20. Matti
Matti
I stalk back to the room carrying Siena, my jaw tight, my thoughts darker than they should be.
I can’t stop replaying what just happened in my head—the way she touched herself under the water, her eyes locked on mine like she was daring me to lose control. Her wet hair clinging to her skin, water streaming over her curves, and those full, beautiful breasts.
Pure fucking temptation. Every detail is seared into my brain, and my cock throbs painfully in response. I consider throwing her on the bed and fucking her tight ass until she’s screaming my name, but I don’t.
Lowering her onto the bed, I’m nowhere near as gentle as I should be. My pulse thunders in my ears as I yank the blanket over her wet body, more to block her from my view than to offer her warmth. My dick is still hard as steel, and the feel of her soft, damp skin isn’t helping.
FUCK.
What the hell is wrong with me? There are countless beautiful women in the world, and none of them have ever thrown me off my game like this. What the fuck is my issue with this one?
Siena is a problem—a massive fucking problem. She’s bad for business, a loose end wrapped in attitude, and yet… I can’t get her out of my head. She has been my every-other waking thought since I first laid eyes on her and now, after her little stunt in the shower, I’m fucking obsessed.
Which is in itself a fucking problem.
I glare at her, willing her out of my head. My priority is the flash drive, my commitment to the Demonio family. Once I have it, this fixation ends. I’ll fuck her, sate this obsession, and be done with it.
My mind careens back to that look of defiance on her face in the shower.
She wasn’t scared, not even a little, and seeing that strength in her has me hard all over again.
Her attempted bravery was a thin facade down at the lake or even in the alley at One Pearl Park, but in the shower, it was impenetrable.
It’s such a fucking turn-on to see her like that.
On the other hand, I can’t stop thinking of ways I’m going to break her, make her beg for me to fuck her, to beg for my cock. Just the thought has me hard again.
As I turn to walk away, let her sleep for a bit, she reaches for my hand wordlessly. Her touch is jarring, gentle and tentative, so different from the fire she was just throwing my way.
Caught off guard, I allow her to take my hand, and notice again the lacerations on her wrist left by that fuck, AJ. My jaw clenches as a fresh wave of anger surges through me. They’re not deep, but he drew blood, and for touching her alone, for licking her beautiful skin, he’s a dead man.
Siena is watching me.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she whispers, her voice soft and hoarse .
I don’t believe her. My thumb brushes the edge of the wound, and guilt twists in my gut.
This is on me. I should’ve grabbed her back at the lake, kept her close at One Pearl Park Plaza.
I had so many opportunities to trust my instincts, and I didn’t.
If I had, she wouldn’t have been hurt. AJ wouldn’t have laid a filthy finger on her.
But I ignored the warning signs, and now I’ve let her down.
Dropping her hand, I grit out harshly, “Get some sleep.”
“Hey.” Her eyes are half closed, her cheeks flushed.
Her long dark hair looks black when it’s wet, and her brown eyes are the color of espresso.
“I know it wasn’t exactly your choice what just happened in there.
But I needed to… I needed to feel something different , after my sister… you know? So thank you.”
Anger flares in my chest. “Next time you need jerk-off material, find it online,” I growl.
Siena smiles faintly, her expression so vulnerable it makes me want to punch something. She pulls the blanket tighter around herself and drifts off, leaving me standing there.
She thinks I don’t care.
Maybe it’s good that she thinks that she means nothing to me. She should be nothing to me. She is nothing to me.
I refuse to think about what that means I am to her.
**
The next day, I cruise slowly past The Hunt Club, a place that’s been in the Demonio family for generations. From the outside, it’s unremarkable—brick walls, barred windows, and a small, weathered sign. But it’s always buzzing with our soldiers, and today is no different .
There’s only one soldier I’m looking for, though, and I see him right away.
AJ, leaning against the wall like he doesn’t have a care in the world, is smoking a joint through the holes I left in his mouth when I knocked his teeth out. Talking to some other guys like he didn’t just fuck with my girl, didn’t just end his own life.
The little shit doesn’t realize he’s living his final moments.
I’m so exhausted that I’m wired, having laid awake all night staring at the cameras watching Siena sleep and waiting for the sun to come up.
The sight of AJ stokes the anger that’s been simmering in my chest since I left Siena’s room. This fucker put his hands on her, hurt her, and made her feel powerless. Now I’m going to do the same to him.
I slam my foot on the gas, the car screeching onto the curb, and come to a halt inches from AJ. Men scatter, and AJ pounds his chest and yells before he realizes that it’s me behind the wheel. When I get out of the car, his bravado falters as the smoke trails from his lips.
“Boss, what—”
He lisps thanks to his missing teeth, which I enjoy, but I don’t let him finish. I close the distance between us, grab him by the collar, and slam him against the wall. His joint drops to the ground, and he raises his hands in surrender, his eyes wide with fear.
“You know why I’m here,” I growl, my voice low and dangerous.
His mouth opens and closes like a fish gasping for air, but no words come out.
I fight the urge to rip this fucker apart right here on the street. “Inside. Now. ”
The club falls silent when I usher AJ through the door, the men inside giving us a wide berth as I shove him toward the basement stairs.
Angela, behind the bar, her long steely gray braid glinting in the sunlight, doesn’t look up, her hands steady as she slices lemons. She’s seen this kind of thing too many times over the decades to be fazed.
