Chapter Fifteen
Gabriella
Voices, smoke and changing light drew me in and out of sleep, but for how long, I had no idea. The warehouse had no windows and time seemed to cease. I grew cramped in the cage but didn’t dare ask to be let out. I believed it was safer in there, tucked out of the way and forgotten.
Images of Tano plagued me, not just images of his many faces, but memories as well.
After the schoolgirl and principal scene in his office, he’d carried me upstairs to the shower.
Putting me on my knees under the rain head, he’d slowly fed his cock into my mouth.
The water couldn’t hide the salty sweetness of his taste, and only added to the velvety smoothness of his hard length.
Never had I been so turned on from giving someone else pleasure.
I fell into the memory gratefully, clinging to what might well have been my last moments of happiness and freedom.
Tano gathered my wet hair into one of his fists and used it to guide my mouth, yanking and pulling this way and that. It took a minute for my body to let go and obey the guided commands he issued with an iron fist. But when I did, oh Lord, sweet heaven!
“Gabriella, your mouth is heaven,” he groaned.
My eyes crinkled, amused. If my mouth was heaven, was it hell when I offered a smart remark? I didn’t have the chance to ask. My musings had cost me and I suddenly gagged, pressing on Tano’s legs to escape the brutal deep-throating.
His cock popped out of my mouth as he took a step back. “Naughty girl,” he chided. “You lost focus.”
“Was I that obvious?”
He hoisted me to my feet and spread my legs, bending me forward until my hands pressed on the wall and my bits were on display. Natural lubrication made me slick in a second as he ran a finger along my seam.
“Such a needy girl,” he said huskily.
His finger sank into my ass and got busy lubricating and massaging the tight ring of muscle. My nipples hardened with expectation. Anal sex, thanks to Tano, was now something I craved.
“Yes! Fuck me in that dirty place, Daddy!”
A growl from behind me. Tano lined up his cock with my opening and slid the head in. I thought he would hesitate and give me time to adjust to the invasion, but he just kept pushing in. Pleasure became pain became panic, and I squeezed hard, trying to make him stop.
“Trust me, piccolo peste, I won’t hurt you.”
Only Tano could call me a little brat and make it sound sexy and endearing. I allowed the hot water and steam to overwhelm my senses and relax my muscles as Tano slipped in the rest of the way.
“Good girl,” he crooned.
My pussy clenched at those two words. I loved being his good girl and couldn’t get enough of hearing him say them to me.
Once again grasping my hair in his hand, he held me in place, nipping my neck. “Keep one hand on the wall and with the other, play with your clit.” Releasing my hair, he grasped my hips and fucked me slow and deep.
“Oh, Tano!” His cock massaged my inner walls, my every nerve ending alive and crying out with pleasure.
Fireworks went off, lights bouncing and shooting through me, sending fire down my spine to blossom into a burning heat in my core.
Pleasure encased every bone and fiber of my body.
My orgasm crashed into me like a tidal wave, not just once, but again and again.
My toes curled and I keened and cried as my body spasmed and twitched.
Gripping my body more firmly, Tano let out a roar and shot hot ropes of come into my ass.
His full weight settled on my back for a long moment.
I could feel his breath in my hair, his teeth grazing the nape of my neck in predatory little love bites.
I floated in our shared afterglow, thinking nothing but that I had never been so happy, never felt so complete…
A tear slipped from my closed eye and tracked a hot trail down my cheek. Would I ever feel Tano’s arms around me again?
“I see you are waking. It is time for my little pet to eat.”
I opened my eyes with a start to see Ivan staring down at me with interest. “Open it,” he ordered one of his men.
When the cage door was open, he reached in and gripped me by the hair, forcing me to crawl out. He didn’t let go until I was on my feet.
“That’s much better. Follow and do as you are told, and everything will be fine. Deny me and I will fuck your asshole dry until you bleed.”
He delivered the warning in such a casual tone that I’d almost missed it.
A true sadist. I recalled the brutal beating he’d given his own man, the cold way he’d shouted, No one hurts what’s mine except me.
Torture was not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’, and the only question was whether I would survive it.
I followed him, but no guards escorted us wherever we were headed.
It was a perfect time to escape, but my body was stiff from the cage and I was afraid to even try to run, knowing that if he caught me—and he surely would—he would make me pay in ways I didn’t dare imagine. The man was capable of anything.
He led me into a private office where a large breakfast for two had been laid out. Not what I was expecting, but I hadn’t eaten since the previous day. I didn’t move, determined not to beg at his table like a dog, but my tummy chose that moment to loudly rumble.
