“The feds raided Gorksi’s and O’Toole’s,” Jackie announced when we entered the sunroom. “Tony Cap and Ivan got away, but the rest of his crew were arrested.”
“What were the feds looking for?” Michael asked.
All throughout, I maintained a neutral expression, eyes on Jackie as he reported what he knew. “Heroin,” he told his son, then turned to Pop. “I didn’t tell you this, but Tony Cap’s been bragging how he was bringing in the drugs.” He paused. “Frozen fillets.”
“How?” Pop asked.
“Fillets of fish are wrapped around the brick,” my uncle replied then looked at me. “Gorksi stores them. That’s why he has less space for his legitimate products.”
“That’s why he’s short on his deliveries.”
“Yeah. Big shipments coming in.”
“Do we know how the feds found out?” I asked.
“No,” Jackie said. “I think it’s Silvio. The timing of his disappearance is fishy.” Then he snorted in mock derision. “Pardon the pun.”
“This is not good.” Pop started pacing. “That means the feds are handing out indictments and doing another big sweep. Merda.” My father looked at me. “You should cancel your card game. The one two weeks from now.”
I shrugged. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, Pop.” I glanced at my uncle. “What do you think?”
“Not good to risk it.”
Something else was making me come out of my skin. I hated loose ends. “Do you have any idea where Tony Cap could have gone?”
“I don’t know any of his safe houses. He probably has the Russian with him.”
“Do you think it’s also Silvio?” I asked.
“Maybe. He’s just gone. Like I said, fishy.”
“Don’t accept any communication from Tony. We keep our head down,” Pop snapped. “Look. I know you’re acting boss, Jackie. We need to make it official, but, right now, it’s best not to call attention to ourselves.”
“I agree. They shouldn’t have aligned themselves with the Russians,” my uncle said.
My father’s eyes held Jackie’s a second longer. “You’re straight with me, right? No heroin is being pushed on our garbage routes?”
“Yes. Yes. I told him we wouldn’t do it.” Jackie turned to me. “Ava’s brother …”
“We’re not involving Ava,” I growled. “With Tony Cap at large, anything could go wrong.”
“Can’t forget about it either,” Jackie challenged. “Her brother is with the U.S. Attorney’s office that okayed the raid.”
“Is she in danger?” I gritted.
“Tony could use her for retaliation.”
“I’ll talk to Giovanni,” Pop said. “As boss of the Rossi Crime family, he can declare the McGraths off limits.” He glanced at me. “They’re family. They’ve always been family.”
“I’m taking Ava home,” I informed them.
“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “Dinner’s over. Nothing like a raid to fuck up the evening.”
I couldn’t agree more. Whenever the feds took action, it wasn’t just one crew or one family. It could be a sweep of the Five Families.
By the time I returned to the house, the guests had migrated to the living room where the widescreen TV was reporting the raid on O’Toole’s.
Popular Irish restaurant closed. Reported mob activity. Several people arrested.
Ava turned huge anxiety-stricken eyes toward me. “Is this what’s going on? Any of you involved?”
I shook my head. “Let’s go.”
“Cesar.”
“It’s not us. Rossis.” I hurried her over to get her coat.
“Then why are we leaving?”
“Because this might be a bigger dragnet,” Paulie chortled.
“Why do you look so happy?” Ava snapped.
“Because the Rossis are assholes,” my brother replied.
“Hey!” Carlotta poked his chest. “My stepmother is a Rossi.”
“And so is my niece,” Ava said. “But they don’t recognize her, so I agree. They’re assholes.”
Carlotta rolled her eyes. “This is such a screwed-up family.”
“Italian gangsters usually are,” I muttered.
Pop, Jackie, and Michael remained in the sunroom, probably strategizing their next move. I was only dragged in because of my card games and my relationship to Ava. Maybe I should have waited for my end game against Tony Cap before pursuing Ava but once we were in the same city, she was difficult not to approach.
“Later, Bro,” Paulie waved as he backed away with his Porsche. I bundled Ava into the Maserati and followed my brother down the driveway and away from the mansion.
This was fucked up. I glanced in my rear-view mirror.
“You’re on edge,” Ava commented. “Are the feds coming for you, too?”
