Chapter 34
Whatever it is Ellie wants to talk about, tonight is really not the time to do it. I’m nowhere near the mental state needed to logically deal with anything right now. Not when her tears bring me equal parts pleasure and sympathy.
When I saw the notification of her attempt to get into the parking garage, I thought I could handle sending her away.
Things were going well until that fucking tear rolled down her face.
My momentary lapse in indifference turned from compassion to lust in the blink of an eye, and once my dick got involved, all bets were off.
I have it so fucking bad for this woman that even my post-nut clarity didn’t fix how badly I want her.
At least I have my wits about me enough not to fuck her for real tonight, not to cross that bridge.
The blow job was one thing, and my little game we’re about to play is just that, a game.
I only want to mess with her, get her back even just a little for what she did to me, while I navigate my true feelings.
I tuck the gun Misha gifted me into the back of my pants, grab a dish towel from the kitchen, and make my way back to the living room, where Ellie waits patiently on her knees.
“Blindfold yourself with this, then lie on the couch, face down,” I say, tossing the towel to her.
She does exactly as I ask, and the image of her on the chaise of my sofa with her perfect ass in the air has me thinking twice about my no-fucking rule.
I adjust myself and remove the gun before squatting down in front of her.
God, she’s fucking perfect. I want to run my fingers down her body, tracing every single curve.
But I know if I touch her, if I feel that fire that always burns every time her skin meets mine, I’ll never be able to stop.
I use my gun instead. The cool metal causes her to jump at first, and her skin pebbles as I gently trail it down her spine.
“Do you know what this is?” I ask as I make my way to the small of her back. When she doesn’t answer, I bring the barrel down on her ass cheek. “I asked you a question.”
She moans out her response. “Mmm, no.”
I place the barrel at the top of her ass and drag it down between her cheeks until I get to her puckered hole. “I haven’t taken this one yet, baby. What do you think? Should I do it now?”
She shivers as I circle her rim, but she shakes her head.
“No? You don’t want anything in there? Why don’t you tell me what you want, then, baby?”
“My…pussy…need you…”
“As you wish…Let’s get you on your back so I can really see what I’m working with. I want to see those tits bouncing while you take this.”
I help her flip over, and the image before me has me at a loss for words.
It’s been too long since I’ve seen my love in all her glory.
I don’t know how she’s managed to get even more beautiful in our time apart, but she’s positively glowing.
I caress her cheek with the gun, then trace it down her body.
Circling her breasts, I notice how much fuller they seem.
In fact, all of her curves seem to be more pronounced.
I delight in the way she shakes as I continue trailing the gun to her navel.
The little pouch of fat in her lower stomach that makes her look like the carving of a goddess is especially rounded.
My dick twitches as I fantasize about her womb growing with my child.
I lost track of her menstrual cycle in our absence, but I assume she’s probably just experiencing some bloating around her period.
Maybe, if I’m lucky, she’ll bleed for me.
By the time I reach her core, she’s spread her legs nice and wide for me, giving me a clear view of her glistening pussy.
She’s soaked, holy shit. I could shove this gun inside her right now without any resistance, but I want to tease.
I run the tip back and forth between her folds, reveling in her moans.
I know how she likes her clit rubbed, and I know exactly when she’s going to come.
I work her, bringing her to the brink of release but nothing more, until she’s dripping down her thighs.
“Look at you, weeping to be filled. Do you want me to fill you up, baby? You don’t even know what it is I’m going to use to fuck you with, but you don’t care, do you? My dirty little whore just wants something in that perfect little cunt of hers, doesn’t she? You’ll take anything, won’t you, baby?”
“Yes…please,” she whines.
I drag the tip of my gun up her thigh where her arousal drips, scooping it all onto the tip, then bring it to her lips. “Taste your desperation first, baby. Clean it all off, and I’ll fill you up.”
She takes the metal into her mouth and sucks it clean, and I regret not letting her have her own way with my dick earlier. As good as her throat felt, it could never compare to her own technique.
“That’s my good fucking girl.” I move the barrel to her opening and give her inch by inch until her pussy has swallowed the entire length of the barrel. “Have you figured out what’s fucking you right now?”
“N…no…”
I use one hand to apply pressure on her lower abdomen as I fuck her with my gun, rubbing her G-spot with each thrust. She’s already so close from my earlier edging that I know it won’t take long before she comes.
“That’s it. Let go, and I’ll tell you what our little game you agreed to is, baby.”
I work her expertly, waiting until I know she’s on the brink of release before I give her any details. So she will be too close to falling over the edge to stop me.
“That’s it…You’re taking this gun like a pro.
Like only a true Mafia princess could.” She jerks as the first wave of her orgasm washes over her.
She’s at my mercy now, unable to stop me while her pleasure controls her.
“At least this is a new one. Only one kill so far. Don’t worry, though, baby, I washed the blood off it.
Not that you would mind. You would probably get off on the idea of the blood of a man I killed still being splattered on the barrel, wouldn’t you, Santori?
You try to act all innocent and pure, but you’re worse than all of them, aren’t you? ”
She writhes beneath me as I continue fucking her through her release.
“That leads me to our game. You’re going to love this.
Since you were so quick to flash your family’s muscles the other day when you had me kidnapped and tortured, I thought I would bring a little bit of my own savage heritage to the table.
Russian roulette. I’m sure you know the concept well enough.
If I pull the trigger and it’s a blank, I’ll fuck you again, this time for real, and fill you up, just like you want. But if it’s not…”
I bury the gun as deep in her as I can while her orgasm subsides. “Are you ready?”
