For Fallon (25 page)

“She ambushed me when I brought her breakfast. She was asking where you were. I had no idea so I told her that. She was pacing and suddenly pushed me aside, tray and all, and ran out of the room. Is she okay?”

“Yes. She’ll leave the day after tomorrow. I’m trying here, Camilla.”

She peruses me with scornful eyes.

“Nobody can know about her little incident,” I sternly tell her.

Camilla’s guilty face gives her away. “I already told Adriano. He’s on his way.”

“Nobody else, okay?”

She nods in acceptance.

Adriano comes barging in, standing possessively next to Camilla. “Are we all fine here?”

“Yes,” Camilla offers and breaks a small smile.

Adriano softens immediately and presses his lips to hers. “Fallon’s lost it?”

“I can clean up the room,” Camilla offers.

I hand her the key. This situation is spiraling entirely out of my control, intensifying my anger, because I’m not used to working this way. “Only to clean, then you leave immediately. Do not talk to her.” She nods and leaves hurriedly. “I slept here last night.” I point to the room Skye’s in. “Fallon didn’t take that well. She saw me almost kissing Skye.”

Adriano makes a disgusted face. “Why did you kiss
her
?”

“I didn’t kiss her. I thought we could use her,” I confess. “I was ‘massaging’ her into being more pliable. The plan was never to kiss her. I was seducing her a little.”

“Use?” he questions.

“Never mind.
It was a fleeting thought.” Adriano and I have a busy day ahead. We have to be in The Loop at noon to sign off on new investment plans, and we have to drop off some cash to several associates. Tonight we’re meeting Leggia’s underboss, Biagio, in private. It’s imperative that I get Biagio in our corner before the trade takes place tomorrow.

Adriano and I get in my car. Every day, I need to change plans, do damage control,
keep myself and Fallon in control. I’m exhausted. Drained. Her wariness and distrust is draining our love. Her constant need to fight me is infuriating.

We’re drowning at rapid speed.

Fallon

“Why me?”
I whisper, sitting on the floor with my back to the door. I kick a piece of fallen fruit away with my foot. My eyes are swollen from worrying the entire night. Not for one second did I drift away into the comfort of my dreams. Away from the harsh reality that the man I was building a life with is going to trade me to some corrupt Mafia boss.

Hearing the fast approaching footsteps outside, I scoot forward when the door is unlocked.

Camilla hunches before me on the floor beside the bed and asks me in a worried voice, “Are you okay
?
Luca and Adriano are pissed. They just gave me the key and stormed out.”

“No,” I cry quietly while looking up into her concerned eyes. Being locked up will cause you to make hasty decisions. Spur of the moment confusion. This morning I told Camilla in my agitated state that I should just dash out of here. She desperately tried to convince me otherwise, but she also realized Luca’s absence could have horrific consequences for me. Quickly, I told her that I needed to
at least give it a try to escape now. My growing alarm propelled me forward, out of that room, and she followed me because I had no idea which way to go.

He’s going to trade you now. You’re causing him more problems every day.

“Fallon?”
Camilla asks and puts her arms around me, silently allowing me to let my tears drop on her shoulder.

“It was definitely not a good sign when he didn’t come back. He’s so mad at me.” I pull back to catch her eyes. “He’s going to trade me,” I mutter, still not believing it myself.

“What?” she questions, unable to imagine Luca making that choice.

“I asked him if he was going to trade me for Danny. He said ‘yes.’
Period.”

“Shit,” Camilla comments and starts to gather the food littered on the floor. “I’m not supposed to talk to you. They’ll be gone all day today, I think.”

Time is up for me. “Camilla, can you think of any way for me to escape? Please?” I plead.

She bites her lip softly. “I’m picked up and driven back home.”

“Are you here every day?”

She helps me from the floor and together we sit on the comforter. “No, four times a week. I also sleep here sometimes when there’s nobody to drive me home. There’s a guard at the front door and men walk around the house constantly. In the early mornings and late at night, it’s most quiet around here. Most activity takes place in the afternoon and dinnertime. The back entrance is usually open and you can easily round the house to the front entrance. If you had a key for one of the cars, you
’d have your getaway,” she muses. “But getting your hands on a key won’t be easy.” She looks at me disappointed. “These guys pocket everything and keep it close.” A hint of fear brims inside her sad eyes. “You can’t do anything while being locked in here.” She palms her forehead and rubs it excessively before catching my gaze. “The only way out is with my help. But they will know I’ve helped you, Fallon. I’ll have to steal a key from one of the guys.”

“I kind of need you. I need you to drive us out of here as fast as you can. You know the roads here.” I can’t allow her to help me and then live with myself if anything happened to her. “If you help me escape, you can’t say here. There’s no way that will end well,” I warn Camilla.