“Sit,” Ivan ordered, pulling out a chair.
I had no choice but to obey. Ivan tucked me in solicitously, then sat opposite me at the table.
His huge frame practically swallowed the wooden chair he sat on.
He shook out his napkin, folded it over his lap and produced a cruel-looking knife from his inner jacket, using it to point at the food. “Eat.”
“May I ask a question?”
“You may,” Ivan answered, loading my plate with more food than I ate in a day.
“Were those my father’s men that your men kidnapped me from?”
Ivan smirked as he filled his plate from the serving dish, taking enough food for three people. A man that size needed a lot of fuel.
“Dimitri Peskov’s men, I mean,” I amended.
His eyes met mine, sharp with interest. “So you know. Yes. He tried to pull a fast one and get you instead of paying me as promised. No one reneges on a deal with me, as he has since learned.”
I gulped at the implication.
“Are you saying he is dead?”
Ivan speared me with his shark’s eyes. “As you Italians say…he’s gone swimming. Ha! With the fishes.”
My hand shook as I picked up my fork and took my first bite. In spite of the circumstances, the food was delicious and I was hungry. “May I ask another question?”
He chewed his food, giving no indication he’d heard me.
I thought, then cautiously added, “Sir?”
Placing his fork on his plate but holding his sharp knife in his hand, he lifted his gaze from his food to lock on my eyes. “I will indulge you this once. After this, you will only speak to me when spoken to first. Failure to follow this rule will result in a painful lesson.”
I wanted to make a smart remark to lighten the sudden darkness that weighed down my spirit, but defeat settled inside of me, and I realized there was no fighting this. All I could do was play along and pray to God that Tano would get to me before this man made good on his promises.
“Yes, Sir,” I said meekly.
“Ask your question.”
“Uh, do you live here? I mean, will we live here, in the United States?”
His cold face cracked in a colder smile, and if the eyes were truly the window to the soul, in his, I saw myself in chains. “No. We go to my compound in Russia.”
I dropped my gaze to hide the tears that threatened to fall. There would be no escape for me once we were on his turf. Please, Tano, I silently begged. Please, find me!
Ivan filled my coffee cup. “Eat. Drink. We leave soon and I want you properly fed.”
I couldn’t help thinking of him like an ogre from a fairy tale, fattening me up just to devour me.
Why else would he be so solicitous? Was the food drugged?
He ate from the same serving dish, but he also put certain food on my plate.
Or was I just too skinny for his tastes?
I couldn’t read this guy at all, but if I wanted to throw a wrench into his plans for me, now was the time.
I took a breath and took a chance. Feigning a calm I did not feel, I remarked, “You do understand that we cannot marry, we can only live together.”
This finally provoked a real response from the enormous Russian. His brows rose in surprise before he quickly schooled his expression. “What do you mean?”
I held up my hand. “Surely you didn’t miss this lovely ring that my husband, Gaetano Vitale, put on my finger.”
He stared at it for a long time, motionless, the only sound in all the world being the pounding of my heart.
Then, faster than a striking cobra, the knife spun in his hand and he slammed it down, through the plate and deep into the table.
He leapt up, shouting in Russian. Two of his men burst into the room, listened to his bellowed orders, and then disappeared again.
Once more silent, Ivan stared at the door for a moment, then turned his murderous gaze on me. “If you are lying to me, it will be your first and last time.”
I lifted my chin and forced my voice to be steady. “I am not lying. I am Gaetano Vitale’s wife.”
His black eyes bored into mine and at last, he showed his teeth in a smile. “For now, my dear. Tomorrow, you are his widow.”
He sat back down, pulled his knife from the table and used it to spear a sausage.
He resumed eating, and after a warning glance from him, so did I.
The food tasted of ashes and blood, but I ate, thinking of Gaetano, his strong arms around me, his confident voice telling me he was coming and I would soon be safe.
Of course, he’d also told me the Russians would never dare cross the Vitale family on their own turf, but that wasn’t Tano’s fault.
He thought he was dealing with a man like himself, a man who would size up the enemy, weigh the risks and realize he would be utterly annihilated in a conflict with the Vitales.
Ivan Knyazev was not a man—he was a crazy motherfucker incapable of believing he could be wrong.
He wanted his toy—me—and by God, he was going to play with it, even if he had to watch every man under him die horribly and create a power vacuum that would kick off an Underworld war across at least three continents.
And I couldn’t do anything about it. I wasn’t sure anyone could, but as I ate, I prayed again to anyone listening to make my beloved fiancée find me before anything else happened.