Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
BELLAMY
I woke with a start, feeling the complete and utter silence of the room suffocating me. Usually by now I had at least one of my men with me, but there was only me. Hadn't Ace just been here with me when I closed my eyes? How long ago was that, anyway? It could have been minutes, or hours, as far as I knew. We had no clock in the room. We didn't need one when everyone seemed to use cell phones.
I reached over, searching for my phone, then I remembered I had left it in my bag in the library when we came home. I snuck in a few books for my collection on my shopping trip, and the library just happened to be where I left some of my things. I stood up, feeling the deliciously sore muscles come to life.
Ace. So fucking sweet. So fucking dirty. Every single time I was with him, I was blown away by how the quietest of my men could make me scream so loud. Making me cum was an art. It had to be. Because the way he worked my body was like he was an artist and I was his greatest masterpiece.
I found a discarded button-up shirt and pulled it on before buttoning a few buttons. Taking the collar, I brought it to my nose and inhaled, letting the scent make my stomach flutter. Mercer. I should have known. There was always one article of clothing of his that somehow didn't make it to the laundry basket. I wrapped it around me tighter, enveloping myself in his scent as I walked through the bedroom and out into our sitting room.
"Hello?" I called, hoping one of them was upstairs.
No one answered.
Not unusual, just not like them at this time of the night. They hadn't told me they were going anywhere, though I guess they didn't owe me an explanation for their actions. I walked through the open door and the distance down the hall to the library. I pushed open the door, feeling a slight breeze hit me.
Odd.
The air wasn't on, and the balcony's door was never opened. My feet were bare as I padded through the center of the room, past my bags, toward where the curtain fluttered slightly. I pushed the curtain out of the way, seeing that the door was ajar.
Hm. I suppose maybe the cleaners had forgotten to shut the door. A simple mishap, but we'd need to talk to them about it. The rain could ruin the books if they were exposed to enough moisture. Instead of closing the door, I pushed it open. The rain was just falling as lightning lit the sky. I loved this weather.
Heavy footfalls broke the peace around me, but I didn't turn around. Assuming it was my guys, I admitted, "This has always been my favorite weather."
Silence.
I guess my statement had no need for words. The words would have broken into the surrounding beauty, destroyed the calm I felt with each clap of thunder. Another pound of thunder had the sky finally breaking, and the drizzle turned to a pour of rain.
"Would you let me dance in it?" I laughed. "Come downstairs with me. Maybe run through the garden?"
How picturesque would that be? To run carefree through the thunderstorm, drenched in icy rain, just ignoring the moment. How I loved to enjoy every moment with them.
"I doubt you could run in your condition." I whirled around at the vaguely familiar scratch of a voice, my eyes falling to the cold, emotionless gaze of Joseph Accardo.
"What do you want?" I backed up a step, my heart pounding with fear. "How did you get in here?"
"I came for you." He laughed, the sound so unnerving that it was the only thing that made me shiver on this otherwise chilly night. "I've come for what's mine."
"I'm not yours." I'd die before I became his.
"No?" He took another step. "My grandson will belong to me. Afterwards, who cares about you? You could die. In fact, you probably will for being such a whore and fucking that man."
I assumed he meant Adam, my husband, but if only he knew the truth.
My hand pressed against my stomach protectively. He'd never get my daughter. "You can't have my baby."
"I can and I will. They've taken everything from me," he spat. "I'm taking what I want from them, or else."
"You took from them first." I reached back, feeling the rail. "You took his wife. His child. Did you not think that would have a consequence?"
"Wrong place, wrong time. He stole from my operation long before that. Taking my clients, offering higher quality product. He needed to be eliminated. It was unfortunate that I failed."
It wasn't unfortunate. I was glad he failed. If he hadn't, the powerful man I knew now would have left his two best friends in ruins. "I won't go with you."
"I doubt you have a choice." He laughed.
"Where's Adam?" I pressed against the rail of the balcony, the cold bars digging against my thigh.
"With his two lovers, I assume. He sure wasn't around to stop me from entering. They do everything together, as you know. I made a calculation when I set that hole in the wall donut shop on fire that they'd all rush to that old woman's side. Looks like my calculations were correct."
My hand went to my mouth as I gasped. "Mimi. Oh god, is she..."
"Dead? Most likely. There was no way for the hag to escape unless she exited through the door I did, but she'd have to go through the fire to get there."
"My guards," I whispered, thinking if all three of my men went to Mimi's side, then Max and Drew would be here with me.
"Dead. How easy it is to sneak up on people in the dead of night during a storm. Every little rustle is written off as the wind. It was too damn easy to kill your property border patrols. And the men stationed by the door... gutted from throat to navel."
"No."
"Yes." He laughed as he advanced, and I had nowhere else to go unless I jumped over the edge.
I didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be. Not when I looked into Drew's eyes just this morning as we shared an inside joke about Ace. Not when Max grumbled about carrying all my bags upstairs and yet still did it when I asked. They were fine; they had to be fine. Everyone was fine.
Hysteria bubbled inside of me. "I don't believe you."
"You don't have to believe me. It doesn't change facts." He laughed, and from this close, I could smell his rancid breath, and I fought not to gag at my repulsion. "I'll say it again, since I wasn't clear. I'm taking you. I'm taking my grandson, and we're leaving here. They'll come home, and it will be too late. You will be mine. You will have this child, and if you're lucky, I'll let you live and be my whore, too. I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? You'd like to spread your legs for the father just like you did for the son."