Behind her, a portrait of Aurelio Demonio hangs above the bar, a reminder to patrons of who they serve. Of who I serve.
Instead of leading AJ down the steps to the concrete basement, I give him an abrupt push when we’re about halfway down the stairs. It has the desired effect: a fall hard enough to piss him off but not enough to kill him.
“What the fuck?” AJ dusts himself off and scrambles to his feet, puffing out his chest as I descend the remaining steps.
“Which is what I should be saying to you right now.” I walk down the last step and hit him square in the jaw, sending him back down to the ground.
Groaning, AJ stays down.
“Do you know why you’re here, AJ?”
AJ holds his cheek and scowls up at me, his upper lip twitching into a sneer. “What, that nobody chick at the law office? That fucking bitch—”
My rage boils over, and I slam my fist into his face once, twice, his head bouncing off the concrete floor and into my fist.
“Wait! Wait!” AJ splutters, holding up his hands and cowering. “It wasn’t my fault.”
I find that hard to believe, but this should be entertaining. I pause, my fist pulled back, ready to sledgehammer into his jaw. “Speak. ”
“Franco was the one who knocked her out and tied her up. I didn’t do it! I found her on the floor right before you showed up.” Drool slips out of the corner of AJ’s mouth where I hit him. “The whole thing, it was his idea, his game.”
Could be a lie, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Franco didn’t have the balls to stand up and protect her, but he did rat her out to me and then destroy her house. “You don’t take orders from Franco, AJ.”
AJ shakes his head vehemently, smearing blood and drool across his face with the back of his hand. “I take orders from the Big Boss. Big Boss sent Franco, and Franco said no witnesses. I was following Aurelio’s orders.”
What the fuck? Aurelio is giving orders through Franco? Franco’s barely an associate. He’s a dirty cop. This makes no sense.
It makes no sense, because it’s a lie. AJ is just trying to save his own ass.
Doesn’t matter. Franco is chained up back at the Edge for his part in this, and AJ is going to die today for putting his hands on her.
Grabbing AJ by his shirt, I lift him up and throw him against the wall. When he bounces off of it, he tries to make a run for the door, but I clothesline him in the throat with my forearm and grab him by the hair with my other hand.
I hit him again, harder this time, and he crumples to the ground, groaning.
“Don’t you dare say Aurelio’s name like you know what the fuck is going on,” I hiss. “You know that so-called ‘bitch’ you hurt, the one you were going to rape, that’s my… target. And Franco’s sister. So you really expect me to believe Franco tied her up and told you to rape her and then kill her? ”
AJ blinks, spitting blood. One eye is already swollen shut, the other is red and closing. He can barely form words. “Sister? Aurelio told him to kill his sister?”
I bring my balled up fist down hard on his temple again and again. When I’m about to stop, my knuckles bloody, I pound him one more time for good measure. “What Aurelio does is none of your business, fuck face.”
So Aurelio is exploiting Franco’s connection to Siena to get the flash drive back. But how did he find out about that connection in the first place, and how did he know to send Franco down to that law office?
And does that mean he knows where Siena is?
Squatting next to AJ on the ground, I open the app showing the cameras at the Edge. Siena’s in her room talking to Olivia. Letting out a breath, I shove my phone back in my pocket. I’m suddenly in a hurry to get back to her as quickly as possible.
Standing up, I head over to the cabinet full of supplies that we keep down here for occasions such as this. AJ is out of it, eyes rolling back in his head. He probably isn’t hearing much at this point, and he’s barely conscious.
I take out a pair of latex gloves and pull them on as I speak, then survey the selection of knives showcased on velvet boards in the cabinet.
“AJ, you just can’t seem to control your mouth, can you? First, you put that nasty ass tongue on my girl, and then you run your mouth about things well above your pay grade. Not to mention lie to try to save your own ass.”
A knife with an eight-inch blade and a nice curve to it that comes to a point calls to me. Crouching down to his level, I turn AJ onto his back and pull his chin down with one gloved hand. “But I’m here to help you with your problem. ”
Reaching into his mouth, I pull out his tongue, getting a good grip with the latex gloved hand. In one swift motion, I slice it at the root, pull it out of his mouth, and show it to him.
He seems to return to the present moment, shrieking high-pitched screams garbled by the blood draining down his throat. I press the side of his face into the floor as blood spurts out of his mouth and wipe the tongue up the side of his face, mimicking what he did to Siena.
“See? That’s disgusting. Don’t do that.”
I stuff the tongue back into his open mouth and down his throat. Holding his mouth closed with one hand, I pinch his nose shut with the other, pinning him with my knee as he writhes and fights against me.
I stay there a solid five minutes after he finally goes still, watching my girl on my phone screen.
She looks relaxed talking to Olivia. I’ve never seen her like that before, so peaceful, laidback.
A wave of jealousy that I don’t quite understand washes over me.
Standing, I strip off the latex gloves and drop them on AJ’s corpse.
One less threat to Siena in the world.
Next, I have to deal with Franco. Then Aurelio. And I’m not quite sure how I want to handle either one of them.
My phone buzzes with a text from Vin.
Work
Fuck. That means one thing. Aurelio has a job for us to do, which means getting back to my girl is going to have to wait.