I shot her a brief glance. “Why would they come for me?”
“Because of that other business you didn’t want to tell me about?”
“Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?”
“Forget about it,” I said. “I’m more concerned about Tony coming for you because of your brother.”
Ava dragged in a ragged breath, and I muttered a curse, my hand snaking out to grab hers to assure her. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s a long shot that he’d come after you.”
“I think so too,” she said softly. “Robert is not even handling mob cases. Just white collar.”
I hated to tell her that the mafia had infiltrated Wall Street. “See? Nothing to worry about.”
But when we arrived at Ava’s brownstone, a cruiser was parked on the street. Two uniforms were patrolling the sidewalk. I double-parked right in front of the building entrance.
“Are you sure you want to park that Maserati on the street?” she asked.
“The car is the least of my concerns right now,” I told her.
“I’m sure those cops are just a precaution. Maybe some form of protocol for the employees at the SDNY.”
“I’m going to drop you off and then park,” I told her.
“Isn’t this going overboard?”
“This thing’s too hot right now. Let’s play it safe, capisce? I’ll come get you.”
“Jeez, Cesar, it’s ten feet to my door.”
“I’ll come get you,” I repeated.
“Fine.”
I got out of the sports car and rounded the vehicle. Checking the perimeter, my eyes found Eric who signaled to me. That gave me a measure of relief.
Helping Ava out of the car, my arms wrapped around her and I hurried her to the door.
“Hey, you can’t double park,” the cop yelled.
“I’m escorting Miss McGrath to her apartment and then I’ll take care of it.”
“Hurry up.”
We started up the stairs.
“You’re scaring me, Cesar,” she said.
“It’ll be fine,” I insisted.
When we entered her apartment, I quickly checked the rooms and closets, making sure no one was lying in wait. Ava was right. I was just being paranoid, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“I’m going to park and be right back.”
“Are you sure the Maserati will be fine outside?” she repeated her earlier question.
I thought of Eric. “Yeah.”
Cupping her face, I kissed her. “Lock the door. I have keys.”
She shook her head rolling her eyes as if remembering our conversation this morning.
After the door closed behind me, I hastened down the steps and exited the building. I caught sight of Eric at the end of the block. Getting behind the wheel of the Maserati, I drove to the corner. He got in, and I continued driving.
“What the fuck happened?” I seethed.
“Like we suspected. There’s a leak in the New York task force.” The Organized Crime task force was a joint NYPD operation between the U.S. Justice Department and the Bureau.
“Who?”
“Kennedy.” The FBI agent.
“Has he been arrested?”
“No.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“No one can find him.”
“Think he’s with Tony and Ivan?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s not good enough,” I growled.
Eric angled his eyes at me. “You need to chill. I’ll see if my contact has more.”
“Fuck. All right.” I parked the car at the corner, and we both got out.
There was a thrilled look on Eric’s face as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Man. I wouldn’t mind taking this baby for a spin.”
“Not a scratch on it,” I warned.
He shot me a cocky grin, making me wonder if the sports car would be safer parked on the Brooklyn streets than in his hands.
When I returned to Ava’s apartment, my ears picked up a male voice coming from her bedroom. My blood ran cold. The washing machine was running, so I couldn’t make out the words.
Fuck.
I carefully shut the door and crept into the kitchen where I stashed a .45 in one of the overhead cabinets. People were going to die if Ava got hurt. I was easing along the side of the hallway when she came out of the utility room.
“What the hell, Cesar!” she screeched. “Why do you have a gun?”
Confused, but still on full alert, I grabbed her and shoved her behind me. The voice had faded just as I turned into the room. Relief flooded through me when I’d determined the sound source.
The answering machine. A red light was blinking.
I lowered the gun. “I heard a man’s voice when I came in. I thought you were in trouble.”
“The phone rang, but I was so mad at myself because I forgot to put the laundry in the dryer last night.”
Walking over to the nightstand, I played the message.
“Seriously.” She shoved me aside and planted herself in front of me, blue eyes sparking in annoyance. “We may have a relationship, but we need some boundaries …” Her rant faded when she recognized the voice coming from the machine. My own hackles rose as I absorbed every fucking word.
