Feel the Reaper: Bad Boy Mafia Romance Novella (Book 1) (Bad Boy Mafia Romance Novella (A Crime Family Novella)) Read online

  Keeping in mind that I still have a job to do, I clear a vacant table of some beer bottles and wipe it down. The adjacent table is filled with a rowdy group of young professionals who are clearly up to no good. One of them is bragging to the others about a fight he got into last night. He details how he purposely spilled his drink on someone, then blamed them and challenged them to a brawl outside. Apparently he threw a karate kick into the guy’s head and knocked him unconscious. The others laugh and snort their approval, all while sucking down tequila like it’s going out of style.

  The storyteller – young, about twenty-four and wearing a casual sweater and jeans – looks my way to see if I’m listening, rather hoping that I am. As if I would be impressed by that. Losers. I’ll have to keep an eye on Mandy who’s serving them, and so far, holding her own. You have to put up with a lot in this position, especially with our ‘uniforms’ which show more than they cover. Thanks, Gino, for making our jobs harder.

  Luca is silently scanning the room, taking everything in without any apparent emotion. He leans back in his seat, his eyes shifting back and forth, with a commanding presence that is unlike anybody I’ve ever met. Forget Gino. Luca owns this place.

  Chapter 3

  Luca

  Abby. A beautiful name that fits her perfectly. When she first sauntered over to me, I thought my stiffy would poke through my pants. It was instantaneous, and I knew right then that I had to have her. It was full on raging by the time she left to go get my steak.

  Like a deer in the headlights, she stared down at me, not sure what to do. It was almost as if she forgot how to do her job. Yeah, she was into me. She isn’t just pretty, she’s fucking stunning. I’m not sure if she even knows what she’s doing to me. I’m sure Abby’s still trying to figure out what it is I’m doing to her.

  I should be thinking about getting the fuck out of town, but instead, I’m getting all caught up with a piece of pussy. There are some pissed off people, dangerous, too, who are looking for my ass right now, and they’ll string me up by the balls if they catch me. I’m dangerous, too. I’ll be waiting for them if it comes. Needing to see the whole room, I chose a seat in the back corner so that nobody can sneak up behind me. A nine-millimeter tucked into my jeans and a shank in my pocket, and the confidence that comes with a few Jacks, I say bring it, motherfuckers.

  One thing’s for sure, there’s no soldiers in here right now. Cardillo was in Tavollaci’s gang so the heat could be coming from there. Although, Tavollaci could be blaming my former associates, which means there could be an all-out mob war taking place right now, and all because I lifted a shitload of cash that clearly wasn’t mine.

  You take five G’s here and there and nobody is going to come down too hard. You take a million, though, the shit’s hitting the fan. There’s a bounty on my head right now, or my name’s not Luca Salvi. No way would a guy like Cardillo be in possession of that amount of cash for more than a few hours. Someone found his body by now, and they’ll be looking for me before too long.

  In one swallow, I slug the rest of my drink, and replace it in my hand with a fresh one. Nothing like a little Jack to calm the nerves and keep the senses on point.

  Abby’s heading my way now, that beautiful straight ginger hair falling into her eyes a bit, as she pushes it back behind her ear before stopping at the table and putting down the tray. “One steak well-done, mashed potatoes and a salad.” She places the plate in front of me as my stomach growls with delight.

  “Some steak sauce, darling… I mean Abby. A-1.” If she doesn’t move for that sauce now, I think I’ll pull her over the table and fuck her from behind right here and now. My cock thumps on my inner thigh with the very thought of entering her sweet pussy. I wonder if she’s ginger down there?

  “Sure.” She lingers for a minute as if she’s waiting for me to say something else before she shakes her way back to behind the bar and into the kitchen. I bite into the steak, its succulent juices filling my mouth, and imagine I just bit into her ripe ass. Damn, Luca. Eat your dinner, finish your drink, then hatch a plan to take her home.

