Chapter 16 Marco
“Please… Marco… I can’t… breathe!”
My eyes rolled.
“Fuck!” I roared. “Do you ever stop talking? Do you even know what quiet is?” I asked, peeling my hands from around her throat and pulling away, my cock already soft.
“I’m sorry! Marco, I’m sorry! I just couldn’t breathe!” she gasped, already reaching for me, pawing at my dick and trying to take it into her mouth.
I slapped her hand away and rolled out of bed.
“You know, Callie,” I said coldly, “I’m considering moving you down the rankings.”
“Seriously? You already have me stashed away in this shithole and now you’re going to move me down? What did I do? You’ve been impossible to please lately, ever since Lena the Least…”
She stopped mid-sentence when I shot her a stern look, as a low warning growl rumbled from my chest.
“Don’t. Say. Her. Name,” I spat.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t get why you care so much! She was worthless, mute, ugly, and feral!”
I lunged forward, wrapping a hand around the column of her throat as her eyes went wide with fear. Then, before I did anything I would regret, I forced myself to relax. A smile curled across my lips.
“Lena may not have talked,” I said, tightening my grip just enough to make her whimper, “but she listened. A skill you clearly don’t possess.”
I looked down at her.
Beautiful. Long golden hair, full pink lips. The perfect omega trophy. Completely the opposite of the hollow girl locked in my basement who had captivated me so completely.
Callie would do anything to please me. Anything I asked.
That devotion was how she climbed the ranks and became my favorite wife. Only the most important jobs earned a night with her.
She and the rest of my top five ranked wives lived in my private residence. All of them were spoiled rotten. All except Lena, who lived in my home too, but in the basement, of course. She could have been spoiled too, if only she submitted to me.
Despite her devotion, Callie had begun grating on my nerves.
She had forgotten her place. Constantly complaining about being moved out of my home and into this secure location. Complaining about the growing number of men I sent to her, in order to secure favors during my split from Arca.
As if it had been a choice.
I had to.
AIED had been crawling all over my operations lately. Ever since I cut Arca off, the pressure hadn’t stopped. Raids. Surveillance. Questions.
General Green wanted blood.
And I knew exactly what he was looking for.
The omegas.
Which meant I had no choice but to hide them.
Callie was furious about her new accommodations. She hadn’t stopped complaining since the moment I moved her here.
Which meant she needed a reminder.
A very clear one.
Callie seemed to be forgetting something important.
She didn’t decide where she lived.
She didn’t decide when she spoke.
She didn't decide who she fucked.
She didn’t decide anything.
I did.
I owned her. Her comfort. Her safety. Her future. Her pussy. All of it rested entirely in my hands.
And if she kept pushing me, I could very easily decide her situation needed to become much, much worse.
“Luca!” I called out.
My burly, crude lieutenant entered quickly, boots heavy against the creaky floor. His eyes went straight to me first, awaiting instruction, before drifting to the bed.
Callie lay sprawled across it.
The moment she noticed his attention, she scrambled to cover herself, dragging the sheet across her body and shooting him a sharp, offended glare.
“Callie here has been having some trouble listening,” I said calmly. “She needs a reminder of her position. Can you see to it? I have important business to attend to.”
A wicked smile spread across his face. “Sure thing, boss.”
“Marco! I—”
Callie opened her mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. The words died on her tongue. She forced her expression smooth, schooling it into something obedient instead. Slowly, she pulled the sheets down from her body, exposing herself to Luca’s hungry gaze.
My wives didn’t like him much.
Luca had a tendency to be rough with them.
It served me well that they were afraid of him.
Fear kept them in line. But, the complaints came often, accusations that he enjoyed pain for the sake of it, that he always took things too far.
They weren’t wrong. I knew that for a fact after the incident with Lena.
I told him once to teach Lena a lesson, thinking maybe he could break through her silence. I wanted her to understand that there were worse men in this world than me, that giving herself to me was the better option.
I hadn’t expected him to go that far.
Hadn’t expected him to carve into her like that… to leave scars across her back that had nothing to do with control and everything to do with his own lack of it.
Worse—
He marked something that belonged to me.
And I nearly killed him for it. When I was done making sure he understood just how far he had overstepped, I went back to her. Because I couldn’t stand that what had been left on her skin was his.
Not mine.
So, after bandaging the wounds on her back, I carved my own mark into her left breast, right below my wife brand.
Even though he had crossed the line, Luca was loyal. Loyal to a fault. And that kind of loyalty was rare enough that I tolerated him.
I was certain a night with Luca would be all the reminder Callie needed to adjust her fucking attitude.
“Don’t overstep. No marks.” I reminded him. He nodded.
I didn’t spare her a second glance as I turned and left the room.
I had a meeting across town, and I wanted to get out of this shithole as quickly as possible.
Two guards sat downstairs playing cards. The moment they saw me, both men straightened and stood.
I waved them back at ease as I passed.
Outside, the brutal cold hit me immediately. I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck as I stepped onto the sidewalk. My driver was already waiting, the black SUV idling at the curb, engine running and warm.
Across the street, the laundromat glowed harsh and fluorescent, its light spilling across the empty road. A few houses still had lights on, but most sat dark and hollow, purchased quietly through one of my shell organizations and waiting to be renovated.
This whole street belonged to me.