“Hey, Ava. Long time, no hear, sweetheart … It’s Brad. All’s going well with the band, and now that we’ve settled in, I realized something …”
My molars ground hard.
“I miss you. I fucking miss what we had. I was selfish. I shoulda asked you to come with me. I didn’t want to ruin your education, and that’s why I didn’t.”
Motherfucking piece of shit liar.
“But you should be graduating soon, right? I have a break coming up … I really want to see you. To talk. Please let me know. I miss you and I still love you.”
The bastard rattled off his number, and it took much restraint not to rip the wire from the wall and shoot the machine to pieces. Ava wasn’t helping my mood either. She stared at the device in complete silence. Meanwhile I clenched my fists, one of them around a gun.
“Ex-boyfriend?” I spat.
She turned to look at me and sank to the bed. I couldn’t even pretend I wasn’t pissed. The day started so well, thinking I was making progress with Ava about who I was, and this was just another fucking problem I had to deal with.
“Yes. Brad.”
“The guy in the boy band,” I sneered.
“Rock band.”
I tucked the gun in my suit. “So he wants a second chance, huh?” I couldn’t stand the wariness on her face and stalked out of the bedroom. I needed a drink. I opened the cabinets where I’d stocked my liquor, grabbed a bottle of Glenlivet and poured it into a glass. I tossed it back and let the burn push the fury down my throat.
Fucking Brad.
Sensing Ava behind me, I growled, “So you’re giving that fucker another chance?” I turned to face her.
She had her arms wrapped around her biceps, and her eyes were shooting sparks at me. “I wasn’t, but now I’m wondering if he’s a better option than the jealous asshole who’s wielding a gun in my house.”
“It’s for your protection.”
“You brought a gun into my apartment without telling me.”
My jaw clenched. Might as well come clean.
“I put it in the upper cabinet.”
“My niece and nephews come in here.”
“You think they’d be checking the cabinet at the far corner?”
“That’s not the point, Cesar!”
“No. The point is you should tell your ex to lose your number. You’re with me now.”
“Brad and I are friends!”
“You just told me he was a fucking better option. He chose Vegas over you. He chose money over you.”
Her face turned white. Good. She needed a reminder of how that loser packed up and left her at the first sign of more money.
But the accusation and outrage in her eyes seemed directed at me, and that pissed me off even more.
“You’re mad at me?” I sneered. “For telling you like it is?”
“I never told you he went to Vegas,” she whispered.
The whisky threatened to back up my throat. “Fuck.”
She backed away.
I tried to soften my face, but I was still enraged by that sniveling fucker wanting to get back in her pants.
“How long?” she asked. Her eyes were so blue, so wide, and so translucent that I was seeing myself in them the way she was seeing me. A scheming bastard.
“I—”
“Don’t deny it,” she screamed. Her eyes filled with tears. Was she crying over that son of a bitch? Damn her. “You said this morning you had casinos in Vegas. Does one of them happen to be the Pandora Resort?”
My silence confirmed everything, and I tried not to flinch under her condemnation.
“How long did you plan this?”
I slammed down the glass, and she jumped.
“Six months,” I snarled and stalked toward her.
Either she was too stunned to move, or she was challenging me. She didn’t back away and I managed to grab her shoulders. Lowering my head, I enunciated, “And I regret nothing.”
As if waking up from a trance, she crossed her arms and broke my hold. “Don’t touch me!”
“This changes nothing.”
“This changes everything!” She ran to the living room, putting the couch between us. Somehow that made me crazier. She thought to run from me?
“You’re a psycho.”
“That’s right,” I said. “And I don’t pretend otherwise. You said it this morning.”
“I was joking,” she yelled. “But how, when?”
“Does it matter? The moment I saw your picture, I swore you were going to be mine. You’ve occupied my every single thought. I couldn’t even touch another woman.”
Her expression changed; her eyes became unfocused as if her mind was racing. “What happened six months ago? Why did you have my picture?”
I exhaled an irritated breath. I didn’t want to explain myself because either way I did it, it didn’t make sense except I was obsessed with her. It would only frighten her by listing out what I was willing to do to have her. “I was planning a return to the States to settle. I had my private investigator collect everything surrounding my family. Who had grudges, who had associates. The McGraths naturally came up on our radar.”
