Deadly Intentions Read online

  “Alessandro,” she screams, dropping her head back.

  “Fuck, yes! Come around my cock, Angel.”

  Her body begins trembling with the start of her orgasm. I find her clit with my thumb, rubbing the engorged nub.

  “Oh, fuck!”

  She shudders, her pussy pulsating around my dick with her orgasm. I’m so close, I can feel the telltale heat creeping up my back. Just when I’m about to blow my load, Jessika scrambles off my lap, dropping her mouth down my length seconds before I come, feeling her throat work against my length as she swallows every single fucking drop.

  Jessika sits back on her knees, grinning down at me as her tongue licks along her lips, catching any cum that may have escaped.

  Fuck. This woman.

  Covering my eyes with my arm, I try to regulate my breathing again. Jessika giggles, snuggling up against my side, her small arm wrapping around my waist, her head coming to rest against my chest. When my breathing is somewhat back to normal again, I roll over pinning her hands to the bed on either side of her head.

  “That was hot as fuck, Angel. But next time, don’t deny me coming in that sweet pussy of yours. Want to see me spilling out you, Angel. Want to spend the day knowing that I’m still inside you.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  I can practically hear her eyes roll with the word and something about hearing her call me sir has my dick standing up and taking notice. I have half a mind to flip her over and really show her the meaning of the word but my phone pings from the nightstand reminding me that I have a job to do.

  “Turn it off,” she groans when it pings again. “Let’s just turn our phones off and stay in bed all day.” She intertwines her leg with mine, snuggling further into my chest, her long hair tickling the underside of my chin.

  She has no idea how badly I want that. To ignore the world, if only for a day, and spend it with her body wrapped around mine. We don’t even have to fuck. I would be content with her head on my chest and her hand over my heart -just like it is now- while we lay in bed, watching endless reruns of some Netflix show, or as she tells me about her new job at the local gym.

  Training and working out was the only things Jessika knew, so when a personal training position opened at the gym a few minutes down the street, she jumped at the opportunity, applying right away. I knew sitting around the house these last few months was making her antsy, but short of getting her involved in the Famiglia, I had no idea what to do for her. So, I was equally as glad as she was when she got the call that the position was hers. I didn’t want to have to drag her back into this world, not after she fought so hard to get out. I would’ve turned my back on the Famiglia before that ever happened. Braxton argued that if being an assassin for a crime family was the only thing she knew, she wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. I disagreed, and so did Antonio. After that, Braxton agreed that he wouldn’t approach her about a job unless he had my permission, or it was of utmost importance to the Famiglia.

  I couldn’t tell him that he didn’t need my permission, Jessika will do whatever she wants, whether I agree or not. She spent her whole life going up against men like me, and she survived. She didn’t need me fighting her battles, but you bet your life I’ll still be in her corner ready to step in if or when she ever needs me to.

  “Sorry, Angel,” I say kissing her forehead and disentangling myself from her. “This one I can’t get out of.”

  “It’s about your dad, isn’t it?” Her voice is so small I have to do a quick glance around the room to make sure it was really her who spoke.

  “Jessika,” I start, not sure what to say next.

  Sitting up against the headboard, the duvet falling away revealing her breasts and toned stomach. I groan, the clean pair of underwear I just put on growing tight.

  “Don’t do anything rash, Alessandro,” she says, pulling me away from thoughts of her taste.

  “He framed me for murder,” I bite out, any feelings of lust suddenly replaced by a boiling rage. “I was six-fucking-years-old!” My fist clench at my sides as memories of that day and subsequent days after flood back in.

  I barely register Jessika moving off the bed towards me, her fingers soft on my balled-up fists. “Shh, it’s okay, baby,” she whispers, standing on her toes to kiss along my shoulder and up my neck.

  “I have to do this, Jess,” I tell her, trying to ignore the way my voice hitched with the confession.

