19. Basilio
Basilio
I leaned back in the seat and stretched my legs, enjoying the view of my driver.
Wynter was behind the wheel of Priest’s Jeep. Unlike her own, this one was all fancied up. She didn’t care for the fancy, but I convinced her to drive. The top was down and so were the doors, and wind whipped her curls around her face that she was unable to tuck into her pink baseball hat.
She glanced over, the big grin on her face. “I’m starting to think you brought me along to be your chauffeur.”
She didn’t know that I rarely sat in the car with anyone if it wasn’t me driving. It ensured I was in control and most people were shit drivers.
“That and some other things,” I drawled.
She instantly blushed and I chuckled. I honestly never thought a blush could get me so hard.
After another shower last night, I crawled into bed with Wynter and for the first time in my life, I slept in the same bed as a woman.
I never trusted anyone beyond my cousins and my sister.
When your own mother betrayed you, it was hard to trust people.
But last night, listening to her even, calm, and soft breathing, it was the lullaby I hadn’t had the luxury of listening to when I was a kid.
Wynter Star was changing my world. For the better.
I watched her driving, her tiny green shorts having most of her long legs open for viewing, and her pink blouse giving total girly vibes. Girl was seriously obsessed with pink. I didn’t think I’d be able to see the color again without thinking about her.
I watched her through my aviator glasses. She didn’t bother hiding her eyes, and I was glad for it. She flicked a gaze to me, and her eyes roamed down my body.
She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and her eyes roamed over me. “I like you outside a three-piece-suit.” I raised a brow, amusement filling me. “It makes you look… younger.”
I chuckled. “I aim to please, principessa.”
She continued nibbling on her lip. “You're gonna wear a bathing suit too, right?”
A deep laugh left me. “Are you trying to take advantage of me?”
She returned the attention to the road but not before I saw her full lips curve into a smile. “Can you blame me?”
Her honesty was refreshing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be pining after a girl. Certainly not one that had no connections to the underworld. The way she looked at me with her curious and soft expression burned through my skin and sent blood rushing straight to my dick.
“I’m guessing you’ll be wearing a swimsuit too, principessa.”
She grinned. “I am. I got one in the hotel shop. I put it on the room tab.” Her brows knitted as if she was displeased about it. I insisted she put everything on the room tab and buy herself multiple things. “You know that shop could be charged with extortion for how crazy their prices are.”
There were worse crimes than extortion. “I can afford it.”
She rolled her eyes. “The richest and youngest gazillionaire.”
I chuckled. “Gazillionaire, huh?”
She shrugged. “That’s what the papers said.”
“You believe everything you read and hear in the media?”
For a moment she stiffened and a shadow passed her expression. “No, not everything.”
Rays of sun caught strands of her hair, making them shine like gold. She was a mystery and an open book. She didn’t play coy. I sensed her honesty when answering, but there were parts of her she was hiding. I couldn’t shake the feeling and usually my sixth sense never failed me.
I overheard part of her conversation with her mother last night. I got the sense she cared about her very much, but there were clearly some issues in their relationship.
The squeal of tires sounded behind me, and I flicked a look into the rearview mirror. I saw the corner of a black Land Rover three cars back. It was a habit to check surroundings and I was glad for it now because I swore the same black Land Rover followed us since we left the hotel.
“Wynter?”
“Hmmmm.”
“You think you could lose that black Land Rover three cars behind us?”
She glanced in her rearview mirror and her brows furrowed, worry crossing her face. Then her eyes darted my way. “I don’t want to get a ticket,” she murmured. I couldn’t help smiling. She worried about getting a ticket while I’ve done much worse.
“You won’t,” I assured her. “If we get pulled over, I’ll handle the cops.”
A spark flickered in her eyes. “Promise?”
I nodded. It was all the encouragement she needed. She stepped on the gas and the car accelerated so fast, my back pressed against the seat. This girl has some recklessness in her , I mused as I pulled up my phone and shot a message to Priest.
I watched her odometer hit 80… 90. She was a confident driver. I had yet to find something that I didn’t like about this girl.
