Mafia Captive (2 page)

Angelo ran a crew out in Brooklyn now
.
He wasn’t bluffing. He would kill her. The family didn’t like having to kill women and avoided it whenever they could, but Angelo’s dick didn’t swing in that direction, which made a woman just another man to him. He was the least likely to hesitate, the least likely to give a shit what kind of genitalia his victim had. Bad luck for the girl.

Leo was the first person Angelo had come out to. His brother had worried the others wouldn’t follow him if they knew, but it had turned out to be a nonissue. He was so brutal, his orientation didn’t make the slightest difference in the level of respect he could command. And Uncle Sal hadn’t blinked when he’d promoted him. All he cared was that Angelo was a big earner and family.

In a drunken moment of twin-bonding and secret-telling, Leo had confessed his own alternative sexual leanings—a choice which in hindsight may have been a mistake, given the way his brother’s mind operated.

Leo had had a few long-term kinky relationships. They’d gone okay, and they’d ended without much trouble, but the thing he wanted was the thing he’d never been able to have: a true slave.

Could he do the things he fantasized about? It was one thing to wank to it; it was another to do it. She was a living, breathing human being. Frightened. Losing everything in her life. Could he be that callous and cold? Did he have a strong enough moral leash to stop himself?

Angelo’s words echoed in his mind:
What you do with her once you get her is up to you.

Easier said than done. Once she was in his care, dependent on him and vulnerable, would he be able to resist training her? Taking her? He doubted he had such saintly self-control. Going to his brother’s home guaranteed he’d become as amoral as Angelo. But if he didn’t show up, she’d be in the harbor before dawn.

***

Angelo opened the door on the first knock and Leo stepped inside. Chaos greeted him: a broken vase, smashed bottles on the floor, upturned tables. In the midst of the maelstrom, sat the girl in a white bathrobe, bound, gagged, and blindfolded. Bruises were forming at various points on exposed flesh, while blood dripped onto a towel from her feet.

“For God’s sake, Ange, what did you do to her?”

Her head jerked in the direction of his voice, and a sharp pain jabbed at his chest. Even so, seeing her bound state aroused him. It shouldn’t, but it did. How could he go through with this? His brother had backed him into a corner, and a part of him wished Angelo had killed the girl without Leo ever knowing of her.

Angelo shrugged. “She struggled. I almost thought, ‘to hell with it’, and clipped her, but I knew you’d be upset. Look her over, see if you want her. Makes no difference to me one way or the other.”

Of course it didn’t.

Leo sat beside her. Her hair was a brilliant red, his favorite. He couldn’t stop himself from running his fingers through it. It was still damp and must be even more vibrant dry. She shrank from his hand and whimpered.

“Shhh. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t know yet. Everything inside him laughed in triumph at what he had. A real slave. A woman at his complete mercy. And yet, he hadn’t taken her from her life. His brother had orchestrated the scenario so Leo could play the hero, rescuing her from certain death.

“Did you or Davide touch her inappropriately?”

“Of course not. She’s got the wrong parts for our taste.”

But not for mine.
His fingers itched to stroke every inch of her, to feel her surrender beneath him.

Leo pulled the blindfold from her eyes, unsurprised to find a luminescent green shining out at him. She was so young it made his heart hurt. Obviously legal, but at least fifteen years his junior. Probably more. Too young to lose her whole life.

There was a muffled scream from behind the gag as she tried to escape his touch. His hand pressed against her cheek. “Shhhh. I’m not him. Look.” He motioned toward his brother. “We’re twins.”

Leo was always conscious of his scar, but perhaps it wasn’t that obvious. Or maybe she was so scared that the idea of a twin hadn’t occurred to her.

She was perfect in every way. The right thing was to take her to the police where she’d be protected and turn his brother in, but that was never going to happen. Family came first.

His attention went back to her feet. They were long and delicate with raspberry polish on her toes. The blood dripped steadily. It must have happened moments before he arrived.

“Get me a first aid kit. Why the fuck didn’t you clean this, Angelo? It could get infected. What kind of gift is she if you break her before I arrive?”

