Page 24 of Providence

I nodded, slipping his shirt over my head. I bent down and kissed his lips softly. “I could never pity a man who just fucked me so hard I forgot my name.”

The grin that crossed his face was pure male satisfaction, and I briefly wanted to say screw it and climb back on his lap. Curiosity kept me from doing so.

I slipped out of the room, climbing the stairs on silent feet. I ducked my head into the nursery, my eyes falling on Goliath sitting in the rocking chair in the corner, guarding Madoc for me. His eyes popped open, and I smiled softly at him. “Thank you,” I mouthed. He just shrugged and closed his eyes again. Such a fucking enigma that one. I thought he was thawing toward me but ever since I’d asked him on a date, he’d thrown all his walls back up again. I sighed and moved further down the hall to Solomon’s room.

I crept inside, pausing beside the bed. God, he looked so beautiful when he slept. I laid a soft kiss on his lips, and he moaned. His arms snaked around my body and he pulled me onto his chest.

“Mmm, Dippy. I thought you were spending the night in Killer’s bed?”

I nodded against his chest. “I am. I just need you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are we skipping straight to threesomes? I’m down, but I didn’t think your boy was the sharing's caring type.”

I laughed, slapping his shoulder. “No, I need your ASL skills. Just for tonight, I promise.”

Solomon sighed, standing up gloriously naked. He slipped on a pair of sweats that did nothing to hide the huge boner he was sporting. He followed me back downstairs and into the guest room we’d accidentally sullied.

He grinned at the other man. “It smells like a fucking brothel in here. Well done, Killer.”

Marco shot him the middle finger, but he had a cocky ass look on his face. He’d gotten up and put on a pair of soft workout shorts. My eyes ping ponged briefly between Solomon and Marco. Maybe Sol’s idea of a threesome wasn’t a bad one after all? Surely the talking could wait, right?

Sol was looking at me, heat burning in them. “Ah, you better start talking, Marco, because our girl is starting to look at us like she wants double pepperoni on her pizza, you know what I’m saying?”

I gave him an eyebrow wiggle, but Marco let out a short, sharp whistle.

If you two could stop eye-fucking for a second,he signed, but he was grinning so I knew he wasn’t mad.Sera wants to know how I lost my voice.

“Well, that’s not sexy at all.” Solomon sat on the bed, patting the space between the two of them. “Lay down, Dippy. I don’t think this is going to be one of those Disney fairytales. Pretty sure this is going to be straight up Grimm-style.”

I climbed on the bed between them, curving my body into Solomon’s, but my focus was completely on Marco.

He began to sign, and although I caught every second or third word, I let Sol’s voice wash over me.

“I don’t know. It starts with an evil queen, so maybe it's a bit more Disney than you think. My mother sold me to her cousin Lorenzo for crack when I was six. Lorenzo was a gangster. Sure, the mob was in the family, but there is a certain honor in the mob. Lorenzo lacked even a little bit of honor. He was a thug and a thief. My great-grandfather had kicked him out of the Family years earlier because the fucker was unhinged. A liability. The obvious person you’d sell your six year old to.”

I bit my lip, but I stayed silent. Solomon pressed closer into my back but he didn’t interrupt.

“I was basically a pet. Fed scraps from the table. Kicked around. Made to fetch whatever Lorenzo wanted. Sometimes I’d do runs for him, sell drugs on corners, because no one looks at a half-starved kid with floppy brown hair and eyes too big for his face.” Marco’s fingers stilled, and he sighed. It was the kind of sigh where you were wondering about the what-ifs of life.

What if his mother hadn’t been a crackhead?

What if Lorenzo had been a decent human being?

What if, what if, what if. It took a fuckload of self actualization to get past those what if’s. I’d been there. Had those thoughts myself.

Eventually, Marco continued. “By the time I got to nine, I shot up height wise, got a little bigger. I swear to God, sometimes I could feel my bones stretching as I slept. But I’d gotten a little lippy too, mouthing off to the guys in Lorenzo’s crew, generally thinking I was more badass than I really was. Look who I had for role models? I thought this was how you were meant to speak to other people. One day, I told Lorenzo to go fuck himself, but I hadn’t realized he was iced out of his mind. He went into a rage, kicked the absolute shit out of me, but instead of shutting the fuck up and curling into a ball to protect my vital organs, I continued to mouth off. I’d had enough of being kicked around, I guess.”

Dread filled my stomach, the kind of sick feeling you get before someone tells you bad news. “He held me down, put his foot on my throat and then stomped. He crushed my throat, destroyed the cartilage around my larynx. It was pure luck he didn’t snap my neck. He walked away while I thought I was suffocating to death, gasping for air, spitting blood. He forbid any of his men from helping me. I laid there dying for two hours before the one guy who treated me like a human stumbled upon me, took me to the hospital and left me on the doorstep of the E.R. Last time I saw any of them. The damage done to my larynx was so substantial that they could barely put it back together. It's excruciating to speak and there was no one who would pay for my physical therapy. They called my mother, who came and collected me. I was out her window and on the streets before she could send me back to that fucking psycho.”

I felt Solomon shudder behind me. “Is he still alive? Lorenzo?” he asked softly, the stillness of his body caged violence. I had a feeling if the answer was yes, he wouldn’t be for very long.

Marco’s eyes went cold.No. I killed him the first chance I got.He mimed shooting him in the temple.

I rolled over and kissed him. I kissed his eyes, his cheek bones, his jaw, his lips. I ran my hands through his hair and over his chest. I kissed and touched him everywhere, bathing him in all the love I had to give.

The door clicked shut, and Solomon had snuck out and given us privacy. Fuck, I loved that man. I was going to tell him. I was going to tell them all. Soon.

I spent the rest of the night showing Marco how I felt about him.

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