His: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Citrione Crime Family) Page 14

A slender wisp of a woman helped me find the right sizes and styles for my preferences, and she leads us to a counter when I’ve finished looking. She rings up the items and calmly says that the total is $4,703.27. My mouth hangs open and I take Vince’s forearm. “I’m sorry. I can find something more reasonable, that’s—”

  Vince winks at me and then swipes his heavy black credit card like he’s paying for a pack of gum. He signs the receipt, takes my bag, and motions for me to follow him. I don’t know what to say for a while, so I just walk beside him in stunned silence, occasionally stealing glances at him to see if he’s actually mad, but just trying to hide it. He really looks like he doesn’t care.

  The next few hours really are like something out of a dream. I lose track of how much he spends on me, and I quickly realize that money really means nothing to him. His cocky smirk never falters and he doesn’t stop pulling me to his side protectively every chance he gets. He even sneaks into one of the dressing rooms in a busy store and fingers me until I cum so hard I have to clap a hand to my mouth to avoid making a scene. By the time the sun is setting, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much and I feel good. Better than I’ve felt in a long time. Even knowing I still need to find a way to tell Aria I’m okay and find a way to fix things with my dad, this feels really good. In the back of my mind, I feel a creeping sort of sadness, an almost grim certainty that something this good can’t last, that it won’t last. I look at him as the red light of sunset catches all the perfection of his features and know that I can’t keep him. He may think he wants me now, but he’ll get bored, or whatever happened in his world to supposedly make me safe will fall apart.

  “What is it, doll?” he asks as we both eat cheeseburgers from Bill’s Burger Bar in the Rockefeller center. I was surprised when Vince suggested it, because I assumed he must be on a really strict diet to look so good. Apparently he just has good genes. Not fair at all. But I’m definitely not complaining.

  We’re outside, sitting on a bench as crowds of people mull by, some hand-in-hand as they take in the sights and others are just going from point A to point B. The sunset brought a chill with it, so I’m cuddled close to him and enjoying the warmth of his body. I feel strange knowing that the bags beneath the bench have thousands of dollars worth of clothes inside, but I doubt anyone is going to dare trying something with a guy like Vince around. I just want to make sure we don’t forget them.

  “It’s nothing,” I say. I try to sound convincing. The last thing I want is to scare him off with some self-conscious bullshit about my insecurities, even if they are probably spot-on.

  He frowns, setting his burger down in the styrofoam container. He thinks for a moment and then smirks, sliding his arm around me as easily as if he had been doing it his whole life. I lean into him, feeling a sudden rush of emotion that I wish I could push down. When the sex was all that drew me to him, I could really think about walking. Now he’s starting to get to me in other ways, too. I could just sit like this all night, enjoying his closeness and the way he only has eyes for me, even when beautiful women in revealing outfits pass us. A few women have even tried to get his attention, but he brushed them aside like gnats. The way he has an ease about him, like the rules and limitations of mere mortals don’t apply to him, like money is just some arbitrary thing regular people have to worry about. It would be so easy to fall into this life, to blind myself to what he really does and who he really is.

  “How about this,” says Vince. “I’ll let you ask me one more question, but you’ve got to answer my question first.”

  I look at him skeptically. “How do I know you’ll answer?”

  He looks genuinely offended. “I keep my word.”

  I bite my lip. “Fine. Go ahead and ask. But you had better answer my question.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  I can’t help laughing a little. “That’s a pretty broad question. Where do I even start?”

  “Wherever you want.”

  “I just…I don’t see this lasting. We’re too different. You’re too dangerous and I’m too…me. It feels like we’re walking on the edge of a cliff, like one wrong step is going to get both of us killed.”

  He smirks. “That’s all?”

  “What do you mean that’s all? I’m saying this is scary. I don’t know how it’s going to end.”

  “You’re not supposed to. That’s the point.”

  I shake my head. “It’s not that simple.”

  He pulls me close until his breath rasps in my ear. “It’s me, and it’s you. It’s that fuckin’ simple.”