  She sighs. I hear her heels hit the cold wood of the floor as she drops down, her arms curl around mine, and she rests her cheek against my back. “I know.” We stand in silence, Jessika lost in her own thoughts as she holds me from behind, me staring out the bedroom window to the backyard and the forest beyond the fence but not seeing any of it. “Just,” she pauses, her lips gently pressing a kiss to my heated skin, “Just please come back to me.”

  Turning, I wrap my arms around her shoulders and rest my chin on her head. “Always.”

  My phone pings from the table again and I know Braxton enough that if I don’t answer him, he’ll be showing up here beating the door down in about five minutes, give or take a few minutes with traffic. Jessika sighs again tightening her hold on me before letting go and stepping away.

  “You better go then.” She drops her eyes, refusing to look up at me.

  Fuck that. I grip her chin between my fingers, forcing her eyes on me. “I love you,” I say, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips.

  Tears pool around her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall. “I know. I love you too.”

  I nod, gathering the rest of my clothes and getting dressed before grabbing the duffel bag of tools from the closet. I stop before leaving the room. Turning back to her I say, “lock the door when I leave.”

  She huffs, crossing her arms. “This isn’t my first rodeo, Alessandro.”

  “Maybe, but I won’t put it past my father to have some plan in place. Now’s not the time for your smart mouth, Angel. Lock the door. The only person you open it for is Antonio. You got me?”

  “What about Klara?”

  “Jessika,” I growl, not having time for this shit.

  “Fine. Yeah, I get you. But I’m a trained killer…”

  I don’t stick around to hear the rest of what she has to say. I just needed to know that she knew Antonio -and Klara, I guess- are the only people who could be showing up. And the only fucking way Antonio will be showing up is if I’m dead.

  I promised her I’d come back to her and I intend to keep my fucking promise. My father was a washed-up drunk. No way was he sober enough to realize he was walking into a setup.

  Chapter 3

  Jessika

  Alessandro said he’d be back, but I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. I can’t help feeling that he and Braxton may have underestimated Alessandro’s father. Of course, trying to convince them of that is like trying to convince a brick wall to move.

  I almost chalked up the unease I was feeling to knowing my own father was still out there somewhere, until Alessandro’s parting words.

  The only person you open it for is Antonio. You got me?

  It wasn’t what he had said, more like the way he had said it. Almost like he expected things to go south. All I know is that if Antonio shows up here and Alessandro isn’t with him, there isn’t a safe house in this world where his father can hide, and I wouldn’t find him. I will tear down every single safe house brick by fucking brick if I have to. I just found Alessandro, no way in hell am I losing him now.

  Taking a deep breath, I try to calm myself down. I’m getting way too worked up over nothing. How many times have Braxton and Alessandro done this? Probably too many to count. They have this. This is what they do. I just need to trust them. Trust that they have this shit handled and that they haven’t underestimated his father. What are the chances that we both have fucked up fathers? I have to laugh at it all because if I don’t I’ll break down and cry, and that’s just not an option right now.

  Changing i
nto my workout gear, I grab a bottled water from the fridge and make my way down to the basement gym. There’s always one thing I can count on to help when the need to kill overwhelms me, and that’s a good sweat induced work out. As I push open the door, I know I’m already looking forward to the burn in my muscles that only appears after pushing myself past my limit, and the delicious ache that’ll greet me in the morning. Most people who work out will avoid pushing themselves in the gym because they don’t want to hurt too bad the next day. Me? If I’m not crawling on the floor and half dying the next day, then I didn’t do it right. Even Alessandro tells me I push myself too hard during my workouts, and maybe he’s right. I do push myself to the point of pain. But pain means I’m still alive.

  Pain means I made it through hell and emerged on the other side. Pain means that after years of doing what I did and seeing what I saw, that I can still feel. It means one more person was spared their life because I chose to take my frustration and bloodlust out on myself than another person. They can tell me that my victims deserved everything they got, and I’ve read their files… they would’ve spent the rest of their lives behind bars, living off taxpayers’ money, so maybe it’s true that they got what they deserved. Father always said we were doing the world a favor by ridding them of such filth. But that doesn’t change the fact that I killed people for a living. That I’m still, by all intents and purposes, a murderer.

