Chapter Six
Zane
I sat behind my desk, shirt unbuttoned, my coat thrown somewhere on the floor, because that woman had done something to me. I was wired, pissed off, and so fucking turned on I could barely keep my clothes on from the moment I’d left that club.
Chloe-fucking-King.
Ever since she’d mouthed it, her name had stuck in my head like an itch I couldn’t scratch. I couldn’t focus on anything, couldn’t track transactions, couldn’t even organize the damn schedules. Nothing.
After Andy had successfully tracked her down, I’d been watching her, stalking her. Getting to know every detail of her routine and oddly cute mannerisms.
Like how she always looked down when passing people, men or women, as if she was constantly trying to shrink herself out of notice.
How I didn’t even need to step foot inside her apartment to know she took ridiculously long showers because she never closed her damn curtains properly.
Or the fact she had next to no social life, no ties at all, as if she was just a passenger in her own life.
Hoping that, in between doing those, some of my curiosity would disintegrate.
It didn’t, and I got impatient.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she’d walked into a strip club alone.
Nothing to do with the way that hideous glittery skirt barely covered her ass.
And definitely nothing to do with the way I wanted to claw eyes out every time a man looked at her like he was waiting for his turn.
But there I was anyway, moving closer, just to at least put myself between her and every hungry stare.
Exactly as expected, she was surprised to see me. To my surprise, she wanted nothing to do with me.
Even though her body told me otherwise.
And joke’s on me, because that only made me want her more. Fuck.
I leaned back in my leather chair, turning it to face the window behind me, irritation poking under my skin like a thousand tiny needles. What the hell was it about her that was driving me insane? My fingers dug into my temples to make me think harder.
Most people trembled the second they saw me.
But Chloe looked me dead in the eyes as if ready to swing and those innocent amber eyes, made me feel fucking domesticated.
The night I’d saved her, she’d made me respect her with her fierceness.
Even terrified, she’d stood her ground like a queen.
She amused me with her smartass mouth, and today, when she’d dared to refuse me again, it only made me want her even more.
Something was wrong with me, or with her, and I needed to know what that was.
I could simply snatch her and make her mine.
I was Zane Santino, and I could do whatever the fuck I wanted.
But fuck me, I’d hated when I’d grabbed her by her wrist this morning and felt her frantic pulse.
Her eyes filling with panic turned me cold.
The fuck was I doing? Stalking a woman, circling around and paying to have five minutes with her just try to figure her out?
This isn’t me. This isn’t how I operate.
I exhaled sharply, dragging both hands down my face. Get your shit together.
Reaching for my Scotch, I poured another glass.
The amber liquid swirling as I brought it to my lips, the familiar burn doing little to calm the storm inside when a knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts.
Ivar walked in, dressed in his usual black attire.
My second-in command, the only man I trusted in this life and the next.
“All set for tonight,” Ivar said, but I barely registered his words. My mind still in that fucking club. “The cargo will arrive around eleven. Andy and Mike will lead the teams,” he continued.
Ivar had been by my side as long as I could remember. His father had worked for mine, so we’d grown up like brothers. In this world, blood wasn’t the only thing that made you family. The Omertà vow bound us tighter than any name could. And in this family, family came above everything else.
Even though the roots of our operations had evolved and expanded over the years, and the business was far from what it had been at its beginning, the vow was sacred, and all its foundations and traditions remained the same. One way in, one way out. Few dared to try the way out.
Everyone knew their place and if someone dared to forget, they knew there’d be dire consequences.
I nodded, dismissing him with a grunt. “Call me when it’s done.”
He didn’t move, his eyes narrowed intrigued instead. “Andy mentioned a girl you’ve been looking into.” His tone sounded casual, but I knew better. “Wanna tell me what that’s about?”
“Not particularly.”
Ivar stepped further inside, his curiosity piqued.
“Now I know something’s up.”
“Drop it. It’s none of your business.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender, amusement never leaving his cocky eyes. “Alright, alright. Just making sure you’re not losing your edge, boss.”
I scoffed, turning my chair back to the window. “Focus on the job tonight. Everything else is irrelevant.”