  Chapter 4

  Abby

  The bar is in full hop right now, the buzz inaudible unless you get close in on someone’s conversation. Mandy looks like she could use a little help at table five with those hooligans who are starting to pull at her shirt. We have a hands-off policy here, and I look around for Robert, our bouncer, but he’s nowhere in sight. He must be carding people outside, so I walk over to help her out myself. “Hey, that’s enough, guys.”

  “You want some too, honey… you know you do,” and before I know it, I’m being grabbed around the waist and pulled into the booth. This is bad. Mandy is being groped and one guy has a hold of her arm now. I look desperately at Luca’s table and see it’s empty. Damn. I struggle against my assailant, but his grip is like a vice, and because this table is tucked around the corner from the bar, no one can see us.

  Just then a fist flies past my head so fast, it’s like a flesh-colored and tattoo blur. The iron grip is released from me as a smattering of blood plasters my face. An elbow flies past Mandy, and she, too, pulls free as the clatter of loose teeth hits the table and scatters over the floor.

  Luca is full-on brawling with four guys, and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. It feels like hitting slow-motion on my DVR, so that I can see every detail as he grabs a guy by the neck over the back of the booth, forces the weight of his upper body into the guy’s head as it slams, then bounces off, the hardwood floor.

  As the guy who initially grabbed me recovers, Luca yanks him up, pulls his shirt over his head, almost like in a hockey fight, and throws uppercut after uppercut. The guy’s head snaps back, and when Luca finally releases him, his unconscious body hits the edge of the table, and like a rag doll, drops to the floor. Luca is breathing hard and moving in on the fourth guy when Robert comes up behind him and grabs him.

  Luca swings his head back, blasting into Robert’s face and his nose just explodes. It looks like an ER in here with blood in spatters and little puddles on the floor, guys moaning, and other than the music in the background, it is deathly quiet.

  Although he is breathing hard, Luca stands there like a Greek God who has just brought his wrath down on the world, with not even a scratch on him. His fists clenching, he slowly surveys the scene and realizes his work is done. He calmly struts over to his table, takes out a wad of cash, throws it down, slams down the rest of his Jack, and then looks directly at me.

  Shaking like a leaf on a quaking Aspen, my hands up around my chest in a protective posture and my mouth wide open, I am vaguely aware of people starting to speak in low whispers. Perhaps most confusing to me is the fact that I was seriously and utterly turned on by it all. An unmistakable heat materializes between my legs, and I know I am witnessing the true Luca. He is in his element, and the fury of his fists, the bulging muscles, the sweat flying in every direction as he pummels these men, is manliness in its purest form.

  The throngs of onlookers are in utter shock, this whole place is in awe of what this one-man wrecking crew just did to those poor idiots who grabbed the wrong ladies on the wrong night. Robert would have grabbed those guys by the collar and hustled them out the door like I’ve seen him do a hundred times before.

  Luca destroyed them.

  I could feel his presence moving toward me as all eyes followed him to see what came next. He looked deep into my eyes, gently grabbed my hand, and said, “Come with me, Abby.” As if I had a choice, he leads me out, the crowd parting ways like Moses crossing the sea, until we are outside in the cool, early evening air.

  “Are you okay, Abby?” He licks his thumb, and wipes the blood off my cheek. His incredible touch, tender and sweet, electrifies my body as the energy flows freely between us. How could a guy go from a destructive, unstoppable force to such tenderness and care in a New York minute?

  “We should probably get out of here. The police will be here soon, and I don
’t need that headache right now.”

  “But you didn’t do anything wrong, Luca. You protected me. You protected Mandy.” He sighs, looks away, then back to me, his teeth clenching and moving his powerful jaw.

  “The cops and me don’t get along too well. We have a bit of a history.”

  “What kind of history?”

  He answers almost before I had the sentence out of my mouth. “You don’t want to know. Come with me.”

  I am torn. This captivating soul, both powerful and commanding tossed with a tenderness I can tell stays tucked behind his rugged exterior shield, is asking me to go with him. Where? To do what?

