Chapter 2
Jaxon
When Robert had told me that Keri Esposito had shown up at my door unannounced, I’d been curious enough to sit down with her rather than turn her away.
I knew of her father’s position and that he didn’t always abide by the law.
In fact, more often than not, he flipped the bird in the face of law enforcement as well as basic human decency, but in recent years his power was beginning to wane.
The age of the overwhelming power of the mafia was declining because men like me with more powerful connections and even bigger bank accounts had begun to rise and overshadow them.
Which would explain Keri’s presence here in front of me. She’d probably heard that I had a certain amount of influence of my own and that sometimes I solved problems for a price. Maybe she’d heard more, but that I didn’t know.
With her marriage to Anthony Battista, it would combine the Esposito and Battista families in an unbreakable alliance.
With their powers folded together, it would be entirely possible for them to become a formidable force in the city once again.
New York would be in trouble if that ever happened.
It would be an annoyance for me, although I could easily handle them all if I wanted to.
There was nothing really in it for me, so I’d ignored it for the most part.
That is, until Keri Esposito walked through my door.
I didn’t know if I fully believed her. From what I knew about her father, Richard, he led his family with an iron fist, but he was a fair man.
At least as fair as a mafia kingpin could be.
I hadn’t ever been around the Battistas, but I wouldn’t help her until I fully understood the story surrounding the whole situation.
I wouldn’t be made a fool by rushing into the situation without all the information.
There was an element of honesty in her eyes, but there was something else. Something else that I didn’t quite trust. Something I needed to figure out.
“Wait here. I’ll be back shortly. Enjoy your glass of wine in the meantime. I’ll have Robert bring you something to eat,” I said, fully expecting her obedience.
“Thank you, Jaxon,” she murmured softly. She blinked and looked up at me with those beautiful blue doe eyes of hers. Her arms pressed against her chest, and I glanced down at the rather seductive view of her cleavage she offered as a result. She was flirting with me, the little vixen.
She was playing with fire. I wondered if she realized that.
I left my study and returned to my office.
I sat down at my desk and keyed a few commands into the background check software I’d designed myself for the FBI.
There wasn’t much about Keri, but there was certainly a great deal of circumstantial evidence around the rest of her family and especially her father concerning his supposed criminal activities.
There’d never been enough for a conviction however because his very expensive lawyers had found one loophole after the next and gotten him off every single time.
I decided to focus a bit more on her. She’d done well at the private academies her parents had shipped her off to and she was excelling in her more recent coursework through a small university.
There were no marks against her. At the top of her class, she was either intelligent enough to cover her tracks or she actually was a good girl who didn’t get into that kind of trouble. I couldn’t be sure which it was yet.
I’d have to dive a bit deeper.
I picked up the phone and dialed her father’s cell phone number.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Richard Esposito,” I drawled.
“Who is this? How did you get this number?”
“My name is Jaxon Blackwood.” The long moment of silence said everything. He’d heard of me and that pleased me. “I’m calling about your daughter.”
“Why the fuck would you be calling me about that little bitch?” Immediately, I disliked how he talked about her. I sat back and crossed my legs, thinking about my next steps.
“She showed up at my door asking for my help. It seems you have arranged for her to be married to a certain Anthony Battista without her consent and when she refused, she told me that you threatened to kill her,” I ventured.
“Fucking cunt,” he spat.
“Did you threaten her, Esposito?” I pressed.
“For fuck’s sake, of course I did. It’s the only way the little whore will listen to reason. She’s with you? Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get her and teach her a lesson she won’t soon forget. She’ll be lucky if she can even walk down the aisle tomorrow,” he sneered.
“No,” I answered simply.
“Excuse me?” he replied with a clear sense of disbelief. He wasn’t used to another man standing up to him. I didn’t care.
“No. I’m not going to tell you where she is,” I countered.
“Yes, you will. If you don’t, I’ll find you and kill you myself,” he snarled.
I laughed.
