Page 14 of Kiss of Death
He grabbed her shirt and pulled her forward before slamming her up against the door. She yelped but quickly shut her mouth when Bruno was in her face again. “Because I fucking said so. You’ve been getting ballsier, thinking you have any say in anything you do. I. OWN. YOU. You are nothing more than a wet cunt and mouth to keep my dick warm,” he seethed. “Now give me your fucking phone.”
Ivy’s hands balled into tight fists at her sides. She wanted to punch Bruno in his smug face and keep swinging until she took the years of abuse by him and his elk out on his body.
She was angry.
Angry at him for making her feel smaller and insignificant than she thought she could ever feel in her life. It had been a while since he so colorfully put what her use was for into words, and it somehow managed to hit harder this time than when she first heard it.
She felt the rage start to boil over to the point she contemplated how quickly she could run into the kitchen to grab a knife and stab him with it. She wanted to escape, and if she killed him, she’d be home free, but this asshole still had her sister locked up somewhere Ivy couldn’t reach. She couldn’t get free of the chains Bruno had wrapped around her wrists and leave her sister behind. If Ivy was getting out, so was Eve, and they couldn’t do that until Ivy gave Bruno what he wanted.
Ivy grabbed her cell—her only link to her sister—and handed it to Bruno. He quickly stuffed it in his pocket and handed her an entirely different phone, one that had no connection to her sister, and she wanted to fling it across the room.
“It’s an extra incentive for you to get the job done—no distractions.”
Ivy stopped herself from rolling her eyes. This was more about control than getting her to get the job done. Whatever the case, the quicker she handed Bruno what he wanted, the faster she and Eve could leave with the falsely bright lights of this city in the rearview.
Don’t think freedom is at the end of this, especially when the man who possesses your body without touching it finds out you betrayed him.
That little voice in her head spoke up, reminding her that she was trading one set of chains for another. While she’d be free from Bruno, she knew Otto and Smoke were going to hunt her down seeking their revenge.Her form of freedom would forever be on the run.
Smoke pulled up to Tres Bellas just in time to see Gia walking toward the door. She heard his bike and only spared him a glance over her shoulder before resuming opening up the shutters and unlocking the door.
He stepped off his bike, exhaustion making his body ache. He hadn’t slept in what seemed like forever. He caught a few cat naps here and there, but he’d been up a full twenty-four hours with no end in sight. He had to leave soon for a gun run in DC and there were no stops on that trip. They were going and coming right back. Sofia needed them as a means to back up, and Carter never had a problem helping Sofia. If he did, Smoke always had a reason in his back pocket why it was a good idea to help Sofia and her crew.
Smoke was going to be gone a day—maybe a day and a half at most—if everything went straight. He could have called Gia to let her know, but he wanted to see her with his own eyes before he hit the open road.
He had stopped by her house first. They always came to Tres together when she had to open. He would pick her up on his bike, and they would ride over with her small hands clutching onto his waist for dear life while she giggled in his ear anytime he went way past the speed limit. It was such an odd sensation feeling her joy vibrate through him anytime they rode together. It was something he was becoming accustomed to though, and something he looked forward to. It was why it put him in a sour mood when he knocked on her door and she wasn’t there.
It was juvenile for him to expect her to always be there waiting for him. They hadn’t verbally agreed to anything, and she knew that while Sofia wanted the Unhinged Brothers to stay in New York, they still had their own club business to attend to, and Smoke wouldn’t always be readily available to her. He had no idea why he was silently fuming about Gia dissing him, but he wasn’t going to sulk all night by his bike trying to figure it out.
Smoke stalked toward her just as she swung the door open to Tres. “Why didn’t you wait for me?” The words were out of his mouth before he could swallow them, and he wanted to punch himself in the face for how he sounded. He sounded like a whiny child who’d been left out of some fun activity and he hated it.
Gia didn’t spare him a glance. She just walked into the club, turning on the lights as she went. “I wasn’t aware I was supposed to.”
Her voice fell flat to his ears. She sounded like he was annoying her, and Sofia’s words from this morning ricocheted in his skull—Gia isn’t going to give you the time of day if you keep fucking anything on legs in front of her.It gave him pause, just like it did when she first said it to him. It was one of the reasons he ended up dropping off whatever her name was without fucking her.
The words Sofia spoke to him made him think about his growing attraction toward Gia. He wanted to fuck her, of course. She was gorgeous, but he didn’t want to “one and done her” like he’s done in the past. She wasn’t like the women who hung around the club begging to suck his dick. She was cool as hell and probably one of the only women aside from Sofia he’d go to war for.
Gia’s high-pitched scream broke into his thoughts and had his feet moving at a jogging pace. He pulled out his gun and stopped short when he saw the woman he took home the night before badly beaten and tied to one of the stripper poles.
What the fuck?
Smoke tapped Gia on her shoulder, and she yelped before turning around with a gun in his face. “You carry a gun and know how to shoot it?” Smoke asked in disbelief. Out of everyone in the Council, Gia was the one who looked the most misplaced. She looked like the nun on a bus filled with criminals off to a fucking convent.
Gia’s eyes narrowed. “You and my damn brother. Yes, I know how to shoot it, but that shouldn’t be what you’re worried about right now.” She turned to walk toward the stage when Smoke grabbed her, pulling her back into her body.
“Wait. I don’t know if we’re alone.” He leaned down, his lips at her ear. “Don’t make a sound,” he whispered. He strained to listen in the quiet of the club, but only silence greeted him. He wasn’t convinced they were alone and instinctively wanted to haul Gia out of the club and out of harm’s way.
Smoke’s phone vibrated in his pocket, and he let go of Gia to answer it. “Talk to me, Carter.” He kept his voice low.
“Where are you?” Carter barked into the phone.
“Tres. Why?” An uneasy feeling crept up his spine as he heard footsteps come from behind him. He didn’t hear anything Carter was saying to him. He turned around and pushed Gia behind him, throwing his phone at her while he aimed his gun at the door, ready to shoot whoever was walking in here.
Smoke held his breath and kept his finger on the trigger. A pair of black boots stepped into the main room, and Smoke relaxed when he saw it was Otto. He contemplated pulling the trigger anyway, as a warning shot, because he knew it would rile Otto up. Smoke felt Gia’s hand on his shoulder as she peeked around him. As soon as she saw her brother, she stepped fully around Smoke, but kept her hand on his arm. Smoke looked down at her petite hand and swallowed, trying not to read too much into the small gesture.
“We have a problem.” Both Gia and Otto said at the same time.
“Dom called. Nico found one of his female workers beaten and…” Otto’s voice trailed off as his gaze shot to the stage. “She’s alive?” he questioned.