“And you happened to see my picture?”
“I think I fell in love with you then.” I hadn’t been planning on saying the words. The words just came naturally.
“Love?” she spat. “Love doesn’t manipulate. Because let’s face it, Cesar. That’s what you did!”
“Because I aim to win. I aimed to win you.” Why couldn’t she see this? “All I did was dangle a lucrative career in front of him.”
“It was a lot of money.”
“It was money well spent if it took him out of your life. And he is staying out of your life,” I gritted.
“You have no say in that.”
A red haze fell across my eyes. “No say?” I prowled forward. We were circling the couch like idiots. Impatient, I vaulted over the furniture and snagged her around the waist.
She struggled. “Let me go!”
“Never!” I snarled in her ear. “Not until you accept that what I did was for the best. Think, Ava. Think! I just proved that he wasn’t worthy of you.”
“You didn’t think how that made me feel? That I was so disposable over his career?” She sobbed.
What had I done?
“You ruined my self-esteem.”
I breathed into her neck. “I hope I’m giving that back to you now.”
“All you thought about was you. How you felt! That’s not love! That’s being selfish.”
Turning her around, I kneeled in front of her, needing her to see that she held everything I was at the tip of her fingers.
“I love you, Ava.”
“Your love is …” she panted. “Your love is …”
“Is what?” I prompted huskily, staring up at her, my hands slipping under her dress to cup her ass, bringing her closer. I kissed her belly and then lower where I hoped I could find the evidence that she still wanted me. I inhaled and I could smell her. Her arousal. All through our fight, she still wanted me. From one globe of her glorious ass, my hand slipped inside her panties, fingers stroking her slit. Her wetness coated their tips. I was getting rock hard.
“Demented,” she whispered.
A corner of my mouth tipped up. “I love you. I want to fuck you. Remind you you’re mine.”
Slipping a finger inside her, I kissed the fabric that was covering her pussy.
“Cesar,” she moaned. “Sex won’t fix this.”
“What is there to fix?” Without waiting for her reply, I flipped her onto the couch on her back. Her gasp was music to my ears and my erection became steel. I shoved her thighs apart and wedged my hips. With my arm in between us, I slipped a hand inside the waistband of her panties. Grinding the tip of her pubic bone with the heel of my hand, my fingers stroke her drenched folds. I leaned closer. “The second you let me inside your body you became mine. Permanently.” I inserted two fingers and pumped. Her mouth fell open, her back arching.
Her eyes flashed with need and indecision.
“Tell me you get me, cara,” I growled.
“I can’t concentrate when you’re … oh God!” she cried.
Enthralled with watching her come on my fingers, I was driven to make her addicted to my touch, to need me like I was her next breath, to love me with the same madness that consumed me. Ava McGrath was mine, and I was never letting her go. I’d killed for her. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her.
“Tell me what you need,” I said hoarsely. “Mouth or cock?”
She was shaking her head. “This is so wrong. I can’t.”
“You want me, cara.” I stopped bearing down on her pussy. Her hips squirmed beneath me trying to resume contact with my hand. I could smell her desperation. “All you have to do is ask.”
Her eyes flashed open. “Damn you.”
“Cock or mouth?”
She sank her teeth to her bottom lip. I wanted to kiss that damned mouth, but there was only one way to remind her that I was it for her.
Fuck her senseless with my tongue, and then own her with my cock.
“Both,” she whispered.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Just fuck me, damn you!” she snapped.
I tore her panties off, and my mouth was on her. I was feral. The more she babbled my name incoherently, the more I attacked her with my tongue, consuming every last drop that fell on it. It wasn’t until I heard her scream my name and the gush of her arousal drenched my mouth, that I eased back. But I was only getting started.
I was going to fuck her hard, fuck her so deep, that my mark would be imprinted in every part of her. Her body, her heart, her fucking soul. Dragging her to the floor, I opened her wide, shoving her right leg up so her knee was bent close to her ear.
I drove inside her, stretched her with my girth, sinking all the way to the hilt in a single thrust. My mouth slammed on her lips and swallowed her cry. I was barely holding on to my control, feral possessiveness leaked from my pores.
