Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
MAX
“ W hat is she doing here?” Jimmy whisper-shouted as soon as he opened the side door to the warehouse and saw Alison stepping inside. “If Don Battaglia finds out-”
“I’ll deal with the consequences if he does.” I grabbed his shoulders, making sure he was listening and registering what I said, “You were never here, got it?”
“Jesus fuck, Max.”
“SAY IT!”
“I was never fucking here,” Jimmy repeated my words, rolling his eyes as he said them. I knew the man I was grasping. He’d never let me go down alone, but this was my issue to deal with, not his. “What now?”
“Now? Now we kill the motherfucker that would have forced Miss Battaglia to do something she didn’t want. No means fucking no.”
Bringing Alison to this place had only one purpose – showing her exactly who I was and making her back off. She needed to see the reality of who we were. Of who I was. It was too easy to leave out the gritty details when you had no insight into what those really were. So this little excursion was exactly that. A ‘wake up and smell the damn blood.’
I couldn’t trust myself to push her away for much longer. My damaged heart and broken soul called out to her too much to hold up that facade, even knowing I didn’t deserve her. Even knowing she could suffer because of me.
Alison Battaglia!
Alison fucking Battaglia!
How stupid can you be?
In under a second, I was thrust back to that night when I first set my eyes on her. No assignment on earth was important enough to taint her light. And my safety? Well, let’s just say that I’d do a repeat of that night without changing a single thing, even if my princess in shining armor hadn’t come crashing onto a crate of wine to save me from her brothers.
She was worth it.
She was worth it all. My life. My future. My pain.
I had managed to tame it, suppress it, and control whatever it was she made me feel. She was my boss’s little sister, after all, and I knew the implications. His very grown-up, beautiful, sexy as fucking hell, little sister.
“Remember your place here, Max.” Don Giancarlo Battaglia’s words that day were a constant voice in my mind.
My place.
That was what I’ve been trying to do ever since. What I was doing right now as I kept my focus on the man tied in the back room, to ignore the firebird standing next to me. Ignore all the things I wanted to do to her. All the things I wanted to give her.
But what can a pariah ever give a princess?
It was hard not to remember my place and the death threat I could be to anyone I cared about. Fate always catches up, even if it takes long enough to be forgotten .
I pushed the plastic curtain aside, taking a peek into the room before allowing Alison to walk through the threshold. The place smelled like bleach and warm water, remnants of our clean-up crew after the Yakuza rampage that took place right here. Some of it, at least.
My gaze was set on Alison as she walked into the small space and took it in. I expected wide eyes, a gasp, and a plea for us to leave.
Those never came.
Instead, she held her head up high and owned the damn space like she’d been here before, ready for what she knew was about to happen.
“You have no idea how big of a mistake you’ve just made,” Slick Fingers said from his seat in the center of the room.
I chuckled sarcastically. It was truly comical how small of a repertoire these slimeballs had. I could almost guess, word for word, what he’d say next. I could bet his father was some big hotshot, loaded, and influential in some way. But then when he realizes there’s no bribing his way out of this, he’ll resort to cussing us out and then finally begging. They all do.
“Okay, let’s hear it, who’s your daddy?” Alison burst into a chuckle, immediately slapping her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. “That’s not what I meant.”
“That whore isn’t even worth the trouble you’re about to cause.”
In two angry strides, I was in his face, gripping his jaw and digging my fingers into his skin just as he’d done to her. My gun pressed into his cheek was enough to have him straightening his spine.
“Wash you’re fucking mouth before addressing the lady. Besides, no one asked for your opinion. I was about to entertain you and allow you the privilege of going through the full process.” His brows pinched together, telling me he had no idea what I was talking about. “Bargaining, then expressing your revolt, and finally, pleading for your fucking life. But now I’ve decided to cut you short and tell you right from the start that you’ll be leaving this place in pieces. Chopped up like an animal and fed to pigs until there’s absolutely nothing left of you.”
The man grunted below me, squirming as I spoke, realizing this wasn’t a game he could weasel his way out of.
“Max.” Alison’s soft voice came from behind.
There it was. The plea I was waiting to hear. I released my grip on this motherfucker and turned around to face her. I needed to see her face the moment she realized this sorry excuse of a man deserved every single thing that was coming to him.
“Jimmy?” I called out.
“System says he was kicked out of two bars last week for spiking drinks. Arrested twice on accounts of attempted sexual assault in the past couple of months. Somehow, the charges were dropped even though one of the victims ended up in the hospital.”
I watched her swallow the lump in her throat as she realized he wasn’t just a pushy guy trying to get laid. It was a lot worse. This sick son of a bitch would have stopped at nothing until his dick was shoved between her legs and he’d gotten exactly what he wanted.
“He would have pushed you into the alley and raped you within an inch of your life. Do you see that now?” I watched her nod, any sympathy she could have swimming in those green eyes of hers was more than lost. “Yet, no one made me a vigilante, Alison. I’ll kill him tonight because of what he tried to do to you, and I’ll sleep like a fucking baby. How about you? Will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow, knowing exactly what happened here tonight?”
Alison stared at me for a moment, the wheels in her head going a hundred miles an hour as she thought hard and long about what I said. Or so I thought.
I watched as she walked around me to stand in front of him, slightly crouching to look straight into the man’s eyes. She searched his features for a while, the room going absolutely silent as she stared at him.
“What are their names?”
“How the fuck should I know?” He scoffed right to her face, “They wanted to get fucked, and they got exactly what they deserved. No names needed for that. Women always say no just to save themselves from admitting how much of a whore they are. Just how much they crave to be pinned to the cold floor and fucked raw by a man like me. You wanted it, too. I saw it in your eyes.”
Without warning, Alison punched him right in the nose, trying her damndest not to flinch from the pain in her own knuckles. She straightened to her full height, her confidence earning her another full inch as she looked down at the wheezing fucker.
“Is there any way you can cut off his dick before you kill him?”
“WHAT? NO, NO, NO. Please, no!”
Alison’s eyes were dark while I released a small chuckle, watching her intently. Jesus, I wanted to kiss the living hell out of her right now. How did this go from showing her my darkness to hers shining through and blinding me like a glare straight toward the sun?
“That can be arranged,” I replied, biting back my smile.
“You sick motherfuckers. I–” I cut his screams off, shoving a rag so deep into his mouth the dumb fucker was gagging to get it out.
“Good.” She nodded, turning back towards him. “It’s because of sick men like you that my friend Jamie looks over her shoulder in overcrowded spaces. It’s because of men like you that every damn woman I know would choose the fucking bear.” Alison faced me again, her face revealing nothing but peace and a sound mind about what I was about to do. “Tomorrow, Max? Tomorrow, I’ll look at myself in that mirror just fine. I might even smile.”
Hit and fucking miss.
She was every bit of a Battaglia as her brothers, she just hadn’t given permission for her true colors to shine, and fuck did I crave every last one of them.
“Jimmy, take Miss Battaglia home. This is something I need to do myself.”