His body blanketed mine and he kissed me again while his hand reached between my legs and began to explore me there, stroking, spreading my wetness, coating his fingers that moved between circling my clit and sliding inside me. He may not have kissed another woman before, and while the things he had done with others wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on, there was no denying that he knew exactly how to bring pleasure to a woman.
Amina wriggled in my hold, startling me, reminding me of the fact that I was not in my childhood bedroom having sex for the first time. Sex with Dante. My breathing was a little rapid and the ache between my legs screamed for some kind of release, but this was not the time. A small sound from my daughter caused me to gaze down at her, my freshly bathed and dressed baby, a picture of total innocence. Tears welled as I prepared to nurse her. This is how her life should have been, in a warm and loving home, with a family who would stop at nothing to keep her safe and happy, even if to the outside world they were bad people, not living in a mouldy basement apartment that even rats and cockroaches refused to live in. Never knowing if I could make ends meet, often going without food myself in order to keep the shitty roof over our heads. I didn’t doubt that Dante would at some point mention my ‘work’ but if I hadn’t secured that job when I had, I really had no clue what would have become of us because without Aldo supporting us, we had had nothing.
“Mama promises you that we will never go back to that life, baby,” I told her as I got comfortable and offered her my breast thinking that this should have been my life, with Dante.
CHAPTERFIVE
DANTE
We had dissected the evening’s events for Carlo and my brothers who hadn’t been with me, then we’d talked it over, again and again with some of our men, trying to make sense of everything.
“Someone betrayed us tonight, either on our side or Romano’s.” Carlo was up on his feet and pacing around his office.
Marco shook his head. “After everything with Messina, we cut all of the dead wood and anyone who was any kind of risk . . . it has to be on their end.”
I nodded having already come to that conclusion myself. Carlo said nothing, his silence drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“What?” I hoped he wasn’t thinking what I thought he was.
“Who in that place had a motive to set us up? Who might have, oh, I don’t know, had a motive for revenge?”
He was thinking exactly what I feared.
It was one of our newer men that spoke next, something most people would have waited to be invited to do, but not this idiot. I was unsure what he was likely to say, however, when I heard his words, rage flooded my whole being. “Her traitorous pig of a brother betrayed us, so why not her? Whoring can’t be that prosperous, and her standards can’t be high if she’s parading naked in a shithole like tonight and fucking the sewer rats that were there.”
Everything moved in slow motion and from the first words uttered, I was sure I was up on my feet, heading for him, ready to put my fist through his face, yet I still wasn’t there as he spoke again.
“I guarantee I’ll get the bitch to talk, one way or another and I’ll enjoy it.”
Finally his words were stemmed as I spread his nose across his face and continued to rain blows down as he briefly doubled over, holding his face. Moving back into an upright position, I found myself pulled back, possibly by one or two of my brothers while Carlo roared.
“Stop! You,” he pointed to me, “Calm the fuck down.” Then turning to the man I still glared at, his eyes blackening as his nose poured blood while I watched him, “Anna is an old family friend. She is not a whore, and even if she was, you haven’t earned the right to call her that. As for her brother, it was a private matter that is now closed, do you understand?”
“Of course, Boss, I meant no offence. I just want to serve you.”
Carlo nodded. “Go and get cleaned up.” Looking to one of the other men, he spoke again. “Go with him.”
As the men left, he dismissed everyone other than me and our other brothers who were present and then faced me. “Sit the fuck down.”
Reluctantly, I did as ordered and considered my next move.
“I get why you brought Anna back with you, her and the baby, but you can’t act this way. The bear with a sore head is not what we need.”
“I dunno, you did it well enough when you first brought Gina back here.”
He scowled at his wife’s name being dragged into this. “Both Jay and Gina were brought here for their safety, but Gigi was always my soulmate.”
Previously, I would have ripped the piss out of him, but not this time. I said nothing, however, my face or something must have given something away as his expression changed, softened perhaps.
“Whilst one of our men walking around with a black eye and a broken nose might send a message to any of the others who consider bad mouthing Anna, it will also send a message of unrest and inside fighting to the wider world, our enemies.”
He was right and we needed everything to be solid here, not fraught. “Of course, I will rectify things with him in the morning. Thank you for what you said about Anna.”
He nodded. “I meant it. Who is the baby’s father? Is he going to become a problem?”
Shaking my head, I realised I hadn’t even considered that until now. “I don’t know but he must be a piece of shit to not provide for his child and to allow Anna to be dancing in a club, right?”
All of my brothers nodded.
