Page 5 of Royally Embraced: RBMC

Shit.

Now he could pull his gun and start shooting those against the wall he considered the biggest threat or off Grigori first. Or he could take himself out and save the fuckers the time and effort. Dammit, he hated being off-kilter.

TORI SENT A PRAYERheavenward when the men moved away from the bar. She ignored the sexy man’s order, having no intention of going anywhere, especially to a backroom and hiding. For one, if the Mafia men started shooting, they’d search for any witnesses, including her, no matter where she was in the building. For two, she preferred being aware of danger and facing it head-on. Sometimes, running toward danger is the only way to truly find yourself. For the past four years, one of the biggest lessons she’d learned was you had to believe in yourself, even when the world tells you otherwise. So, while scared shitless knowing there were a dozen armed men like those she’d grown up around, ready to kill one another, Tori would rather watch it go down than be in a dark room, cowering like a scared little rabbit.

Ugh, the melodrama running through her mind made her hate the Mafia more than ever, and that said a lot. Hopefully, she’d survive the evening along with the two sexy as fuck men who might be bad guys, and then she could start freshsomewhere else. Maybe Hawaii? She always wanted to visit the islands where she only had to worry about what bikini to wear.

Her breath froze in her throat the moment she heard the name Masseria. The gorgeous man’s fiancée ran off with someone who had the same last name as her, which sure could be coincidental, but she knew it wasn’t. The Masseria name wasn’t common. In fact, they were Sicilian and considered a form of royalty.

Blood pounded in her ears. Her hands trembled. Fear she’d fought to overcome tried to push past her defenses. This scared girl wasn’t who she wanted to be. Tori squatted down behind the bar, knowing Cian and the others could see her and the others through the surveillance cameras. Part of her didn’t care if she fell apart, and they saw. The other refused to give in.

“I’m stronger than that,” she whispered, fisting her hands on her bent thighs.

A lump of emotion she refused to name formed in her throat, threatening to grow thicker with each passing second. Her eyelids drifted closed on memories of her stumbling upon her mother’s lifeless body. She was only a child and shouldn’t have been at the party, yet her stepfather demanded she be in attendance. He maintained his reasoning was to keep her safe, but he couldn’t even protect his wife. What a liar.

The dark abyss would swallow her if she didn’t concentrate on reality. Hearing one name triggered her, making her ashamed. Dammit, she was better than that. She needed to be tough, and Tori was tough.

The tinkle of the bell above the door jarred her from her thoughts. It was the mighty pull she needed.

Without any finesse, she pushed to her feet, sighing at the sight of her boss. If she were smart, she’d use his entrance as a distraction and exit through the door he’d just entered through,get into her vehicle, and head out of town as fast and far as she could.

“Gentlemen, how’re you doing this evening?” Cian asked as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Tori shifted on the balls of her feet, exhaling a low breath. Cian and two other men entered the bar with an air of authority she recognized. The jilted man, named Kendrick, looked over his shoulder and lifted his glass. Although handsome and exuding danger, the other man appealed to her. Which meant she was losing her ever-loving mind, because he exuded a bad boy's energy and sex appeal that was way out of her league. She had no business thinking about a man like him.

“Good to see you, Cian. Sorry, I didn’t call to let you know I was coming down for a drink.”

There were similarities between the men she hadn’t seen before. Of course, Cian hadn’t been in the same room with Mafia members and her at the same time. No, it was more than that. She hadn’t wanted to see it. Ugh, that wasn’t it. The Hoolihan’s were good people who’d been nothing but kind to her. Her resolve set, and she planned to stick to it.

All she had to do was live through the fucking night and get the hell out of Chicago. Maybe she could catch the first flight in the morning to a really cold place. Not that the Masseria family was averse to cold weather, but they preferred places like Colorado or New York with all the glitz and glamour their money could buy. She would steer clear of areas that catered to the rich. Places with cool bars like Hoolihan’s obviously got marked off the list. The thought was totally absurd, but so was the situation. At any moment, she could picture the guys pulling out their guns like in an old western or an Al Pacino movie.Say hello to my little friendreverberated in her mind.

Tori bit her lip to avoid making a sound and bringing attention to herself. Unlike the other men, Cian wore expensivedenim jeans and a polo shirt that hugged his upper body, showing off his muscular chest and arms. She’d always admired his physique and thought he and his wife had made a gorgeous couple. The other two men with him wore dark jeans with button-down shirts over fitted T-shirts tucked in. Like Cian, they all had a similar build. Any other time, she’d have admired how the fabric molded to the well-defined pecs of their muscular frames. Instead, she watched them walk purposefully without looking in her direction.

