8. Eli
8
ELI
L istening to my father and uncle drone on about shipments and contracts is my own personal version of hell. But I have to keep my composure. They’ve already been looking too closely at me and Noah, and I can’t give them any reason to doubt the lies I’ve told them.
I met with Noah last night with every intention of ending things between us, but instead I just pulled him in deeper. I knew I wouldn’t be able to just let him go, though. Even if he’d agreed to stop seeing me, I doubt I would have been able to keep my distance. Thankfully, he feels the same as I do, so the question is, what do we do now? Our hidden trysts can only last so long before I want more, and that’s not something that can happen while I’m this invested in my family. Despite how toxic they are, I can’t just turn my back on them.
Yesterday I thought about running away and just living on the run with Noah by my side, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I’m sure Noah is better at living without money than I am, but how fast would it all unravel if we were always under that much pressure? No. I can’t do that to him. He’ll just have to accept this for what it is, and if he doesn’t, well…I don’t know. I’ll just keep him locked in my closet or something.
In a fit of wild fantasy I imagine Noah chained to my bed naked and hard, just waiting for me, his only purpose to please me. My dick stiffens and I try to shut down that line of thought before the others notice my distraction. I look up to find them both looking at me, expecting…something. I backtrack my thoughts and try to gather what I’m supposed to be responding to right now.
“Well, did you notice anything unusual about the last shipment?” Uncle Gianni asks again.
“No,” I say quickly. “Everything was in the shipment. I compared the manifest to yours and everything was correct. Wherever we’re losing product it’s not with our international partners, so it has to be in-house.”
“Well, that’s disappointing. You’d think the family would be loyal,” my father mutters, shaking his head.
“Do you think they’re stealing the actual product or just skimming cash from the transactions?” I ask, feigning interest.
“I don’t know,” Uncle Gianni says, “but I want you to head down to Reese’s shop today and see what you can find out.”
I nod, though it won’t help. Reese is just as unlikely to talk to me as he is Gianni himself.
“Your presence will be intimidating enough to shake something out of him,” Uncle Gianni says like he’s reading my thoughts. “If he’s skimming he’ll either slip up or stop, and either way I’ll know where the leak is.”
“Of course, uncle,” I say. At least now I know what he expects me to do. I’m supposed to play the part of the family thug. This is something of a rite of passage with all the younger family members—a test of loyalty, so to speak. If I go down there and empathize with Reese, then it’ll look like I’m disloyal, but if I come back with information, or at least a very terrified cousin, it will prove I’m trustworthy. Too bad I don’t really care about what they think of me. Still, I have to play the part. If they decide they can’t trust me they’ll make my life hell, and they’ll probably do that by going after Noah.
I grind my teeth. I wish I could find out who saw us the other night. I tried to convince my uncle and my father that it was a bogus story, that I would never jeopardize our business by bringing along someone who’s not a member of the family, but I doubt they completely believe me. Whoever the snitch was, they had some very specific and very graphic details.
“I’ll report back tonight,” I say as I stand up from the overstuffed chair where I’ve been sitting for the last half hour.
I get in my car and drive into downtown Montcove, where Reese runs a computer repair shop. It’s also the front where we sell the rare-earth metals that we bring in from Russia—one of three, anyway. Gianni sent his own sons to the other two, but this one is where the money seems to go missing.
I park in the downtown garage and walk three blocks over to the store. I square my shoulders as I push through the doors. My height already makes me intimidating; I just have to carry myself well.
“Eli,” Reese calls from behind the counter, where he’s disassembling a laptop. “What brings you in today?”
“Just checking in,” I say, glancing around the store. He’s keeping up appearances well. The store is clean and organized.
“Gianni sent you, huh?” Reese asks, and I notice him palming a small screwdriver. I put my hand in my pocket so my jacket moves just enough to show the grip of my .45, and he puts the screwdriver in a drawer behind him. I lift my eyebrows to let him know he’s not as smooth as he thinks he is. “Let’s talk in the office, yeah?” He nods toward the back.
“Sure,” I say, and step behind the counter.