  I still don’t think it’s that easy, but there’s a certainty in his words and a finality to them that brings me at least a little comfort. It’s also sweet that he used his one question to find out what was bothering me, not to pry for his own curiosity.

  “Ok, my turn,” I say.

  He leans back, threading his fingers behind his neck. “All right. Let’s get this over with.”

  “What do you really do? For a living I mean.”

  “I knew that was coming. Well, I do a lot of things. You saw plenty when we first met. I take bets, make them, enforce payouts, skim off the top, you name it, really. I’ve got a nose for money and I’m smarter than the suits who try to pin me down on charges. That’s pretty much it.”

  I purse my lips. “Do you hurt people?”

  “That’s two questions,” he says with a grin.

  I glare at him, but he doesn’t relent. “C’mon. It’s getting too cold for you to be out here without a jacket. Let’s get home.”

  “Vince?” I ask.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can we stop by my friend’s house and my dad’s place now? I really need to make sure they’re okay.”

  He searches the sky, pursing his lips. “Not quite yet.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean what it sounds like I mean. Not yet.”

  It’s hard being around him sometimes. Part of me loves the way he thinks he can get his way so easily, and the other wants to rage and fight back against his arrogant confidence that I’ll just do what he says without question.

  I don’t have time to brew on it, because Vince’s body goes rigid. I look to him and see he’s staring intensely at a larger man wearing a thick jacket. The man has a few day’s worth of stubble on his cheeks and looks like he might be Italian. The way Vince is looking at him makes me suddenly sure that the man is a threat to us.

  “Who is he?” I ask.

  “Come with me,” says Vince, not taking his eyes from the stranger. He stands abruptly, pulling me roughly behind him through 5th Avenue and into a side street.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Quiet,” he says, still pulling me by the arm as he pulls his cell phone out with the other hand. He makes a few quick taps with his thumb and puts the phone to his ear. “Yeah. Need a crew. 5th Avenue moving toward 200.”

  I turn around and see the guy still following us. We take another corner and I lose track of where we are. We work our way behind a store and into a deserted alleyway. Vince pushes me against a dumpster and motions for me to stay quiet. He reaches into his pants and pulls out a knife. It catches the still fading sunlight and glints bright orange, nearly blinding in the darkness of the alley. He puts his back to the wall near the corner and waits.

  I hear footsteps. They get louder until the man in the coat steps into view, walking quickly. Vince rushes him, using his forearm to push the guy into the wall. He points the knife at the man’s chest and leans forward, looking so angry that it scares me, he looks like he’s mad enough to kill. It gives me chills and makes me think twice about the criminal with the heart of gold I was starting to let myself think he was.

  “Who sent you?” asks Vince.

  “Fuck you.”

  Vince’s hand is a blur and I hear a wet punching sound. The man clutches his stomach where Vince stabbed him. Holy shit. Vince just stabbed him like that?

  “Don’t test me, you fat fuck.”


  “You fuckin’ stabbed me? You crazy piece of shit,” says the man, lifting the palm he’s holding to his stomach and looking at the blood like he doesn’t believe what he sees. “You fuckin’ stabbed me.”

  “And I’ll stab you as many fuckin’ times as I need to for you to start talking.”

  “Wait, wait. Okay? Shit,” he says, looking down at his stomach again. The blood is flowing freely and his face is already growing pale. “You fuckin’ stabbed me.” His words are breathy, full of shock.

  “We’ve covered that.” Vince places the knife point over the man’s chest. “Tell me I stabbed you one more time and watch what happens.”

  “Okay, okay. Andre Anastasio. He sent me.”

  Vince drives the knife into the man’s heart. The fat man’s eyes widen and he looks down at the knife for a few seconds before slumping to the ground, lifeless and bloody. “Fuckin’ rat.” Vince spits on the man’s corpse.

  I feel coldness seeping through my bones. When Vince turns to grab me again, his face is like fire, it’s full of darkness and hate. It scares me. He reaches for my hand and I see the blood on his fingers. I shake my head, backing away. “No,” I say.

