Heartless Mercy (The Sinful Alliance #1)

Lean into Love by Biz Colleti

The morning after the

Dia de Los Muertos Party (10:00 a.m.)

Waking up the following day, the feelings I felt after everything went down last night were immediately replaced with nerves. It’s time for me to finally open up to Niccolo if I want our relationship to work out. I just don’t know if this will be the thing that breaks us, and if it does, I don’t know where we can go from here.

Catalina brings my bags to the trunk of Niccolo’s black Escalade while my best friend, Chiara, opens the backseat door. Chiara Ferrara is Niccolo’s head bodyguard and my childhood best friend. We used to be neighbors, and her dad worked for Niccolo’s dad before they both passed.

“ Grazie, amore ,” I say sweetly as I blow her a kiss. She smirks and waits for me to climb in when she closes the door. I roll down the window and wait for Catalina to appear.

“We’ll be there tonight, okay? We just need to convince Sonny and Willow to come with us and we’ll join you, princesa ,” Catalina declares as she leans in to kiss me goodbye.

Leaning forward, I peck her lips twice before sliding my tongue across her bottom lip and devouring them. We stay like this and break our kiss when we’re interrupted by Niccolo and Dario.

“Enough. Come on, you’re gonna see each other tonight,” Dario says, shaking his head.

“ Vete a la verga , Dario. Not my fault you don’t like to show PDA in front of people. I love letting everyone know my girl is mine. Go ahead, Daddy. Kiss our girl,” Catalina teases. Dario rolls his eyes but does what he’s told, leaning in to kiss me as I return the kiss. His tongue swirls with mine and it feels different from Catalina’s. He’s gentle; it screams every emotion he’s feeling about me. He makes love to my mouth. Someone clears their throat and we break apart, smiling.

“See you tonight, dulzura ,” Dario says, winking. He then goes to kiss Niccolo, pecking him three times.

“Text me when you land, amorcito ,” Dario instructs. Niccolo gets in the backseat with me and Chiara takes the driver’s seat.

“ Prenditi cura di loro , Chi,” Catalina orders before Chiara closes the door.

Chiara rolls the window to respond and responds, “ Sempre .”

We leave the ranch for the private airport, where Niccolo’s plane awaits us. I turn around and see my loves get smaller through the back window. Niccolo lightly places his hand on my thigh and I pivot around to face him.

I grab his hand and squeeze it as I say, “As soon as we get on that plane, we’ll talk, okay? Can you just hug me for now?”

“Of course, baby. Rest for now,” Niccolo extends his arm out and I snuggle up to him, inhaling his woodsy scent. It’s my only anchor right now as I anticipate the emotional conversation we are about to have.

“Wake up, farfallina . We’re here,” Niccolo says, kissing my forehead. Chiara opens Niccolo’s door and he grabs my hand for me to follow when he quickly gets off. Extending his hand forward, Niccolo allows me to mount the stairs up the plane where I take a window seat. He sits beside me as Chiara chats with the pilot and flight attendant about the manifest.

“Are you okay? We can wait till we take off to talk,” Niccolo offers.

“No, I’m okay. We need to clear the air. It’s been a long time coming,” I answer. Fastening my seatbelt, I slightly turn and make myself comfortable before I start talking. Inhaling in and out, I close my eyes for a moment. When I open them, I spot the bourbon on the table in front of us. I pour myself two fingers worth, lift it to my mouth, and slide the liquor down my throat.

“I think I’ve always felt like this, but it wasn’t until seeing you again a couple of years ago that it really came to a head in my mind,” I start. Niccolo nods, looking me in the eyes as he lets me continue.

“It all comes back to what happened after the shooting. I spent months recovering—alone. Hell, even after the whole ordeal happened, I only saw you once, and that was the day after I got out of surgery. Niccolo, you left me. I took a bullet for you when we were kids, and you just left me. I know my brother is, and has always been, your best friend, but I was your first friend. After everything we went through, what I went through for you , I thought you’d at least stay by my side. Instead, you left and didn’t even have the balls to tell me why. So, little by little, it ate at me. As we got older, I started hanging out with Chiara and my sisters more, but when I’d see you with Alessio, it’d hurt me. You just waved while you two carried on, like what I did didn’t even matter.”

Tears pool in my eyes and I put my head down. So many emotions are rising to the surface and I don’t think I’ll make it out of this conversation without full-on crying. Niccolo takes a deep breath, grabs my chin, and lifts my head to face him. He then proceeds to wipe the lone tear that has escaped my eyes.