  As I move the pin to a heavier weight for the lat pull-down, I know I’ve come to the point where it’s almost time for me to hang up my knives. I say almost because I still have one more job to do. One that could get me killed, but one I’m willing to risk my life for. If I can successfully pull this off, it may mean spending the rest of my life running. I only hope that Alessandro may love me enough to come with me.

  My father’s days on this earth were numbered. He said we were ridding this world of filth, but what he failed to understand was that included him too. Alessandro was supposed to be my last job, but I realize now that my last and final job was always meant to be the man who gave me life.

  I’m just finishing my last set when the doorbell rings. I freeze, the weights clanking together when I let go of the bar. If it were Antonio he’d just walk-in, right? He wouldn’t ring the bell. For as long as I’ve been living with Alessandro, Braxton and Antonio have never rung the doorbell, they all have keys and access codes to each other’s houses. So, it couldn’t be him. But if he was delivering bad news, he might think he was being polite.

  “Ugh, get it together, Jessika. Nothing is wrong with Alessandro.”

  Grabbing the sweat towel and water bottle from the floor beside me, I race upstairs glad I didn’t pick today to work out legs. Once I reach the front door, I hesitate, my hand hovering just above the doorknob. What if it really is Antonio coming to tell me Alessandro was dead?

  I snap my hand back, slowly backing away from the door. No, Alessandro can’t be dead. I refuse to believe it. The doorbell sounds again, echoing through the quiet house and snapping me out of my ridiculous thoughts. Fuck, I’m losing my mind.

  I grip the doorknob, reminding myself that I’m a trained killer, that nothing can phase me, and twist as I pull open the door.

  “Kase?” I move to open the door wider but all my years of training kicks in and I stop, the door barely open enough for me to peer through. Something about this guy doesn’t sit right with me. It hasn’t since the day I ran into him at the grocery store… so yesterday. Oh, for fuck’s sake. Is this what retirement is going to do to me? Make me leery of everyone and everything? It’s stupid… and yet, I can’t make myself invite him in. The thought of I wish I had my knives on me takes me by surprise, but I immediately push it away.

  “Hello, Jessika. Aren’t you going to invite a friend in?” He looks relaxed, his hands in the front pockets of his board shorts, an easy grin on his face, sunglasses resting on the top of his head. He looks like he just came from spending the day at the beach with friends, but somehow it all feels fake.

  “I’m actually on my way out. Sorry,” I say, moving to close the door when it bounces back from Kase’s foot being wedges between the door and the frame. “Kase, really, now isn’t the time. Alessandro and I had fun that night, but it was one night. Neither one of us is interested in a repeat.”

  He cocks his head to the side, the easy grin sliding from his face. His eyes that were once a hypnotizing shade of oceanic blue are now the blackest I’ve ever seen. It’s like staring into a dark hole, feeling like something is staring back at you but not being able to see anything.

  “Invite me in, Jessika,” the once deep voice that managed to turn my insides to mush is now flat, devoid of emotion.

  I plaster on a smile, hoping it’ll appease him and he’ll leave. “Like I said, I’m just on my way out. Can you maybe come back later?”

  His eyes roaming down what little of my body is visible through the crack, and I momentarily kick myself for not throwing a sweater over the sports bra and Spanx I chose to workout in. Kase licks his lips when his gaze flickers to the tops of my breasts.

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible,” he smirks, seconds before I hear footsteps behind me.

  A rag is thrown over my nose and mouth. I grip my attacker’s arm, digging my nails into the flesh as hard as I can while trying to kick back.

  Kase doesn’t move from his stance at the front door, but the grin is back as he watches me struggle and fight. But I’m losing what little strength and energy I had left after the grueling workout. My limbs start to feel heavy, it’s an effort to keep my eyes open… almost too much of an effort.