“I know.” She sighs and leans sideways on her arm heavily with her hand flat on the bed.  “I’m leaving with you, Fallon. These people are too dangerous. If they can trade you this callously, what will they do to me when Luca and Adriano turn on me?”

“We have to act quickly.”

Silence again.

I blink back gathering moisture behind my eyelids and look at Camilla. “You have got to find a car key as soon as you step out of this room. Come back when you have one.”

“I’m scared,” she softly says and meets my eyes.

I cover her hand on the bed with mine. “So am I.”

***

Tedious minutes turn into hours that belong to the past now. All the while I sit on the bed, waiting and waiting. Once Camilla came in to check on me and brought me food and water. Feeling weak from dehydration and lack of nutrition, I force down the water and swallow back a few bites of the tomato sandwich to fill my empty stomach. I need my strength replenished to stand a chance of escaping. Adriano and Luca are confirmed to be away today, but we don’t know until how late and it’s already almost evening. The waiting game continues.

Luca

That night, Adriano and I pay Alex a visit at his apartment. We drive through the streets of Chicago, alongside the river back to The Loop, watching all the skyscrapers fly by.

“You have everything?” I ask Adriano in the passenger seat.

He holds up a tiny plastic bag filled with white residue.

Parking the car blocks away from Alex’s condo, we walk back and use the rear entrance of the glass high-rise. “Where are the cameras?”

He points to our upper left. Adriano scouted the place this morning. “There’s a blind corner. Follow me.”

Adriano leads the way into the apartment complex while dodging the cameras. It’s almost midnight and dead quiet in the building. We have to take the stairs to the fifteenth floor to evade the reception area by the elevators. His apartment is the first door to the right.

Adriano hands me a pair of plastic gloves, and I block the peephole with one hand before knocking softly. Footsteps approach on the other side of the door and it opens immediately.

I push open the door quickly, and Alex stammers back. “What the—”

Turning him around by his arm in one swift action, I cover my hand over his mouth.

Adriano steps in and closes the door quietly. “Alex, how are you?” Adriano greets.

I twist Alex’s arm behind his back as he struggles in my hold while I shove him forward into his living room. Throwing Alex on his black suede recliner, I pull out my gun from the back of my pants. “Tell me, did you think I wouldn’t find out how you threatened Fallon?”

Alex rises immediately with wide eyes and jumps off the back of the recliner to be met with Adriano’s handgun pointed in his face. “Sit. Down,” Adriano commands.

He holds up his hands in surrender and stays rooted. “Listen. This has become… I-It’s out of hand,” he stutters nervously.

Adriano motions with his silencer. “Go sit.”

Alex’s eyes switch from me to Adriano in slow motion, and he takes one step sideward to bolt to his front door, but Adriano blocks his path and overpowers him. He pushes Alex face down on the recliner with the end of his barrel on his neck.

“Be careful. I don’t want any marks or bruises on him.” That’s not in line with our plan.

“You going to sit, Alex? I brought your favorite opiate,” Adriano taunts Alex.

I motion for Adriano to back off a little while Alex catches his breath, and Adriano pulls
him up again. “Last time. Sit down.”

“Alex, if it’s out of hand, then let’s
talk. Maybe we can make an arrangement.” I slide onto the glass coffee table in front of Alex and tuck my handgun back in my pants. “I think we need a drink.”

Alex’s eyes
narrow, and he doesn’t twitch a muscle.

“Calm down, Alex. Do you really think a woman would mean that much to me?
I wanted to alert you. Mission accomplished. Now let’s talk this out. We need your charity and you need us.” I raise my eyebrows. “Where’s your liquor?”

Alex keeps glancing between me and Adriano before finally answering without a stutter,

“Bar. Next to the kitchen.” His eyes follow Adriano when he steps into the kitchen.

Adri
ano can prepare our drinks - Alex’s will be spiked with heroine. I snap my fingers to get his attention. “Alex. I want to have a talk.”

“That was
Leggia’s doing. I had no say in it, Luca,” he confesses immediately

“What was
Leggia’s or your plan?”

“I had no plan. I’m getting your money though.” He inhales deeply and slowly continues. “
Leggia cut off my drug supply. I couldn’t get anything anywhere. I needed my fix.” Spoken like a true junkie.

Adriano hands Alex a drink, and Alex downs it one motion. Adriano retreats to get another one.

“What did he want you to do?” I ask.

Alex stares at the view outside. “Scare her. He never gave details but told me to wait until I saw you with her and then
make it seem like I wanted information from her, information about you.”

“What did he offer you in return?”

“My fix and paying off my debt to you. I was never going to hurt her. Leggia was pressuring me into badgering Fallon. He kind of hates you.”

“You could’ve talked to us and avoided all of this, Alex,” I lie.

“Could I have? I was screwed either way. I know how you guys work. Leggia was supposed to protect me. Looks like I bet on the wrong horse.” He sighs heavily and coughs like an old man after finishing his second drink from Adriano. “Is she with you? Leggia told me to call her in sick. She hasn’t been at work in days.”

