Taken (Dark Desires 1)

It was enough to make me sick.

Silvio was doing better – he’d only been in the hospital for a few hours, and now he was out and hobbling around like nothing had happened. He’d been trying to cheer me up all afternoon, but nothing he could say was going to make me feel any better.

Finally, he slammed his fist down on the table and yelled my name.

“What?” I looked up. “What the fuck is it, Sil? What the fuck do you want?”

“Alessio, you can’t keep moping around like some goddamned teenager,” Silvio spat. “You gotta cheer yourself up. Look, I’m throwin’ a party tonight down at the docks. Hookers and booze and the best goddamn cigars outside of Cuba. You’d better be there.”

I rolled my eyes. “I ain’t a kid,” I snapped. “Fucking some hooker isn’t gonna cheer me up, and I think you fucking know that.”

Silvio threw his arms in the air. “I ain’t taking your bullshit,” he snapped. “Come on, Alessio.”

An hour later, Sil and I were down by the docks. I’d greased the tracking anklet off my ankle, and I was happy to pour champagne down my throat and grab at titties like a little kid. Hookers were hopping around in skimpy little outfits. I picked one that looked like Cosetta and pulled her in a back room.

“Hey, Cosetta,” I said, lying down on the bed. “Why not suck me off for a while, eh?”

The girl pouted. She had long dark hair and big eyes, but there was something soulless in the way she smiled.

“My name is Nicole,” she said stiffly. “You make a habit of talking to women like that?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care if your name is Thomas,” I snapped. “Get down there!”

Nicole crawled on the bed. She unfastened her purple silk bra and let her large breasts swing in the air. Her brown nipples were stiff and dark, and I longed to take them into my mouth and suck until she was screaming with pleasure. Nicole locked eyes with me and slid a hand down her body, toying with herself and moaning a little as her fingers slid inside of her panties. My cock stiffened inside of my trousers as Nicole tugged her panties down, revealing a shaving pussy dripping with wetness.

“Come here,” I growled. Nicole tumbled into my arms and I closed my eyes as her warm mouth began kissing a slow trail down my body. Just as things were getting really good, the door burst open. Nicole screamed and leapt away from my body, pulling the sheet around her tits like she was a real good girl, not some hooker that Silvio hired to make me feel better.

Silvio was standing there, breathing hard.

“Sil, what the fuck?” I exclaimed, sitting up in bed and glaring. “I was just starting to relax, too! God fucking damnit!”

Silvio reached for Nicole and grabbed her by the arm, tossing her out of the room. She cried out in pain as Silvio kicked her over the threshold, then slammed the door.

“What the fuck?” I demanded loudly. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Silvio shook his head. “Things are bad, boss,” he said. “There’s this nosy little bitch trying

to ruin us all. I had my men chase her down twice, but she ain’t showing no sign of slowing down.”

I glared at him. “And what the fuck do you want me to do about that?”

“Fucking show her that we mean goddamned business,” Silvio said.

“Who is she?” I narrowed my eyes. “You know there ain’t no woman strong enough to stand up to me and the family.”

“Beth Wilson,” Silvio said. “Michael Bennett’s fiancée.”

Beth

When I came to, I was shaking and cold. My eyes were so swollen that I could barely open them, but despite the brutal beating I’d endured, I was feeling better than I could have expected. I climbed up on unsteady feet and walked out of the alley, brushing myself off.

There was no one following me, but somehow I knew that it would be a bad idea for me to go into the police station looked as abused as I did. I knew that more likely than not, I would get peppered and assaulted with questions about who had hurt me – and if anything, that might make the cops and detectives even less likely to help me find Michael’s killer.

I’d had a gut feeling when I’d talked to Douglas, and now that thugs were following me and trying to threaten me into silence, I felt even worse. I knew that the Amoruso crime family had something to do with Michael’s death – more than just something – but I had no idea how I was supposed to catch them in the act.

I wound up going to a diner and buying a paper. I ignored the headlines – Michael’s death hadn’t yet made the papers, and I had a feeling that Douglas was purposefully orchestrating the coverage about his son. With Douglas’s influence and money, it would be weeks before the public found out what happened. But I had a feeling that skimming the paper would help at least point me in the right direction. And after all, that’s all I was trying to do. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the Amorusos, and the diner was a perfectly public place to do so.

An older waitress stopped by, grey-haired and puffy in the face. She didn’t even look at my wounds as she took my order, and I thanked god for the ability to blend in so well in public. Finally, when I was alone, I opened the paper to the crime briefs of the day.