  The where is a mystery to me, but I’m pretty sure about the what. Somehow I trust him. Despite the trouble this man obviously gets into on a regular basis, I’m in no position to say no. Powerless to resist Luca, I take his outstretched hand and let him lead me to his waiting car that is just as racy and powerful as he is.

  Chapter 5

  Luca

  Those guys are lucky they didn’t meet their maker tonight. Real lucky. I felt her eyes on me, and for some reason, that was enough for me to stop the rage. I’ve never been able to do that. Once I get into that mode it’s lights out for good. Yet I stopped.

  Seeing that fucker wrapping his filthy hands around her was about all I could take before I fucking snapped and let my instincts take over. I’ve always had good fighting instincts. Like a warrior who never dies on a battlefield, I just know what to do. It’s not just the experience, though, as I’ve had plenty. It’s innate.

  I remember wrecking a guy named John Emory in my first real fight back in grade school. That poor fucker outweighed me by at least twenty-five pounds, which is a huge difference at that age. He came into me bobbing and weaving and I hit him with a right cross that sent him backwards and on his ass. I had no fucking idea what I was doing, and I remember going to detention with an ice pack on my fist, while he had one on his face.

  Enough about that shit. “So, you live close to here?”

  “Pretty close, you?”

  “No. I live in the Bronx around Gun Hill Road. Let’s go to your place and get you cleaned up.” My hand met her body just under her chin as I shifted her face toward me. The passing overhead street lights gave me enough illumination to see that she still had that fucker’s blood on her angelic face.

  God, I wanted to fuck her deep and hard. I would split her in two, and have her begging for more. She had curves in all the right places. The way she sways her ass when she walks, her supple breasts I want to take whole into my mouth, and those smooth legs that just keep going, are enough to drive any guy wild. I want to see her beautiful face and hear her moan in pure ecstasy as I drive into her, legs spread wide, taking me all in.

  I have to get her home first. She directs me to take a few rights, then a left, as I pull my car into a driveway beside a modest, two-story home. Like all of the houses here, they are old and large, extending back deep into the properties with very little yard on the sides.

  Grabbing the leather bag to take with me – it looks very much like a large overnight bag – I follow her through the front door and up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, noting the steps that squeak when I put my weight down. She had to use the key left under the flower pot as her other set is still back at the bar in her purse.

  After turning on the lights, I can see the furniture is mostly simply made and old, repainted different bright colors to give the pieces a fresh look, along with newly picked flowers, some throw rugs, and lots of plants.

  I toss my bag in the corner of the living room and go to the kitchen, grab a paper towel off the roll, wet it and walk back to where she’s still standing in the center of the living room.

  “Sit down.” Once she sits down on the couch, I wipe the towel over her soft, smooth skin, removing the last traces of dickhead’s blood that in a way defiles her innocence. I doubt she’s seen anything so fucked up as that, and what looks like a normal Thursday to me, must have looked like Armageddon to her.

  “There, all clean.” I toss the towel into a wastebasket next to the couch.

  “Thanks, Luca. For everything.” Her voice is soft, her words music to my ears.

  “Don’t mention it. You have anything to drink?”

  “I have some beers in the fridge,” she answers, motioning her head towards the other room, even though I’ve already found the kitchen.

  “You want one?”

  “No thanks. I’m going to take a shower and change. Make yourself comfortable.” With that she goes off to her bedroom and reappears thirty seconds later with a towel and a change of clothes.

  You’re not going to be needing those clothes, honey. Things are about to get steamy in here, and I’m not talking about the fucking shower.

  I make my way to the fridge, and all I find are some shitty beers in the back behind the milk. Coors fucking Light. Fuck, Abby. It’ll have to do.

  I pop the top and slug half the beer back before coming up for air. My throat is dry from kicking the shit out of those guys, and despite the watery taste, the coldness feels cool and soothing going down.

  The instant the shower goes on, my cock springs to life and nothing, I mean nothing, could hold it down. Even against my jeans, it feels like dental floss trying to hold back a raging bull. I picture her stripping down to reveal her nakedness, and stepping out of her undies. I know what’s about to go down can’t be stopped.