  No. Shit. Fuck. I have to fight. I didn’t go through all that training for it to end like this.

  “Give it up, little sister. Fighting isn’t going to help you now.”

  Wait, what?

  I try to respond, but it feels like there’s this huge disconnect from what my brain is telling the rest of my body to do, and actually doing it. Eventually, everything fades to black.

  Chapter 4

  Alessandro

  “I thought he said he would already be here?” I asked, pacing the length of the dank basement. It smells of death, urine, and desperation. A smell that used to fuel me whenever I brought men down here who thought they could play the Famiglia. Knowing I was going to add my father’s blood to the stains on the concrete floor should give me some sort of closure. I’ve been waiting months for this. But it doesn’t. Instead, it makes me sick because, despite everything I recently found out, he is still my father.

  He may be a good for nothing drunk, but he’s still the man who built me a treehouse, taught me how to ride a bike, how to fish, how to shoot my first gun. How to fight. Everything a father is supposed to teach his son, he taught me. Until he handed me off to Lukas De Luca, who became a second father to me.

  “He’ll be here,” Antonio says, casually leaning a shoulder against the opposite wall. The dark suit he’s worn all day still looks immaculate. This fucker is never with a hair out of place. He could give a man a beating and still look perfectly put together.

  Before I have time to argue, muffled voices sound from the other side of the door. Becoming louder and more distinct once the door opens and closes.

  “Why is it in the basement of your building, De Luca?” my father’s voice asks. I don’t know whether to be pleased or pissed that he sounds sober enough. Why the fuck would anyone follow Braxton down to the basement sober? It sounds like the beginnings of a horribly predictable horror movie.

  “Alessandro,” he says in disbelief, stopping abruptly once he feet hit the bottom step and he comes face to face with Antonio and me, Braxton right behind him blocking his only escape route.

  “Father.”

  “What’s the meaning of this Braxton?” He tries turning around, but Braxton shoves him down the last step. Braxtonand Antonio manhandle him into the chair in the middle of the room, binding his wrists and ankles to it.

  “Seems like you and your s
on have some unfinished business. Antonio and I are just here to make sure it gets handled.” Braxton takes a step back, running his hand through his hair. The clipped nod he sends my way, a silent signal for me to take over.

  Gripping the handles of the duffel bag I brought with me, I dump it out on the stainless-steel cart beside my father, satisfaction courses through me when his head snaps to it as it falls open on the table. Oh, that’s right. I never did zip that shit up. It was one of those ones with no structure to it, as soon as you laid it down unzipped, it opened revealing the contents inside. Judging by my father’s expression, he knew exactly what was going to happen next.

  “Alessandro, I’m your father for fucks sake!” The chair rocks side to side as he struggles against his bindings.

  My head cocks to the side as I watch him. I no longer see the man I looked up to as a naïve kid. The man sitting in front of me, struggling against the rope is no different than the pathetic excuse for men I’ve dragged down here in previous months.

  “Alessandro. Son, please,” he begs.

  That’s the last thing I remember before I shut everything out. Jessika, and the love she’s brought into my life. The way her laugh makes me laugh, her contagious smile, the smell of her on my sheets, her inability to pick up a single item of clothing from the bedroom floor, her love for me and mine for her. I shut it all out. Every memory from my childhood. Every emotion I ever felt towards this man, except for uncontrollable rage. He wanted to make me into a monster. Well, he was about to get to know his creation real well.

  ***

  Jessika

  “Wake up, little sister.” A soft touch caresses down my cheek and along my jaw.

  A low groan forces its way past my lips, every inch of my body hurts, and I have no idea why until I remember the grueling workout I put myself through earlier today. I try to move to work the kinks out, but my hands don’t budge, and I can’t move my feet either. Slowly everything starts coming back. The doorbell ringing, Kase standing on the other side refusing to allow me to close the door on him. A rustling from behind me, something being placed over my nose and mouth, me fighting and then… nothing.