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Breathe, Callahan
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
A Bride For The Mafia King The Beach
Callahan "I wasn't going to let her die," I say finally.The phone in my pocket buzzes and I dig it out, turning away.Lenore enters the living room from the kitchen carrying a tray of coffee. I walk toward my study to take the call. It's Diamente."I've got something for you," he says."Am I going to like it?"“I doubt it. You alone?”“Yes.” I close the door to my study."Heathcliff Esmeralda had a text about two hours after the wedding."I swallow the last of my whiskey, feel the burn down my throat. "Go on.""It's an address. You can figure out which. And one sentence.""What's the sentence?""Remember what we agreed."I grind my teeth together. "And the sender?" I'm pretty sure of his answer but I ask anyway.“Burner phone. Untraceable."My mind goes to Alec. To how he's injured but not dead. If the others had been killed differently, a gun fight, I'd understand how he survived. It would make more sense. But this? Him shot in the arm and the leg when everyone else took a bullet t
A Bride For The Mafia King Paint It A Colour They Can See
Portia I wake to the smell of coffee. I move, rolling onto my side, but wince and stop as soon as l do. I remember instantly why I'm sore. Everything that happened comes flooding back to me at once."Good morning," Callahan says. I open my eyes. Deep orange light, the first light of morning, filters into the room washing it in its warm glow. I watch Callahan get to his feet from the armchair he was sitting on. His clothes look rumpled, his hair like he's been running his hands through it all night.I'm back on the island. Back in his room. In his bed.“Morning," I say, slow to push myself up to a seat."Easy." He's by my side in an instant, lifting me gently.I suck in a breath and he draws back. Even the lightest touch hurts."I'm sorry," he says."It's okay."He adjusts the pillows behind my back.“Is Nathan okay? Did anyone — ”"He's fine. Safe. They only hit the house you were in.""The soldiers are dead."He nods."Alec. Is he.."There's a momentarily shadow that crosses his fea
A Bride For The Mafia King Uncommon Bliss
PortiaAfter using the bathroom and washing my hands, I return to the bedroom where Callahan is texting someone. He tucks the phone into his pocket when he sees me."I want to get dressed. See Nathan.""You should stay in bed. Clothes aren't going to feel good on your skin."I shake my head, walk toward the closet.“This is what I mean about your faults. For starters, you're stubborn as a mule," he mutters, taking my arm, his touch light."You mean as stubborn as you?""Get back in bed. I'll get you something.""I'm fine."“You're far from fine.” He comes to stand a few inches from me. "Get back in bed. Don't make me put you there."I raise my eyebrows, fold my arms across my chest. “You'd put me there?”"And I'd tie you down if I needed to.""I'm not even...How exactly would you put me there? I'm not a thing."“You're really asking me that?” he asks as I realize how stupid a question it is. Without a moment's hesitation, he lifts me in his arms and carries me back to the bed."Like t
A Bride For The Mafia King Nuptial Night
CallahanI draw back looking down at her. Sweat trickles down my forehead and falls onto her cheek. She's spent, eyes dazed, mouth slack.The exact effect I was going for.But I'm not finished yet.Taking hold of both her thighs, I straighten, stand to push her legs wide."Callahan," she starts, up on her elbows.I shift my gaze from between her legs, to her eyes, then back. The room smells of sex. Smells of us.And I'm a man starved.I bend my neck, lean down to her.She gasps when I lay the flat of my tongue on her, tasting us together, tasting her. I lick from hole to hole then close my mouth over her hard little nub and suck.All at once, I hear her whimper, feel her fingers pull my hair and her legs quake in my grip. I keep her wide open and suck harder until she comes again. Her body bucks as she cries out my name over and over, breathless and panting.Only when she's still, do I release her.Only when she's still, do I bring my lips to hers and kiss her again, let her taste us
A Bride For The Mafia King Puzzle Pieces
