8
Michael
“The hell are you up to, Stronzo?”
I don’t look up from the screen. The camera is pointed at the bed in the center of the room. More specifically, at the woman sleeping on it. She hasn’t moved since we arrived on my island a few hours ago. I’d left it to my men to escort her there. She’d tried to speak with them and they’d ignored her…as they had been instructed. They hadn’t looked at her, or met her gaze-they knew the consequences of disobeying my orders. She’d glanced around the room, walked up to the window, which was open… And I knew what she’d see-sheer drop to the ocean below. Her shoulders had sagged, and she’d flounced around, examined every corner of the room, before she’d staggered to the bed and thrown herself on it. She’d fallen asleep in seconds, like the child that she is.
Except, when it had come to sucking my dick…she’d known her way around that particular appendage. Or bringing herself to climax… Should I be insulted that she jacked off to me? I tighten my fingers into fists. It should have been my fingers, my lips, my cock on which she came… If I let her… Which I won’t. Not for a while. She’ll have to pay for the mistakes she made me commit. Once I figure out exactly what I am going to do with her.
“You lose your tongue along with your ability to think coherently?” Luca prowls into the room.
My brother can be a pain in the ass at the best of times. And right now, when he is in a foul mood… Which, admittedly, he is entitled to, considering I had broken the one pact we had strictly adhered to since purchasing this island-no women. It’s a hideout, which only our closest famiglia know about, and a few of our associates…. And strictly on a need-to-know basis.
“Maybe it’s your balls that are bothering you?” Luca smirks. “No, now wait, did you replace your brain with your dick? Is that why you brought her…here?”
I draw in a breath, stare at the sleeping figure. She hadn’t stirred in the last-I glance at my watch-in the last half an hour. She’s okay, right? I lean in closer to the screen. Breathe Beauty, breathe for me. Her chest rises and falls. My shoulders slump. The tension drains, leaving…a strange tightness in my chest.
“No, don’t tell me, maybe she has a magic pussy or something?” Luca murmurs, “That why you can’t take your gaze off of her?
My left eyelid twitches. How dare he talk about her in that tone? And what the hell is wrong with me that I am taking this entire conversation so personally? It’s no different from how my siblings and I kid each other all the time.
I push back from the table so fast that my chair screeches against the floor. “Or something,” I keep my voice casual.
“You don’t fool me, fratellone.” There’s a sly edge to his voice. “Clearly, she means something to you.”
“You’re right about that.”
“I am?”
“She’s an asset, one who will help me claim what’s rightfully mine.”
“The title of the Don?”
“That too.” I smirk. It’s no secret that I am ambitious, that I want to become the next Boss of Cosa Nostra. But that’s assuming our current Don decides, at some point, to retire. Not that I am in a hurry, but every step I take is calculated to get me there. Except her.
She’s the wild card. The one that came into my possession by chance, and now I am figuring out the best way to play her.
“That’s wise,” Luca nods. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I-” he nods his chin toward the screen, “tried my luck with her?”
Red tints my vision. Only when my fingers hurt, do I realize that I’ve crossed the floor and have hauled him up by his collar.
“So, it’s like that, huh?” One side of his lips curls, the expression so similar to mine. His gaze narrows, calculating. He glances past me at the screen, then back to my face. “You want me to guess, or you going to come clean about her?”
Her? There is no her. She’s a prisoner… She belongs to me and her fate is mine to decide. Period. I release him. He doesn’t move. I pivot, walk to the bar in the corner of the room, pour myself a whiskey.
“Want one?” I pour without waiting for his reply. Then walk back and offer it to him.
“She’s mine.” I declare.
His eyebrows shoot up. “Oh?”
I toss back the drink. It burns its way down my throat. My stomach clenches. My dick hurts. Porco Giuda! This entire sequence of events since I’d heard her voice those fucking words is…a nightmare. Confusing. And that’s not something I am used to dealing with. I have to convince myself she means nothing… More importantly, I have to ensure that Luca’s attention is focused away from her.
“Mine to leverage,” I clarify.
“She’s better off if you kill her.”
My guts twist. The thought of her not breathing, not sighing, not mouthing off at me, as she’s done so often since we met… No, I have to convince him that it doesn’t matter either way to me.
“She has her uses,” I drawl. “I plan to use her to get the Seven to back off from enquiring after the Mafia.”
I prowl back to the bar, pour myself another drink.
“Only…” Luca murmurs and I stiffen, cap the bottle of Macallan.
I raise the glass, wet my lips with the dram. Rich cloves and the taste of ginger spices explodes on my tongue. As lush as figs, as moist as her cunt will surely be. I tighten my fingers around the glass. “Only?” I turn.
“That’s not your style. Are you planning something that you’re not letting me in on?”
“Would I ever do that?” I tilt my head.
“Only all the time.” He chuckles, “We may stop the Seven from coming after us right now, but it’s only a matter of time before they resume their efforts.”
“What if I find a way to buy us time, on a more permanent basis?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if I secure an alliance with the Seven?”NôvelDrama.Org owns all content.
“They’d never agree to it.”
“Not unless they don’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean?” He tilts his head.
I hold his gaze, and his forehead clears, “Ah, I see.” He rolls his shoulders, “You mean to-” he jerks his chin toward the screen.
“I am thinking of it,” I murmur slowly.
“Of course, you’d be killing two birds with one stone. Alliances which help further our business are not new.” Luca strokes his chin, “But in this case, you’d be sleeping with the enemy, literally.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“Not that she is hard on the eyes or anything.”
I growl low in my throat and Luca throws up a hand, “Fine, I’ll back off. But you know it’s risky. What if the Seven don’t agree to it? After all, money is a powerful motivation. More important than saving the life of a loved one, sometimes.”
“What if I don’t give them a choice?”
“You mean wed her and bed her first, and then take her help in winning them over to your side?”