Guns n' Boys Book 1 Part 1 (2 page)

The Chinese boss must
have confirmed that he was happy with the amount of money because the man
behind Seth removed the cuffs that held back his hands. Freedom came as such a
surprise that Seth didn’t move right away, taking a second to look at the red
marks on his wrists, but the moment he realized he could, his legs moved on
their own, carrying him forward in a frantic jog. The tiny smirks on a few
faces made him regret acting so hastily, but what was done was done.

All the Sicilians backed
away to their cars, including their leader, whose rich cologne whispered,
“Follow me and fuck me on the backseat”. So Seth followed, keeping close behind
him. He noted, not without satisfaction, that he had about an inch on the guy.

“What happened? Why was
I taken?” he asked everyone and no one, still aware of a nervous overtone in
his voice. He gripped the wrist of his left hand when a stab of pain reminded
him of the missing finger.

The handsome stranger
stopped and looked at Seth over his shoulder. “You shouldn’t have tried to get
a hen house on Craigslist,” he said and snapped open a lighter.

Seth just watched him,
dumbstruck by the answer. He did get ambushed on the way to pick up the item.
From an anonymous seller.
Fuck.

The mafioso lit a
cigarette as he gave orders to the other men. His profile was like an actor’s,
with a straight nose and lips of the most perfect proportions. For a moment,
Seth thought that maybe the guy
was
an actor, employed for some unknown
reason, but there was something familiar about him that Seth couldn’t pinpoint
yet.

“Take him where he tells
you to, and I’ll pick him up in an hour and a half,” the man said in a voice so
deep that it sent a shiver down Seth’s spine. Seth was beginning to feel
annoyed by this visceral reaction. This was just some hot guy. It was time to
shake it off since homosexuality was non-existent where he was going.

A gay mafioso was a dead
mafioso.

Seth’s lips parted as he
watched the man adjust the lapels of his suit with his long fingers, decorated
with three different signets. “What’s the day today?” he finally choked out. He
felt so rugged and beat-up in comparison to this beautiful man. Even if the man
himself couldn’t care less, Seth couldn’t stand the unsaid competition, and it
sparked a yearning for grooming and nice clothes that he couldn’t yet satisfy.

“September tenth,” said
one of the men who stayed with Seth when his wet dream left without paying him
further attention.

“Who was that, anyway?”
Seth tried to sound like he didn’t care all that much, but that man was the one
thing he could talk and think about without pain and shame after two weeks in
captivity.

“That’s Domenico
Acerbi.” The driver of a sleek black Maserati opened the door for him.

“What?” Seth frowned and
got into the car, thrown off balance by the new information.
The
Domenico
Acerbi? The scrawny boy with whom he used to play as a kid? “Why did Father
send him? Never mind, I’ll talk to him myself,” he added before he got an answer.
The fact that he let himself be thrown off balance by someone like Domenico
Acerbi was just getting him aggravated.

The driver nodded, and
in a matter of seconds, they were off.

Seth looked down at his
own hand in wet, dirty bandages, still shocked by the sudden change of his
circumstances. He hadn’t seen Domenico in fifteen years. And he knew exactly
how many because he remembered being eleven when ‘little Mimmo’ attacked him
with a kitchen knife. Seth never saw him after that. It was as if the guy disappeared
off the face of the earth. Which wouldn’t be that surprising in his family.
About two years after the incident, Seth heard his name mentioned on occasion
and rarely in his presence, but that was it.

And now Domenico had
been sent to reclaim him, as the head of the group, all calm and cool, brimming
with testosterone. And that cologne of his…God, that man shouldn’t be allowed
to be so handsome.