“I didn’t want to waste my time if you weren’t taking her.
Are
you taking her?”

“I don’t have much choice, do I?” Leo didn’t bother hiding his disgust.

Angelo smiled. “Well, if you don’t find her appealing, if she’s not everything you’ve ever wanted to tie up and dominate, then all you have to do is say the word and she’s gone.”

The girl flinched at that. Whether her reaction was about the tying up and dominating or the implication of her death, he couldn’t be sure. Likely equal parts of both.

“Just get the first aid kit.” He couldn’t bring himself to remove the gag. Not with an audience. Later, alone in the car he would, but not here. Whatever words would pass between them wouldn’t be witnessed by Angelo and his lover. From here on, what happened between them was private.

His brother returned a moment later with the kit, and Leo pulled the girl’s legs onto his lap. He didn’t care about the blood getting on his pants. All he cared about was getting her bandaged so he could get her out of here.

***

Faith was glad to escape Angelo, but now she had another man to fear. She tried not to look at the brutal, angry scar on his face. As if she needed more evidence this man had known violence.

A new bruise formed on her wrist, chastising her for her escape attempt. She couldn’t see it in the dark, but she knew it bloomed and burst across her flesh like an erupting volcano.

“I untied your hands as a kindness, and you try to attack me as soon as I start the car?”

“What the hell did you expect?” Was it not normal to try to save yourself from captivity?

Minutes ticked by in silence.

“I can understand your reaction, but I told you I didn’t want to have to hurt you. You forced my hand.”

She tried not to think about how gently he’d bandaged her wounds back at Angelo’s place. There had been glass embedded in her skin. He’d spoken quietly to her and told her exactly what he was doing through the process. Then he’d put a topical antibiotic on the wounds and wrapped her feet in gauze.

Even if she’d managed to get away from him, how far could she have gotten on bandaged feet before he—or something worse—caught her? She hadn’t been thinking that far in advance. The only thing she’d been able to think about was how she couldn’t surrender. She had to fight. Sitting quietly was the worst thing she could do. It would only allow her too much time inside her own head to imagine what might lay ahead for her and later to regret not taking any opportunity to save herself.

While she’d noticed—in a purely clinical way—the attractiveness of the brother, Leo’s small acts of kindness and his tenderness had created an unexpected, visceral reaction that made his matching physical beauty come into sharper focus. It was a physical beauty that even his scar couldn’t mar. In fact, the imperfection brought the rest of his perfection into starker contrast. She didn’t want to admit she could see herself doing anything this man wanted. Her only fears were that he might hurt her, not that he might fuck her. The realization made her feel sick inside.

“Just let me go,” she whispered. “I told your brother I don’t care who you are or what you’re doing. I’m not interested in being a hero. I just want to go back to my life. Please. I swear I won’t say anything to anyone.”

She’d seen enough movies about crime families to know talking got you killed, that these people were omnipresent. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Leo might be her only safety, the one person who could keep her from having to spend the rest of her life running.

“I won’t take that risk. What’s your name?”

“None of your business.” If he thought they were going to sit here and have some polite conversation as if he weren’t committing a felony …

Leo pulled the car onto the shoulder and turned the engine off. The interior lights came on, casting his face in shadows and light that made him look demonic. Anger twisted his features in a gruesome tableau of barely constrained violence. Before Faith could react, his impossibly large hand wrapped around her throat, pressing her against the glass.

“This. Will not work,” he practically growled. “I saved your life. You belong to me now. You keep showing me attitude and see where it leads you. I can make your life the darkest hell imaginable. Or I can show you kindness. Your choice.”

Faith clawed at him as his hand tightened. She wanted to beg, but she couldn’t squeeze words out of a throat already being squeezed. Leo was no less lethal than his brother.

“Are we clear?”

Faith nodded frantically. He released her, straightened his suit, and started the car. She coughed as she tried to get air back into her lungs. Leo appeared unconcerned with her struggle as he pulled back onto the road, quickly accelerating to the full legal speed.

“Let’s try again. What’s your name?”

“F-faith.”