I was right.
Leggia
is
just using everyone he can to cause problems between James and me. Alex, Fallon, Danny; they’re all collateral damage to him. Alex did bet on the wrong person and will now pay with his life. For a long time, I watch Alex. Hating to be the one to end it, but my rage hits me in full force when I imagine Fallon’s fear over what Leggia set in motion with Alex’s help.

Adriano hands me a drink too, and I take a small sip when he faces Alex. “I need a fix. You want one too?” Adriano
asks and places a tablespoon, syringe, and a belt – from Alex’s bedroom - on the table.

“I didn’t know you guys used your own drugs?” Alex inquires, surprised.

“We don’t,” we both say in unison as I jump up beside the top of the lounger and hold down Alex while Adriano tightens the belt around Alex’s right arm.

“No...” Alex struggles uselessly.

Adriano presses his knee on Alex’s thigh, and he grunts in pain, but I smother his cries with my gloved hand. He then lights the lighter under the spoon filled with a lethal amount of heroin. Adriano fills the syringe and taps his vein. He injects it into his arm and, within seconds, the heroin rushes into Alex’s veins, relaxing him again. Mingling with the alcoholic drink that was already filled with his drug, he’s unconscious quickly. Adriano sets up the scene - the syringe thrown on the table and the belt half undone around Alex’s arm - after he pockets the plastic bag he brought in. “Should we wait for him to stop breathing?”

Wh
en taking too much heroin, a person falls asleep and his respiratory system will shut down. Essentially Alex’s body will forget to breathe. Adriano injected a lethal amount. With the heroin spiked in his drink and this strong injection, he won’t last long. He’ll never live through the night.

“No, we can go.” Carefully, I open the
door to make sure that the hall is clear. I lead Adriano back down and out into the warm summer night air to find my way back to what will be my last night with Fallon.

For a man who never gives second chances, I can’t stop putting her welfare above all else. For her, I’m breaking rule after rule. I’m taking too many chances. Everything I do is for her, for Fallon. She was the woman I never knew I was searching for. She gave me what I didn’t know I’d lost. She gave me a sense of calm with just her presence and touch. She let me just be.

What are your reading, dolcezza?” I ask with a perked brow, smiling down at her head in my lap on the couch. Content to have a quiet night at her house. I love it when she reads and I can stroke hair while her head rests in my lap. My legs are stretched, feet on the coffee table. Relaxed. While pointing the remote at the TV, I glanced at her reader and read a few racy lines with questionable content.

She looks up with a roguish, innocent expression. “Depends on what you read.”

Slowly, I put the remote down and place her reader on the table – the reader needs to be handled with the utmost care or else she’ll have a fit – and stare down at her full pink lips as my large hand searches for bare skin to touch under the hem of her shirt. Her warm skin always manages to inflame my need for her. Skimming my hand down, I push her sweatpants slightly off her hip, exposing more smooth flesh. Gripping her hip, I pull out from under her and lie on top with my knee nudging her legs apart. Her back bows and I take the opportunity to forcefully slide my palm inside her panties. She groans when I mold her soft flesh and trace my middle finger over her entrance as I grind into her. “Is that what you want?” I growl and my mouth turns up as I lock eyes with her. “You want me to call you a dirty little sl—“

“No,” she warns and returns a lust-filled smile. Her soft moans have me pushing my full mast hard-on against her warm center. “Just fuck me,” she breathes in that sultry voice of hers.

“I love it when you talk semi-dirty to me.” I grin down at her. Only she can make me feel aroused as hell, happy, and peaceful simultaneously.

Her lovely face breaks into a smile that conveys her happiness when I graze my lips over hers and dip my tongue between them, kissing her ever so softly.
The hurried groping and grinding shifts to a slow motion as I taste her love and lust for me. Craving to give her this gentle side of me, I taste every inch of her mouth. She melts in my arms while I stroke the curve of her hip, up and down in lazy trails. I pull back to see her eyelids flutter open with a look of adoration that locks her in my heart forever. She has dug her way into my cold soul, warming it with the pleasure of her body and the comfort of her mind. Her being gave my restless soul a home.

“
Ti amo.” I cover her lips again. This time ravenous to be inside her right now, my home. Rising from the couch, I pick Fallon up by her waist and throw her over my shoulder. She shrieks in surprise and delight as I swat her round ass sticking in my face and hurry us to the bedroom.

Instead of ravaging
her, I took my time that night. Peeling the thin layer of fabric off her luscious body, I kiss and lick every surface of satin skin until her moans fill my ears. As I lie on top, pushing inside her, I palm her face in my hand and watch her as if I’m afraid she’ll disappear, my eyes memorizing the shape of her full lips when she climbs to release.

It was one of the few times I made love to Fallon. I wish I would’ve done it more often.