Chapter 28
The five of us are slumped onto couches in the dimly lit control room. The scent of whiskey is heavy in the air, the boys’ tumblers half-empty and the bottle nearly gone. I stopped after my first drink, needing my head clear. It’s been a long night, and I for one am ready for it to be over and for my boys to take me home to bed. But first, we have to deal with the piece of shit we’re watching on the monitor. Dr. Northgate.
Enzo and Valentina disappeared a couple of hours ago after a call from Sloane’s friend. For someone so powerful, he’s strangely manipulated very easily. And I have to wonder if that’s because he really has no idea his demise is evident. Years of controlling this town have him thinking he is immortal. But every man has his weaknesses and he’s no exception.
“One more round,” Dr. Northgate declares, desperately pushing his remaining chips into the center of the table, the tremble of his hand obvious even to the five of us through the monitor. He’s a man on the edge.
The man the other players have been calling Silver all night, looks him over with a discerning grin. They are the only remaining players. “If you’re sure.” Silver pushes his chips in, matching his bet.
I hold my breath. The suspense is too much. I already know exactly what’s going to happen. Dr. Northgate has been on and off calls all night. Every time he loses big, he makes a call and comes back with more chips. Someone is backing him. But from the way his crisp white shirt sticks to his back with perspiration, I know this is it. He’s out of options. He’s called in every last favor he can.
Ricky’s hand comes around my front, pulling me back into him, his lips brushing my earlobe. “I’m going to have to fuck you right now if you don’t stop squirming in my lap, baby doll,” he warns playfully, sending a tingle right through me that makes me groan.
I roll my hips over his lap, teasing him with slow, deliberate movements, just for fun. “You’re the one who made me sit on your lap.”
He bites into the fleshy part of my lobe. “Because I want to fuck you.” He chuckles darkly, sending a wave of goosebumps over my skin. And fuck, that’s what I want as well. I’m so on edge I need something to take away the anxiety.
“Didn’t you get enough last night?”
Maddox turns his head, a scowl twisting his features as he glares at our playful antics. Is he annoyed that we’re interrupting the tension or just pissed it’s not his cock I’m teasing?
I smirk at him, a mischievous glint in my eyes. “Sorry,” I mouth to him, knowing he’s trying to concentrate on the game. I slap Ricky’s chest. “Down, boy, we need to focus.”
Ricky’s hungry eyes meet mine in a look that makes me forget how important tonight is, and instead, I want to drop right down to the floor and beg to suck his cock. Fuck, this man does some wicked things to my head. Quickly, I avert my gaze so I don’t get trapped in his magnetic pull. But I don’t move off his lap. With the way my heart is racing, I need something to calm me down a little, and Ricky always knows just how to keep my anxiety at bay. Even if it is by playing around. His arms stretch around me, hugging me close.
The dealer plays the last card, and we watch the screen as Dr. Northgate registers what just happened. His face, etched with lines of utter devastation, speaks volumes of his immediate suffering. He’s lost it all to his opponent. Every damn cent he had to his name. And the extra he’s been borrowing all night.
Alex and Geovani, who have been watching through the screen, spin back to face us, sheer joy in all of their eyes. This is the moment we have been waiting for all evening. Alessandro closes the gap between us, taking hold of my face in both his hands. “You’re a sick fucking mastermind, princess,” he says, before plastering a kiss to my lips.
“He’s on his way up here.” Geovani chuckles with excitement.
I push off Ricky’s lap, my grin wide as I stand up, the sound of his chuckle still ringing in my ears. “Perfect, are you ready, Maddox?”
Maddox’s smirk is cruel and twisted in a way that sends a shiver down my spine and makes me love him just a little more than I did this morning. Maddox is one scary motherfucker when he wants to be, and this man is responsible for taking his mother from him. He’s as good as dead already. “Been waiting my entire life for this very moment, temptress.”
“I bet you have.” I pop up on my toes and kiss him quickly, right as the doctor starts banging down the door to the office we’re all in.
“Let me in, you fucking little prick,” he bellows as he pounds on the door.
Alessandro moves to let him in, while Geovani stands in my way, as if I need protecting. I offer him a lopsided smile. “Not now, Geo,” I tell him so he will back off. I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t want to be protected by anyone.
“I hope you weren’t referring to me, Doc?” Alessandro says smugly as he lets him inside the control room, closing the door and locking it behind him with a deafening click.
“Where’s Enzo?” He looks between us, trying to work out exactly what’s going on.
Maddox circles him, looking more psycho than I think I have ever seen him, and it makes him hot as hell. “He’s a little tied up at the moment. If you have any concerns you would like addressed, I’m sure one of us can help you.”
Apparently, he’s into bondage, according to the updates from Jagger. I cringe at the thought not wanting details about what he’s up to, it turns my stomach, but at least it’s keeping him out of our hair for as long as possible.