“Svetlana, watch the front,” Reese calls over his shoulder, and I notice a young woman with dark hair lift her eyes toward us before nodding.
I follow Reese into the office and he takes a seat in the chair, the only seat in the room, and then he swings around and looks at me. His posture is relaxed, loose, but I can see right through him.
“How’s business?” I ask. The question is innocuous, but the underlying threat is obvious.
“I know how this goes,” Reese says. I lift my brows and wait. “You’re supposed to come down here and accuse me of skimming, and I’m supposed to fight you about it, and then you rough me up a bit and we all go back to doing what we were doing anyway.”
I rest my hip on the edge of the desk and look down at him. I was really hoping Uncle Gianni was just being paranoid, but it’s looking like Reese may actually have something to hide.
He presses his lips together before continuing. “Can’t we just skip all that and pretend we fought? I can even throw some stuff around to make it look good.” He lifts his eyebrows at me.
“That would never work,” I say, keeping my voice cool. I don’t actually care if he’s skimming cash. I don’t care about any of this, but if he’s being this obvious and my father finds out, I’ll fail this stupid test. “He knows I’m not the ‘throw shit around’ type.”
“Yeah?” Reese asks, interlacing his fingers behind his head as he leans back in the chair. “I’ve heard rumors about what type you are.” His mouth curls into a smirk.
“Is that so?” I lift an eyebrow.
“Oh, yeah,” he says, and makes a crude gesture with his tongue in his cheek.
My hand shoots across the desk and grabs Reese by the throat. Maybe this trip will pay off after all, especially if Reese is the fucking snitch.
He scrabbles at my hand as I close off his windpipe, but my reach is almost a foot longer than his and he can’t shake me off. His face starts turning purple as I keep my grip and he kicks and swings his arms wildly. “I’m sorry,” he croaks on his last bit of air. “No disrespect, man.”
I release him and he falls to the floor, gasping. “Exactly what type am I, again?” I ask as I step around the desk and pull the .45 from my belt.
“You’re fucking royalty, man. You’re what we all aspire to be,” he says between gasps. Sniveling asshole.
I lean over the desk and put my face just inches from his. “I’m also the type to watch you bleed out on this floor without a second thought,” I snarl. “You better figure out where that money is going, or that’s exactly what’s going to happen.” As I stand back up, I notice the corner of a business card sticking out from underneath the keyboard on the desk. I pick it up and look at it.
“The fuck is this?” I say, shoving it in his face. It’s a card for a detective from the Montcove PD.
“Nothing, man,” Reese says as he tries to snatch the card from my hand. I pull it back and take a closer look.
“Detective Leonard Rossi,” I read aloud. “I’m sure Uncle Gianni will be interested in this.” I shove the card in my pocket and turn my back on Reese as I walk back out the door.
“Well, I guess you passed your fucking test,” Reese gasps behind me. “Go back and tell them how proud they should be of you.”
I don’t even bother turning around. The words sting, but I can’t let them bother me right now. At least Noah will be safe for the time being, especially if I tell my uncle that Reese is acting shady as hell and seems to be in contact with a damn cop. I feel a momentary twinge of guilt. Reese is done for. As soon as my uncle and father get this information they’ll handle it, and Reese will disappear like so many others before him, but at least the attention will be taken off me and Noah for the time being.
I head back to the Carbone estate and go straight to my uncle’s office. I tell him what I learned, and as expected, he tells me he’ll handle it from here. That pang of guilt hits me again. I actually liked Reese, and I don’t know what he was thinking or why he made those decisions, but he made his own bed. I shake my head at my own hypocrisy. The same could be said about me. My thoughts drift back to Noah. I should really keep my distance, at least for a while, but I’m struggling. I tried to call him on the way back to the estate, but it went straight to voicemail. I try not to let that bother me, but it does. All I can focus on is getting out of here and trying to call him again. If I can’t reach him, then I’ll go to his apartment tonight.