Watching their movements, she noticed Cian’s arms were slightly red. They must’ve been in too big a hurry to get to the bar to grab coats on their way out the door. She couldn’t help but take a tiny bit of pleasure at their predicament, silently hoping their man nipples were cold on the drive over.

“No worries, Kendrick. You know you’re always welcome here,” Cian said, emphasizing the wordsyouandyou’re, eyeing the group with a smirk.

Tori thought she heard someone curse, but silence followed Cian’s statement for a long moment. Several men seemed to find the floor or a spot on the high ceiling fascinating, as if they wouldn’t get involved. Typical bullshit behavior she’d witnessed more times than she could count.

Chapter Three

The undercurrents that flowed between the men Jeter wasn’t privy to, but he trusted his brother to let him know if shit was going south. He’d escaped the life his brother and the others in his family thrived within, except he didn’t become some average man working his way up the corporate ladder. Hell, Jeter didn’t know shit about corporate businesses other than what he’d seen through his family’s dealings.

It was common knowledge that he’d been born as an afterthought, sort of like a spare. If something happened to Kendrick, they’d expected him to step up to the plate. Until then, they’d considered him useless, taking up space and his brother’s time. That life became pointless to him the older he became. At one time, his mother loved him, but then her focus shifted to her charities and shit. He thought of the last time his mother looked at him with anything other than disdain. They’d had breakfast together like normal, and all was great. Later that afternoon, she’d found him with a maid in the pool house. He’d been sixteen while the woman had been in her late twenties. She’d walked in on him while he was getting dressed. He’d dropped the towel he’d tried to cover his dick with. Jeter remembered the way she’d come up to him and palmed his balls in one hand while slipping to her knees. Easy pussy wasn’t new to him, but she’d shown him what an older woman could do with knowledge. The challenge of shoving his entire length down her throat was the woman’s idea, but his mother walking in didn’t see it that way. He’d been too close to coming and hadn’t seen or heard her enter. His entire focus narrowed to spilling his come down the maid’s throat. While his mom screamed at him, thewoman licked her lips and his cock like she enjoyed putting on a show.

He shook his head, clearing his mind of the past. Their father didn’t give a shit if Jeter fucked every female he came across. Of course, he didn’t practice fidelity with his wife. Which made his mother hate the thought of sex, and seeing Jeter doing something she considered disgusting, she’d hated him from that moment on.

For a brief period, he’d hoped he and his father would become closer after the pool house scene. They’d had a meeting per his mother’s order where he’d given Jeter instructions on the dos and don’ts of sex. Basically, his father said he could fuck whoever he wanted as long as his mother didn’t see or hear about it.

“You see, boy, as long as your mother doesn’t know, she’s happy. I give her money, so she can go shopping and spend the days doing female shit with her friends without me batting an eye. She’s a frigid bitch, but if I want to fuck her, she’ll do like all the good bitches are to do and spread her thighs for me. I’ve taught her how I like it, so I’m not disappointed during those times, but again, I like variety. As your mother knows and prefers that I take care of my baser needs elsewhere.”

“You mean she’s fine with you sleeping with others?”he’d asked innocently.

His father tipped his head back and laughed.“Boy, I don’t sleep with anyone other than your mother. I get fucked and sucked by many, but I know where my loyalty lies. You’d be smart to remember that.”

After that talk, he’d screwed a lot of women. Many of whom his father sent to him. Those in their circle thought he had a charmed life growing up. The fancy cars, expensive clothes, and all the latest gadgets at his fingertips made him the envy of his peers. Jeter liked the first fifteen to sixteen years of his life,taking what had been offered to him on a silver platter as his due. There’d been no shortage of friends and girls wanting to fuck him, and he’d liked it a lot. Until he’d overheard his father talking about the waste of space, his second son had proved to be. Jeter had looked at himself through the lens of those around him. Yeah, he had everything a teen could want, but most nights, he’d been alone in the huge mansion they’d called home. His father had taken his older brother on trips and to important meetings. Hell, they didn’t trust Jeter to drive their mother to the mall. At seventeen, he’d wondered, not for the first time, what he would do with his life.

When he’d been a teen, Chicago was stifling. His family didn’t give two-shits if he’d lived or died. Knowing he didn’t stand a chance of survival on his own, Jeter did the only thing he could think that would get him a one-way ticket out of the Calderone Family. He enlisted in the Navy. It was the best fucking decision, swapping one type of family for a brotherhood. Now, staring at the men gathered around, Jeter wished his MC were with him. King would’ve pulled up a chair at the opposite end of the table. His presence would’ve made the fucker so damn uncomfortable the old bastard would’ve either pulled his gun out, wet his pants, or had one of his guys try something stupid.

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