No one threatened me without paying a very steep price. Not ever and Richard Esposito certainly wouldn’t be the first.
“Good luck,” I replied, and I hung up the phone.
I’d called from a blocked number and he’d be unable to get back through to me.
I glanced at my security monitors. My compound was silent, and I keyed in a few additional measures that would ensure that no one could get in.
His threats didn’t concern me. Keri would be safe here until I dealt with her father.
He would be handled regardless of whether I decided to help her or not. I didn’t answer to men like him.
There was one other piece of her story I needed to verify, however. If the Battistas threatened her, that would require an answer too. There were two parts of this equation I needed to fully understand. I didn’t do things halfway.
I tracked down Anthony Battista’s number and I called him next.
By his background information, he was only twenty-one and pretty quiet on the criminal front.
He’d been implicated in a few drug trafficking rings that his father had likely engineered for him, but nothing stuck.
Overall, he did decently in school and stayed mostly clear of the activities of the Battista family from what I could tell.
“This is Tony,” he answered.
“My name is Jaxon Blackwood,” I began.
“Blackwood… Blackwood… I know that name,” he mused. “Oh! I know who you are, but why would you be calling me? I’ll connect you with my dad. You’re probably looking for him.”
“No, Tony. I want to talk to you.”
“Why me?” he asked, his voice shaking with just the slightest twinge of fear.
“I want to talk to you about Keri Esposito,” I began.
I decided to tread carefully at first. Tony seemed in no way as crass as her father, so I was beginning to doubt this side of her story.
I wanted to know more and if I went at this from a different angle, Tony would tell me everything I needed to know without him even realizing it.
“My bride-to-be?”
“Yes. I want to know more about the arrangement. How did it come to be?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I wasn’t really involved when my dad brought in the lawyers.
The whole thing was mainly put together behind closed doors with the heads of the Esposito family and mine.
I didn’t really have anything to do with it.
The only thing that I really have to do is show up to the ceremony tomorrow and go through with it,” he answered.
“Are you happy with the arrangement? Do you and Keri get along?” I pressed.
“Well, we’ve never actually met. I’ve never even talked to her either, but that’s fairly typical as far as arranged marriages go from what I’m told. I’ve seen her picture though. She’s really pretty. I’m looking forward to getting to know her after the wedding tomorrow,” he replied.
“I see,” I answered. “Do you know if she’s objected to the arrangement at all?”
“As far as I’m aware, she hasn’t. Neither of us were really consulted about it, which is typical in any case.”
“Were either of you threatened into it?”
“No, it was just expected of us. Nothing more than that.”
“Thank you, Tony. I appreciate your candor.”
“It’s no problem at all. Will I see you at the wedding tomorrow?” he asked.
“Probably not, but I wish you all the best,” I replied.
“Thanks, man,” he said.
“Have a good rest of your evening, Tony,” I added.
“I will,” he answered, and I hung up the phone.
I sat back and drummed my fingers against the wooden surface of my desk.
She’d been telling the truth, mostly anyway.
Her father had threatened her, but her husband-to-be wasn’t that kind of man.
To me, he was a pretty laid-back kind of guy who wasn’t really interested in the dealings of the family business.
If anything, Keri would be the one who wore the pants in that relationship.
With a sigh, I looked at her picture once more.
She was a gorgeous little thing, that was certain.
When she’d batted her eyes at me and leaned forward so I could catch a peek at her young form, I’d noticed.
I’d have to be dead not to. Even now, my cock was hard as I thought about her naked on her knees in front of me as she begged to suck me off.
Fuck. No, I couldn’t do that.
She was young, innocent, and most likely a virgin. She wasn’t the type of woman that I wanted in my bed.
I liked my women submissive and just a little bit naughty, enough so that they needed to be taken over my knee and taught a lesson that only Daddy could teach them.
My fingers twitched. It had been quite some time since I’d taken a woman in hand.
There was one very different thing about every one of those women.
They’d all been willing to obey Daddy from the start, even if that meant a painful trip over my knee when they had earned one.