The doctor’s eyes are wide, flicking around the room from one of us to the next, searching for answers. “Did you lot see what the fuck just happened to me down there? The game was rigged. Silver was cheating.”
I move toward him, his eyes widening slightly as if noticing me for the first time, a look of surprise crossing his face. Then his attention returns right back to Alessandro and Maddox. But I don’t let that stop me from saying what I want to. “Think you need to get your story straight. Did your opponent cheat or was the game rigged?” I ask, my voice so sickly sweet I almost want to vomit myself.
His attention drifts back to me, his eyes meeting mine with annoyance. “What the fuck? You let your whore in the control room? Does Enzo know about this?”
Maddox moves in until he’s inches away from the doctor’s face, his body rigid and ready for a fight. “You call her a whore again and you will regret it.”
I move around the room back toward Alex, lacing my hand into his hair, tugging on the ends as I rise up to kiss his lips. He runs a hand down my back, landing on my ass with a squeeze, before I turn back to the men waiting for us. There’s so much tension in the room it feels as though something is about to explode. “I don’t really think it’s relevant if Enzo knows how Alex chooses to run his business,” I say, making it perfectly clear who the fuck is in charge around here these days, and it’s not his fucking friend.
“What the hell is going on here? Where the fuck is Enzo?” He looks around the room, trying to get a response from one of the boys, but they’re quite happy to have me take charge of this.
With a soft smile, I gaze toward Maddox, feeling a sense of calm wash over me. The gentle pressure of his hand in mine sends a thrill up my arm, before I brush my lips against his stubbly cheek. “You want to find our guest a chair, big guy.”
He circles to the back of the room, locating an unoccupied chair, which he quietly positions behind the doctor.
I inch closer to the doctor, our chests nearly touching, my gaze unwavering as I stare into his eyes. We haven’t broken him yet. He still believes there is a way out of this. “Sorry, you just get the five of us.” I shove him backward, a sharp, forceful push against his chest that makes him stumble. “Now why don’t you take a seat; we need to have a little chat.”
He looks past me. “Alessandro Moretti, have your papa come to me now, or face the consequences. There has been foul play here tonight, and you all fucking know it. I want my money returned to me.”
The room vibrates with laughter as our eyes meet, each of us amused by his arrogant swagger, the sound echoing off the walls. He stares, dumbfounded, at the scene before him, completely unprepared for what he’d walked into.
“Enzo won’t save you tonight.” I shove him back harder this time, so he’s forced to take a seat.
Tripping, he collapses heavily into the worn leather chair. It’s the first time he looks up at me with some sort of respect, if you can call it that. These men don’t seem to have any real respect for women. Most of them, anyway. I’m starting to see my men are different; they really would do anything for me. And the doctor has just worked out I’m someone important. “Why should these men help you when you were the one who stole so much from them?”
His eyes go wide under my accusation. He knows what it means to be on the wrong side of a Moretti, and I think the other fucking shoe just dropped for him. “I didn’t steal anything. I’m the one who was robbed here tonight, and I will make sure every last fucker down there knows about it.”
With a deliberate stride, Maddox plants himself in front of the pathetic man, the silence amplifying the doctor’s fear. Maddox’s glare turns icy as he runs his eyes down the man, the muscles in his arms tensing as he crosses them over his chest. He’s a big man, mighty intimidating, and one you don’t want to be on the wrong side of.
A subtle shift in Dr. Northgate’s gaze, from me to Maddox, gives nothing away; his face remains a cool mask. But he has to know by now why he is here.
“Really? Can you honestly look at Maddox and lie right to his face, telling him you didn’t steal anything from him?” I ask, more seriousness in my voice this time. I don’t know why, but I want this piece of shit to admit to us all what he’s done. Look at the boy he stole so much from and atone for his sins. It’s too late, of course, but part of me thinks Maddox needs this. And I want it for him.
Maddox’s fist lands with a sickening crack, the sound echoing through the room as the doctor’s head snaps violently to the side, a splattering of blood flying from his busted lip.
The doctor sucks in a labored breath, clutching at his face. “Who fucking told you?” He spits blood toward us, and I jump out of the way, not wanting to be splashed in the blood of a dead man. “You’ve all set me up, Moretti.”
Alex joins me, with an arm draped over my shoulders. “We didn’t have to do anything. You brought this on yourself, losing tonight and siding with a man you had to know would give over your name the first chance he had to clear his,” he says, just like we talked about. Make the doctor think his old friend has turned on him.
I feel Ricky right behind me. His hand slides up my side, starting at my hip, and it trails all the way up, before he pulls me back to him for a kiss. I don’t get how he’s so turned on by all this, but the man is ready to jump my bones right now. I pull back from him with a smirk that tells him to behave.
“I guess the power and money wasn’t enough after all. You kept searching for the next high to fill the empty void you carry around. After all, doctors are supposed to help people, right, Ricky? Not kill them.” I stare up at my beautiful man, knowing that should have been his life. Helping people, not this shit.