  I walk over to the bathroom door and open it fully, the hot steam hitting my face, the moisture collecting in the back of my throat. I can see her standing in all her naked glory just on the other side of a thin piece of vinyl, that’s sheer, letting in just enough light to create a silhouette of her absolutely perfect fucking body.

  She reaches down to wash her legs and I feel like I can burst right now, as my titanium steel-hardened cock fights against its restraints. Not yet, Luca. There’s still a show to watch and it’s about to be rated X. The fresh smell of girly lotions and soaps fill my nostrils, making me want her even more.

  Fuck. Her head tilts back, rinsing the shampoo out of her longish hair that stretches down to her middle back, pointing right down to her tight little ass. She shifts her weight, swinging her hips from one side to the other, and that subtle movement drives me fucking wild.

  Does she know I’m here? She could be putting on a show for me right now.

  She turns the water off, and then wrings her hair, before pulling back the curtain, gasping as our eyes meet. Just the sound of her surprised voice makes my hard-on rage up another notch, if it’s even possible. She quickly covers her breasts with one hand and grabs the towel with the other, covering her pussy from my prying eyes.

  It’s too late, honey. I’ve already seen all I need to know that you are mine now. You will always be mine.

  "If you just give me a minute to get dressed, I’ll have a beer with you.” Her nervous eyes are studying the floor tiles as she speaks, then rises to meet mine at the end of her sentence.

  I don’t think you get it, Abby. What’s about to happen is a foregone conclusion. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

  I say nothing. Leaning against the doorjamb now, I drain my shitty beer in one gulp, and place the empty bottle down on the cabinet next to me.

  The steam is dissipating now, framing her in a heavenly mist, little water droplets still forming on her shoulders from her dripping hair. Ginger and sweet, you can tell a pretty girl when her hair is wet down as there’s nothing but her eyes, her face, her smile, and those pouty lips she is now biting due to nervousness, excitement, or maybe both.

  I wanted to rip that towel off her and fuck her from behind right over the sink. But I won’t. I want to enjoy and savor every bit of this moment, as it could be our last. I’m on the lam now. No time to stop too long anywhere, certainly not for some pussy.

  She does her best to wrap the towel around her without revealing any more skin, but she
fails miserably while turning to pick up her clothes. She reveals her naked hip and the side of her left breast, and with that I move in for the kill.

  Coming up behind her, my hands cup her shoulders, and she shudders at my touch. I let her feel my hardness behind her, and if she didn’t know it already, she knows now that I’m all business. I push her hair to one side, revealing her soft white, slender neck as I bury my lips and tongue into it where it meets her shoulders.

  She moans softly, letting me know that she wants this just as much as I do. My left hand traces her shoulder down to her upper back, then I walk my fingers down to her side, tracing the most incredible curve on any woman’s body, lightly gripping her hip.

  Her face turns to meet mine, her mouth slightly open revealing her warm, wet tongue as she waits to receive me. When our lips meet, we instantly devour each other, our tongues dancing and darting about, desperately trying to find the next point of pleasure.

  She breathes into me, her breaths short and quick, her heart pumping rapidly, as I move my right hand to her breasts, fingering her hard nipples, as the towel drops to the floor. Her moaning urges me on as my hand finds her inner thigh, pulling her into my hardness now centered in the small of her back.

  I guide her down to the floor, and in one motion place her on her back. I take my shirt off and toss it over my shoulders, then strip my pants off, step out of them, and kick them somewhere behind me. Her eyes widen as they take in all of me. I want her to see the beast that is about to devour her whole.

  “Oh fuck, Abby, you’re beautiful.” I’m on her like a wolf on a kill, kissing her neck, and scooping with a free hand up into her now very wet pussy. My lips go to a rigid nipple, pointing skyward, swirling it with my tongue until she moans and pulls at her other nipple with her shaking fingers.