Chapter 17
Dario “Dash” Mangiacavallo
Pacing back and forth, I was sucking on my cigarette frantically, every nerve in my body on fire.
All day, all goddamn day, I’d been reeling about what happened this morning.
I practically begged a man to fuck me. Vincent.
I begged my best friend to have sex with me.
And I had wanted it so goddamn badly! Christ, I’d never wanted something – someone – as badly as I did. And I was pissed we’d been interrupted.
Vincent knocked on my door a second before opening and stepping inside. “Hey, time to switch shifts.”
Snarling, I tossed the cigarette to the ashtray, crossed the distance in three long strides, fisted his shirt, and stole a passionate kiss that had my toes curling.
He grunted but didn’t fight, curling his fingers around the sides of my jeans.
Our heads bobbing, our tongues battling, I was not going to let anything get in the way this time.
We were fucking, goddammit! To hell with anyone else in this house, I did not care if they all heard. Vincent was fucking me, right now.
Growing aggressive, his teeth nipping, he kicked his foot behind to shut the door and staggered us further into the room. We broke from the kiss to paw at our clothes, our heavy pants filling my ears.
“Fuck, Vinny, I need this. Oh, shit, fuck me.”
He growled and grabbed my throat, yanking me back for another vicious kiss. My jeans undone, he pushed them down, spun me around, and shoved me forward, my palms slapping to the desk.
“You want this dick?”
“Oh, fuck yeah,” I groaned, my knees weakening.
He spit on his fingers and tucked them between my cheeks, wiggling his middle inside the whole. My jaw dropped and my eyes rolled to black as a guttural groan spilled out of my mouth.
“I’m going to fuck you so good, baby, you ain’t never gonna want someone else.”
“Oh, fuck…” I froze, my insides turning to stone. Tensing, I stared at the monitors, my blood hardening into ice.
“Relax, baby, don’t tense up,” he muttered, caressing a cheek while trying to pump his finger.
“Vincent,” I croaked, getting lightheaded from a rush of adrenaline.
“Yeah, I like it when you say my name. When my dick pops that cherry, tell me how good it feels, baby.”
I sat up a bit, swatting behind me. “Vincent,” I wheezed again, gripping his wrist to stop him.
“What?”
I gulped and licked my dry lips, my hand shaking as I pointed to the screen of the back patio.
His chest pressing into my back, he was nibbling my ear when he must have seen what I saw, for his entire body turned rigid. “Oh…shit.”
The mood changed from erotic to panic, we broke apart and quickly fixed our clothes.
Since my dick was already limp, I got dressed faster.
Anxiety riddling my bones, I tried to remain calm as I hurried down the stairs.
Feigning aloofness, I went to the kitchen where I’d seen Tyler and Violetta on the cameras.
Trying to maintain a regular breath pattern, I forced myself to not look in the direction on the deck when I walked through the archway.
Speaking low, my tone steady, I said, “Okay, I’m gonna need you two to not show any reaction, whatsoever, to what I’m about to say.
Keep looking at me, do not look anywhere, and do not freak out. ”
She paled, her eyelids rounding wide. “What is it?”
I cleared my throat and thumbed my nose, forcing a small smile to pretend we were having a normal conversation. “Jackyl is on the patio, watching you two right now.”
She choked on a gasp, but he had no outward emotion other than his stare turning frantic. When her hands began to tremble, she crossed her arms to hide them.
“You saw him on the cameras?”
“Yup. I ain’t sure, but I think he’s been hiding out in the cave.”
“Oh, shit,” she whimpered, turning her back to the windows to rest her hip to the island. “We were just there a few hours ago.”
“Mm hm. I know.”
“What do we do?”
I looked at Tyler and arched a brow. “You ready to see if the shooting lessons yesterday stuck? You did pretty good aiming. Time to find out, I reckon.”
Tears were welling in her eyes, but she was maintaining her composure enough to keep up the facade. “Oh, my god. This isn’t happening.”
I opened the fridge to get a beer, just to continue the act. “Look, we all knew this was gonna go down when we came out here. What the hell did you think was gonna happen? He would just let go and move on?” I cracked it open and forced the bitter drink past the knot in my throat, nearly gagging.
Tyler dug out his cigarettes and lit one, taking a long, deep drag. “Why are we standing here, when he’s right there? Why aren’t we doing something?”
“Look, bitch. You can’t just go balls to the wall, guns blazing. First of all, the goddamn kids are right over there.”
