Chapter 7 Massimo
Massimo
The dark gold embers rage in the younger daughter’s eyes.
Sophia has no clue what she’ll be getting herself into by coming with me, but a softening look, almost a plea tells me she knows far more than a young woman should about things such as this but even still, she’s willing to make the sacrifice for the honor of her family. “Please?” she mouths.
Her request was unnecessary. The minute I learned a Cassone daughter would pay the debt, Sophia was the one who would be paying it, no matter the charade that had to play about before her father.
The softness of Sophia’s skin, the light in her eyes and the gentle way she held herself, it was always going to be her.
No matter what my father may say. I turn to her father.
“When your debt is repaid, your daughter will be returned to you.”
A curt nod is all I receive from the seething elder of the Cassone crime family. His daughter has his strength, voluntarily walking past her father and out to the car by my side without a tear or a backward glance back.
Georgeo, one of the family’s newer drivers, waits for us right outside the entrance in the running SUV while our soldiers line the long drive, all the way from the house to the gates, each turning to follow us as I put her into the vehicle.
Sophia averts her eyes as we head past the gatekeeper’s carnage, stepping past strewn bodies who have long since seen their demise, as the silent but deadly attack on the Cassone estate occurred.
Our soldiers for theirs, it was never going to end any other way. Old man Cassone knew the score before he gave the order for his soldiers to hit our trucks.
Sophia settles into the plush black leather of the back seat, scooting as far away from me as her seat belt will allow. She presses her head against the coolness of the glass, watching the life she knows fade in the distance as our driver makes his way down the long drive.
Soon, she will have a new existence, at least for as long as it takes her father to pay.
And knowing mine, a mere exchange of money will not be enough.
He is far too sadistic a fuck for that. My chest tightens as I push the thought away of Sophia anywhere near my old man.
But still, her father knew what his actions would ignite.
Attacking the Roselli family is something you do not do, no matter who you are, and especially if you are a rival crime family with a wish to continue doing business in the underworld.
Everything is about power, and once a couple of Cassone’s soldiers confessed under the blade that her father was behind the heist, she and her sister’s world were never going to be the same.
Now they are merely pawns in a devil’s game.
The dark-haired beauty sits quietly, her arms crossed, trying to hide the heaving of her peach- sized breasts beneath the fitted white T-shirt she wears.
She feels my gaze though, and turns. Her brave voice cracks.
“The minute this vehicle left those gates, all of my father’s men and all of the soldiers on the street were given an order.
They’ll come for me and when they do, they’ll make you pay. ”
The younger sister may be well educated in the world outside of mine, and three years in one of the finest colleges around has probably given her a false sense of security, perhaps even believing she could leave this life.
My eyes meet and hold hers. “They’ll find you when I’m ready to give you back.
Until then, you’ll be mindful of who you talk to like that, Sophia.
You wouldn’t want to get on my bad side. ”
Her mouth stays silent but the fires in her eyes still rage as I watch a myriad of emotions play across the beautiful porcelain skin before she turns back to look out the window at the passing traffic.
Sophia looks like her mother, at least from the pictures I’ve seen. She may have her dad’s dark Italian coloring, but her skin is so creamy it’s hard to resist caressing, if just to see if it’s as soft as it was the night in my car, or if it was merely a dream. “How much?” she asks quietly.
It’s not hard to know what she’s asking. “How much money did your father take when he had our trucks hijacked?”
Her eyes slowly find mine as she turns, looking genuinely surprised.
“It’s not true. I would have known. There are protocols, rules we live by, you of all people should know that.
Papa would never have done something that could be taken as an all-out start of war without preparing and safeguarding his daughters.
We mean the world to him. Unlike you and your brothers and father, Papa is not a monster. ”
“Yet he did, and now you must pay for his deeds.”
Her dark eyes flash a golden amber color as they graze me with their disdain and perhaps even hate.
“You’ll be sorry you ever met me one day, and it will be one day in the very near future, Massimo.
You mark my words. I will make you pay for the day you came uninvited into our home and took something that does not belong to you. ”
I shift in my seat and tug at a diamond cuff link. “Your father consented, Sophia. You belong to me now. At least for as long as it takes.”
Her head whips around with anger. “I don’t now, nor will I ever, belong to you.
You’re nothing but a two-bit hood who has the entire community believing you’re this great person who donates to worthy causes.
They don’t know where your money comes from though, do they, Massimo?
But I see you, the underground world you live in, I know you. ”
It’s impossible not to lean in, or to stroke a finger down that creamy skin, grazing it over those voluptuous but impudent lips. “Shh… That mouth of yours is going to be your undoing, Sophia.”
She’s not impervious to the chemistry that runs between us, enemies or not.
I felt it the other night and I feel it now too.
The pulse on the side of her neck beats stronger and her cheeks heat an erotic shade of pink as her nipples pebble under her clingy tee, leaving imagined images of her nude body running through my mind, the very same way they did while tossing and turning in the night thinking about the dark-haired beauty.
Sophia should be grateful that for some innate reason I feel the need to protect her from the wrath of the warehouse, no doubt where my father believes that she, or more desirable yet to my father, her sister, will be taken.
But, of course, Sophia doesn’t have a self-preserving bone in her body, only defiance in the face of certain defeat.
“My father isn’t a liar. He isn’t a thief and he’s ten times the man you could ever hope to be.
Fuck you and the entire Roselli family!”
Georgeo raises his eyebrows in the rearview mirror.
It will never do to let her get away with that runaway mouth in front of the staff.
Especially ones I do not know very well.
If Jimmy weren’t tied up getting things ready, he would be here with me now.
I suddenly regret not bringing him instead.
All the new staff have eyes and ears and lips all too eager to whisper in my father’s ear these days.
“I’ll deal with you when we get into the house,” I tell her as the sprawling white four-column mansion of my estate comes into view in the distance.
Sophia’s quiet as we drive through the gates, but the erratic rate of the tell-tale pulse on the column of her neck indicates her fear.
But yet, she doesn’t let that stop her runaway mouth.
“Fine, now we’ve arrived at the great Roselli estate.
I should be shaking in my boots, scared to death of what you may do. ”
“You should indeed.”
“You’re not going to do anything to me, because if you do, my father will kill you with his bare hands, and it will be painful and slow.”
My jaw locks tight as Georgeo watches the interaction from the front seat.
I get out of the car and walk to the other side.
When I pull open the door, she’s already removed her seat belt, which is going to make picking the mouthy little minx up and tossing her over my shoulder to cart upstairs and spank the sass out of her that much easier.
I reach in to grab her by the waist, but her long toned limb lodges the force of her foot right into my inner thigh, just narrowly missing my groin, causing my grip to loosen while she makes a run for it across the bright green manicured lawn and straight towards the woods.
My jaw shifts with annoyance, but it’s hard not to be impressed …
The soldiers around the front perimeter begin to follow, but I hold up a hand to stay their course. This I will take care of on my own, in my own way. Sophia has a head start, but she’s not going anywhere. Besides, the thrill of chasing her makes my dick harder than it’s ever been.