Fractured Devotion (Anastasi Family Syndicate)

Chapter 9

I stood watchingas the fighters took their place alongside the ring. A murmur of shock filtered through the crowd as spectators spoke of Oleg Drosky’s death. To the world, Drosky died in a drug deal gone bad—but I knew it wasn’t drugs that killed him. It was her.

The Angel of Mercy.

Massimo has used his contact with the police department to get details of the crime scene. Just as we expected, Drosky had been stabbed, or rather, filleted. His nearly severed cock had resulted in him bleeding out—but not before the stab wound to his throat had sped up the process. Vincenzo had been acting weird since the news of Drosky’s murder, but no one could get an explanation out of him.

Now… we all gathered around the venue, waiting and watching for things to play out. Ryker was a ball of nerves as he readied himself to fight Kronos Kreiten, Drovsky’s prized fighter. We were shocked that he didn’t pull out when his boss’s body was discovered, but we suspect that had more to do with Lipovsky than loyalty.

“I’m going to check out a few places.” I nodded toward the hallway behind the ring.

Massimo nodded his head. “Be careful. We still don’t know where Andrei is. Last thing we need to do is tip Lipovsky off because you spooked his second.”

“I’ll avoid him if I see him. I’m more interested in the woman he’s been parading around.”

Leaving him to watch the event, I headed down the back hallway to where the fighters waited. I’d barely made it to the end when I caught Andrei in a heated exchange with a woman outside one of the rooms. He said something to her before turning back to the room and slamming the door, locking her out in the corridor alone. She balled her fists and slammed them into the closed door before turning on her heel and heading in my direction.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I eased my back into a vacant room and waited in the doorway. As soon as she stepped past me, I reached out and tugged her against my chest.

“Shh, don’t scream,” I murmured, my hand over her mouth. We stumbled into the room, and I kicked the door shut.

In a surprising twist, she used her momentum to bring us both to the ground. She moved quickly, positioning herself on top of me. Our eyes locked, and her shock was palpable.

“How?” she gasped, staring as if I were a phantom from her past.

“Carmela?” The name escaped me in a whisper, my fingers instinctively seeking the familiar line of her jaw.

Her hand snapped up, capturing my wrist. “You can’t be here. You can’t be alive.”

“I’m here… I’m alive, baby.” I insisted, and in one fluid movement, I switched our positions, pinning her beneath me. Her eyes, wide with disbelief, met mine as I held her steady. “I’m real, Carmela,” I said, pressing my erection into her core to prove my point.

“Let me up.” She bucked against me. “I can’t do this… you… I…” She closed her eyes.

“I’m not moving. Not until you tell me why you stayed away.”

In a move that proved she was no longer the woman I remembered, she had me on my back again.

“I thought you were dead.”

“If you’d come home—or hell called—you’d have learned I was very much alive, at least physically.”

She squeezed her eyes shut again. Her thighs clenched around my waist. Her lids lifted, and she held my gaze. It was like she was at war with herself—part of her wanted to remember her life before… and the other part wished I wasn’t lying beneath her on the ground.

“This isn’t the reunion I pictured,” I mumbled.

The intensity of the moment shattered as if struck by a cold, unseen force, snapping Carmela out of the shared trance. With a surge of adrenaline, she untangled herself from me and rose to her feet. I followed suit, my hand outstretched, yearning to bridge the gap between us, but she halted me with a firm gesture.

“No… don’t,” she implored, her voice quivering as her hand trembled in the air between us. “Don’t touch me.” Her words, a whispered barrier, held me frozen in place.

“Please, Carmela.” The plea tumbled from my lips. “Every night, every silent plea to the heavens was for this—for another opportunity to feel the warmth of your skin… to hold you… hell, to kiss you.”

“I’m not the same girl, Alex. I’ve done things…” Her hand clenched at her temple, the very picture of torment. “You were supposed to be dead.” Each word was punctuated by the fall of another tear, her anguish palpable in the room.

“I don’t give a fuck, Carmela. You did what you needed to do to stay alive.” I took a step toward her. “There’s nothing you can say that will make me stop loving you.”

Her face contorted into a sneer. “I’ve fucked men to get information, Alex. Allowed them to use my body just to lead me here—to this very moment.” Her words stung a sharp pang that made me recoil, a movement that didn’t go unnoticed. “Yeah… now you get it, don’t you? I’m exactly what they made me… a whore.”

“God damn it, Carmela.”

She shook her head and backed herself toward the door. “I love you—I’ll always love you—but I’m tainted and ruined. Had I known…” She swallowed, a mask of indifference falling over her features. “I’m with Andrei Sloski now. I can’t be the woman you need or want anymore.”

Stepping into her space, I pressed her against the wooden barrier. After months of wrestling with her absence, contending with the void where she used to be, here she stood—so real, so close. Her words unleashed a storm of suppressed rage within me. She seemed to brandish her words like daggers, aiming for my weaknesses, and with each utterance, she found her mark.