  “Aubriella…” his voice is cold. It’s iron. “Don’t test me right now.”

  I keep backing up until I bump against the wall. He moves in until he’s right against me.

  “You need to do exactly what I say, right now. Do I make myself clear?”

  25

  Vincent

  Once I have the cleanup crew arranged, I get Aubriella the fuck out of there. It was sloppy of me, I know it was. We have certain places where fixes are in place with the cops to keep them off our back. They’ll overlook certain things as long as we pad their pockets. I don’t have a single fuckin’ fix out here, and I’d be gambling my life that whatever cop stumbled on me was willing to be bought.

  The cleaners are going to charge me out of the ass for this, too. I don’t really give a fuck though. Whoever he was, he was way out of line. We have two of the top Anastasio captains on the gun back at Pops’ place. The understanding was that any funny business meant their brains become swiss cheese. So what the fuck was an Anastasio doing tailing me?

  “You’re scaring me,” says Aubriella.

  “Don’t be scared, doll. No one is going to touch you while you’re with me. I don’t care who they are.”

  “That’s not what I’m scared of.”

  I meet her eye, but have to look away. I know she needs me to be calm and convince her that I’m not as mad or as dangerous as it might look. The truth is I am. I’m pissed as a bull and my blood is boiling. Only good pussy and killing get me this worked up.

  “Come on, I’m going to drop you off with your friend. You’ll be safe there. I’ll get a crew to watch the place.”

  “What?” she asks, struggling to keep up as I half-run back to the car.

  “I’ve got to end this, once and for all. I can’t have you tagging along. It’ll be too dangerous.” We push through a crowded section of the street until we reach my car, which has a ticket in the window for illegal parking. I rip the ticket free and toss it to the ground before helping Aubriella in the passenger side. I glance over my shoulder once and then get behind the wheel. The blood on my hands is still wet and smears all over the wheel. Aubriella is shaking, so I reach to put my hand on her forearm. The words of reassurance die in my throat when she pulls back, leaving us both to stare at the bloody handprint I left on her arm.

  Seeing it wrenches at my gut. I should promise to change for her, promise that I’ll leave behind all the violence and crime. I should, but I can’t. I can’t leave behind who I am, the best I can do is try to protect her from it. The first step is finally telling her what’s going on. At least some of it. “I pissed off the Anastasios a few years back. They killed my brother to get revenge, but they’ve never been happy with that. They want more. Now it looks like they’re willing to piss all over tradition to get me back. I need to end this, once and for all.”

  She swallows hard. “Will you be safe?”

  I squeeze her thigh. “I’m too pissed to die right now. Besides, I still owe you the night of your life back at my place.”

  “Vince, this is serious. I don’t want to joke about it.”

  “I’m not joking. You’re going to cum so hard you won’t know what day it is.”

  She finally grins a little, looking down and then reaching for my hands, but stopping short when she remembers they are soaked in blood. Her face is unreadable and her voice is quiet. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “I’m going to be ruthless. That’s all I can promise.”

  She bites her lip, hesitating before finally stretching over to hug me tight, ignoring the blood soaking through to her clothes. Her delicious scent fills my nose. I let myself picture what I’ll do to her when I have time. It’s strange, I’m normally happy to let women run away when they see the real me. That’s just how it goes. Either I fuck them and forget them, or they catch a glimpse of the monster inside of me and can’t find the door fast enough. Aubriella’s different. She’s afraid of me, I know she is, but she’s still here. Above all, I just want to keep her safe, but beneath that? I want to fuck her so good that she forgets to be scared, that she keeps coming back like I’m a drug. Is that really all I want? Fuck if I know. This girl has me second guessing myself, and I never do that.

  I park outside her friend’s apartment. Aubriella gives me a strange look.

  “I’m not even going to ask how you know where she lives.”

  “If knowing it helps keep you safe, I know it.”