She fights to get away as her consciousness returns, but my grip is ironclad as I tease. “Oh, come on now, baby, you agreed to this, remember? I thought you were going to be a good girl tonight. You’ve got a five out of six chance! Those are great odds!”
She rips off the towel blinding her, and the look in her eyes is pure panic.
Tears fall from her eyes as she begs for her life between labored breaths, “Please don’t make me…I’m…it’s…I’m sorry…Please…”
I pull the gun out of her and loosen my grip as she falls into a full-blown panic attack. The moment I let go, she sits up and pulls her knees to her in a fetal position. She’s shaking uncontrollably as she rocks herself back and forth.
“Ellie, calm down…You’re okay…” I reach out to comfort her, but she jerks away.
“Please don’t kill me, Teddy…Please!”
Fuck…does she actually think I would chance her life like this? How could she possibly believe I could do such a thing? After all the bullshit about her being sorry for getting me kidnapped by her brothers, she still thinks so lowly of me? Suddenly, I see red.
“Are you serious right now? Do you really believe I would ever hurt you like that?” I pull the gun from her and hold it up, firing six blank shots into the air.
“I would never put your life in danger like that. I would never do anything to cause you pain. I loved you so goddamn much. I still love you! Even after you almost got me killed, I love you.”
Ellie continues to sob as I pace back and forth, running my fingers through my hair in a failed attempt to calm myself. I should stay and make sure she’s okay. I know that’s the right thing to do, but I’m so fucking lost. I can’t even trust my own thoughts and feelings anymore.
“Fuck, I can’t do this right now…Stay as long as you need…I’m sorry…I…I have to go.”
Driving always helps me when I’m down. I’ll get in the car with no destination in mind and ride until I’ve calmed.
This time, who knows where I’ll end up? I could go all the way to the other end of the country, and I doubt it would be long enough to center myself.
All I know is that I have to get out of this city.
Away from this new hockey team I’ve let down, away from the Bratva I’ve inherited, and away from her.
The problem is, I can’t. It’s been hours since I left, and all I can do is drive in fucking circles. Because every time I get more than thirty miles away, it’s like a leash yanks my heart back to Ellie.
Finally deciding to give it up, I enter the address of the Taranov compound and make my way back to my new home for the night. I can try again tomorrow. Maybe a flight across the Atlantic would be more successful.
I’m five minutes from my destination when my dash lights up with a call from Mila.
“Teddy? Are you okay?”
“Yeah…Why?”
“Oh, thank God! What the hell are you doing? I’ve watched your tracker go in circles for the past two hours!”
“Oh, I…I was just driving.”
“I just got an alert that someone broke into your condo and your tracker was going wild and—”
“It was probably just Ellie leaving. She came over earlier to try to talk, and I had to leave. That’s why I was driving in circles…I know, I know, I’m pathetic. You can make fun of me.”
My sister is uncharacteristically silent.
“Mila?”
“The security cameras were tampered with. The only video we were able to access was from one across the street. It was Diego de la Rosa.”
“Um…okay?”
“There’s something else we found out while you’ve been gone tonight that I was waiting to tell you when you got back. We know who killed Leo…”
“Who—”
“Dominico…de la Rosa.”
Everything hits me at once. “Fuck! Mila, I have to go.”
“Don’t do anything stupid. We can send—”
“No! I’m going to the condo right now. If you want to help, call the Santoris and tell them what’s going on. If they have her…Fuck. I have to go.”
I end the call and dial Ellie’s number, but it goes to voicemail. I trust my sister to take care of things with her family, so I spend the entire drive trying to contact Ellie. I call and text her over and over as I speed to my condo, but she never answers.
When I see her car in the parking lot, I lose it.
Everything’s a blur as I pull up to the building and rush to where I left her.
I’ve been trained to move discreetly when a door is already cracked open like this one, but I don’t care.
I run through it, calling for Ellie as I check every room. But she’s nowhere to be found.
I still and try to think. Nothing looks particularly out of place.
No blood or damage indicates there might have been a struggle, but without the security footage, there’s no way to know for sure.
Ellie is incredibly smart and has been trained her whole life to handle situations like this.
I’m sure she’s left me something. I sweep the place from floor to ceiling, looking for any clue, but the only thing out of place is the photo album I made of my time with Ellie.
It’s lying on the coffee table beside where I left her on the couch.
It was one of the things I was going to grab tonight, but I know I left it in my nightstand.
Emotion floods from me as I open the book to see her beautiful smile.
She’s holding a rose I picked for her when we went to the botanical gardens shortly before the playoffs.
That’s odd. This picture should be toward the middle of the album.
The next picture is one of us at the zoo.
She insisted that we take a picture in front of every animal.
She was posing in front of the lions when one jumped toward her and scared the shit out of both of us.
Again, this should be later in the album.
The last picture on the page is one I took with her head out the window of my car when I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up driving us through the more unsavory part of town.
I told her to roll her windows up, but she did the opposite, insisting she was fine.
The lightbulb in my head finally goes off.
Her clues.
The rose.
The lion.
The location.
I send Mila a picture of the clues, then dial the one person who knows Ellie well enough to help solve her riddle.
“Teddy?”
“Nonna! It’s—”
“Elia, yes, your sister has already reached out.”
“She left me some clues…Can you help me? I have to find her.”
I send her the picture to Nonna to wait as she works everything out. The rose for de la Rosa and the lion for Leo were obvious enough, but I needed help with the location. I didn’t think to look at the street signs, but Nonna does.
“Don’t worry, we have the full force of the Santori family and the Taranovs…we’ll get them back.”
“Them? What do you mean by them? Who else did the de la Rosas take?”
“Did you not know? She’s pregnant.”