Ivar’s footsteps retreated after a lingering second, the door closing softly behind him.
Alone again, I reached for my phone, searching for Andy’s name, calling him in.
Enough of Chloe distracting me from my real problems.
Not even two minutes later, he knocked once before walking in.
His black hair was slicked back, neatly kept as always.
He looked like a true gentleman, so polished, so annoyingly polite, it could make it hard to believe the same hands he used to greet were the same ones he used to pluck eyes from their sockets.
Methodical. Implacable. A distant cousin I’d turned into my capo when I took over my father’s place. One of my most trusted men.
“Red Scorpions,” I started as he reached my desk, handing him a folder. “These are their last known locations.”
Andy flipped through the pages.
“It’s confirmed. The tattoos matched.” I went on. “Two of them were spotted at those nightclubs downtown a couple of nights ago. Arianna double-checked. They’re finally on the move, and I want to know what they’re looking for.”
His eyes lifted to meet mine as I continued. “Give it to Carter, I want him to keep an eye on those areas. If they’re seen in my city again, I want to know.”
Andy’s expression darkened, processing for a moment. “Understood, but if they’re surfacing now, it means they either feeling confident…” He flipped another page, a muscle flickered near his temple. “…or something changed.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.”
We went over the details for hours, dissecting every lead we had so far, adjusted our plans, our backup plans, and even the contingencies for those, trying to cover every way this could affect the business or get one of us killed.
By the time Andy left, exhaustion had settled heavily on my shoulders.
There was always a problem to solve, a new threat to manage.
As the head of the most powerful and influential mafia family, it was a constant nightmare.
Protecting my family, maintaining control over our empire, and dealing with the endless stream of people trying to take what was mine, or my life—it never fucking ended.
Then, another knock. My jaw clenched and I turned my chair preparing to tear into whoever was on the other side, but then a hot, familiar blonde strode in. Her blonde hair was always glowing, her cat eyes always heavy with make-up.
She moved toward my desk with deliberate grace, giving time for my eager eyes to roam her long legs and sexy curves. A black skirt clung to her hips, and her top so tight it barely held her tits inside.
Arianna, my favorite plaything.
This woman was a savage in bed, an expert in every position. Always so eager and submissive, she knew how to turn on a man and especially how to please me.
“Hey, handsome, miss me?” she purred, her voice dripping with sultriness.
She ambled around the desk, settling onto my lap. I never refused a good fuck, I just didn’t like when she thought she could come in whenever she pleased, as if she owned something here, as if she owned me.
She ran her hands along my chest, nails raking lightly over my shirt as she leaned in closer. I remained still, letting her feel the tension radiating from me.
“What are you doing here, Arianna?”
“Clarisse let me in,” she said with a casual shrug, her fingers already undoing my belt, slipping inside my pants. “You haven’t come by the club in a while, so I thought I’d pay a visit. See if there’s anything I can do for you...”
She slid off my lap so she could undress me, pulling my pants and boxers down.
My cock twitched, but my mind was miles away from what was happening in front of me.
She dropped to her knees, licking pre-cum from my tip, her blue eyes locked on mine as she took me in her mouth. Sure, she was easy on the eyes and a pro with the tool, but her mouth wasn’t the one I wanted wrapped around my dick.
And she definitely wasn’t the inspiration for the cum dripping from my cock.
Wrong hair color.
Wrong eye color.
Wrong lips.
Wrong everything.
Arianna worked her mouth up and down my length, her tongue flicking expertly along the way, but it didn’t matter. Everything about her was wrong.
Tired of looking at her face, I grabbed her, bending her over my desk. Sliding on a condom, I positioned myself behind her and rammed inside, pressing her head down to hide the sight of all that fake blonde, fucking her hard into the desk.
“Oh! Yes, yes! Zane, yes!” she panted like a pornstar. And now even her voice annoyed the fuck out of me.
“Shut up.”
She finally fell into silence and I thrust into her hard, chasing a release I didn’t even want. To force myself to push the thoughts of Chloe out of my mind with it.
But even when Arianna trembled beneath me, her body shaking with pleasure, I knew it didn’t work.
Nothing seemed to work anymore.