“You better tell Priest it’s your fault if I crash his fancy Jeep,” she teased. “And don’t ever let him recite my last rites.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “I’d crush his throat before he’d be able to say the first word.”
She grinned happily, then reached and turned up the music. It was the first thing she did when she sat in the Jeep. Connected her music to the Bluetooth. She had a lot of chick and classical songs, though as long as she was happy, I didn’t care.
Glancing behind me, I noted the Land Rover was still there.
My phone buzzed. It was a message from Priest. He had a pin on my location and sent men.
I didn’t expect anyone to be tailing us in Pennsylvania so I only had a handgun on me, tucked in the back of my pants.
I refused to risk Wynter’s life if there were men after me.
I pointed to the exit we had to take and Wynter slowed for it, then glanced over her shoulder and cut through three lanes at the right moment to take it, ditching our Land Rover friends.
“Good job,” I commended her.
She beamed. “Thank you. My first high speed chase.”
“I might be corrupting you,” I mused.
She shrugged, her eyes twinkling. “I like it.”
Fuck me. She might be corrupting me too, in the best way possible.
Because this feeling around her was addictive. Her smile. I’d do anything to see her smile.
* * *
I stepped up to the two men hanging from the ceiling. Two days in a row in Priest’s basement. What was it about Wynter that brought out the crazies? Or maybe she was bringing out the crazy even more in me?
Glancing around, fresh blood covered the concrete floor. It looked like Priest already took a liking to one because he was in a rough shape.
The other guy’s eyes twitched with fucking terror. It worked well when they got to witness the torture of their fellow accomplice.
“Anything on the reason why they were following me?” I asked Priest.
Priest gripped the throat of the man he had beaten close to death and jerked him up, choking him.
“Tell him what you told me,” he ordered.
“Looking for the lost princess,” he muttered in his thick accent.
I cocked my eyebrow. “I hate to tell you. I’m not a princess. I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”
Rolling up my sleeves, I approached him and stared down at one then the other. The guy that Priest tortured fainted, or maybe died, I had no fucking idea but the other shook with fear wide in his eyes.
“Tell me, comrade,” I smiled darkly as I brought my face close to his. “Why is Bratva following me?”
He attempted to spit on me, despite the clear fear coloring his expression. “Do your worst. I’ll never betray our Pakhan.”
I straightened and reached for the knife on the little table. “Before you die, you’ll tell me everything.”
My fingers on the knife tightened, then brought it down to his pinky, cutting through bone and flesh. His screams were music to my ears. I didn’t stop there. I moved onto the next finger, then the next. His pussy screams echoed through the basement’s concrete walls.
“I didn’t know you were an opera singer,” Priest remarked. “Lousy as shit but still.”
All his fingers cut off, I asked again, “Why were you following me?”
“Fuck you.” Idiot.
Grinning wide, I flipped the knife through the air. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Before he could blink, I shoved the knife into his gut and turned it sharply. His face turned ashen and his eyes rolled in the back of his head, while he roared in agony.
“No, no,” he cried. “Please.”
Fucker finally came around. “Now you’re coming around.”
“I don’t know anything,” he claimed, whimpering like a coward.
It took two hours and twenty-five minutes and a whole lot of spilled blood to break the whimpering Russian asshole. At this point, I was covered in blood from head to toe. I was taking Wynter out to dinner and I didn’t have much time left for this fucker.
I leaned closer to him and growled, his stench invading my senses.
“Tell me again why you’re following me.”
The blade of my knife pressed against his eye socket and I didn’t hold back.
He whimpered. “We’re looking for the lost mafia princess.”
“What’s her name?” I demanded to know.
“I don’t know,” he cried. “They’ll kill me.”
“What do you think I’ll do to you?” I questioned with a smile as I pressed the tip of the knife harder into his temple.
“We were given this location and told to follow you and the woman with you,” he croaked. “That’s all I know.”
I rammed my blade into his eye and watched the light leave his eyes and end his miserable existence.