Breathless & Bloodstained (The Chicago War #4) (38 page)

Shouting and
crying her anger for no one to hear, Abriella tore through the wing of the
mansion that had been her gilded cage for far too long. She let every broken
picture frame, every ruined piece of history, hit the ground like the trash it
was.

She could start
over, after all.

She could be
better tomorrow.

She could be free
with Tommas.

It was worth it.

The price was
worth it.

Right?

Quiet murmurings
from outside of the living room woke Abriella. Sitting up on the couch, an Afghan
blanket fell around her waist. She hadn’t covered up before passing out. She’d
broke the lock on the liquor cabinet after she trashed a few more family heirlooms
and pictures, drank a bit of bourbon, and promptly drifted off to sleep quickly
after.

But she hadn’t
covered up.

“Thank you for
coming over,” Abriella heard a familiar voice say out in the hallway.

Tommas
.

“Of course,” said
someone else.

Lily
.

“We’ll be back
tomorrow afternoon,” said another.

Evelina
.

“And we’ll bring
Alessa,” Lily added quickly.

“Adriano demanded
she stay home, just in case something went crazy,” Tommas explained. “I don’t
blame him. I’m sure she’ll want to come over tomorrow with you, but maybe let
Abriella have some time to herself. She needs to … I don’t know.”

“Absorb things,”
Evelina said quietly. “I know the feeling.”

“Me, too,” Lily
agreed. “But she’s the toughest one of us all, Tommas. Give her some credit.”

Tommas laughed. “I
have always given Abriella her dues, believe me. You’ll both make it home all
right?”

“I called Theo to
come get me,” Evelina said.

“Damian said I
could drive my car home,” Lily said. “He’s … out, I guess. He didn’t tell me
where he was.”

“Thank you for
coming, really. I’ll make sure Abriella gives you both a call. For now, just
stay quiet, let this mess blow over, and then I’m sure she would love to have
her friends close.”

“Absolutely.”

“Sure,” Evelina
agreed.

Abriella listened
as the footsteps faded down the hallway. She was surprised that her friends had
come over, and had stayed with her, yet she hadn’t noticed a thing and slept
through it all.

Pushing off the
couch, Abriella padded out of the living room and down the hall. She made her
way to the front of the house just in time to see Tommas shut the front door.
With a sigh, her lover pressed his palm on the door, and leaned forward like a
weight had just fallen on his shoulders.

Still … he seemed
calmer than he ever had before.

Like it was over.

The war, the
fighting, the blood …
over
.

Just like that.

Tommas dug in his
pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and hit a number. Putting the phone to his
ear, he didn’t turn around as he waited the call out.

“Hey, Ghost,”
Tommas said. “Where are you at?”

Abriella knew she
should probably turn around and leave him to his private conversation, but she
didn’t want to. Being closer was better, especially after the day they had.

“Good,” Tommas
replied to whatever Damian had said. “I need you to finish him out
tonight—Darryl, I mean. He was working something with Joel, I know he was. I
don’t know what, but it doesn’t matter. Loyalty is what it is, right?”

Swallowing the
lump forming in her throat, Abriella leaned against the wall and wished the
sudden coldness in her bones would leave. It didn’t.

“Check around his
place a bit and maybe see if there’s anything that’ll explain what Joel was up
to,” Tommas continued, oblivious to Abriella’s presence. “Give me a call if
anything comes up. The official side of things is going to be hot and heavy on
us for a while, especially with me being here at Abriella’s place. I don’t
care, but we might as well expect it. I have to stay quiet for a bit, maybe a
week. Keep an eye on shit for me … Yeah, and besides, she needs me more.

“All right, later,
man,” he finished.

Tommas ended the
call, shoved the phone back into his pocket, and spun on his heel. Abriella
waved two fingers the moment his gaze landed on her quiet form.

“Hey,” she
whispered.

Tommas smiled an
honest, brilliant sight. It quickly faded. “You trashed this place.”

“How do you know I
did it?”

“Because it
screams of you, baby. You’ve been angry for so long, Abriella. Bottling it up,
keeping tabs, and marking the score of everyone’s wrongs around you. Eventually
that has to come out, sweet girl. It’s never pretty when it does. Inside your
heart and deep in your soul, you’ve been like black ice waiting to kill
somebody when they slipped on you.”

She flinched at
his choice of words.

“It just … hurt,”
Abriella said lamely.

Tommas nodded.
“Your dad?”

“And Joel a
little. My whole family mostly. Everything, Tommy.”

“I love you,
Ella.”

Abriella glanced
down at the floor. “I wanted to choose you.”

“What?”

The pain and
confusion of the last week and a half locked up in a wing of the Trentini
mansion came spilling out of Abriella in a rush of words. She explained what
her brother had told her, the options he gave, and what had followed. She told
Tommas how she cried, how she felt like she had failed, and the final choice
that came at the last moment.

“I wanted to
choose you,” Abriella repeated, “but Joel didn’t give me a choice that would
leave me you, Tommy. And then when my dad did, and I realized what he wanted me
to do, it was so fucking easy, like breathing. Just pull the trigger and it’ll
be done. I got you, and everyone else gets peace. For a split second, it was
easy.”

