AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He bites my bare shoulder with a growl. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to fuck you again, to show you how exceptionallynot normalI think you are. And we both know you need rest. Tomorrow is a big day.”
Tomorrow. My pinning ceremony. The beginning of the rest of my exceptionally-not-normal life with a beautiful, tortured, anything-but-normal man.
6
Callisto
Makenna didn’t tell me about Pour. Then again, I didn’t exactly give her time. But something was on her mind. I felt it. I heard it. Doubts and insecurities screamed loudly in her silence. I won’t push her to open up. I’ll simply sit back until she’s ready to trust me with her heart. Even though the wait will kill me.
I called my father to let him know about the situation with Dave and Anthony, and he gave me the green light to call a meeting. Once I’m sure Makenna is asleep, I call Carmine—one of our men I can actually trust—to keep an eye on my loft while I head to my father’s. He parks across the street from the parking garage, tracking any cars that pull in. After that shit Morano pulled, there’s no fucking way I’m leaving her alone.
Dad, Franco, and Gio are in Dad’s office when I arrive. The house is dark except for the soft glow of the lamp on my father’s desk. Dad is sitting in one of the club chairs in front of his bookshelves. Franco and Gio are on the leather sofa across from him.
Dad gives me a nod. “Go ahead. This is your meeting.”
I settle into the other club chair, stretch my legs out in front of me and lean back against the leather.
Franco swirls whiskey around the bottom of a crystal glass while Gio sits wide-eyed and silent. The Boss is the only one with authority to call meetings within the family. Until today. Until me. I don’t even try to process what that might mean or what my father is trying to imply.
I sit up straight, resting my elbows on the arms of the chair. “One of our men is working with Morano.”
“Do you have proof?” Gio asks.
“Jaxon saw him with our inventory guy and one of Sylvester’s men at Morano’s bar.” I look from Gio to Franco. “I also have proof someone’s been stealing from the warehouse where Dave works.” Then, to my father. “If there’s one thing I know about the way you run this organization, it’s that liars and thieves aren’t tolerated.” I know because I’m the one who deals with them.
Franco takes a sip of his whiskey. “You think the problem at the port was a set-up? Something to get me away from Makenna so that Anthony could step in?”
“I don’t know. But I’m damn sure going to find out. What I do know is that Morano also used Eva Mason to get to Makenna. It’s an obvious threat, and I will be dealing with it.” Families don’t fuck with other families. It’s an unspoken rule. We don’t all run our shit the same, but we all have each other’s backs. Anything else will start a war.
“Until then, Makenna is staying with me. I want eyes on her house. If anyone other than us goes near it, I want to know.”
We all know the details of the chain of command. My father is on top. He issues the orders. So, when he sits in silence as I verbally wage war, and Franco and Gio nod in agreement, I realize the depth in his gesture. I know what it took for him to let me have this, even if it’s just two of his men.
“I will protect her at any cost.” I stand to leave, nodding at my father, whose eyes are filled with regret. He knows his sins. He has to live with them every single day. Just like I do. I was there. I should’ve saved my mother. I should’ve seen it coming. I’ll never forgive myself for that. Just like he’ll never forgive himself because she lost her life for no better reason than being the wife of Carlos fucking Suppato. She was an innocent pawn in an ugly game of revenge. Tit for tat, an eye for an eye, and all that other bullshit people say to make themselves feel better. My father went to war with Don Julio, and Don didn’t fight fair. Now, thanks to me, he’s ice-cold and six-feet-under with a bullet hole in his head.
Every time my father wakes up to an empty bed or walks into an empty kitchen after a long day at work, he’s reminded of the consequences of being who he is. I know he misses her smile every bit as much as I do. I know he spends every waking hour fighting to put the pieces back together just to have his heart break all over again the minute he sees her picture on his nightstand before he goes to bed. I won’t let that happen to me and Makenna. I refuse to let her become a victim of my world.
I stopped resenting my father a long time ago. I found a way to live with the blood on my hands. I just hope Makenna doesn’t hate me once she finds out who I really am, once she sees that there is no hero in her love story.
There is only me.
7
Makenna
Callisto isn’t in bed when I wake up, but I hear him in the kitchen, feel his presence from the other room. I slip his t-shirt over my head and go to the bathroom to wash my face, smiling to myself when I spot a brand-new toothbrush on the bathroom counter. I’m in the middle of opening it when my body tingles with awareness. Our eyes meet in the mirror, intensity building in his stare. His lounge pants are slung low on his hips. He has a ceramic mug in each hand. I’m trapped, caught in a web of dark hair, tousled from sleep, whiskey eyes that reflect the sunlight when he smiles, corded muscles on sculpted abs that lead to a perfectly-formed arrow to his cock.
“Thought you might want some.” His deep voice curls around me.
I arch a brow.
A smirk plays on his lips. “Coffee.”
“Right.” I accept the mug, even though my body is aching for something else. “Big day and all.”
He sets his mug down and moves closer. Closer. Until I’m backed against the bathroom counter with his body looming over me. My nipples tighten and peak at his heat, his breath, his hard against my soft. “As much as I’d love to send you out into the world smelling like me, the problem is that once I’m inside you, I won’t want to find my way out.” When he talks like that, when his eyes lock on mine the way they are right now, it’s hard to believe anything exists but him. “And as amazing as spending the day fucking you sounds, you’ve worked hard for this. You deserve it.” He brushes a loose hair from my face. “I’ll have to settle for spending the night fucking you instead.”
I inhale a sharp breath, my body buzzing with electricity. “I’m holding you to that.”
