Chapter 2
TWO
Sable
How did I end up on Milo Accetti’s hit list?
I told Chance we shouldn’t have come here, but he didn’t listen to me.
“Well?” Milo demanded. He slammed his hand against the wall, inches from my face, making me jump.
A few minutes ago, he had filled me with a desire so strong that I would have done anything he asked, but now he had me fearing I wouldn’t take my next breath.
“Please,” I said. “My brother might have deserved the punch, but don’t hurt him again.”
“He deserves a hell of a lot more than one punch, and believe me, I’m going to give it to him.” Milo traced his finger along my jaw, forcing a shiver down my spine. “The question is, do you want to watch?”
“Leave her alone,” Chance shouted. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“I’d say distracting me while you try to sell drugs in my club puts her right in the middle of this.” Milo glared at me. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“What?” I pushed Milo out of my way so I could look at my pitiful brother. “Is that true? Were you selling drugs?”
“You didn’t know?” Milo grabbed my arm and turned me to face him.
I shook my head. If I had known that was what Chance came here to do, I never would have let him come. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten in the middle of it. Of all the ridiculous ideas…
“I find that hard to believe, especially since you were so focused on your brother when I approached you.”
“I didn’t… please.” I had been trying to keep an eye on my brother to make sure he didn’t get into trouble.
“We’re short on rent. He was only trying to help.
” I motioned toward Chance. “He’s twenty.
His brain isn’t fully developed.” If Milo didn’t kill Chance, I might.
“If I promise we won’t come back here, can you just forget this ever happened? ”
The harder Milo’s dark and intense stare became, the more upset my stomach grew. His blue eyes didn’t seem as vibrant as when we had first met. The wrath I detected in them was directed at me.
How was I going to get us out of this? We were in a room full of men who probably made a living eliminating people like my brother. They weren’t going to leave me as a witness.
“You want me to forget that he came into my club and solicited my guests with drugs he obtained from who knows where?”
When Milo kicked Chance in his ribs, I winced.
“Get him up off the floor,” he said to the men.
“I told you he’s young and stupid.” I held back the tears that were seconds from spilling down my face and ruining any thoughts I had of appealing to Milo.
“That’s no excuse,” Milo snapped. “I have to protect my associates. Do you think I want someone overdosing on my watch? In my club? Christ, the Feds would be all over me.”
He shouted in Italian. I had no idea what he said, but it didn’t sound promising for my brother and I.
“I’m sorry for the trouble,” I said. “I’ll make sure this never happens again.”
“And how are you going to guarantee that? You said it yourself—he’s stupid. I’d be doing you a favor by taking care of him now. He’s only going to cause you more stress as he gets older.”
“Milo.” The well-dressed man who had approached us on the dance floor stepped forward. “You need to get this taken care of now. People are starting to gather.”
“Make them stop gathering while I decide Chance’s fate.” Milo tugged me to move with him when he got into my brother’s face. “Despite your fucking name, I don’t give second chances.”
“I made a mistake,” Chance said. “I didn’t sell anything to anyone.”
“That’s because no one here is going to buy anything from a lowlife like you.” Milo gripped my arm. “Luckily for you, you have her.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when I thought Milo might let us go. Maybe our connection at the bar and on the dance floor influenced his decision. As I glanced at his chiseled profile, I cursed my brother for ruining what could have been a promising evening.
“Thank you,” I said. “He’s not going to cause you any problems. ”
“No, he isn’t.” Milo nodded at his men. “Take him out back and show him what happens when you challenge me.”
“What!” I shrieked. “No!”
“Let’s go, little spy.” Milo yanked me down the corridor and to a set of old oak doors.
“Sable!” Chance shouted. “If you fucking hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“You’re right,” Milo said. “He is an idiot.”
“Get off me!” I tried to struggle out of his unyielding grip, but he only held me tighter. “What are you going to do to my brother?”
“You should be more worried about what I’m going to do to you.” He pressed a code on a keypad and shoved me into the cold space illuminated by a small lamp on a solid, wooden desk in the center of the room.