Emotions clashed within me—desire mingled with fear, relief tangled with the remnants of grief. All of it surged forward, propelling me as I pressed her more firmly against the door than I’d intended. My fingers wrapped around her throat, tight enough that I could feel her pulse beneath my fingers. I leaned in close, my lips hovering at her ear.

“Is that what you like? To be treated like a whore? Or maybe you’ve forgotten what it’s like to feel me buried between your legs.”

My hands went to her ass and lifted her from the ground. Carmela’s legs wrapped around my hips, giving me access to press my painfully hard dick against her center. She gasped as I rubbed my cock against her pussy. I hated that I was treating her like the whore she claimed she was, but I was lost to the rage boiling in my veins.

“Do you love Andrei?” I whispered against her lips.

“I told you I did whatever it took to get what I want.”

“And you want Lipovsky dead so much, so you’d sell your soul to the devil?”

“I have no soul,” she hissed as I pressed into her again.

“Does it feel like this when Andrei shoves his cock inside you, Carmela?”

“Alex…” She clawed at my back. “Don’t do this… please… I’m sorry.”

“Tell me, Carmela,”—ripping away her panties, I quickly freed my dick from my pants—“does he fuck you like I can?” I shoved myself inside her as I took her mouth in a bruising kiss.

Biting down on her bottom lip, she cried out. “Please… not like this.”

“I don’t care what you’ve done, Carmela… I don’t care how many cocks you’ve taken inside this sweet cunt. All I care about is that you’re not dead.” I pulled out and slammed back inside her channel. “Fuck, baby.” I glanced down to where I was buried inside her. “Look at how we fit together, Carmela, and tell me you don’t belong to me.”

“Alex…” She clenched her eyes shut as her tears streamed down her face. Her pussy convulsed around my shaft as I pounded into her.

“You might be fucking Andrei… but you’ll always be mine. Now, yesterday, tomorrow. No more running, Carmela.”

Her body tensed, and her nails burrowed into my back as her walls clamped down around my shaft. She cried out from the orgasm that stole her breath as I continued to thrust into her, burying my dick as deep as I could go. With one last jerk, I painted her womb with my cum. Releasing my hold on her, Carmela’s legs dropped to the ground, my softened cock slipping out of her as I tried to catch my breath.

Pushing away from me, Carmela darted under my arm. Regaining my senses, I turned and reached out to touch her. “Carmela?—”

“Don’t.” She slapped my hand away. “I thought you were dead… the last nine months, the only thing keeping me on this earth was the need for vengeance for that bastard taking the only man I ever loved. Never in a million years did I consider that you might have survived that fall, Alex. And now, by some miracle, you’re here, and you treated me no different from the men I’ve used. The men who think I’m nothing but a whore. The same men whose lives I take to avenge the man I thought I lost.” She stepped around me and jerked open the door. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder,

“I wish you were dead. Because the pain I felt believing you died that day is nothing like the pain I feel in this very moment.”

The door slamming was like a gunshot to my chest. I couldn’t breathe, nor could I move. What the fuck had I just done? I’d just fucked the woman I loved like she was some kind of whore—like she wasn’t my everything.

“Fuck!” I bellowed into the empty room, fisting my hair.

Stuffing my dick back into my pants, I bent down and snatched up her torn panties. Shoving them into my pocket, I stormed out of the room. I’d barely made it down the hall when Vincenzo blocked my path.

“What the fuck did you do?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I tried to move around him, but he stepped in front of me.

“Carmela.” Her name on his lips snapped me from my thoughts.

Glancing at his face, I saw it—he knew she was alive.

“How long?”

Blowing out a breath, he replied, “Not long. I found her leaving Drosky’s hotel room.”

“Sofia was right—she’s the Angel of Mercy.”

“Yeah.” Vincenzo scrubbed his face. “I haven’t told the others.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Because I was going to tell you first, but it seems you’ve beaten me to the punch. So, I’ll ask again… What. Did. You. Do?”

“Fucked up. I let my anger take over and did something I’m not sure I can fix.”

Vincenzo narrowed his eyes at me. “She’s alive, so anything can be fixed.”

“I’m not sure… but that’s not going to matter if we let her do what she has planned.”

“And what exactly does she have planned?”

“She’s using Andrei to get to Lipovsky.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Fuck is right.” I sighed. “And I just pushed her into his arms faster.” Nodding toward the ring, “We need to stop Ryker from fighting. Andrei was in with Kronos. I can’t imagine it was a pep talk—at least not the kind Ryker is probably getting about now.”

Nodding his agreement, Vincenzo and I headed toward Ryker. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stop a fight from happening, but I damn sure wasn’t going to risk his wife winding up a widow. I might have completely fucked my chances with the woman I loved, but I wasn’t going to stand by and watch someone else lose the love of their life.

“Whatever it is, you did,”—Vincenzo gripped my shoulder—“it isn’t the end of the world. Carmela may have given up on hope, but you have enough for both of you. Don’t give up now, not when you’re this close to having your heart back.”

He was right. She might have given up on hope, but I hadn’t. I loved her enough for the both of us. Carmela might believe she had no heart, but she was wrong.

She had mine.