Blackmailed to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family #2)

12. Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

R iccardo

The flicker of candlelight danced off the polished wood of the table, casting shadows that coiled like serpents on the walls of the dimly lit restaurant. I watched Mya from across the table, her fiery red hair coiling down her shoulders. Her delicate fingers traced the rim of her water glass as she took it all in. She was vibrant tonight, a storm barely contained, and every reaction on her face drew me deeper into her web.

I fucked up and lost control. Something that hadn’t happened in a long time. But Dr. Mya Rivers drove me wild. She wouldn’t give me the time of day, but willingly touched another man.

Before I knew it, his blood adorned my gloved hands, ruining my suit at each of the wrists. I wasn’t risking more carnage, so the boy’s father took his life in my stead. It hurt me more than it did his family.

Their restaurant would thrive, but I had another innocent’s death on my hands. All because of the She-devil in front of me. I swear the Devil must’ve been a woman. She sat in her chair, meekly, now that she’d seen the consequences of her actions. But it wasn’t enough.

I wanted to cement that she was no longer home. That she was at my disposal. I held her life in my very hands, and if I wanted to crush it, then that was my will. Once she understood her place, she would make an excellent wife.

I took off my gloves, demanding my little firecracker lose her clothes. I wanted to touch her bare skin. To cement that she was mine, even with the scars, all fucking mine.

Her keen observation skills could fortify the famiglia. Once I was rid of Sebastian, no one would stand in my way. I waited for Mya to do what I said. She shakily took off each piece of her clothes, revealing her lush body to me.

I forced her down over the top of the boy who she dared to touch. This was her punishment, being fucked on top of this innocent, and I told her as much.

“If you hadn’t touched him, he would be alive right now.” I unbuckled my pants and slid out my hard cock, rubbing my piercing, uncaring of the different tones of the scarred flesh touching the unblemished flesh of my dick.

“N-no,” she stammered. “You did thi–”

I slid into her dry cunt with a grunt, effectively shutting her up. “It wasn’t me who did this, firecracker.” I thrust inside of her, tweaking her nipple, and grinning at the trickle of wetness inside of her.

My little firecracker wanted me.

“I–”

“You don’t get to speak.” I slammed deeper inside of her and grabbed her throat. “You feel so fucking good.”

She cried out, her walls tightening against me, as if they were fighting to force me out. No fucking way was I allowing that to happen.

“You’re gagging for my cock, aren’t you?” I whispered in her ear.

“N-no.” She tried to deny me, but I thrust inside again, dislodging the body from underneath us. Mya gagged at the sight.

“Can’t take the sight of a body, doctor?” I sneered in her face.

She whimpered, but her pussy throbbed around my cock. Fuck her for trying to tell me no. She wanted me as much as I wanted her.

When she came, I lifted her up and slammed her harder on my dick. “Say you’re mine,” I commanded.

She looked away, but when her eyes locked on the open ones of the dead body, she looked back at me.

I drew her face closer to mine. “Say. It.”

She cried out, “I’m yours.”

I exploded inside of her, from her words and obedience. Panting, I pushed her off my cock and fixed my clothes.

“Clean yourself up and get dressed. We’re leaving.”

My little firecracker slid off the table, and almost stumbled forward. I reached my hands out to stabilize her, but she flinched away so hard that I didn’t want to try to touch her again.

I stood back, shoved my dirty gloves back on, and then slid my hands in my pockets, as she pulled her clothes over her naked, bloody body. It wasn’t her blood, of course, it belonged to Elio. I whipped out my phone and sent a text to Daveed.

He sent back the middle finger emoji, but I knew he would show up and clean up my mess.

I saw Mya had her clothes on, and I ushered her out of the restaurant. We got dues from this family, so I wasn’t worried about the police coming. I was more concerned about my little firecracker.

She hadn’t said two words since I fucked her on top of that corpse. Her silence was like a challenge. My beautiful, defiant firecracker. I thought she would be more immune, since she had a PhD and all, but I guess her reaction wasn’t strange by any means.

I was the odd one.

We made it back to the villa in record time. I waited for Mya, hoping I could get her a plate from the kitchen, but she rushed away from me, and up the stairs, before I could finish closing her car door.

By the time I made it into her room, she was in the shower. I changed my gloves, and headed back downstairs to make her a plate of leftovers. She was still cleaning herself when I placed the food tray on her nightstand.

I waited for her, sitting on the bed and taking off my jacket. It was time my little firecracker and I had a heart to heart. I didn’t want to keep punishing her like that, but if she was going to be a strong mafia wife, then she would have to understand what this lifestyle was about.

In addition, I needed to find out if there were any messes I had to clean up. Like Sebastian and Silas, my little firecracker was impulsive. From the looks of things, she hadn’t really covered her tracks. I would have to teach her better.

“What are you still doing here?” she gasped, a towel covering her naked body.

My mouth dropped open at the sight of her dark skin covered in water droplets. I wanted to lick each one off her body, but now wasn’t the time. I rearranged my dick in my pants, and shook my head, trying to clear her alluring body from my mind.

