Page 123 of Not Mine to Keep

As I tested another inch inside her, my hand at her breast went to the column of her throat, and I lightly gripped. “You’re fuck-tight, sweetheart,” I said against her mouth. “Yeah, you’re right, this can’t happen here. You’re going to scream—in a good way—when I fuck you there.”

“Guess I’ll need the belt again.” She lifted her brows, and we were seemingly both oblivious to time, space, and life outside of right now.

I removed my finger from my woman’s tight hole, and I could feel her ass cheeks unclench.

“We need to get free of Mom’s house arrest and fast.” I grabbed the loofah and squirted soap on it before lathering her up.

Nothing better than making her dirty, only to clean her up myself after. I couldn’t wait to spend my entire life doing exactly this.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Alessandro

“I know you’ve been looking for a reason to hit me for a long time, so go ahead. Do it.”

Not the words I’d expected to hear from Gabriel as Calliope and I rounded the corner into the living room. Seeing Gabriel shoved against the wall, Constantine’s hand on his chest, pinning him there, had me letting go of my wife.

“What in the hell is going on?” I hurried by my father, who was wordlessly observing the scene alongside Izzy without trying to intervene. “Constantine, let him go.” Wrapping my hand over my brother’s shoulder, I urged him to back off, but he didn’t budge.

“Tell him what you just told me.” My brother didn’t usually become unhinged so easily, so what in God’s name had Gabriel said? He lifted his hand from Gabriel’s chest, so I let go of his shoulder, then he faced Dad and Izzy. “Why didn’t you tell us what happened?”

Gabriel shot me his signature look—it was hisI fucked upone.

“Someone needs to tell me what’s going on.” I turned to the side, hands settling on my hips just over the hem of my clean T-shirt I’d thrown on after the shower. Izzy motioned my wife over to her, anddamn it all to hell, I also knew that look in Calliope’s eyes, too. “What is it?”

“There’s nothing to worry about, and it was something I didn’t feel you needed to know unless your wife wanted to tell you.” Dad took the reins and also took me to the edge of frustration at being in the dark about something related to Calliope. “You’ve been through a lot. I wanted to focus on having my boys back. And Gabriel’s here to share good news. Not sure why in God’s name he decided to share with Constantine his original plan.”

“The original plan for what?” Patience was no longer a virtue or a fucking anything right now.

“Armani dying,” Calliope whispered. “I was going to help kill him while you were ... well, gone.” I clocked the nervous movement in her throat. The hard swallow. Replayed her words to ensure I’d heard them correctly. Couldn’t be possible, though.

I left Gabriel to get to my wife. And yeah, no one was going to save her from me right now. I was about to toss her over my shoulder, then take her over my knee, dammit. What had she been thinking?

“Come again?” was all I could get from my mouth that didn’t involve swear words.

Calliope turned her attention to Gabriel, who was hanging back by the wall, then reached for my wrist. She’d feel my pulse flying if she held me a bit tighter. “While you were missing, Armani and Marcello decided to fly to the US to take me back to Italy.” She lightly shook her head. “Sorry, you know that.”

And I knew both my wife and father had been arrested for the sake of appearances while I’d been detained.

Then there was the fact Armani ensured Marcello never again saw the light of day and was shanked by someone that first night in custody.

Considering Marcello had been working with the crooked guard and the Espositos to send those men to kill her in the park in Nashville that day, I’d been more than happy the man was gone. I was only upset it hadn’t been by my hand.

I was also very familiar with the surprising bit of truth that once Armani was back in Italy, he not only sacrificed himself for Calliope but also for Gabriel. Armani exchanged Gabriel’s freedom for whatever additional intel he could offer to help bring down the rest of the Barone organization. Leo had been freed, too, not that Armani knew that part.

Dad’s plan had worked, though. Perfectly, in fact. I owed him so damn much. But right now what I wanted to know was the one thing I apparently had been in the dark about.

“It’s not her fault,” Gabriel said, stealing my focus. “I asked Calliope to piss off Marcello in the hope that we could get him to try and kill her. Then with any luck, Armani would take the bullet for her. We could pin Armani’s death on Marcello.” He lifted his palms in surrender. “It sounds insane now that I say it. I had AISE on my ass, and I never should’ve suggested something that crazy. Had your father told me he had a plan already in motion, I never would’ve made the suggestion. Of course, your father would’ve shut down my idea anyway.”

I looked at my wife’s hold of my wrist, trying to wrap my head around what the hell Gabriel just said. Place my wife in danger and also make her complicit in murdering her own father? Did he really ...?

I understood why Constantine had snapped, because I was going to do a lot more than kill Gabriel.

I freed myself of her touch and cut across the room to my target. I fisted Gabriel’s shirt and pinned him to the wall. He didn’t resist or react. He knew it was coming. And it was like he wanted it.

“I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes, and the break in his voice managed to halt me from losing control. “I had to tell you because I keep making mistakes, and that had to be one of my worst ones.”

“What’s going on?” Now my mom had joined the party. Perfect.

---