“Was that so hard?”

Her mind screamed
yes
while imaginary fingernails ripped at his skin, but the reality was more muted. She looked down at her hands and quietly whispered, “No.”

“No, Master,” he corrected.

Her eyes widened and her lips pressed into a firm line. She couldn’t be his slave. Thinking of herself as his prisoner had been bad enough. She was a human being. The fact that he could demand so demeaning a title from her meant everything she suspected he’d take from her would happen, and if he didn’t hurt her, she wasn’t sure how hard she could fight someone so overwhelming and seductive and experienced. He was quite a bit older than her, a grown, mature man, whereas the guys she’d been involved with were silly boys by comparison.

“Are we going to have to pull the car over again?”

The threat had the intended effect. The lesson was too fresh in her mind. She recoiled as she heard herself say, “N-no, Master.”

“Good. Now, there are servants in the house. Don’t take that as hope. They will not help you. The phone goes through a switchboard. The operator won’t help you either. If you seek their help, they will report it to me and you’ll be punished.”

She flinched at the warm hand on the back of her neck, but he wasn’t there to hurt her. Instead, he massaged the tight muscles, a feeling that was comforting in spite of everything. She shouldn’t want his hands anywhere near her, but if she was stuck with this man, she much preferred kindness to cruelty or pain.

“I can’t let you go, and I won’t be able to resist taking you. But I’ll be good to you if you let me, Faith. Are you going to let me?”

Each time her name rolled off his tongue, it was as if a piece of her will broke off from her and floated away. She wanted to argue about belonging to him but knew that wasn’t the way to get to the kindness he offered. She nodded, not wanting to have to call him master again. He let it slide.

“That’s smart.” He took an exit and the city began to disappear behind them as buildings became fewer and trees more common. “Are you married?”

“No. I-I’m just twenty-two.”

He cursed, and she worried he’d take her back to Angelo.

“Way too fucking young.” He shook his head. “Boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Faith… I’ll pull the car over, and I’ll do much worse. I am your Master. You are my property. Now say it. No ,what?”

“N-no, Master,” she forced out.

“Good. Family?”

“No M-master.” Not anymore.

“Friends?”

“A few girls at work.” She was beginning to be thankful she was alone. At least there was no one in the world he could use to hurt her further.

“You’ve got less to leave. That’ll make it easier on you.”

He didn’t know what he was talking about. Having nothing to leave was never easy. She’d been thrown into Miami’s foster care system when she was twelve. Her foster father had beaten her, and as she’d grown into a young woman, he’d attempted other things. A college scholarship in New York had been her escape hatch before he’d gotten a chance to succeed. Now her earned freedom felt unreal because this man would bring to fruition her foster father’s sick desires. Why else would he take her? Why else would he emphasize that he owned her? Leo wasn’t the first man to make such a claim, and this wouldn’t end any better. Only there was no ready way out this time.

She didn’t know how to be around people. How to talk to them and make real, close friends. She’d never learned how trust worked. Now all she was leaving was a too-small apartment and a few shallow friendships. Fresh tears flowed down her face, and she thought she might never exhaust her supply of them.

“I have a cat. She’ll starve without me.” The only being she’d miss was reliant on her for survival. She couldn’t stand to think of Squish suffering and dying alone in the studio apartment. That cat had seen her through her senior year of college and getting her first real adult job.

Leo’s hand was still at the nape of her neck. “I’ll send someone to retrieve your cat.”

Faith’s head snapped up, and she stared at him a moment, trying to determine if he was playing with her. “You’d do that for me?”

“I told you I can make your life easy or hard. Give me what I want, and I’ll make it so easy. When we get to the house, you can write down your address and make a list of anything else you want from your former residence.” He stressed the word
former
.

“My key is at Angelo’s. He took my purse.”

Leo nodded. “That’s no problem.”

Faith tried not to think about the price he’d extract from her for all this kindness. A tab had started, and there was no doubt he’d take it out of her body. Even so, she couldn’t help the instinct that made her want to cling to him for his protection, however irrational or foolish such an instinct may be.