Mine!
“Mine.” Tearing my lips away, I stared down at her. “It drives me crazy when I think of another man’s touch on you. I need to erase that.” I pounded her fast and hard, reveling when she clung to me. The base of my spine tingled with my impending release, then it exploded up my back so that it sent me driving in one last time. I planted deep. My neck tensed. And I grunted my release. It wasn’t until she grew slippery around me, a warm slickness coating my cock, that I realized I hadn’t worn a condom.
But my brain didn’t panic. Instead, an overwhelming sense of ownership roared through me. I collapsed on top of her. I didn’t withdraw. I even pushed deeper if that was possible.
“Cesar… oh my God!”
She tried to push my weight away, but I refused. She felt too good, and I was still reeling from the satisfaction of coming inside her. I continued to rock inside her. An instinct of wanting my cum to stay embedded and take root and have consequences. To distract her, I reached down between us and strummed her clit and her inner muscles clenched and milked me some more. Her moans were a fuel to my lust.
Finally, I propped up on my elbows and her accusing eyes didn’t even make me flinch.
I felt no guilt. Not when it came to making her mine.
“You didn’t wear a condom.”
I lifted my head, eyes narrowed. “I’m clean. You’re on the pill, right? I’ve seen you take them.” And I wanted to throw them away, but I hadn’t become that depraved yet.
“Yes! Unprotected sex is something to be discussed.”
I sighed, pulling out, and helped her up. I smirked when I saw the evidence of my possession trail down her legs.
She punched me on the shoulder. “You think this is funny?”
Claiming her bare tamed all the aggression inside me. “Ava,” I grumbled. “Can we discuss this tomorrow?”
I sank into the couch and dragged her across my lap.
“Ugh, I’ve got your semen all over me. I’m going to mess up your trousers. They look expensive.”
“Fuck my pants,” I growled. “This has been a long goddamned day. Can we go to bed?”
“And we’re going to shove this … this stalking, this bribery, this Machiavellian scheme that you perpetuated in the drawer?”
Hugging her close, I murmured. “There’s no escaping me. You know that.”
“I should be calling the police on you.”
I swallowed a smile. “Tomorrow. I promise, I’ll answer your questions.”
“You said that this morning.”
“Just a little bit more time, Ava. I don’t want to put other people in danger.” I was serious about that last statement.
She must have sensed the earnestness in my plea.
“Okay. But I don’t think I want to sleep beside you.”
She was grasping at some form of resistance.
I stood and carried her, marching to the bedroom and straight into the bathroom, settling her on the counter. I ran a towel under warm water and then proceeded to clean her legs. Not too much though.
“You missed a spot,” she said, but there was an amused glint in her eyes.
“I want you to wear my cum when you go to sleep tonight.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a caveman.”
Tossing the towel into the sink, I captured her chin. “And you’re my woman. Brad is history. I’m erasing that message. You’re not going to speak to him again. Capisce?”
“I have the right to be outraged with what you’ve done,” she retorted.
“I have a solution for that.” Snatching her from the counter, I walked back to the bedroom and dropped her on the mattress. I immediately deleted the message, then I proceeded to undress her.
Afterward, I started taking off my clothes.
“Maybe you should sleep in the other room. I think I might accidentally kick you off the bed.”
That sass. Made me only want to prove her wrong.
Her need for independence was dictating this. I peeled off my shirt.
The heat in her eyes couldn’t be disguised. “This is so unfair,” she muttered.
I unbuttoned my jeans and shoved them off. My erection hadn’t fully gone down yet. Just as well.
Completely naked, I crawled into bed with her.
“I need to brush,” she announced. “And wash this makeup off me.”
“Later,” I mumbled, dragging her into my arms and burying my face into her hair. “I need to hold you.”
“We’re going to fall asleep, and I’m going to wake up—”
“Quiet.”
“Dammit, Cesar.”
“Maybe I should wear you out some more.”
“I’m still wearing your cum on my coochie.”
Smiling into her hair, I didn’t say anything. Just gave her a squeeze.
Her chest expanded and deflated in another sigh, but she finally grew silent. I wasn’t sure who fell asleep first. All I knew was tomorrow … tomorrow I would tell her everything.