Lookouts occupied the corners, blending into the night as they watched everyone who came and went. Nothing moved here without me knowing about it.
I slid into the back seat as my driver rolled down the divider between us.
“Where to, boss?”
“I’ve got a meeting at the port,” I said curtly, still trying to shake off the irritation from dealing with Callie.
“Sure thing.”
He rolled the window back up. My phone rang as he did. I answered with a sharp, “What?”
“The guy’s already here. Just giving you a heads up. We’re keeping an eye on him, but he’s definitely alone.”
“Good. I’ll be there in ten. Don’t let him out of your sight.”
Before long, we were pulling up to the port. My SUV stopped a few feet from where the AIED officer stood in plain clothes, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot.
I stepped out.
“Officer Yuri,” I said, extending my hand.
He took it. His grip trembled slightly as his eyes darted around the docks, scanning for threats.
“Bellini,” he said, greeting me with a stiff nod.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?” I asked lightly. “I assume you wanted to discuss your debts. Tuesday you lost big. Again. Two hundred and fifty thousand you owe me, Yuri. My men have been trying to collect, but apparently no one’s been answering.”
“I want my debts cleared,” he said. “All of them. And an additional hundred thousand.”
I burst out laughing.
“And why the hell would I do that?”
“Because I know where she is.”
The laughter died instantly. My eyes narrowed.
“And who would that be?”
“Lena,” he said. “The omega you’ve been looking for. The one you’ve put a bounty on.”
My reaction was immediate. I reached for the gun tucked into the waistband of my belt, whipping it free and pressing the barrel to his temple.
“Talk,” I snarled. “Right now. I’ll clear the debt, but there’s no fucking way I’m paying you a cent. Walking away alive will be your reward.”
“You’ll need me if you want to get to her!” he blurted. “She’s deep in Arca territory, surrounded by armed guards.”
“I suspected Arca had her,” I said coldly. “No one else has the resources to keep her hidden from me. How do you know where she is?”
“Because I’m one of the guards assigned to watch her! My bosses run a special AIED unit. They’ve got her locked in a safe house and they almost never leave her alone. Except once. And when they did… they left her with me.” His voice shook. “If you want any chance of getting her back, you need me.”
“Why exactly do I need you?” I asked. “I already have plenty of Arca rats on my payroll.”
“Because my bosses are paranoid,” he said quickly. “I’m the only one they trust with her.”
“And that,” I said quietly, “was their mistake.”
Shame crept across his face.
Lowering the gun from his temple, I studied him carefully.
I had made overtures to Alex Yuri before, subtle ones. He always shot them down. AIED was one of the last departments still clinging to integrity and loyalty. Getting an informant inside it had been nearly impossible.
What Officer Yuri didn’t realize is that I had been turning him for months.
Ever since the night he walked into one of my brothels.
The idiot hadn’t even bothered to remove his badge. I watched the footage myself as he stepped through the door, then suddenly noticed it clipped to his belt, hastily shoving it into his back pocket.
That was all I needed.
One vice always leads to another.
My beta hooker told me he’d taken a liking to her. So I had her encourage it. She drowned him in alcohol, offering him discounted rates to make sure he kept coming back.
Then she mentioned the poker matches. Casual gossip about another client who had just happened to win big one night. With his life already falling apart and alcoholism tightening its grip, Yuri needed money.
It didn’t take long after that.
One game turned into two, two into four. Yuri's losses piled up and his debts mounted. And before he realized what had happened, he owed me more than he would make in a lifetime working at AIED.
I’d known it would only be a matter of time before he came crawling to my doorstep.
What I hadn’t expected… was that my careful foresight would deliver him to me with information about Lena.
“Thirty thousand,” I said coolly, “and your debts cleared. That’s what I’m offering. But you only get it if you deliver the omega. No delivery, and I double what you owe me, Yuri.”
I fixed him with a hard look, waiting until he nodded.
“What’s your plan?”
“I’ll wait until my bosses leave her with me again,” he said quickly. “The moment they do, I’ll bring her straight to you.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They can’t stay with her twenty-four seven,” he said, forcing confidence into his voice. “Eventually they’ll leave her alone with me again. And if they don’t… I’ll figure something else out.”
“You have one week,” I said flatly. “I’m not a patient man. One fucking week.”
He swallowed, then nodded in agreement.
I tucked the gun back into my waistband and turned, walking toward my car without another glance at him.
Fucking rat.
Helpful for now, sure. But men like Yuri didn’t have loyalty. Not really.
And as soon as he stopped being useful, I would kill him.
Whoever his superiors were, they were idiots to trust him. I could smell weakness like that miles away, and exploit it to my benefit.
As we drove through the underbelly of Falcon City, I suddenly realized I had clenched my fist so tightly that the veins in my forearm were raised and angry beneath my skin.
Slowly, I loosened my grip, letting the tension drain from my hand.
I knew where she was.
I knew who had her.
My Lena. My obsession.
I had been so foolish to think time would make her bend. That eventually she would willingly take what I offered her. She would never accept that she belonged to me.
The moment I had her back, I was done waiting.
Done negotiating.
I would take what was already mine.
I no longer cared about making her submit. All that mattered now was punishment for this act of defiance.
If Lena refused to be mine by choice, then she would be mine by force.