Portia"Portia!" Nathan appears at the bottom of the stairs and it takes all I have not to charge down toward him. Well, all I have and Callahan's hand around my wrist."Easy, she's hurt," Callahan tells him once we're downstairs and I go in for a hug.Nathan nods and tries to hug, but not hug me, all at once.“You can hug me. I want you to hug me," I tell him."You hurt her, and we have a problem," Callahan growls beside me."Don't listen to him," I say, but this other side of Callahan, this predator turned protector is strange. Unexpected. He's a beast but he's got a soft side. I like when it comes through.Nathan squeezes me hard and it does hurt but I don't care. In his hug I feel how young he is, how much he's lost and how much he needs me, even if he tries to act like a man.“Aren't you late for your lesson," Callahan asks him, checking his watch."What lesson?" I ask, looking at him.Nathan, looking guilty, shifts his gaze to Callahan."Self-defense," Callahan answers after a b
A Bride For The Mafia King Swallow
PortiaI'm trying to wrap my brain around Felix Pérez taking over the cartel. Maybe I don't remember him correctly.I was pretty young, I guess. l just can imagine it. He was more like an annoying bug that keeps buzzing by your ear. I remember neither of my parents liked him. But l'm not sure they liked Heathcliff either. I know my mom didn't. She didn't trust him, and my dad didn't trust anyone who wasn't blood.Even though Heathcliff took on the Esmeralda name, he was and always would be an outsider. And Felix marrying Heathcliff's daughter, his niece, meant nothing to my father.I think about that. About only trusting your own blood. That got my father killed. Blood is overrated in this world."Callahan," I start once we're upstairs. "Are you sure about Felix?"He closes the door behind us. “I'm sure of one thing at the moment," he says, unbuttoning my coat and slipping it off. He does the same with his and tosses them over the back of a chair. He spins me so my back is to him and
A Bride For The Mafia King Big Auction Rotterdam
CallahanI'm back again. On the cold marble floor lying in a pool of my own blood. Men are yelling, my brothers sobbing. My sister, I didn't even see her. They killed her in her room.My mom...she's begging, pleading for the lives of her children. She's not even asking to be spared herself. But he doesn't care.He's laughing. I hear that too. And I open my eyes just enough to see him lying on top of her. To hear him breathe heavy while she lays still whimpering. He has the knife at her throat and this time when he says the words, he looks at me.Is that how it happened? Or is it my imagination perverting the memory.His mouth moves and his grin makes him look like a mad man. I hear the whisper, but not the words.Never the words.I know this dream. This nightmare.But then it shifts.The chaos is gone. No guns. No screaming women. No sobbing children.Words sound around me, making no sense. A man and a woman. An argument. Lights overhead too bright after so much dark. The smell is cli
A Bride For The Mafia King Blue Skies Forever
Portia"Wake up, Portia."I groan, trying to swipe away the hands shaking me."Come on. This is serious."When I register that it's Nathan, I blink my eyes open, rubbing them. He's in Callahan's bedroom and he looks anxious."Hey," I sit up, looking at the clock. Eight in the morning. “You're up early." I pull the covers up. I'm naked underneath."This has been bugging me for days. I wasn't sure and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but," he stops mid-sentence shaking his head."What is it?"He holds up the small framed photo of Elizabeth Scarfoni and her friend that had captured his attention the day of the wedding.God. That feels like a lifetime ago."What are you doing with that? Did you take it from Elizabeth's room?"He nods."I don't think you should go in there."“I think I know her.”"What? That's impossible, Nathan. She's dead. She's been dead for ten years.""No, not Elizabeth. The other girl."“The other girl?”“I know. It sounds crazy. Do you remember when they first killed m
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A Bride For The Mafia King epilogue
PortiaWe're lying in bed, Callahan's big arms around me. I'm curled into him, our heads resting on the same pillow.He's playing with a strand of my hair. I touch his unshaved face, liking the stubble."I would be dead if it wasn't for you," he says.I study him, thinking about what I need to tell him.“I didn't want to live afterward. I wanted to die. Even though I knew it would kill Antonio, I just couldn't. But then there you were, and you made me remember things. Made me feel things. Made me care again. Maybe you make me less selfish, Portia."“You've never been selfish, Callahan.”He shrugs a shoulder."I need to tell you something," I start. I take a breath in and lay on my back to stare up at the ceiling. He puts a hand on my belly. Slides it up to cup a breast.“I like this," he says. “I like a little more meat on you.""Well, I'm glad you think so." I sit up, put my pillow on my lap."What is it?" he asks, all serious when he sees my expression. He sits up too and takes the