“Yeah, the good ones, anyway.” Ricky nods, before dropping his hold on me, and he moves in front of the doctor, moving swiftly with another right hook to his face. “That’s for my brother who had to grow up without his beautiful mother because of you.”
“I didn’t. I didn’t kill her,” he spits back at him. But his words are wasted on us.
Maddox gets up in his face again, anger radiating off him like I have never seen. “Yeah, then who did?”
“Enzo,” he splutters, the words catching in his throat like he has been holding them in for way too long.
Alessandro walks around the back of his chair, and the doctor looks over his shoulder, waiting for him to punch him as well. But he doesn’t. Instead, he places his hands in his pockets and walks back around the other side of the chair. “Why?” he asks.
“He… He didn’t want her to have a chance to tell the truth,” he stutters, watching Alex like a hawk.
A low growl escapes Maddox’s lips. “What truth?” he demands, his voice bellowing off the walls.
“He never wanted her to keep the baby, to keep you. But when she found out she was expecting, she couldn’t give you up. No matter how she came to be with child. At the time I didn’t know her story, I was just doing my job.”
“Why would he demand his sister not have her baby? Yes, she was young, but she had family who could support her, money, that doesn’t make any sense,” I ask when the boys go quiet.
The doctor’s face turns ashen. He knows he’s fucked. “It does if he’s the father.”
I feel the bile rise in my throat, and I swallow it down. My eyes rise to meet Maddox, and I see the utter devastation written all over his face. None of us were expecting him to say such a horrible, unthinkable thing.
“What the fuck are you saying? He was her brother?” Alex roars, losing his temper, the sound echoing through the room, his body shaking with rage. I know he has lost all respect for his papa already, but to hear what he is truly capable of must be heartbreaking in a totally new way.
The doctor’s head drops. “Enzo raped her. That’s how she ended up pregnant. And when she took off, trying to protect the baby, he tracked her down and killed her. Just hours after she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.”
We all go silent, trying to process the reality of his words. I didn’t think I could hate Enzo any more than I already do. But this, this is horrendous. I look toward Maddox, wanting to run to him and comfort him. He’s moved toward the glass viewing panel and is looking out over the people below. His shoulders are tight with tension, his hands balled into fists.
“How did he kill her?” Maddox gets out, his words strained with so much pent-up aggression I’m worried he’s going to snap before we can make this work my way. I didn’t expect this. How could everyone ever think this would be his mother’s horrible reality?
The doctor’s eyes flick between the boys. “He strangled her with his bare hands.”
I feel like my heart is about to stop it’s thumping so damn hard. I run a hand over my thigh, feeling where my knife sits. A fresh wave of adrenaline courses through me. I move in closer. “And you have been reaping the rewards ever since. Because you let him in the room and watched while he stole her life away, leaving Maddox to be raised without his mother. You make me just as sick as he does. You fucking let this happen to her,” I remind him and all the boys. This piece of shit is no better.
“I know, alright. I’m fucking pathetic, and I should have stopped him. I should have, but I was a coward. But you all fucking know, even back then, Enzo had too much power. If I refused him, I would have ended up dead. You have to understand, I had a young family to protect. I did what I had to for them.” He whimpers through the tears now leaking from his eyes.
I believe him. We saw just this week what happens to men who go against Enzo. He bought himself time with his family, stolen time from another. And now he has to pay for that decision. From the desk, I take a notepad and pen.
I approach the trembling man now slouched in his chair, defeated. He’s a crying, slobbering mess. I hand him the notepad and pen. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You will write a note to your family explaining to them how sorry you are for the pathetic man you turned into. You will come clean on every little detail you just told us. Your involvement and Enzo’s, so the world can see what a fucking monster he is.”
I turn from him and go to Maddox, my fingers tracing the line of his arm before settling in his soft hair as I gaze into his sad, hazel eyes. My poor broken man. The devastation in his features hearing why his mother was killed and how. I wish I could take away his pain. But because I can’t, this man will suffer instead. I tug Maddox toward me, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine before I kiss his lips. He drags me closer, so close I can feel his heart beating fast against mine. I know he needs this moment of calm, just like I do. I don’t give two fucks everyone is waiting on my next words.
When I pull back from him, I walk back over to the doctor. “And now the boys will escort you out the back of the building and you will take your gun, the one tucked into the back of your pants right now, and shoot yourself in the head, with your little suicide note left in your pocket for the authorities to find.”
From the corner of my eyes, I see Maddox’s lip twitch up at the side. I know I did well tonight. I can’t bring his mother back. I can’t give him the childhood he had stolen from him. But I can hopefully give him some closure and take away one more of the evil monsters who have been ruling over this town for too long.
I turn back to the groveling piece of shit in front of me. “Maybe make it look like he’s been in a little fight first, you know, because now he owes his loan shark a shit ton of money.”