* * *
Then my uncle drops a new bomb on me. A shipment from Russia is coming in next week and he expects me to be there to accept it again. This time it’s much more than metals, though. I don’t get the specifics of the manifest, but it’s a cash transaction, which means it’s either drugs or guns, and either way I don’t want any part of it. It’s one thing to dodge tariffs, but this is a whole new level of risk.
“Why me?” I ask my father as we’re leaving for the night.
“After some of the rumors we heard, we need to know you can be trusted with the family’s assets,” my father says.
“Didn’t I prove that today?” I ask as I turn to face him.
“In a preliminary test, sure,” Father says with a shrug. “You’ve also been given a lot of grace, and you can thank me for that.” His eyes narrow and my pulse picks up.
“What does that mean?” I frown at him.
“Gianni doesn’t generally indulge in mindless gossip,” my father says. “He just gets rid of whatever the problem is, but I convinced him that the rumors about you and your friend are baseless.” He looks at me in appraisal before continuing. “So instead of just removing you from the roster, he’s giving you a chance to prove yourself, and you better not let me down.”
“Of course,” I say, but the words are hollow. This means they’re keeping a closer eye on me than I thought. My plan to call Noah as soon as I leave wouldn’t be wise, not if I want to keep him safe.
I get back into my Bentley and drive to the harbor. I should go back to campus, since I’ve missed almost a week of classes already, but I can’t bring myself to face the brothers. They’ll want me to throw a party or get involved in some other juvenile nonsense that I’d usually enjoy, but everything is just too heavy right now.
My heart almost stops when I pull into my usual parking spot and see Noah leaning against the wall, a slight smirk on his chiseled face. My mouth breaks into a grin, despite how dangerous I know this is. He looks sexy as all hell casually leaning against the bricks in his workout clothes—black sweatpants, black shirt, as sinfully delectable as always. I watch his eyes sweep the garage as I park, and I can’t wipe the stupid smile off my face as I open the door.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, keeping my voice low even though there’s no one around.
“I forgot my…well…I…” Noah stammers until I furrow my brows. “Fuck, I was hoping to see you,” he finally says, and drops his head. “I broke my phone, so I couldn’t call.”
“You broke your phone?” I ask, but he doesn’t look at me.
“Yeah, and my car’s a piece of shit,” he huffs. “But I wanted to see you.”
“Well, here I am,” I say with a chuckle. I walk over to him and put my hand on his cheek. He looks around nervously, but doesn’t pull away. I think he’s more spooked by all of this than he’s letting on. “Let’s get inside,” I say, and we head for the apartment.
Once we’re safely behind closed doors, Noah wraps me in a tight embrace. “I’m sorry, Eli,” he murmurs into my shoulder. “I’ve had a shit day.”
“Me, too.” I squeeze him tighter and run my hands over the hard muscles beneath his soft clothes. He pulls back and looks down at me, his eyes coming to rest on the .45 that’s still strapped to my belt. Heat flares through his eyes before it’s replaced with wariness. It’s clear that guns turn him on, and I can’t help myself. I pull the pistol from my belt and set it on the counter.
“Are you okay?” Noah asks, his eyes following my movements.
“Yeah…I mean, as much as I can be right now,” I answer as I remove my suit jacket. The card in my pocket snags and flutters down to the ground. Noah’s eyes grow wide as he looks at it.
“Where did you get that?” he asks, his voice tight.
“My cousin,” I say, and pick the card up from the floor. I toss it in the trash can, but Noah’s eyes track each movement. “I think he’s the one who’s been spying on us, but between being suspected of stealing from my uncle and finding a card for a fucking cop on his desk, I don’t think we have to worry about him anymore.”
Noah blinks a few times before he finally relaxes. I have to remind myself again that this isn’t the life he’s accustomed to. He walks over to the couch and sits down, scrubbing his hand down his face. Tension seems to envelop him, and I start to wonder if he’s second-guessing staying together, and just the thought sets my heart racing.
“Eli, I need to tell you something,” Noah says without looking at me. My heart plummets. He’s changed his mind; I know it. He takes a deep breath and starts to speak.
