Page 13 of Kiss of Death
She won the hand and quickly declined playing another round. When she stood up to leave the table, she made sure to salute the camera before sauntering out of the casino. Most nights she was here, she’d only play a handful of games, and it was always blackjack. She’d win three out of the six hands she would play before walking away. Tonight was the first night she acknowledged the cameras, and Wolf wondered if this was some sort of a challenge issued by her.
“Who are you, my little card shark?” he whispered into his office, debating if he should go into the casino and confront her or continue to let her play her games.
There was a knock on the door. “Yeah?” His eyes stayed glued to the monitors watching the woman disappear amongst the small crowd.
“It’s Carter.” The president of the Unhinged Brothers was here, and it pulled his attention from his card shark and back to his gun business. His grand opening wasn’t for a couple of weeks, and he hoped she’d be in attendance. He’d confront her then and find out exactly who she was.
IVY SHUT THE DOOR BEHINDher, not bothering to turn on the lights yet. She wanted to stay cloaked in the darkness that surrounded her so she could still hold on to the feel of Otto pressed against her, his lips against her skin, and his smell embedded into her memory.
Her body was buzzing, and she felt high just off a kiss alone. But this wasn’t like any kiss she ever experienced. Otto had all but consumed every inch of her with his lips. She’d feared he was already inside of her, and that kiss proved her right. Her body opened up to him with no hesitation, even with everything she’d been through and witnessed, it was like it all melted away at his touch. She didn’t have to fake anything or let her mind go somewhere else. She stayed present, wrapped up in a man who had kissed her with possession and ownership that she found she desired.
Otto’s ownership came with a freedom she didn’t get being owned by others. In his arms she felt worshiped instead of used.
Ivy let out a breath, hoping it would bring her back down to earth. She tried and failed to keep Otto on the other side of the door. She tried to tell herself the attraction between them was purely physical, something she could will herself to ignore, but there was something deeper here. She had boyfriends before her ex—men she thought she was in love with—and it never felt as explosive as it did with Otto. He was right, whatever was going on between them was like a bomb, and when it went off there was no stopping the detonation—there would be nothing but destruction left in its path.
Mainly of her heart.
Ivy flipped on her apartment lights, knowing she couldn’t stay up against the door all night thinking about a man she’d never be able to truly have. She swallowed the scream stuck in her throat when she saw Bruno sitting on her loveseat. “How’d you get in?” she whispered, wondering why he was here and thankful she didn’t invite Otto in. It would have been hard to explain why Bruno was in her apartment. Their plan would have gone up in smoke before it even got started.
He stood up and slowly strolled over to her like a predator knowing its prey had nowhere to run. “I set you up in this apartment, Ivy. How do you think I got in?” He stopped in front of her, and she instinctively fell back into her front door.
Bruno had been one of her gentler owners, but his mood was always unstable and unpredictable. One minute he was treating her and the other women he owned like human beings, giving them small freedoms, and within the next breath they’d be chained up in a basement with no food or water for a few days.
She learned early on that being around someone like Bruno was its own death sentence. You never knew what to expect, and as soon as you were feeling relatively good about your situation, Bruno snatched the rug out from under you, bringing you back to the fact that you were nothing more than property.
Ivy had been around him long enough to gauge his moods sometimes. He usually had small tells, and it was always in the way he looked at any of the women. Like right now, his gaze was filled with hatred toward her like she had somehow fucked up. His jaw was clenched, and he reeked of liquor. This wasn’t going to end well for her tonight, and it partially pissed her off.
She still had the taste of Otto on her lips. On the other side of her apartment door, she had just been a regular woman free to do as she pleased. Now, Bruno was here to deliver the consequences of her thinking she had any true freedom in her life.
Bruno placed his hand on her chest. His sinister smile told her he was getting off on the way her heartbeat pounded against his palm. “Your face is flushed, and you’re breathing heavy. Did you run up those six flights of stairs?”
Ivy nodded, refusing to give him the truth. His eyes narrowed, and she wondered if he could tell that Otto had kissed her. Were her lips swollen? Did she have marks on her neck and chin from his beard?
Bruno leaned in a little closer, and she held her breath, waiting to see if he would strike her for the lie that never left her lips. “I’m going to assume you made contact tonight.” Ivy nodded and still held her breath, knowing it was foolish to let her guard down with him.
“With Gia or that shitface Otto?” His hand slowly wrapped around her neck, making her gasp for air.
“Both,” she whispered, hating the way her voice shook. Some days, when she was feeling brave, she felt unbreakable. Her voice held steady, and she kept her head held high. She didn’t quake in the face of her captors, because she ignorantly believed that she could still hold on to parts of herself—they couldn’t take all of her.
And then she had days like right now, where she felt as weak as a newborn. She quivered away from her captors and even wished for a quick death, believing she would never be free.
“We’re going to need to speed this up.” His other hand came down to cup her sex, and she felt sick to her stomach. He closed the distance between them and felt suffocated by his body.
Ivy hoped and prayed Bruno wouldn’t need her tonight. She hoped he would leave her alone once he told her exactly what he wanted her to do at Tres. She didn’t want to tarnish the taste and feel of Otto against her skin with the touch of a man she never wanted.
Does it matter? You’re going to betray him anyway. Better you erase Otto from your memory now than think this is the start of something new.
Ivy silenced the voice in her head. Whether it was right or not was irrelevant. It didn’t matter that she knew whatever Bruno wanted her to do would be a betrayal to Otto. She didn’t want someone else to erase a kiss that potent from her memory.
“I’m going to need you to use this sweet little cunt of yours.” He chuckled.
Ivy blanched. “You want me to fuck him?” she murmured as her body warmed, remembering the feel of his thick erection pressed up against her. She had wanted to fuck him—still did—but not under these circumstances.
It wasn’t the first time she had to use sex to get what she needed for Bruno, in fact, that had been all she was ever used for. But when he first told her about this job, Bruno made it seem riskier than what she’d done in the past. There had to be more to his master plan than just finding out the codes to the doors and having to sleep with Otto, especially if Bruno was willing to trade her and her sister’s freedom for it.
Bruno lips hovered above hers. She could practically taste the liquor with every breath he took. “Yes, fuck him. But I need you to break him. Use this cunt of yours to turn him inside out. Men do stupid shit when they get a taste of good pussy, and Otto is a sucker for good pussy. You’ll have him in love with you in no time.” He released his hold on her and held out his hand. “And you have about a week to do it if not sooner. Hand me your phone.”
Ivy panicked. Her phone was the only way she could talk to her sister, her only real link to normalcy. She shook her head. “What do you need the phone for?”
