Page 39 of His Passerotta

“Where are you going then?” he calls to my back.

“To stay with a friend,” I lie. I have no friends. Sad, I know.

After flinging open the door, I storm past the gang bangers I hate more each day.

I don’t know how stupid it is, but I don’t leave the complex. I head straight to my apartment and do a quick sweep, finding nothing missing or broken before walking to the window and drawing the curtains shut. I lift one end only enough to peek into the parking lot, searching for a suspicious vehicle.

Nothing.

Letting out a sigh, I walk to my couch and flop down. My eyes train on the ceiling.

The smartest thing would be to leave, but I can’t. I would only wind up coming back to get eyes on those papers my brother clearly didn’t want me to see.

For once, I want to know what the hell he’s up to.

9

ANTHONY

She looks scared.

Bailey’s gray eyes stare at me through my computer monitor. The video’s timestamp shows it was recorded only an hour ago, so Lorenzo didn’t waste any time sending it to me, two words attached to his message: interesting choice.

She peeks out her apartment window, searching the parking lot, before letting the curtain flutter back into place.

So, she stayed. Interesting choice, indeed.

I go to click off the video, readying myself to type an email back to Lorenzo, but let the cursor hover over the red ‘x.’ I rewind to the few moments she’s in view then hit pause.

I’ve tried not thinking about her since she left my apartment. Tried getting those soft lips out of my mind. Tried not worrying about who might be watching her. Last night, an Ambien and a bottle of gin almost helped me succeed.

Now, my brother has managed to ruin the little progress I’ve made. Now, it isn’t only my memory I have to ignore. It’s an image.

I click out of the video and exhale a deep breath, rubbing a hand over my forehead.

There’s little part of me that thinks my brother would hurt her, at least not without consulting me. My biggest worry isn’t what he’ll do, it’s what Settimo would do if he found out. Or the Irish or Russians.

They shouldn’t, though. Lorenzo is loyal to Settimo, but if he was going to say something he would’ve done so by now. This is the first time he’s even mentioned it to me.

As for the others… Bailey’s smart, she’ll stay low. It’ll only be about a month before no one would recognize or remember her.

A much more difficult feat will be forgetting her myself. I’ve already given in and curiously inspected her criminal history Lorenzo emailed me the day after I took her. She was true to her word. The investigation report claimed her partner, Robert Nunge, gave her up in exchange for a lighter sentence involving a different crime. She was suspected to have stolen eleven cars. They only got her for one. For some reason, that turns me the fuck on.

My cock stirs, as it has every night since she left. My work is the only saving grace I’ve had to distract me, and now even that has been breached.

My teeth clench, and I click on another email to read. After sending a response, I move on to the next and the next, until enough tension builds that I’m starting to sound like an asshole in my replies. This isn’t helping.

I glance down at my dick straining against my slacks.

Fuck it.

Pulling up the video, my muscles finally relax as a thank you for giving in. I hit play before loosening my belt enough for me to slip my hand inside my boxers.

The curtain pulls back, revealing Bailey’s fearful expression, and I groan with my hand around my cock, sinking into my office chair. When her image disappears, I slap a hand over the mouse and rewind, using my other hand to stroke.

I taste her lips on mine, smell her sweet, vanilla scent, feel her delicate, crafty hands pressed against my chest. My eyes close as my memory of her morphs into a fantasy, her lips lowering down my neck, my chest, abdomen, before she finally falls to her knees.

“Fuck,” I growl, gripping myself for a firmer stroke. Her hands replace mine in my head, and those sexy, plump lips spread. She looks up at me with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes before taking my cock into her mouth, swallowing me until I’m at the back of her throat. Her eyes close as she gags…

---