“No,” I cut him off, leaning on the counter. I can’t handle it right now, not when I’m barely holding on. I can’t deal with anything else. I just need Noah.
“What?” Noah says, looking up at me.
“I’m sorry, but not right…now,” I say as I sit down on the couch next to him. “Whatever you have to say, just wait.” I don’t know why, but the feeling that whatever he has to say means the end of us weighs on me. As nervous and wound up as he is right now, I’m sure he’s decided he doesn’t want to be involved in this anymore.
“Eli, I…” he starts, but I cover his lips with mine. He pulls back and looks at me for a minute, like he’s searching for something, and then he kisses me back. I melt into him as his arms wrap around me. He runs his hands up my back and through my hair before grabbing a handful and pulling my head backward painfully. I gasp as his lips find my neck, and he growls as he scrapes his teeth against my skin. He unbuttons the top of my dress shirt enough to pull it over my head before I collapse against him again. He pulls my hair again, wrenching my neck to the side and biting my shoulder. I hiss in pain, but leave myself open to him, vulnerable.
I desperately claw at his shirt and he pulls back enough to let me remove it. As soon as it’s off him I run my hands urgently across his chest and stomach, but he shoves me roughly down onto the couch. I unbuckle my pants and he pulls them off of me before removing his own. My eyes bulge as his hard cock springs out of his sweatpants. I start to sit up, but he shoves me back onto the couch and wraps his hand around my cock. I stifle a moan and roll my head back at his touch as I reach for him again. He releases me and moves around behind my head. I tilt my chin up to look at him, and my heart starts pounding even harder as I watch his thick legs settle on each side of my face, his ass and throbbing cock just grazing my nose. I reach up and take his balls in my hand as he leans forward and wraps his lips around my dick.
I roll my hips forward, thrusting my length into his mouth as he settles over my face. I stroke him, pulling him toward my lips as he starts bobbing up and down on my shaft. I struggle not to come immediately as I take him into my mouth. He groans against me, and I fight to hold off my orgasm. He starts rolling his hips against me, keeping time with his own movements, and I can feel him getting harder and swelling against my tongue. I can’t breathe, but I don’t care. The ache to come grows painful as I take each of his thrusts into my throat. I reach up and wrap my fingers around his perfect ass, spreading his cheeks and pressing my fingers against his opening. He groans again, and this time I can’t hold back. My cries are muffled against his cock as I come into his mouth while pressing my fingers into him. He shudders on top of me, and then I’m choking on his hot semen. The salty taste floods my tongue as I gasp for air while he keeps sucking me as each wave of climax rushes through me.
He releases me from his mouth, gasping for air as he slides onto his knees next to the couch and rests his head against my hip. I gasp for breath but reach down to stroke his hair, both of us still shuddering from release.
“I love you, Eli,” Noah says, turning his face into my abs. “Please know that no matter what, I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I say between breaths as I run my fingers down his cheek. “I believe you.”
We sit like that for a few more minutes, catching our breath before I’m finally brave enough to ask, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“It can wait,” he says as he lifts himself off the floor. He takes my hands and pulls me up from the couch, then leads me over to the bed where we lay down, curling up together like an old married couple. I wrap my arms around him and he lays his head on my chest, a scene completely at odds with the rough handling he was capable of a few minutes ago. I continue to stroke his cheek, and before I can say anything else he’s snoring softly.
I consider extricating myself and searching for something to eat, but I don’t want to break this moment, and before I can think too hard about it, I’m nodding off to sleep.
* * *
Noah is gone the next morning. He left me a note that says he’ll let me know when he has a new phone, and I start to wonder what happened to his old one. I’d been so selfish last night I didn’t even bother to ask. I didn’t ask about his car, either. Damn, it’s a harsh realization just how self-absorbed I can be. He’d had a rough day too, but still let me use him as a salve for my own pain. I can’t even comprehend why he cares about me the way he does.
The mirror in the bathroom is still fogged up from his shower, so he must not have been gone long, but I was so exhausted I slept right through it. Still, if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that there’s no going back from here. I love that man, and nothing is going to take that away from me.