when I feel myself reaching my orgasm, I pull her off.

Her eyes are half-lidded, and her face is a mess. Just how I like it.

I rise to my feet, dragging her along, and then position her over my desk, her breasts pressing on the cool wooden surface with one leg planted on the floor and the other drawn up beside her on the desk.

Like this, she’s completely bared to me, and my cock jerks at the sight of her dripping pink pussy.

I line my cock up with her entrance and push into her.

“Argh!” she screams as I fill her with one hard thrust.

She arches her back, pushing against the fullness. “It’s too big, oh God. Alessandro, stop. I can’t take it. I can’t.”

It’s the game Dayna likes to play. She likes to pretend she’s some innocent virgin being taken against her will by the big, bad monster.

But today, I’m in no mood for her games.

“Shut up,” I snarl. “Make one more sound, and I’ll throw you out on your ass.”

Her body goes still in surprise, but I don’t let her start whining about me being mean. Instead, I press a palm flat against the center of her back and use the leverage to slam into her even harder.

She starts to scream.

“Not a sound,” I growl. “Fist in your mouth, now!”

I wait for her to obey my order before I push into her again. She can, of course, tell me to stop anytime she wants, but she likes this, no matter how much she likes to pretend otherwise.

My hips repeatedly snap as I pound into her brutally. And then I make the mistake of glancing up, and my eyes meet hers—Sienna’s.

Sienna’s big, hazel eyes stare out from the monitor, and I jolt for a second, thinking she’s found the live camera. That is until I see she’s just trying to get a book from the top of the shelf where the camera is.

She’s biting her lip again, and there’s paint on her jaw.

I forcefully tear my eyes away, my heartbeat kicking up a notch. Trailing my hands down Dayna’s back to her ass, I squeeze the flesh angrily.

My next thrust has her screaming, my fury searching for an outlet.

“Oh God, Alessandro,” she cries out.

Ivan destroyed me by ripping my brother away, and now, I’m going to destroy him by taking away what he loves most. I’m going to watch him go insane, just like I’d done.

There is nothing worse for a man than failing to protect the people under their care. When I’m done with Ivan, he’ll be nothing but a husk of a man wrecked by grief and helplessness.

Satisfaction flows through me like a hum of electricity, and a smile plays on my mouth.

I hope you’re watching, brother.

“Please, please!” Dayna pleads.

I nudge her legs further apart and continue my relentless pace, making her body rock against the table.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Dayna exclaims.

For some reason, my gaze snaps back to Sienna. She’s staring right at me, or at least that’s what it feels like.

Her tongue swipes over her lower lip, and I come undone.

The orgasm that bursts through me causes me to blackout for a second as the whole world dissolves into a kaleidoscope of colors. When it all comes rushing back, Sienna has her back to me, and I wonder if I imagined all of it.

“Holy damn.” Dayna chuckles. “That was really something. I need a truckload of whatever drug you’re on.”

I don’t want to think about the fact that I had Ivan D’Addario’s daughter on my mind for those last few minutes.