“Tell me about your prison reformation program,” I said after getting a grip on my emotions. This woman brought me to my knees at times, but she didn’t even know the power that she wielded.

“It’s a clinical research program, that helps prisoners with a high likelihood of reoffending, not to.” She gave me the Psychology Today, cookie cutter, bullshit answer.

“That’s horse shit, and you know it. What are you really doing?”

She walked into the closet to throw a T-shirt over her damp skin. “That’s it.” Her muffled voice came from inside the walk in.

“No, there’s a reason you are doing this, little firecracker, and you will tell me,” I demanded outside the double doors she’d closed behind her.

They swung open, and she flounced out, dropping to the bed. “Like I said, I want to help reoffenders get back into society without causing undue harm again.”

I crept up to her until I was towering over her curvy body. I grabbed her face, and squeezed her cheeks, until tears leaked out of her eyes. “I-I’ll tell you,” she cried.

When I didn’t let go, she whimpered. “I-it hurts.”

I released her, and she fell back on the bed with a hitched sob. “Tell me what I want to know.”

I sat on the bed next to her, my body turned to hers, trying to focus on our conversation, and not that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath my shirt she just threw on.

“I do it because of my parents,” she grumbled, looking away from me.

“Little firecracker, we both know that’s not all there is to the story. Your records alone indicate something happened. What was it?”

I wanted to understand why she did what she had. She was sweet, innocent, and yet she drugged unsuspecting patients, putting her medical license at risk. Something I knew she worked hard toward, judging by her passion in her sessions.

“I-I can’t,” she whispered.

Her skin took an ashen hue, and I knew she felt sick. What the fuck happened?

I drew her into my arms, realizing right then that something terrible went down. She didn’t fight me and sank into my embrace. “I’ve got you. Just tell me everything.”

With that reassurance, her words stumbled all over themselves, as she showed me the horrors she’d endured.

“We lived in Pennsylvania, but vacationed in Florida every year. I hated going, but my parents insisted that I would have fun, and since I’d done so well in preliminary testing for school, I agreed.”

I rubbed her back, trying to give her strength, as she trembled beside me.

“What happened on that trip?”

She kept going. “My parents met a man on the beach. He was younger, fit, and he told them that I would make an excellent model.”

My stomach dropped, but I didn’t interrupt.

“My mother was on board, but my father said that modeling would take away from school, and wasn’t a good job to begin with. We left soon after.”

Confused, I broke in. “I don’t understand. If that trip was fine, then what happened to make you choose the choices you did?” I mean, I’m a monster. I was born one. Raised by one. And surrounded myself with like minded individuals.

Mya was different. She seemed like a smart, girl next door, super-genius, who wouldn’t risk her license, or break the law in any manner. An innocent.

“We went back home, and I forgot all about the incident. Until a few months later, when my father had me pack a bag. I thought we were going on another trip since I’d been so good. I’d had an outburst in school, but I thought all was forgiven.”

“What was the outburst about?” I could hear the pain in her voice, and it gutted me.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. A girl was sitting next to me, and I was ignoring her, talking to my friends. I guess she didn’t like that because she wiped something on my arm. It was her vaginal fluid. I saw red and attacked.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise. “She did what?”

Mya turned back to look at me. “She reached her hand down her pants and rubbed it on my arm. That’s unsanitary, and I defended myself.” Her fierce tone turned me on, and I had to adjust again.

“What happened next?” Her life story was riveting, and this was only a snippet of the missing information, I was certain of it.

“T-They hired someone to escort me onto a plane. No one told me where I was going. I was just told to behave, and at ten, I listened to my parents. I got to the airport, and someone picked me up. They took me to a mansion. I went along with it, and–” She broke off, tears in her voice, facing away from me with her shame.

I wished I could take the pain from her.

“They passed me around, and when they were done, the man from the beach was there. He kept me for a year as his special toy.” Her sobs stopped the rest of the story, and I squeezed her tighter.

“Give me a name.”

“W-what?” She peeked up at me.

“Give me the names of the men who hurt you, and I’ll take care of it.” Anger raced through my veins at the thought of these evil people touching my woman.

She shook her head. “I’ve gone no contact with my father, and don’t know any of the men. The guy from the beach made me call him Mr. D. He laughed about it as well, thinking it was funny.” She choked back another sob.

I soothed her, thinking of all the men who were about to have a painful death. Her dad included. I wouldn’t sit idly by, while these monsters breathed the same air as me. I would show them what truly went bump in the night.

“I–” She stopped herself, and I waited for her to get her words out. “Can I be alone now?”

I didn’t want to, but I gently kissed the top of her head, laid her down, and helped tuck her in. She didn’t need me at this moment. I was bad news for her. No, I couldn’t give her what she craved. Maybe someone else could. I walked away, giving her her wish.

I closed the door behind me, and like a fool, I allowed Sebastian to take control. It wasn’t like my little firecracker wanted to see me now. It was almost time for the sun to come up, anyway. He was due back in the office for tedious meetings.

I sank backward into that dark, inky pit I spent most of my day in, wishing that for once, things were different. That I could stay, but the Judas inside of my body was trying to get rid of me.

It was the first thought in his mind when he came to.