“ Farfallina …I didn’t know you felt that way. All this time, Isa, and you didn’t tell me anything. Why didn’t you yell at me? You lived with this pain, regret, and hatred for me for more than a decade? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t live with regret for you. Or hatred, for that matter. I didn’t tell you because I thought you had just tossed me aside. I didn’t know what to think. Why didn’t you talk to me?” I clarify and ask.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you felt regret and hatred towards me. I deserve it. But I hope you know that I was there after surgery, not just after you woke up the next day. I sat beside your hospital bed with your hand in mine when I made you a promise. I promised that as soon as you woke up, I would work to become who my father needed to be. That I would avenge those who shot you, that I would be the killer that you needed me to be to get revenge. And I did. Alessio and I grabbed those men and tortured them for days. We gave all four of them the same wound they left on you—a bullet wound to the left side of their stomach. Then, as they were left to bleed out, I personally tortured each one. I took a machete and sliced their hands off. Then, I took a scalpel and cut a line from right to left on their stomach, emptying their guts. And just because I couldn’t stop, I chopped their bodies into little pieces and dissolved them in acid. It might have been years later, but I took that revenge in your name, baby. I’ll do it as often as I have to to keep you safe.

“But I know that doesn’t mean anything when, in that moment, you were suffering and I let you think that I didn’t care for you. Because I did, baby . I cared so much. I loved you then, Isa. That was another promise I made. It was because of how much I loved you that I knew I had to stay away from you. Anybody would try to hurt you to get through to me, and I just couldn’t take that risk. I would die if they hurt you again. It should’ve been me who took the bullet, not you. I wish it was me. It’s why I got this tattoo on my hand, a bullet in between my thumb and forefinger, as a reminder of the bullet you took for me. It’s what has kept me going all these years.”

Niccolo’s eyes water and I see his love for me clear as day. He cast me aside to protect me. How could I be so stupid and blind?

Cupping Niccolo’s cheeks, I lean in to kiss him. I peck his lips first and then hungrily seek entry for more. I transfer all the love I’ve felt for him all these years, nothing else mattering in this moment. Niccolo reaches over, unbuckles my seatbelt, and places me on his lap as my dress covers our close position. I roughly unbuckle his belt and unbutton his pants. He lifts us and removes his boxers, just enough to release his cock. I break our heated kiss and look down to see his cock hardening for me.

“Mmmm, you have no idea how much I fantasized about taking your cock growing up,” I breathe.

“You have no idea how much I wanted us to be each other’s first, and I’m sorry for that. But now it’s all yours, baby. But before you finally take it, I want you to grind that pretty fucking pussy against my cock and come for me.”

I smirk and slide my panties to the side. Gliding up and down, I feel Niccolo’s bare cock and I tremble as his head lightly touches my clit.

“Oh, fuck. Come on, baby, come for me. Slide that pussy against my cock and come for me.” His words spur me on and I pick up my pace. Closing my eyes, I tilt my head back and find the perfect rhythm.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh fuck, Niccolo. I’m so close. I’m so close,” I moan softly.

“That’s it, Isa. Keep on going. You’re almost there, baby , ” Niccolo encourages, tightening his hold on my hips. Between the pent-up frustration, lust, and activities from last night, coming all over his cock is not an arduous task. Niccolo grabs my hips and slides his finger over my bullet wound, the one I took for him.

I need him.

“ Baby! Slide your dick inside me, please. I need to feel you stretch my pussy.” Niccolo takes that as the only indication he needs to slide his cock against my cum and slowly insert his cock inside.

“Ohhhhh, fuckk, farfallina . Your pussy feels too fucking good. It’s mine forever, baby,” Niccolo swears.

“Make love to me, tesoro . We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” I state.

I grab onto Niccolo’s dress shirt tightly and ride his deliciously perfect cock as he holds onto my ass, assisting me at a steady pace. Niccolo captures my lips and we feverishly kiss each other, like nothing can stop us. Now, that we got it all out in the open; nobody will break us. We needed this to happen. It’s been a long time coming and now we can move forward.

Niccolo and I continue making love to each other on the plane, not caring if Chiara and the flight attendant hear or see us.

Breaking our kiss, I pour all my gratitude and love to Niccolo and say, “ Ti amo, tesoro. Tu sei il mio tutto di tanto in tanto. Sono tuo. ”

“ Ti amo anch’io, farfallina. Ti proteggerò sempre. Sono tuo. ”

I’ve never felt so whole in my entire life. With Catalina, the light peaks through. And when I felt Dario’s love, it opened a little more. But experiencing this moment with Niccolo is all I need to feel whole. To feel worthy of love. And I’m forever thankful I was the one who took the bullet because it led to this moment.