“Well, Uncle, and you?” I enquire, not giving a shit but it’s expected.
“Good, my boy, very good. Your mama is doing an excellent job of keeping us all fed, aren’t you, Maria?” My teeth clench so hard I swear one of my molars cracks. I hate that my uncle visits Mama’s restaurant so fucking often. I’ve tried so fucking hard to keep us away from mafia life. After my dad was murdered because of the Family, I wanted nothing to do with it.
“I try, Alfonso,” I hear her answer softly, and the sound of her voice helps to calm me, even as my heart thuds at how much danger she’s in with my uncle and his men so close. “Though you are determined to eat me out of house and home.” She laughs, and it’s the sound I remember from my childhood when Papa used to tease her.
“You are a good woman,” my uncle replies, and I don’t miss the softness in his tone. I swear he’s been after my mama to marry him ever since Papa, his fucking brother, died, but she has always said that her heart belonged to Papa and that’s the end of it. Still makes my hackles rise listening to him try though. “So, any news on our little mouse?”
The hair lifts on the back of my neck at the mention of Aspen. I don’t like the way he refers to her as a mouse. It makes it sound like she’s something to be trapped and caged, and I think she has enough of that with her home life. There’s damage in her eyes that I wonder is due to more than just being starved regularly. Taking a deep breath before that train of thought can lead me down the path of rage, I take a moment before answering him.
“We think that the Ambassador has been running dog fights and has an in with the pound,” I tell him in a measured tone, waiting to see how he reacts.
“Go on,” he murmurs in a low voice that has the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
“It seems that Wallace, the assistant manager there, has been providing stock and they want something of a better calibre than what he’s been giving them,” I add, my body tensing as my blood boils at the mere thought of that fucking weasel.
“Hmmmm,” my uncle muses aloud, and I hate that I don’t know what he’s thinking. “You need to find out when and where the next fight is taking place. Offer up that mutt of yours, he looks like he’d provide enough of a challenge to get you in.”
My previously boiling blood freezes, turning to ice in my veins as he mentions Bolt. He’s been with us since he was an abandoned pup, left behind when someone moved away, tied up to a tree with just a bowl of water and just as much anger at the world as us.
“I won’t offer up Bolt to be slaughtered,” I grit out, my body shaking as I race through options in my mind. It’s never good to disagree with my uncle.
“Oh, you won’t?” His voice is deadly calm, and my stomach clenches at the threat in there. “Need I remind you what you owe me, Landon? A life. I can easily arrange for you to pay that and join my men, like your father, if that’s a better option?”
My throat bobs as I swallow hard. There was a price to be paid for getting Blaine away from his dad. I owe a life for the one they took, but if I kill someone for them, in front of them, I’m a made man, and joining the mafia is a life sentence with no way out. I don’t want to be a fucking criminal for the rest of my life, always looking over my shoulder, my family and friends always at risk.
“I’ll sort it,” I murmur, the words burning as they leave my throat.
“Excellent. I knew I could rely on you, Landon.” His voice is back to the jovial man who called me. It’s always been this way, anger him and he’s like an icicle, but agree to his demands and he’s the doting uncle once more. “Keep me updated.”
The line goes dead and I can’t move for a moment.
How the fuck am I going to tell the others about this? That we have to use Bolt as bait? That he may have to fight—and possibly die—for my uncle’s cause?
* * *
“Counting Stars” by OneRepublic
ASPEN
I’m wrecked by the time Blaine finishes our workout session, my muscles tired and twitching, but I feel good, and not just from the incredible sex that we started our session with. He’s an amazing trainer, knowing when to push me and when to give me breaks, and I did so much more than I ever thought I was capable of.
“You did well today,mi princesa,” he says as I flop down on the mat, panting and covered in sweat. “Let’s do some stretching while you’re warmed up, then you need to have a hot bath to relax all the muscles you built.”
He ignores my groan, grabbing my leg and getting me in a position, my foot against his shoulder to stretch it out.
“My parents are away all week,” I tell him before we start on the next leg. He pauses, looking at me with those deep-brown eyes that feel like home. “Until Saturday or Sunday, I think.”
“And what were you thinking to do while they are gone, beautiful? We have a session booked every day which you will not be missing,” he tells me with a smirk, getting me to push against him until my thighs burn.
“I didn’t mean that,” I puff out as he pushes against my leg, making the stretch go deeper. “Fuck, Blaine!”
“I prefer to hear you say that when I’m inside you,mi tesoro.” He chuckles, releasing my leg, and I just flop against the mat, chest heaving, face flaming. “Drink some water.”
Sitting up with a groan, I take the bottle he hands me and have a long drink, the cool liquid refreshing. “Happy?” I ask, my brows raised.
“I will not hesitate to put you over my knee if you start behaving like a brat,” he casually tells me, my eyes going wide even as my thighs clench together at the sudden pulse between them. Would I be into that? “Or maybe I’ll tell Lan you need some correction, he’s the master of doling out punishment.”
I barely hear the end of his sentence, the wordcorrectiontightening my chest, my body curling in on itself as I struggle to breathe. The gym no longer surrounds me, just a long corridor with a nondescript door at the end that’s full of all my nightmares.