Chapter 5
I’d had enough of Kalen’s sass, but he was committed to pretending, and I could see how the government agencies would really like to have him on their side—and they did, but he wasn’t going to get ahead at the expense of the family.
We had skeletons, we had shell companies that could crumble and topple businesses, we were doing our best to give back to the community, but we’d also become extremely wealthy in the process.
My apartment was a loft with lots of natural light.
There were no other buildings tall enough to look in through the windows, which made this place the most ideal.
It was nice not to be in the same place as any of my brothers—and by design, I think we weren’t, since we wouldn’t all be in danger if one of our buildings were to be swarmed or attacked.
Our father was always thinking of disaster, so it’s where my brain always went too.
Disaster prep. And Kalen stank of a disaster I needed to douse before it got worse.
We parked underground, and Roland got out, leaving the two of us inside.
“So, what are you gonna do?” he asked. “Kidnap me? Keep me in a cage?”
I smirked. “You know about the cage.”
“No, but I—”
“I’m trying to assess you,” I admitted. “Kalen, you are not making things easy. I’m not bringing this to my brother, Santo, because he’d just tell me to kill you.
” I dropped the pretense that we weren’t a violent family, he already knew, and he wasn’t wearing a wire—he wasn’t even working a case.
“Tomaso would’ve already made his mark on you, but me, you are so lucky it’s me. ”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not going to kill you,” I said.
“I’m going go to take you inside, into my apartment, and you’re going to confess everything, just get it off your chest. And then I’ll make arrangements for you, and for your mother.
” The public image we had as a family was sometimes intimidating, and we got our fair share of people trying to bring us down from that.
Kalen was just one in a long line, and now he had to be pushed off his track.
Kalen stared at me, eyes narrowed. “Confess everything.”
I nodded. “Is that a difficult concept?” I asked.
“I know you must have a great education to have been recruited by the agency out of college, so I assume you understand what it means to confess. And don’t worry, I know they teach you to keep secrets, like being a federal agent and pretending to work for me. ”
He smirked. “I really did work for you,” he said. “I got hundreds of dollars in tips. That’s pay.”
“Whatever. So, am I going to take you in with force, or will you come in voluntarily?”
“I have a choice?”
“A third, over my shoulder,” I said, eyeing him up in the seat.
I pressed the seatbelt buckle, freeing it with a thwip across his body.
“I might actually prefer that option. You’re what, a hundred and fifty pounds?
” I knew he was definitely more; I’d felt those thigh muscles work overtime under my grasp earlier.
“I’ll come in, on my feet,” he said.
“Good.” I held out my hand. “Hand me your phone.”
That didn’t take nearly as much back and forth. He handed it to me. The screen was locked, but it didn’t appear to be doing anything—like recording this conversation.
My apartment was rather large, and had been gifted to me on my twentieth birthday—over a decade ago.
It had previously been used as a base for my father’s men to store all the cash that needed cleaning.
It didn’t have any evidence of that now, and even if it did, what would he say?
I’m sorry sir, you have a lot of money. That was already a fact about me, and the family.
“I’m not whatever you think I am,” he continued.
“You’re exactly who I think you are,” I said. “And I think there’s more to it.”
Kalen lolled his head slightly, his big eyes looking up at me so submissively, like he was playing the part I needed from him.
It made sense he was a Fed, the way he could follow orders without question.
Adorable. And potentially something he’d flip on.
If he wasn’t going to leave, and his mom was sick, he had one choice really, to be mine.
He stood at the door of the apartment as I searched him.
“I can’t be away from my mom too long,” he said. “She’s got health issues, and I need to make sure she’s using everything properly. She’s forgetful,”
In his pocket there was a wallet, but no sign of a badge to say he worked for the bureau. “Is this a dummy wallet?” I asked, throwing his bank cards and driving license across the floor. “This is what you keep on you to avoid suspicion, huh?”
I witnessed his jaw clench, like he was about to give in, like he was ready to tell me the truth, finally. “I told you, I’m not—”
My thick fingers wrapped around his throat, pushing him against the wall. “We’re alone now,” I said. “Cut the act.”
“How would you even know?” he asked through the light grip I had on him.
I wasn’t trying to strangle him, just pin him in place at a pinch point with my hand pushing lightly on his Adam’s apple.
In some ways, it was cuteness aggression, the way people got when they squealed seeing cats.
I had that for him, and it was only getting stronger with how close we were now—and alone.
“Do you think we’ve never been under surveillance before?” I asked him. “Do you think we’ve just been skating through life as a family, growing our business across Boston without scrutiny from government agencies?”
Kalen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a—”
My hand tightened on his windpipe, cutting him off.
A smirk formed at the corners of my lips as I forget my own power.
“I’m not a what?” I asked, my face getting closer to his.
“Because if you tell me again that you’re not a federal agent, I might have to exercise my right as a homeowner to use the cuffs I have, and the bolts in the walls. Oh, and the soundproofing.”
A single tear formed in his eye, but he smiled at me. “I don’t know what you want,” he said as I loosened my grip on him. “I’m just trying to be here for my mom. And I’m also trying not to die. At least not from you.”
“Why not me?” I asked.
His smile nearly consumed his entire face now. “Because I think you get off on this stuff,” he said. “Is that a—a boner rubbing up against me, or are you packing extreme heat?”
I was hard, my entire body was pulsing, pumping so much blood at such a fast rate that my cock had stiffened all the way up under the waistband of my underwear. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I was begging to get on my knees for you in your office,” he said.
“Disarming me through this type of stuff,” I mumbled, overexplaining his actions like they weren’t effective on me—but they were.
I’d have lied to say the idea of dominating him sexually wouldn’t bring me joy.