He slammed the door behind him as I retreated to the other side of the room.
“There’s nowhere for you to go.”
I gazed around the dusty office with the worn, hardwood floors and peeling paint.
“Excuse the place.” He stalked toward me. “It’s not at all what I’m used to, but something tells me you feel right at home.”
“Do you like insulting me?”
The way he viewed me made me feel small and insignificant. He saw me as less than him because of my clothes, and the fact that I didn’t look like the other women in the club. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to dress nicer and have expensive shoes and a designer bag, but I couldn’t afford those things.
“What is your last name?” He continued to come toward me. “And don’t fuck around with me.”
“Flynn,” I whispered .
I backed up, hitting the wall when he stopped in front of me. The scent of his woodsy cologne swirled between us as flashes of him pressing his finger to my lips with the sugar from the rim of my glass cluttered my thoughts. No one had ever been so forward with me.
I should feel nothing for such a brutal man. He punched my brother and didn’t show an ounce of remorse. Even as he towered over me with his large, muscular frame, scaring the crap out of me, I still couldn’t forget the image of his lips inches from mine as we swayed to the slow beat of the music.
Snap out of it!
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Prior to the unfortunate incident of your brother coming into my territory and causing a problem, I wanted to fuck you.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
“You didn’t see the signs?” He slapped his palms against the wall on either side of me, caging me in. “Or were you too busy worrying about Chance?”
“I didn’t know what he was doing.”
“I’m not sure I believe that.” He cupped the side of my face, causing my heart rate to increase. “Maybe you didn’t know he was attempting to sell drugs, but you knew he didn’t belong here.”
“We came with his friends,” I said.
“You’re telling me Romeo Bello is friends with your brother?” He snickered. “Your brother is dumber than you know if he’s hanging out with a guy like that.”
“Could he be any worse than you?”
His lips curled into a smug smile, but I couldn’t tell if he was amused or offended.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“Mr. Bello doesn’t have my brother beaten up, so I don’t have any reason to believe he isn’t Chance’s friend.”
“Not yet.” He tucked my hair behind my ear, forcing another violent shiver to rip through me. “Just wait until Romeo finds out what Chance attempted to do here tonight. You’re going to wish I killed him first.”
“I don’t want anyone to kill my brother.”
Why had Chance involved himself with these sorts of men? No good could come from an association with them. When he started doing odd jobs for them, like parking cars and running errands, I told him not to get in any deeper.
Their luxury cars and expensive shoes were a red flag. We didn’t belong in these circles.
“Your brother made his own problems.” Milo took my chin between his fingers and slowly turned my head from side to side, inspecting my face. “You are rather stunning.” He traced his fingers underneath my eye. “I like your freckles.”
I had a trail of freckles across the bone on the side of my face that stretched to underneath my eye on both sides. They were faint but noticeable. I had always felt self-conscious about them. No one had ever said they liked them.
Should I even care what Milo thought?
“I would like to pick up where we left off on the dance floor.” He ran his lips along my jaw. “But your brother fucked that up, didn’t he?”
I sucked in a breath when he licked a path between the seam of my lips. Balling my fists by my sides, I dared not to move when he slid his hand between my legs and rested it on my inner thigh.
Heat settled between my legs, and my nipples hardened. I tried to fight these lustful urges, but having him this close confused me. I didn’t want Chance to involve himself with men like Milo, so why wasn’t I fighting him off?
“I had hoped to bring you back to my penthouse and make it a memorable first day of the new year.” He trailed his hand higher, ghosting his fingers over my panties. “One neither of us would have ever forgotten.”
I released my tight fists, and with trembling hands, I smoothed my palms over his strong abs and chest, craving the way his rigid form bulged beneath my touch.
“I had plans of fucking you in every possible position.” He continued to tease my lips with his tongue. “Making you come with my fingers, my tongue, and my cock.”
As I trailed my hands to his shoulders, I admired the ink that peeked out of his starched shirt and crept up his neck. My insides pulsed when I imagined him naked. How many tattoos did he have?