Seth ordered the driver
to stop a few blocks away from the apartment he shared with Peter and exited the
car, holding onto the cell phone they had given him. He didn’t want to reveal
the exact address, just in case. Having a gay lover wouldn’t earn Seth the son
of the year award. As he rushed through the busy street in his ill-fitting suit
and uncomfortable shoes, he tried to figure out a way of communicating to Peter
that they needed to part. ‘I need some space’ wouldn’t do, but Peter was too
delicate to bring him anywhere close the Villani family. Sometimes Seth thought
he
was too delicate to be close to his own family. He’d thought moving
to another continent would be enough space to breathe. That had turned out to
be wishful thinking. At least he’d gotten the chance to enjoy a very active gay
life, something he could never have experienced back in Italy. Everyone knew
him back home, all eyes were on his back, and no gay guy with any sense of
self-preservation would approach him.

Seth, the Don’s son.
You’d have to be an idiot to try and hook up with him
, Seth thought to himself grimly, before starting to climb
up the stairs to the apartment he’d been sharing with his boyfriend for the
last year.

The wooden door seemed
like something from a past life, and when he pulled out the wallet his former
captors had returned to him with the clothes, it was as if he were entering
someone else’s life. He turned the key in the lock, took a deep breath, and
moved into the apartment, feeling ten years older the moment he stepped foot in
the messy hallway. In the bluish light coming from the living room, he looked
at the shoes scattered by his feet when a shadow drowned them in the dark.

“Seth?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” he
said, annoyed at how raspy his voice sounded.

The door banged against
the cupboard, and suddenly Seth’s arms were full of his shivering boyfriend.
Peter was so small and fragile as he held on to Seth, sobbing into his ear, but
the flowery scent of his perfume didn’t bring anything but familiarity. It was
nothing like the masculine scent of the adult Domenico Acerbi; so intense it
still lingered in Seth’s nose.

“Hey, Peter, don’t cry,
I’m alive, okay?” he said, but scowled at his own bruised reflection looking at
him from the mirror. Peter looked like hell with his eyes swollen and almost no
makeup, his short-cropped blond hair wasn’t styled, but Peter didn’t seem to
care. He clutched Seth, pressing into him like a child.

“Where have you been?
Who did this to you? I’ve been worried sick!”

Seth gripped his
bandaged hand. He couldn’t drag Peter into this. “Here and there,” he muttered.
Time was ticking, and he only had half an hour left before someone, possibly
Domenico, would call him. But Peter wouldn’t listen to him, and seconds later,
he dragged Seth into the living room, switching on the main light to look at
his wrists.

“What’s wrong?” Peter’s
reddened eyes were completely focused on Seth, who in turn looked away to the
collection of empty ice cream tubs on the coffee table.

Seth didn’t want to push
Peter away. He’d done enough damage in the past few months when they kept going
into never ending arguments and refused to talk to each other for hours. And
this wasn’t the time to mend a relationship that was hardly a bed of roses.
Peter deserved peace and a guy who could take care of him, not being dragged
into the mob hell.

Seth showed Peter his
hand without the little finger, letting all emotion drain from his face, even
though he hadn’t had the chance to look at it properly either. Peter paled, and
he clasped a hand over his mouth as they both stared at the empty knuckle
safely hidden by the bandage.

“S-Seth…”

“You can’t tell anyone
about this, okay?” He gently untangled himself from Peter’s arms and got to his
feet. Packing wouldn’t happen on its own, and he didn’t want to tempt himself
into believing he would be coming back soon.

“No… Seth, tell me what
happened!” Peter grabbed his arm with a frown of determination.

Seth looked down at him,
and it struck him that Peter seemed even more fragile than usual. “I got in
trouble with the wrong kind of people.” How was he supposed to explain that his
family was a major part of the problem?

“But… couldn’t you let
me know?” sobbed Peter, clutching his spidery fingers into Seth’s bicep. Heavy
tears spilled down his cheeks, carrying the remainder of mascara. “I was so
scared that even the police couldn’t find anything!”

Seth snapped and grabbed
Peter’s cheeks to get him to focus. “What did you tell the police?”

Peter’s initial reaction
was to curl his shoulders and look away. “I… that you disappeared. What would
you have done in my place?”

Seth scowled and pulled
his fingers away. “I’ll take care of it. Just this… fucking hand.” He ran his
fingers through his short hair.

