Unforgivable Ties

Chapter 19

Vincenzo

I had been too forward with Stephanie. But listening to her touch herself had made me near feral. I wondered what she was thinking about as she let out those pretty little noises that had echoed in her bedroom.

It took every inch of restraint I had to not open the door and fuck her into the mattress. She would have been pissed if I walked in on her touching herself.

I could make her feel so much better than those toys ever could. But I held back, lingering outside her bedroom door, my body aching with want for her. I wanted to feel her writhing beneath me, wanted to taste every inch of her. My fingers itched to explore the contours of her body, to map out everywhere that made her cry out in pleasure.

When she didn’t follow me to the bedroom, I was worried I had pushed it too far. But the next morning, our life was mostly back to normal.

We had eaten breakfast quietly, the tension of the previous night still lingering. Neither of us brought it up, but the electricity between us was undeniable. I caught her sneaking glances at me as I read the news, her curiosity piqued. But she said nothing, nor did I.

It was for the best that we didn’t sleep together. My lifestyle was too dangerous for Stephanie, and it would be inevitable that I would hurt her in some way or another. She was an innocent, a flower that had yet to bloom. And I was no gardener. I was a storm, a tornado capable of uprooting her entire existence.

I sighed as I turned off my car engine. Felix managed a strip club, and I was meeting him there to discuss some business. I had bitched at him why we couldn’t do it at one of our warehouses, but he was adamant about staying at the seedy place.

As I stepped out of my car into the foggy night, I zipped up my jacket to the brim, shuddering at the icy wind on my face. The club’s neon sign flickered, casting an eerie glow onto the wet asphalt.

As I entered the club, the music blaring and the strobe lights dancing on the crowd, I could see Felix at the bar. He had one of the girls hanging off of him, as per usual.

I navigated my way through the swinging bodies, ignoring the occasional brush of a curious hand or an inviting giggle. I had fucked a few of these women before, but that life seemed like a distant memory now. Their superficial beauty and hollow laughter did nothing for me anymore.

“He fucks like a beast,” one girl said to her friend, not bothering to be discreet. I tried to remember the night I had spent with her, but there had been so many women they all blended together in my mind.

Her friend saw me approaching and giggled, her eyes shamelessly roaming over my body. I ignored them, focused on Felix who was now watching me through the smoke, a smirk plastered on his face.

“You’re late,” he called out, waving off the girl who had been clinging to him just moments before.

“This wasn’t my first choice of a meeting spot,” I grumbled, sinking onto the stool beside him.

Felix laughed, the sound raw and grating. “Sure, you’d rather be playing house with your little girlfriend.”

Fuck. It looked like Ettore had been gossiping as much as Dino.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Oh. It’s going to be awkward when you stop fucking and she lives in your house,” he said, a sleazy chuckle escaping his lips.

“We’re not fucking,” I said firmly. “Jesus, when did you and Ettore turn into Dino?”

Felix just shrugged, brushing off my annoyance with a careless flick of his wrist. “Anyway, we’ve got bigger problems.”

“Well, we’re not talking about it out here,” I said, indicating the teeming crowd of drunks, dancers and potential loose-lipped barflies.

I followed him through the throng of bodies and to the back hallway, where the music was just a dull throb and the lights weren’t strobing. The smell of sweat and spilled alcohol was less potent, but the scent of perfume was strong as we passed by the girls changing room.

Felix led me to a room at the end of the hall, the sign on the door simply read ‘Private.’ He pulled out a set of keys from his pocket, unlocked the door, and gestured for me to go in. It functioned as his office, but I had no doubt he fucked girls in here on a regular basis. I eyed the seats warily, wishing I had a black light. I reluctantly took a seat on the edge of the couch and watched as Felix poured himself a whiskey from a decanter that was far too nice for a place like this.

“There’s been some rumors going around about The Surgeon,” he said.

“The Surgeon?” I echoed, my brows furrowing.

I wasn’t sure what those rumors could be. The man was easy to work with; we extracted the organs from corpses, shipped them off with his cronies, and got paid. He was a man of secrecy, and not much was known about him.

“Yeah,” Felix said, the amusement in his eyes replaced by a steely hardness. He swirled the whiskey around in his glass before knocking it back. “Word on the street is he’s involved in something else. Something way more ruthless than our organ business.”

“There’s not much that’s more ruthless than buying and selling illegal organs,” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. I had seen things that would make even the strongest stomach churn in my mafia career.

“True,” Felix conceded, leaning forward with an ominous look in his eyes. “But have you ever heard of human trials?”

I blinked at him, momentarily taken aback. “Human trials? Like, medical testing?”

Felix nodded, his gaze hard and serious. “Worse. We’re talking about testing advanced drugs, experimental procedures, and untested technologies on live subjects.”

“That’s fucking disgusting,” I said. “But it’s not for us to stick our nose in. We have an agreement with him, and it’s the end of it.”

“But Leone used to provide him with live bodies until Ettore took over,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “The Surgeon has a lot of power. Who’s to say he won’t use that and try to strong arm us into getting live bodies again?”

I was silent, mulling over Felix’s words. Of course there was a possibility, but it was slim.

“Just keep it in mind,” Felix said. “I know you work with Cesare on that side of our operations, but the old man is as blind as a bat when it comes to the Surgeon. He idolizes him.”

That’s how Stephanie got dragged into this mess in the first place. Cesare was taking on too many extractions for The Surgeon, and didn’t have enough time to patch up our men.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said, getting up from the sofa.

“Alright,” Felix said, waving me off. “See you.”

I bid him goodbye and walked back down the hall. Just as I passed the door where the strippers get ready, a redhead walked out and accidentally ran into me. She tripped and fell into me, her sparkly lingerie still shining under the hall light.

“Ah, sorry!” she said, using my arms to steady herself.

“It’s fine,” I said gruffly.

She didn’t let go. Her eyes roamed over my body, and I could tell she recognized who I was. Her gaze flickered with a mix of fear and fascination.

“Have you finished work for the night?” she asked, running one hand from my biceps to chest.

I knew what she wanted. She was cute, but nowhere near as cute as Stephanie. But they had the same hair...I could bend her over and pretend I was fucking Stephanie.

My cock had been aching and fucking my fist each night wasn’t cutting it. I would picture Stephanie naked and writhing underneath me, making those cute little noises she made when I heard her masturbating. It was far from the real thing, and the redhead had come along at a time when I needed some relief.

I needed to sink my cock into an actual cunt, and as much as I wanted it to be Stephanie’s pussy, I didn’t think that was going to happen. At least with this woman, I could pretend I was blowing my load inside Stephanie.

Her hands continued their descent, tracing my abs before resting on my clothed cock. I was as soft as a marshmallow. She didn’t turn me on at all; I was repulsed by a different woman’s hand on my dick.

“I need to go,” I muttered, hastily pulling away from her and walking down the hallway.

I brushed off the sparkles her lingerie had left on my clothes, and desperately wanted to rid myself of her horrible, cheap smelling perfume. The air around me felt heavy, each second stretching out into an eternity as I walked down the hallway.

I unlocked the door to my car, sighing as I closed it behind me. The redhead’s perfume still lingered in my nose, sickeningly sweet and completely wrong. It looked like it was going to be another night of touching myself thinking of my cute little med student.