Chapter 15
Aron
I wake with Matt’s arms around me again, this time as I lie covered in my own cum.
Shit. I should’ve showered after; we both should have. The intensity of our emotions last night, though, combined with the physical efforts, wore us both out.
He’s sleeping so peacefully … I hate to move and possibly wake him.
I ease my hips slowly forward and realize that Matt fell asleep with his cock still in my ass.
Whether that was on purpose or not, I can’t tell, but it’s not an entirely unpleasant sensation to wake up to.
Despite never having had anal sex before, I enjoyed last night.
Multiple lovemaking sessions, taking turns sucking each other, basking in the afterglow of our love.
Ten out of ten, would do it—do him—again.
The steamy romance books Emily reads, or rather used to read, would call this my bi-awakening. I don’t know if it’s a true awakening, though. When I think about it, I’ve always been attracted to Matt. I just refused to admit it to anyone, even myself.
The flashes of Matt’s face whenever I was with Emily. The way I craved the tenderness of his touch when he patched me up after I botched another assassination attempt on him. Those moments should have clued me in to my deeper feelings, but I hid from them.
I hid from him.
Once again, I try to ease out of bed without waking Matt, but I guess I’ll never succeed in that. Thirty-five years in the mafia have made him a light sleeper.
“Where are you going?”
“Shower. We’re both kind of sticky,” I say with a laugh.
“May I join you?”
Normally, I’d say no … but now, why not? We’ve both seen and done everything together. What difference does a shower make?
Oh yeah … Showering means we’re both naked. And now, apparently, that means sex.
Not that I’m complaining. Having Matt rail me while we wash off is amazing.
We lather each other up, and with his fist wrapped around my soapy cock, he turns me around, slides into my ass, and starts fucking me against the shower wall.
My cries of ecstasy echo off the vaulted ceilings in the bathroom, but, as always, Cinder and Gia are at it in their part of the suite as well.
I swear, those women just instinctively know how to time things perfectly.
As we towel off after, I start to think about Matt’s aforementioned plans to rebuild the Syndicate. Though the past twelve hours have been amazing, it’s time to get back to work.
“So, Matt, what’s next? We’ve got a lot to do still.”
“Well,” he says, rubbing the water out of his hair, “first off, we need to get the attorneys together. I’ve got a list of people to recruit, and it’s going to take some legal finagling to get them all released.”
“You want to do what?”
Matt seems unphased by my outburst. “I want to bail out some criminals.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose with a sigh. “And I assume by ‘some criminals’ you don’t mean our people, especially since none of ours have been arrested recently.”
“Well, they’re not our people yet. But after we pay their legal fees and get their slates wiped clean, they might well become our people.
” Matt walks over to his desk, turns his laptop around, and clicks a few buttons.
Several inmate profiles flit across the screen.
“These are hackers. Thieves. Hitmen. People who aren’t on the payroll yet, but who could be useful in rebuilding the Syndicate. ”
“Matt, you can’t just bail out the biggest bruisers in Cellblock D. Tito was more selective in who he recruited to the Syndicate, and with good reason.”
“With all due respect,” Cinder chimes in as she walks through the door to her adjoining rooms with Gia, “Tito bailed me out. I wasn’t even a trained assassin at the time—just an angry sex worker who murdered her pimp.
Now you two trust me to keep your biggest secret, so maybe following that same method isn’t so bad. ”
I glare at Matt’s pretend girlfriend, irritated that she’s butting in. I know fully well where Tito found her, but that doesn’t mean we should copy and paste that strategy.
The tension is thick in the bedroom. Cinder stands behind Matt to his right, while I move to take my “official” position near the door with Gia.
It’s just the four of us in the room, but we have to be careful.
Anytime we leave the bedroom suites, we have to keep up appearances.
Gia and I didn’t find any bugs or listening devices in here, but it’s better to be cautious.
Then, Matt says something that almost shuts me up:
“Javier has already tried to spring these inmates.”
Just the mention of my dad is enough to raise my hackles. If Dad wants them, we can’t let him have them.
Matt continues. “The judge is in our pocket, though, and owed Dad several debts that I wiped clean, so I bought us some time.” He points to the laptop, then voices my own thoughts aloud as if he could hear them.
“If your father wants them, then at the very least we can’t let him have them.
We need to recruit them first, before Javier can poison them. ”
Fuck. That’s playing dirty. I cross my arms over my chest. “Okay, so say we bring in these street-level criminals. Where are they going to stay? We’re already doubled up in several rooms here at the mansion.”