  She sighs and leans forward to give me a quick kiss on the lips. The kiss is a little stiff and oddly mechanical, but I don’t read much into it. She’s probably just freaked after watching me gut that guy in the alley. A few minutes alone with her will smooth all the coldness out of her. I palm my hard dick. Just thinking about it makes me antsy. I want to get all this over with and get her back to my place to show her what real sex is like, none of that rushed shit we’ve had to make do with until now.

  I watch her jog up the steps to the apartment and let herself into the main stairwell. I watch for a few more minutes until I’m satisfied that no one was following her. Then I make the call I’ve been waiting to make.

  He picks up on the first ring. “Boss…” It’s Jimmy. He sounds shaken. Jimmy never sounds shaken.

  “Fill me in,” I say as I throw my BMW into drive and head for Pops’ house.

  “I can’t get into it over the phone. Can you come by the place?” He means the factory on 8th street that our cleanup crew uses to prepare bodies for disposal. Sometimes we use it for torture or planned hits, too.

  “Yeah.”

  I see Jimmy’s car outside the factory when I pull up a few minutes later. There’s another car, too, a silver Mercedes. It gives me a bad feeling, so I pull my piece from the glove compartment and grab a few extra clips. I rack the chamber with a heavy click and tuck the gun into the waistband of my pants before walking inside.

  I open the door. The huge ground floor of the factory is poorly lit, but Jimmy is sitting, bloody and tied to a chair in a shaft of dusty sunlight. As soon as he sees me, he widens his eyes and nods his head to my right. I take a reflexive step back just as a gunshot blasts my eardrums. Without waiting, I duck my head and charge the gunman. He grunts as I smash into him, firing his gun blindly a few more times before we fall to the ground in a chaotic heap. I pin him with my knees and a forearm to the neck. With my free hand, I pull my gun from my waistband and put two in his forehead. More gunshots pelt the wall beside me.

  “Fuck!” I shout, grabbing the man’s body and flipping it to cover me like a shield. I fire from behind him toward the muzzle flashes lighting the darkness. I feel the bullets tear into the corpse as I fire back. I down both of them and duck behind the corpse again.

  “How many?” I shout to Jimmy.

  “That was it,” he says. “We’re clear
, boss. Fuck.”

  I stand, checking myself to be sure I didn’t catch any lead. Jesus. My heart is beating out of my chest. I don’t bother asking Jimmy what happened, it’s clear enough. Someone got to him and used him to lure me in. My mind immediately moves past that and goes to Aubriella. I don’t think they would even know about her friend because I’ve been careful to keep them apart since she’s met me, but if they manage to lure her out…I realize with a sinking dread that I never gave her a phone. I’ll have to get her friends’ number and try to get through that way to warn her.

  “Do you still have your phone?” I ask.

  Jimmy shakes his head. “Busted. This is going to sound crazy, but one of ours is working with them. It has to be. We had three soldiers watching the captured capos and our guys all wound up dead, shot from close range, like it was someone they trusted. The capos are loose, too.”

  I clench my fists. “Who have you talked to since?”

  “Just your Pops. He went with a crew of our top capos and a few of the Jersey guys who were in town. They’re hiding out at the restaurant. Place is probably safer than the fuckin’ Pentagon right now.”

  “What about the women?”

  “Jack was taking them to his place.”

  “Have you heard from Frankie?” I ask, not sure exactly why I wanted to know about him specifically, but there’s an unease in my chest that makes me ask all the same.

  Jimmy shakes his head, looking thoughtful for a second, but neither of us have time to sit around and follow hunches. Aubriella is out there, alone. The adrenaline flooding my system is practically begging me to go hunt down every last Anastasio and fill them with lead. I can’t though. Not while she’s still out there. I need to find her and make sure she’s safe before anything else.

  “You good to roll?” I ask.

  Jimmy nods. He’s holding his ribs, but he looks like he could still squeeze the trigger, so I snag a gun from one of the nearby bodies and toss it to him. He pockets it and limps behind me as we move to my car.