"No."
"Yes." He laughed. "You think I didn't watch. That I didn't stroke my cock watching your limp thighs welcome him into your body. It was perfection."
The purr of the predator, the memory I knew I lost, forced a tear to fall from my eye. Before I could wipe it away, he reached out, his fingers like sandpaper against my cheek as he used his thumb to catch the tear before bringing it to his mouth and sucking it from his skin. "I love the taste of your defeat."
I was not defeated. I refused to be. But before I could utter a single word about how I'd rather die than go with him — how my daughter would have his genetics, but everything good would come from the fathers who stuck by my side during my pregnancy, or how he'd never win — he reached forward. His fingers wound in my hair and pulled. I fell forward before he yanked my hair down, forcing me to my knees.
The cement of the balcony dug into my knees, tearing at the skin, and I screamed, trying to fight against his hold. It was no use. He had me at a disadvantage. He used his free hand to press down on my shoulder, forcing me to remain on the ground. With all the venom I could muster, I spat out, "I'll never give you what you want."
"You don't have a choice." He yanked hard, snapping my head back as his hand moved from my shoulder to my throat. "It's not a choice you get to make." His fingers squeezed, rendering me unable to move as he released my hair, working his belt buckle with his hand. "Haven't you realized by now that, in this world, men take what they want? Like Ferrari, for example. He took you. Shot my son dead for this worthless cunt. Wonder if it was all worth it to him. Losing so many men to protect this."
"He'll kill you!" my voice screeched out.
"He can try." He reached into his pants, stroking his cock, working it from flaccid. "But he'll never succeed."
I should have kept my mouth shut. I knew this. But maybe living with these men for so long gave me the illusion that I could speak my mind to whoever, whenever. "They killed your son, remember? Your brother too. You think they can't take you out?"
In a blink, my head was slammed against the stone. My eyes blinked rapidly to fight against the burst of lights and blurred vision. Pain radiated from my skull, and when I reached back, the warmth of blood coated my fingers. "You will not speak of my family, fucking whore. They'd be alive if it wasn't for you."
"Me?" God, my head hurt, but I couldn't keep quiet. "This started long before me. You killed Adam's family."
"Adam," he drew his name out, "took my business."
"You sent him the video. I hadn't known it happened; I hadn't the memory."
"He would have found out, eventually. I needed your father out of the way. His alliance had become useless." He turned, using my hair to drag me toward the library. I struggled, trying to get my feet under me. "But you, your existence, made him attack my docks. He wanted more. It's what we all want when we have a family on the way. I'm shocked he didn't disregard you. It's what I would have done."
"He's a good person," I sobbed out. "And your docks, everything he's done to you, was owed. Deserved. Long overdue."
"So fucking na?ve." He dropped me in the doorway, my body sprawled between the door frame, half inside, half outside. "On your knees. I want to see what has the beasts so damn enthralled. How good is this mouth that it has them all doing your bidding?"
Instead of following directions, I tried to crawl away. My body twisted as I scurried, but the ground was slippery from the rain. Thunder boomed, reminding me of my misfortune as a weight slammed against my back, pushing me down. Pain radiated through my stomach as I gasped, "The baby."
"Fuck the child. If it's too weak to live, it's no blood of mine." He growled as he yanked my head back, forcing my back to arch painfully.
"Please," I begged.
He used his full weight to lie against me, his hard length rubbing against the bare skin of my ass where Mercer's shirt had risen to my back. A hand cupped between my legs and a sob escaped me. His fingers touching me so intimately made my stomach roll. But when he removed his hand and grabbed my thigh, fighting against my resistance the entire way to spread my legs, forcing them open with his own thigh, I died a little inside.
"Don't fight me. This is owed to me. My son promised me this."
"Your son was weak," I choked out against the hysterical sob that was working its way through my body.
I didn't see the blow coming. Not when it hit me from behind. The butt of his gun radiated off my skull, forcing me to slump forward, my body going nearly limp. But I couldn't allow myself to surrender. Even with my cheek pressed against the cool pavement and my body shaking with the pain it took to remain conscious. If I let it take me, if I let the blackness consume me, I'd let him win.
He could not win.
I wouldn't allow it.
He'd already taken so much from me, and I refused for my body to be added to that list.
I kicked back, hitting his thigh, throwing him off balance. When his body fell to the side, I used it as my chance to get out from under him. I stumbled to my feet, trying to run away even as I struggled to get my feet under me. I had nowhere to go, but maybe over the edge. Still, over the edge was almost a better option than the life I'd live under this man’s thumb, losing my body to the filth of his.
I pushed forward, my finger grazing the roughness of the rail before fingers gripped my ankle, pulling me back to the ground. He pulled himself to his full height above me, standing tall as his foot landed on my back, grinding into my spine and pressing my stomach into the floor. I cried out involuntarily, tears mixing with raindrops as pain consumed me.
"You'll never escape me." He laughed. "You're mine. All fucking parts of you. You know it now, and soon that cunt will, too. Say it."
I can't. I couldn't. I'd never belong to this man. This monster. "No."
"Not the meek woman you once were at the altar, are you, little Belle?"
I swallowed hard, hardly able to get words out. "I was never weak."
"You will be when I'm through." He leaned down, hovering close to my ears. "I'll make sure of that."
His laugh radiated into the night as he stood, straightening his back, before someone rammed into him from behind, sailing them both over the balcony and into the muddy ground below.