“Already thought of that.” Matt types some more, and the display changes to show a high-end apartment complex in town.
I’m familiar with the place, as I lived there before moving into the house with Emily.
Tito sold it long ago, though, so it’s no longer one of our holdings. Does Matt intend to buy it back?
“You’re going to give them their own apartments when our loyal men are doubled up here?”
Matt shakes his head. “No. I’m moving the veterans to the complex and keeping the new recruits here.”
That might be an even dumber idea. “Matt, you can’t keep the criminals here. What if my dad already got to some of them? You said yourself he was scouting. We could be setting ourselves up.”
“Our men who work at the prison say otherwise. Javier’s attorneys have tried to get in to visit the prospects, but they haven’t been successful. We’ll be safe enough going this route.”
I don’t like this, but it’s clear that Matt won’t back down. The best I can do is amp up security and keep an eye on these new prospects.
“Fine. But we’re keeping Jules here.”
“Jules is our most senior enforcer. The only person who was with Dad longer was Javier. He’s going to want a private home, and until I can start buying up housing properties, an apartment is the best we can offer him.”
I level a glare at Matt. “Jules is loyal. He’s also ruthless.
If one of these criminals steps out of line, he’ll reign them in faster than anyone.
If we’re buying out the apartments, we can certainly move enough people around to give him his own wing here.
It won’t be a private residence, but he’ll have some autonomy, and out of all the vets who are left, I trust him the most.”
The room falls eerily quiet as Matt and I stare each other down. Cinder seems amused, and Gia looks bored.
“Done.”
The don has spoken.
With that settled, we get dressed for the day. Matt calls in one of our associates to carry out the plan. Rico listens silently to his orders before disappearing to rouse the attorneys. We’ll need to act fast if we’re going to beat my dad to the punch.
Gia and I spend the next couple of days arranging the transport of the more senior Syndicate operatives to the apartment complex, amping up security on the rooms in the mansion, and, of course, keeping an eye on our charges.
Matt and Cinder rarely separate, so it makes our job easy enough, though I do find it humorous that, after taking a beating from his dad for refusing a wife, he’s now playing house with a woman for appearances’ sake.
Once the legal obstacles are obliterated—thanks to some savvy negotiations on Matt’s part—our mansion is now home to some of the city’s most brutal and devious convicts.
Holly and Hank, twin hackers who immediately bypass every firewall we have, earning instant punishment by being relocated to the pool house, which is devoid of internet access.
Mike, Jimmy, Carl, Rudy, and Tim, who in my opinion are bottom-of-the-barrel quality thugs but who each have higher body counts than even my dad.
Thaddeus, Stephanie, Evan, and Lyta, expert thieves whose seized acquisitions have a combined net worth greater than the amount Dad stole from Tito’s funds.
And, last but not least, Grady, a killer so dangerous that the prison hands him over to us still in full chain restraints.
Once the last new resident is settled in their room, I follow Matt back to his office.
He greeted each parolee personally, offering both warm welcomes and veiled threats.
The understanding is that if they behave and toe the line, they’ll earn more privileges.
Any fuckups, though, and instead of prison walls they’ll be staring at the sides of a pine box as it gets buried with them screaming inside.
Everyone except Grady seems cowed by the threat, and I make a mental note to keep a closer eye on him.
Of all the inmates we’ve sprung, he’s the one I trust the least. It doesn’t help matters that he grinned savagely when we unlocked the restraints, showing a vicious steel grill with fanged canines.
“You know, Don Matteo,” he said as Matt started to leave, “I knew your father. Such a shame you weren’t with him in the end.”
To Matt’s credit, he didn’t react. He kept his cool, and we left the room without taking the bait.
Back in his office, Matt seethes. “That fucker! If he hadn’t been locked the fuck up when Dad was killed, I’d swear he was the hitman.”
“He was just trying to goad you, Matt. To test you. He probably hoped you’d react and give him an excuse to attack. It’s better if you don’t let him know he got to you.”
“Double the guards and surveillance on his room. I don’t want that asshole getting loose, and I don’t want any ‘accidents’ under my roof.” He slams his palm down on his desk. “And for fuck’s sake, do some research! Find out why this dickweed is so fucking giddy that Dad’s dead.”
Matt’s getting anxious. Stressed. For all that he puts on a stoic front around others, I know this is getting to him.
If only there was some way to ease that stress …