When he pressed his lips to mine, my head screamed no, but my body stifled any responses I had to stop him. I had never been touched so intimately, so carefully. There was nothing awkward in his actions. He was all man, and I desired every bit of him.
“I want you,” he whispered. “I meant it when I said you could belong to me.”
I wanted to give into him, because I was tired and afraid of being at the bottom. Always wondering where the rent would come from and how we would eat. For once, it might be nice to put down the reins and let someone else figure things out.
No! Not with him . Submitting to a man like him would leave no trace of me when the dust settled. I had seen that too many times. I was stronger than that.
“But now, I have to take care of your brother.” He released me and backed away. “Do you know how infuriating that is?”
“He said no one bought anything from him. I’m sure whatever your men are doing to him will scare him enough to never come near you again.” I shook my head. “I don’t even blame you for roughing him up. Chance shouldn’t have come into your club and tried to do what he did. It was disrespectful.”
“I know his kind,” Milo said. When he reached around his back and removed a black gun from his waistband, my heart pounded hard enough to hurt.
“He doesn’t come from men like me. He strives to have what I have and to be who I am, and because of his blind ambitions, he’ll keep coming up with ways to interfere in my business. ”
“What are you going to do with that?” I pointed at the gun. “You don’t need to use that.”
“How else would you like me to kill your brother?” He set the gun on the desk. “I don’t usually take requests, but I might make an exception for you.”
“You can’t be this cruel.”
His wild laughter filled the damp office, echoing off the old walls and wood beam ceilings. He ran his hand along his jaw and stared at me for a moment. His smile faded into a hard line as he leaned against the desk.
“You don’t know a thing about me, good sis .
” He reached for me faster than I could back away and yanked me toward him, positioning me between his legs.
“Because if you did, you wouldn’t be standing here seriously pleading for your brother’s life, begging me to fucking spare him for an unforgivable offense. ”
“He didn’t do any harm.” I tried to struggle out of his hold, but his grasp was tight enough to cut off my circulation .
“No drugs in my territory or in any places of my business.” He shook me. “That’s rule number one.”
I swallowed hard, trying to stop my legs from shaking.
“If I don’t look out for my people, who will?
I have associates who pay me a lot of money for the services I can provide them.
For the protection they have come to expect from my family.
I can’t let every wanna-be mobster with a stash they bought off the street into my space to try to sell it.
Where is the control in that? How do I know it’s not lethal enough to take out someone? ”
He shoved me back, causing me to stumble, but he grabbed my arm before I could land on my butt. The flicker of remorse in his rage encouraged me. Maybe I could reason with him.
“Your brother has no business in my world. He’s only going to cause you heartache.”
“What am I supposed to do? Let you kill him?” That wasn’t a question I found myself asking someone under normal circumstances, but this situation was far from normal. “Don’t you have a family you would protect at any cost?”
“I do,” he said.
“Then why can’t you understand my position?” I turned away from him, trying to control my tears. “I want to keep him honest. He doesn’t listen to me. We’re all we have. I can’t lose him.”
After a few seconds of me crying, he rubbed my shoulder, but that only made more tears fall.
“You’re carrying too much.” He stepped around me and looked into my eyes. “Lay it down.”
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“Sable.” He wiped the tears from underneath my eyes with a gentleness I didn’t expect. “I can’t be your savior, but perhaps there is a compromise.”
“What kind of compromise?”
“What if I let your brother live?” He held the side of my face. “What if I let him walk out of here with no more than the bruises he has already sustained?”
“You would do that?” I stopped sobbing, taking advantage of the sliver of hope he offered. “Really?”
“That depends.”
He lowered his lips to mine and captured them with his, kissing me long and deep. When my knees buckled, I grabbed his arm so I wouldn’t lose my footing. He released me but still held me close to his solid body.
The spark he created between us was stronger than I would have liked. I lost control of the situation the moment he gazed into my eyes at the bar.
“What does releasing Chance depend on?” I asked.
“It depends on what you’re going to give me if I grant you that request.”
“I don’t have anything to offer you.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”