“Why won’t you leave us alone?” Sophia screamed at them.
Sophia then grabbed both his arms and stared at him with tears in her eyes. “I’ve lost him, Bruno. It’s over.”
Bruno shook his head. “Hush,” he whispered, holding her close. “This isn’t the end.”
Sophia cried into his chest.
“I know your hurting, but hear me Sophia. This isn’t anything you or I cannot heal from.”
Above them was a blank grey sky, an uncomfortable sky.
When the two women were on their way, Bruno let out a long sigh. To make matters worse, the Castillo crime family was now more vulnerable than ever to attack.
The ride back home that evening was almost unbearable. By the time he made it home, Castillo was incarcerated. Bruno would see him again, but never,eversee him again as a free man. An afternoon that officially marked the end of an era.
Chapter Eleven
Too evil to ever be set free
TWO DAYS LATER, Bruno listened to the choking sound of his car engine asTough Loveby KISS played in the background. Lying underneath the chassis of his car on a kid’s skateboard was about the only escape he’d had since Castillo went down. He held back his emotions but the truth was, he was still having a hard time accepting reality. So angry, so full of furious molten rage it scorched his soul.
He needed a few days to calm down after the shit that had gone down. If it wasn’t bad enough that the boss had gone down for life, the trial had also been televised ? shoved down the throats of the nation on every news channel. The local media made a three-part news series of the event and the public ate it up with a spoon. Vincent Castillo’s reputation had spun a one-eighty overnight. From Robin Hood of the streets to city scum. Branded a pathological liar. A manipulator. A serial killer. A monster too cruel to believe, too evil to ever be set free.
The world before Bruno and the other cronies left behind blurred. It was almost unbelievable to think that forty-eight hours ago, the Castillo family was the greatest, strongest crime family in all of America. The name always carried a lot of weight to it. So much so, any one of his merry men could use the boss’ connections for practically anything. Like a real-life golden key to the city. Smarter than hell, Castillo himself composed the framework of running a huge business, which everyone else in town revolved around. But now the boss was behind bars. Was the man Bruno admired worth anything at all?
Bruno bit down hard, unconsciously grinding his teeth. The future was uncertain. Bruno De Luca and uncertainty didn’t mix. Like the jerk, asshole, caveman, control-freak he knew he was, he needed order, predictability, control….especially control. It had been a quiet couple of days and that only fueled his growing feeling that nobody was safe. He had to come to terms with the fact that Castillo was finished before he too, wound up in trouble.
He stared at his car, eyeing her like a mythical creature. Olive skin, slate grey eyes. At least no one knew where he lived and he planned on keeping it that way. He didn’t talk about his shit to anybody. Not his family, not his house, not his money, and most of all, nothing to do with the mob. The paparazzi had shadowed him everywhere but this place. Perhaps this would become a nightmare that would never end. One thing he knew for sure...the next few months we’re going to be hell.
Bruno unscrewed a loose bolt with a spanner, wondering how the hell he was going to fix this mess. He had to do the right thing, and he believed the right thing was to make the rats who set Castillo up pay for what they did.
“FUCK!” Bruno swore as the bolt separated from the chassis, it free fell onto the ground and went rolling off beyond his feet. Motor oil spurted downwards onto the crotch of Bruno’s blue overalls. Tugging a rag from the pocket, he stuffed it into the hole to stop the flow, long enough for him to get the hell out from under there.
Rolling out from under the hood of the car, he threw both hands up. “Well, she’s fucked!” He sighed and stared at the piece of junk. A small, banged up, black hatch he’d bought at a sweet price a few months back had turned out to be a not-so-sweet sort of a deal. A sweet pain in his ass was all that pile of scrap metal had been. Laying back down onto the skateboard in defeat, he immediately regretted sinking every dime he had into the vehicle he appropriately named,jackass.
“Bruno honey, put those tools down and come inside. It’s broken beyond repair. Nothing’s going to fix that pile of trash, especially in your frame of mind,” Annie’s voice, cheery as usual, sounded from the front door somewhere behind him.
Bruno tilted his head back over the end of the skateboard and found an upside down view of his woman, hanging in the doorway. He stared at her for a moment before saying anything, taking her in. She wore a crisp, buttoned shirt, tucked into a blue denim skirt and a warm smile. Her dark hair fell loose and free over her tits. Wild. Uninhibited. Everything about this woman screamed to his instincts. “Alright. I’ll be in soon.”
She disappeared into the house without another word.
Rocking forwards to an upright position, he wiped away the sweat gathering on his forehead with the clean-ish back of his hand and decided that she was more than right. Getting to his feet, he stepped out of his overalls and went inside.
When he made it into the kitchen, he dropped his overalls onto the ground in front of the washer. He looked at his hands. His palms and fingernails especially had collected a dark layer of motor oil. Stomping across to the kitchen sink, he poured detergent into his hand then sliding the kitchen tap to an on position, waited until he could see steam coming from the hot water out of the faucet. Only detergent and boiling water got oil stains out. Then, cupping his hands together, he scrubbed the coarse particles of detergent all over his hands and arms. Picking up the vegetable scrubber, he dug under his nails with the bristles and ground away viciously.
His woman came up behind him. Annie wrapped her arms around his ribs and held him tight. “You think I mind a bit of grease?” Placing her cheek firmly to his back she breathed deep the scent of oil from his body. She moaned low and sexy, clearly using the power she held over him.
A power he both loved and hated her for.Don’t fucking tempt me.
“Oh, is that so?” Drying his hands on his jeans, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a rag, blackened with oil.
Ever so gently, she took hold of his shoulders and massaged into the thick, tight muscles of his bunched up tendons down to his shoulder blades.
Immediately, his cock jerked in his pants, dancing to the tune of her touch. He groaned. “Tell me what you want, Annie,” he demanded. He spun around to meet her eyes and cradled her face in his hands, eyeing her like a mythical creature. Olive skin, slate grey eyes. Lowering his chin, he narrowed his eyes at her, daring her gaze to become unglued. “I want you,” he demanded.
Her velvety lips twitched and she straightened her posture. “For what?”
“I’m claiming you,” his voice husky, not taking his eyes from her. He smirked, trailing his calloused fingers through her shimmering hair. “None of this teasing bullshit. You know the rules. And girls who don’t follow the rules, I have a responsibility to put a stop to it,” he explained to her. He knew what she wanted. Nobody knew this woman like he did.