“But it’s not
easy,” Tommas said gently.

Abriella shook her
head. “No.”

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“My dad …?”

Tommas dipped his
head down. “Desperate men are dangerous men, Ella.”

Was that how
Tommas had been for all these years?

Desperate.
Craving. Without.

A pain settled
deep in Abriella’s chest. She pressed her hand over her heart, willing it to go
away, and needing it to stop.

“God,” she
mumbled, “I don’t want to feel like this.”

Tommas glanced up
as he took a few steps forward, closer to her. “Like what?”

“Aching in my
heart. When I was angry and breaking things, it went away. When I was screaming
and crying, I was distracted.”

“And when you
drank a quarter of a bottle of bourbon?”

“I was numb.”

Jesus.

A quarter of a
bottle?

Why wasn’t she
still drunk?

“What time is it?”
Abriella asked.

Tommas frowned.
“Five in the morning.”

Time just slipped
through her fingers.

“When will the
police be coming here?”

“Soon,” Tommas
answered. “For your father’s death and your brother’s. For you, however,
they’ll need nothing. No one knows you were there. No one will say a thing. It
looked pretty clear about what had happened. Your father shot Joel, his
fingerprints were all over the gun, his hands were full of gunpowder residue
because he fired the weapon at police, and he got himself killed in a shootout.
No one is looking at you.”

But they should.

She was guilty.

“Ella?” Tommas
asked.

She stared up at
him, realizing he’d come to stand right in front of her. His hand came up to
graze her cheek with the softest touch.

It was still
enough to light a fire on her skin.

In her soul, she
was calmed for a moment. In her heart, she was at home. Only Tommas had ever
done that for her.

“I still hurt,”
Abriella told him.

Tommas nodded.
“It’ll get better in a while.”

“I don’t want to
feel like this right now with you.”

“Then you don’t
have to.”

Abriella didn’t
get to ask why or what he meant. Without warning, Abriella found herself
wrapped in Tommas’ warm, strong embrace. A blink of time later, and his mouth
was crushing down on hers with a wicked intent.

She wondered if
this was the right time.

Shouldn’t she let
herself wallow for what she had done?

Shouldn’t they …

Abriella decided
she didn’t care when Tommas’ tongue swept the seam of her lips, demanding more.
When he wanted something from her, she always gave it to him. Allowing Tommas
entrance to the heat of her mouth, he wasted no time claiming it with nips of
his teeth to her bottom lip before his tongue tangled with hers. His hand
slipped into her hair and grabbed tight at the nape of her neck, holding her in
place.

With every bite of
his teeth, she felt better. With every sweep of his lips, she was hotter. With
every strike of his tongue, her pain was forgotten.

“Oh, my God,”
Abriella breathed when Tommas began a trek down her neck.

His lips kissed a
burning path over her skin.

Promising.

Sweet.

Need.

She
needed
this man.

Abriella’s head
fell back, and her body sang the harder Tommas’ hands held her. He knew what
she needed without asking, and he was giving it to her.

“More,” Abriella
demanded, tugging on Tommas’ hair to make him look at her.

His heated gaze
met hers, and in that one second, Abriella was lost and found at the same time.
Tommas was capable of making her forget, taking her to the greatest heights,
and grounding her with just a look.

Nothing more.

“I love you,”
Abriella whispered.

“I’ve always known
you loved me, Ella.”

“I’ve not told you
nearly enough.”

“You have the rest
of your life to make up for it, sweet girl.”

She did.

Abriella had a
feeling it would take a while for that fact to really sink in.

Suddenly, Tommas
was pulling at her dress until it was flying up over her head and somewhere on
the floor. The cool temperature of the house wrapped her skin in a soft touch,
pebbling her flesh until Tommas’ hands soothed it away.

Abriella ignored
the mess still on the floor from her earlier tantrum as Tommas dropped to his
knees, pulling her underwear down with him. Her breath caught in her chest when
his fingers grazed the soft lips of her sex with a ghost of a touch.

“You’re so hot
under my fingers,” Tommas murmured, his voice a husky drawl.

A shiver worked
its way down Abriella’s spine. “Am I?”

“Mmm, yes. Hot,
smooth, and wet, baby.”

Abriella widened
her legs enough for his hand to slip in between easily. Two of his fingers swept
her folds from her entrance to her clit, firmer than his first touch. It was
enough that his digits pressed a little into her sex, promising what was yet to
come.

“Very wet,” Tommas
noted, letting his now slippery fingers circle her clit teasingly.

She rocked into
his hand, needing his touch. The more he worked her, the hotter she would get
until she couldn’t take it anymore. Tommas’ fingers pinched her clit without
warning, making Abriella moan loudly.

The sting of his
pinch made her want to come.

“And needy,”
Tommas said, chuckling.

“You did this to
me, you know.”

“I like you like
this, Ella. Wanting my dirty words, needing my cock pounding into your tight
little pussy, and never knowing when you’ve had enough. I love you like this,
baby. Love you when you’re on your back, your knees, or any way in between.
Love it when you let me fuck you until your throat is raw from screaming, and
you’re pussy is sore and soaked with us. It’s always been the hottest, the most
fucking perfect thing I have ever seen.”