It would’ve made me very happy, but the only thing worse than dealing with killing with a Fed was fucking one, and I really wasn’t going to try and get that stink all over my hands.
He giggled, and it took me off guard. I let go of him.
He’d been on his tiptoes. “Why are you—” He looked around at the open-plan loft with all the exposed brick, lost for words, and that was the usual look I got when I brought guys back here—but in very different contexts.
He was here as a captive, not a sexual conquest. “Why are you even bothering to entertain me?”
“Entertain you?” I scoffed. “You think this is entertaining?”
“No, but you could’ve killed me already.
You could’ve had someone else kill me, you could’ve done so much that didn’t involve you standing in front of me, rubbing yourself on me, and trying your hardest to make me bend to you in submission.
” He let it all out, like there was finally something true there. “Instead, I’m alive.”
“Because killing you wouldn’t be good for anyone,” I told him. Most of all, I needed him to be away before the big underground poker games tomorrow.
“Tell me why?” he asked, prodding his finger into my chest. “Why?”
“Because your mom is sick,” I said. “And you made nice food.”
Kalen rolled his eyes. “So you’re taking pity on me?” he asked, shaking his head. “I don’t need your pity.”
I grabbed him again by both shoulders, pushing him against the wall. “What are you trying to make me do? You’re trying to get me to hurt you. You’re trying to—”
“What?” he asked. “Trying to get you to what?”
Staring into his eyes—his push against my dominance was hot—I’d never felt so many mixed signals in someone before. I couldn’t do anything with him, though. He was untouchable. No fucking, no killing, and definitely no—I licked my lips.
“Kiss me?” he said. “Are you trying to kiss me?”
I shook my head, but as his lips puckered and his head pushed forward, we kissed.
Not what I expected, not what I wanted, but I’d needed it. The soft plump lips pressed aggressively against mine. Kalen jumped, wrapping his legs around my waist. He pulled his head back. “It’s what you want, right?” he asked.
“Is it what you want?” I asked, pulling him away from the wall.
He smiled at me before kissing me again. I carried him to an empty room and pushed him against the wall in there, where the bolts in the walls had metal cuffs hanging from them. He barely noticed when the first one went round his wrist, but he pulled away from my face the moment it locked.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do,” I said, as he dropped his legs from around my waist and stood with his hand yanking at the cuff keeping him in the room.
“But it’s not going to work on me. You’re not going to seduce me.
You’re not going to find any secrets. But what I will do for you is call my contact and make sure you’re taken home—wherever that is out of the state for you. ”
His big eyes stared at me blankly now. “Please don’t do this,” he said as I backed away out of the empty room. “Please. Don’t. Please.”
Once I was out of the room, I leaned against the wall and sighed. My lips tingled from his kiss. I licked at them, then rubbed them clean with the back of my hand. I couldn’t do whatever that was, even if my entire body was begging for it, even if his body was begging too.
My home office was a small room filled with files.
They were mostly backup files from the ones at home or the construction office.
These ones were for everything I controlled, like Palazzo, and a couple of smaller stores.
Nothing in the files could pin the family for fraud or anything illegal.
The office was just as messy as the one at the restaurant.
I sat in my fancy reclining chair, legs up on the desk, my eyes staring at the open door into the hallway, listening to Kalen’s continued begging to be let free.
I needed Kalen to break, to confess his truth.
I needed him to do it fast. It was mostly for my own sanity.
To know that I’d caught him, to know that my ability to sniff out a rat before they could implant themselves was still there.
And after an hour, he became quiet. That room had been where we’d had Tomaso dry out after a bender that could’ve left him dead.
Now at the doorway, looking in, I watched Kalen lying on the floor, staring out with bloodshot eyes. “Nobody knows you’re here, huh?” I said.
He sighed. “I’m not—”
“Cut the bullshit. You can leave. You just have to tell me the truth. And I don’t mean, tell me you’re a Fed, but tell me your entire truth,” I said, stepping into the room, and my black Italian leather boots made echoes with each step.
“Personally, I don’t care too much that you’re needed to take care of your mom.
I want something on you. Dirt. I wanna make sure you stay out of Boston. ”
Kalen looked defeated. That spark I’d seen, the sass, it had vanished, and part of my chest ached to see it.
I placed a hand against my shirt, right across my heart, then into my collar where I pulled out the family crest cross design.
Three sharpened spokes. I made sure it wasn’t adding to the pain my body was feeling.
Fuck, destroying him might’ve been destroying me.
We stared at each other for a moment.
There were tears in his eyes. “Yes, I work for the FBI, and no, there is no investigation into you,” he said. Lifting himself onto his elbows, he huffed. “But I am here for my mom. And—and I—”
“Say it,” I whispered.
“I did want you to fuck me,” he said.
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “And?”
“And—and—” His eyes looked around, as if he was scanning for an escape. “I was looking for a reason to stay in Boston. I wanted dirt on you so I could stay and look after my mom.”
There was so much pain behind his words, and part of me wondered whether or not this was his play at getting my truth. Paranoia was awful, and when I was right, it only strengthened me. “What else?”
“I—I—”
“Something deep,” I said.
“I’ve had a stuffy, a teddy cat since I was a child, and I can’t sleep without it,” he said. “Like that?”
He was so delicate. He was so submissive now. The brat had gone—or was hiding, waiting for the cuff to come free. “I need you to leave Boston,” I said. “Take your teddy, take your mom, and go.”
“No, I—” His bottom lip trembled.
“Go on.”
He licked his lips. “I still wanna—fuck you.”
After kidnapping, kissing, and cuffing him to the wall, Kalen still wanted to fuck.
This wasn’t the game I thought he wanted to play.