Peter slid his thin arms
around Seth and kissed his cheek. “But you need to come forward. What if they
hurt you again?”

“No one will ‘come
forward’ about anything, you understand me? This needs to stay between us for
your own good,” he said and unglued Peter from himself. He rushed to the
bedroom, only to realize he didn’t have all that much worth taking. “And no one
is gonna hurt me, because next time, I won’t let them take me by surprise.”

The hurried sound of
Peter’s footsteps echoed behind his back as he scrutinized their small bedroom.
The king-size bed took up most of the space, leaving only enough room to get to
the closet.

“Please, don’t. It’s
dangerous!”

“Calm. The fuck. Down.
I’ll sort it all out.” Seth took out a few of his favorite clothes, including a
leather jacket, and threw them onto the bed.

Peter retreated back
toward the door, slouching with his hands curled into fists. “I can’t be calm.
I’m scared.” He hid his face in his palms and slowly slid to his knees into a
heap of gangly limbs.

Seth bit on his lip,
frustrated to no end. He never wanted to be this monster who made boyfriends
cry, but there was no way back now. “The less you know, the better.” He pulled
out a small travel bag from the back of the closet and threw it on the bed as
well.

“That’s what you always
say,” whispered Peter from his spot on the floor.

“Because… it’s
dangerous.” He finally looked down at Peter, at a loss about how to give him an
answer. “Pete… My mom is dead,” he said, and his voice betrayed him, getting
shaky. The memory of her smile had his throat constricting. She had always been
there for him. They could talk for hours on Skype. The thought reminded him of
his one treasured possession and made him run out to the kitchen, followed by
his shadow of a boyfriend.

“Oh my God, Seth! I’m so
sorry.” As soon as Seth stopped in the small but homely kitchen, Peter crashed
into him and took him in his arms again.

“I have to leave for
Italy,” Seth whispered and hugged him back, his eyes on what he’d come to the
kitchen for. The recipe book his mom had made for him when he left for
university.

Peter stroked Seth’s
hairy forearm, frowning as his eyes focused on something miles away. “I could
get an unpaid leave at work. I want to help you.”

Seth swallowed, guilt
coming up his throat like bile. “You don’t understand. It’s dangerous. I—” How
was he supposed to explain it? “I have to be out of sight for a while.”

Peter’s fingers trailed
down to Seth’s hand and cradled it in a death grip. “Why can’t we be out of
sight together? I can’t bear worrying for your life again,” he pleaded in a
broken voice.

“I can’t drag you into
this.” Seth bowed down to kiss Peter and pulled away to snatch the recipe book.

“But I need to be
dragged into this. We’re in this together.”

“Peter, goddammit. I
have to leave, like, now!” Seth yelled and stormed back to the bedroom to pack
his stuff. “Don’t make it so hard for me. I just want… I want you to know I
loved the time we spent together.” He couldn’t bear saying it to his face and
cringed when Peter became very still all of a sudden. The loud ringtone of the
cell phone was a huge relief.

He answered it with a
frown, cutting short the chorus of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’, and zipped up his bag
with one hand. A deep voice in the speaker sent a wave of heat all the way down
Seth’s spine.

“I’m waiting.”

Seth swallowed. “Yeah,
I’m coming,” he said in a voice so dead serious, he hardly recognized it. He
turned off the phone. “Peter, come here.” Seth held out his hand, but with
Peter frozen in place, he had to force him into a hug. The scent of flowers
filled Seth’s nostrils as he handled the unresponsive body of his now-former
boyfriend.

“Seth… what do you
mean?” rasped Peter.

“I mean, my father needs
me there.” He kissed the side of Peter’s head.

“What does this have to
do with us?” Peter pressed his face into Seth’s neck in the very instant
‘Barbie Girl’ spoiled the moment again. He’d kill the fucker who thought it was
a good idea to choose that ringtone.

“I said I’m fucking
coming!” Seth snarled into the phone and turned it off right away, looking down
into the pale face. “Pete. I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back, if
ever, and I can’t hold you back indefinitely.”