He cursed and nodded, his thumb sticking out to rub the spot between his eyes. “Right, right. Sorry. I don’t…this ain’t my life, I dunno how to act like a banger. Panicking a little bit here.”
“Yeah, well, you’re hiding it pretty well. Hate to say it, but you’re acting like a true Serpent.”
He snorted. “I’m both honored and horrified.”
“Yeah, same. Besides, Tiny here ain’t the only one who knows some laws. Before anyone touches Jackyl, he has to be inside this house,” I stated, pointing to the floor.
“Why?”
She heaved a sigh and clucked her teeth. “The Castle Doctrine.”
“Yup,” I grumbled, taking another sip. “Self-defense law.”
The stairs creaked, drawing our attention. A moment later, Vincent joined us, appearing exhausted. “He’s gone. Went back into the woods.”
“The cave?” she asked.
“Yeah, probably. I really can’t think of anywhere else out there he’d be hiding.”
Tyler jutted his chin and blew smoke through his nose. “What about your parents? Can’t they help?”
My eyelids rounded, my focus darting to Vincent.
I had never admitted to anyone that my parents were tied to the mafia, so why I chose to confide in him was beyond my comprehension.
Did that mean I was beginning to trust the bastard?
Christ, this was a twisted mess we were diving deeper into.
“Hey, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
They got money, but ain’t no money gonna save us if we screw this up. ”
His lids thinned while he scrutinized me a moment. Recognition hitting, he coughed and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Right. Got it.”
“Look, he clearly don’t know this place is covered in surveillance, or else he wouldn’t have just been standing there, watching. We have the advantage here. But as long as those kids are here, we gotta be careful.”
Violetta coughed, visibly struggling with her emotions. Not thinking about what she was saying, she lowered her chin and rubbed her forehead, saying, “Dammit, I wish Cathy were alive. We could stash the kids with her for a few days and just get this over with.”
My pulse skipped a beat, me and Vincent glaring at Tyler to gage his reaction.
His eyelids rounded slightly, his sight shifting to mine, but, otherwise, he had none.
The unease fading a bit, I cut my lids and examined his features.
Was there a chance I’d been wrong about the bitch?
The last couple weeks, the man I’d been seeing and getting to know against my will was nothing like Jackyl had always described to us.
To hear him talk about Tyler, he was a narcissistic, abusive man who took advantage of Violetta and used her for his selfish, twisted needs.
Frowning, my focus darted to her profile, a voice nagging that it had been Jackyl who had taken advantage, not Tyler.
I had always been uncomfortable that she was eighteen when they got together, but sixteen?
Whether they had been sleeping together then, or not, he had no business starting any form of relationship with her, at all.
“You know what,” Vincent said, wagging a finger in her direction. “That ain’t such a bad idea, sis.”
She snorted and shrugged her hands out. “Uh, she’s dead? How is that possible?”
Again, we glared at the outsider, but he just clucked his teeth and rolled his eyes.
“Okay, let’s just squash this shit right now.
I don’t care,” he emphasized, curling his shoulders to his ears.
“You think I ain’t already kinda figured that out myself?
” Tugging at an ear, he looked off to the side and grumbled, “From what I’ve gathered about you two the last couple weeks, she more than likely did something to warrant it. ”
A half-smile tugging, I swirled the little bit of beer left around the can. Yeah, I was starting to like the bitch. I wasn’t changing his nickname, but Tyler Warren wasn’t as big a piece of trash as we’d been led to believe.
“Well, yeah, she did, but that’s for another day. Back to what you said.”
Violetta was staring up at Tyler, her face glowing, love emanating from her small grin. Slipping her arms around his waist, she rested her cheek to his chest, sighed, and closed her eyes. He groaned and returned the embrace, nuzzling his lips in her hair.
The smile faltered and my head tilted. Those two truly were in love.
I’d been watching them since we’d been here, and they seemed to function as one most of the time, though they didn’t realize they were doing it.
Every time one stole a quick glance, the other was already looking.
If they were near one another, they were stealing little touches, acting as if they were physically incapable of not doing so.
Sometimes, they just gazed into one another’s eyes and smiled, up to a full minute without blinking.
What was it like to have that kind of love? It was making me understand that despite how I’d felt for my wife, it dulled in comparison to what these two felt.
Which made what Jackyl did all the more unforgivable. Had he not interfered, these two would have gotten back together when they were still kids. Tyler more than likely would have gone pro, and she would have become a prominent lawyer by now.