Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

“No, not really. But he’s good at fixing things.”

“Leo Loprinzi?” Italo asked. “Yeah, fixing things dead.”

The guys all laughed and I looked around at them with frustration. Nobody was taking me seriously and I was beginning to get really pissed off. I didn’t want them to give them the pleasure of seeing that, though.

Unfortunately, between the frustration, the fear, the complete helplessness I felt without my car, phone and money - I was starting to lose my shit.

Instead of blowing up in front of them, I turned on my heel and left them all laughing behind me.

Fuck them, I thought. Let them laugh.

As far as I saw it, there was only one way out of this, and it was up to me to convince Dante that I was right.

Bella

“Look, Mr. Loprinzi, I’m telling you the truth,” I repeated for the tenth time. “I don’t know where Gabby is.”

Leo Loprinzi and one of his goons towered over me as I sat on the couch in my apartment. They’d shown up at the crack of dawn, bulldozing their way in and scaring the shit out of me while I slept. They chased out the guy I’d met at the bar last night and now I was sitting here in nothing but an oversized t-shirt and boy shorts, feeling completely exposed in front of them.

I’d met Gabby’s dad a million times and every single time he intimidated the fuck out of me completely. Today was no different. My legs were shaking with nerves, my knees knocking together.

“You’re my daughter’s best friend, Bella. I can’t believe you don’t know anything about this,” his voice bellowed through our small apartment, his eyes peering into mine like he could see through my soul.

“But I don’t!” I protested, goosebumps rising on my flesh. “And to be honest, I’m pissed at her, Mr. Loprinzi. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me she was going to Otto’s. In fact, I can’t believe she went without me! If I would have gone with her, none of this would have happened.”

“You been there before, Bella?” he asked, sitting on the couch with me.

“Once,” I replied, hesitatingly. “Please don’t tell my parents.” My parents would kill me and insist on me moving back home if they knew I was going places like Otto’s.

“I won’t, I promise. Tell me about it. Why would girls like you and Gabby go to such a place?”

I looked away, biting my lip, remembering all the bragging I’d done to Gabby. I felt like such an asshole. I’d told her I’d met a cool guy there, and he’d taken me home and fucked me all night, and that it was absolutely wonderful.

But that wasn’t the truth. The truth was, it wasn’t so wonderful at all. I’d met a biker there, all right. And yeah, he was hot enough. But he’d taken me back to his clubhouse and fucked me quickly and roughly in the bathroom, leaving me sore and very unsatisfied.

Afterward, he made a joke about passing me around and sharing me with the rest of the Iron Godz, but I’d managed to convince him to take me back to my car.

I was lucky I got out of there alive, but I didn’t want to admit it to anyone.

I wished like hell I’d told Gabby the truth. It was obvious to me that she’d gone there because of what I’d told her. I don’t even know why I’d lied. I was so ashamed, and I just wanted to pretend it wasn’t as bad as it was, I guess.

And now, she’d been fucking kidnapped by a biker or something and murdered someone! How could this be real?

I couldn’t believe any of it was true.

It was all my fault.

It was time to come clean.

“It’s all my fault, Mr. Loprinzi. I went to Otto’s two weeks ago…”

Dante

“Okay, I’m listening, Gabby. How do you think your father can help us?” I was ready to listen to anything at this point. I was frustrated that I wasn’t coming up with a plan out of this mess. All my time on the street, all my military training, all my bravado and confidence that I’d built up over the years - nothing had prepared me for having the cops, the mob, and one of the most dangerous outlaw clubs on the East Coast looking for me all at the same time.

I had no idea which direction to go. And it was pissing me off.

To be honest, so was Gabby’s repeated insistence that her father could help us. She might not realize it, but I was pretty fucking sure a mob boss wasn’t going to just let me off easy for getting his daughter into this mess, for getting his prized possession slapped with a murder charge.

It didn’t matter that I’d saved her life. I’d sure fucked her, not to mention fucked up her life. And that would be enough right there for him to have my face ripped off by one of his guys, if he didn’t do it himself.

Because this was personal.

And I knew what that meant.

Loprinzi and the Iron Godz would stop at nothing to get revenge. I could deliver Gabby to Loprinzi’s door safe and in one piece and I’d still have to pay for what I’d done to his family.

That was just the way shit went down in Queens.

I wasn’t disillusioned with the idea of things just ‘magically working out’. Nothing was going work out without a whole lot of violence involved.

For fuck’s sake, I’d seen it up close and personal.

“I don’t know, but he will,” she insisted, finally. “He’ll listen to reason. He won’t hurt you.”

“Gabby. We both know better.”

“We do, huh?” she asked.

“We’ve both seen it before, with our own eyes,” I said, interrupting her, unable to keep it to myself any longer, to keep my secret, our shared past, to myself.

“What?” she asked, her eyes slamming into mine. “What are you talking about? When?”

“A very long time ago. At the 101st Street block party. You were young.”

“I don’t know what you mean…” she shook her head, her eyes squinting questioningly.

“I’ve always wondered if you remembered. It was so long ago, but I never forgot. Not for a second. We were in the back of the tent. You were looking inside, I guess you were lost or something. You would have gotten shot, if I hadn’t pulled you away…”

“You? That was you?!” she exclaimed, her lips parting in surprise.

“Yeah. That was me,” I confessed. It felt good to tell her, now that I realized who she was.

“I’ve never told a soul about that,” she whispered, looking at me with awe, shaking her head.

“Neither have I,” I replied, looking into her eyes, sighing. “You were so little. You must’ve seen some shit over the years.” I reached up and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, caressing her cheek with my palm. I felt bad for her. She hadn’t meant to end up in this shit, and yet here she was.

Born into it.

She lifted her chin, sensing that I was feeling sorry for her.

“I’ve actually been very protected. What I witnessed…what we witnessed…was rare. But, I guess this means I owe you for saving my life twice now,” she said, smiling up at me, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’ve been wanting to thank you for that for years, Dante. You saved my life. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

“Three times, actually,” I said, grinning at her, the urge to kiss her overwhelming me suddenly.

“Three?” she asked.

“Yeah. You forgot the Bear attack last night,” I quipped. She laughed, her shoulders relaxing finally, the stress disappearing for a moment from her beautiful face.

“So I did…” she said, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me firmly. “Well, then thank you three times. You keep this up and I going to be in debt to you forever.”

“We’ll have to work out some sort of trade,” I teased, pulling her close, my lips falling on hers, my mind swimming with all kinds of ideas of how she could pay me back.

Lauren

“I’m Lauren O’Roarke from Channel Eight News,” I said to the bartender, as I slid my card across the bar to him. He picked it up, staring at it blankly.

“Can’t help you,” he