A Bride For The Mafia King Love Is A Drug
PortiaHe also told me about Antonio, about him possibly being a product of rape. He's already sent DNA to a lab for a paternity test. We're waiting on the results."Petrov has disappeared. Diamente thinks he'd arranged the explosives to detonate after he left." I'd assumed the explosions were from Callahan's men, a distraction, but this makes much more sense."Why would he have done that?"Callahan shrugs a shoulder."Maybe he knew Felix and his fondness for cameras? Maybe he just hated the assholes present? Who knows? Who cares?""Who is he?""Russian businessman. That's all I've been able to get so far. But I'll find him.""We will find him," says a low, raspy voice from the bed.I gasp, turn my head. Callahan is beside the bed in an instant."Brother!"A doctor and two nurses rush in. They must have been alerted by the machines to Antonio's waking."Well, it's good to see you're awake, Mr. Scarfoni," the doctor says, smiling."I'd have opened my eyes earlier but these two were dec
A Bride For The Mafia King A New Dawn
PortiaI carry two cups of coffee into Antonio's room. Callahan is sitting across from his bed watching him. Maybe willing him to open his eyes. To wake up.Callahan is alive. Battered and bruised, his hearing comes and goes but he's alive. The blast had knocked him out. For a minute, I thought he was gone, really gone this time, but he's back.He looks over at me, stands. I take in the bandages I can see on his arms, his neck, the side of his head and I'm sure he does the same with mine.But it could be worse.I glance at Antonio.“You need to let the doctor look at you again,” I tell him."After." Smears of blood and dirt still stain his clothes and skin. I know most of it isn't his at least.He takes one of the cups of coffee and leads me to a chair. He sits down beside me, and we watch Antonio together.It's been twenty-seven hours since the house blew up.Twenty hours since Antonio came out of surgery.I don't know how many hours or days since David kidnapped me.I look at Callah
A Bride For The Mafia King Nine Lives
PortiaCallahan stands and helps me up."Don't look at him. He doesn't deserve your gaze."Antonio reads something on his phone, and I see the Glock he's holding at his side."Our men are on the grounds, not in the house yet though."I hear gunfire outside the house then, and a moment later, a small explosion.Callahan goes to the window, one arm wrapped around me, as he looks out over the front yard. I see the men out there, the gunfight. I notice the fire at the far end of the house.“We need to move," he tells Antonio, then turns his attention to me. "Is Felix on site?"“I don't know," I say.He nods. "If he is, I'll find him. But I need to get you out first." He holds my hand, and we walk around the bed to where the dead man is lying face down in his own blood. He bends to tug his knife out of the man's side.I notice the new injury on his side then. The bandage over the new set of stitches long gone. I touch it tentatively.“You're hurt."He takes my wrist, shifting his grip to m
A Bride For The Mafia King Back From The Dead
PortiaThe chains that bind my wrists to my ankles are removed and my arms are stretched overhead, bound to a metal rung on the headboard. I'm flipped onto my stomach, the cuffs clanging as I'm tugged downward. The link that hobbled me is also removed. My legs are pulled apart, stretched to either corner of the bed and linked to the rungs there.The two men responsible for preparing me, stand back and look down at me. One tugs the pillow out from under my head and shoves it beneath my belly. He nods, meets my eyes and cups his erection."I'll take your ass when it's my turn," he says in Spanish. "Save me a piece."I spit at him.He slaps my ass."Hey," the other soldier interrupts and points to the corner where I see one of those flashing red lights again. The camera is hidden but the soldiers know about it. They must be Felix's men."After."The man glances at the blinking light, nods then returns his attention to me. "If there's anything left."They walk out but don't close the door
A Bride For The Mafia King We
Portia"You won't be walking out of here tonight."Did she mean that literally?Because if this is Felix's plan for me, then I'll be fucked by every man out there in turn.I hear the woot of the onlookers once the curtain is fully raised. I can't see much of them and I think that's on purpose. The spotlight follows me even when I turn my head.A man calls out a ridiculous number and makes a lewd comment. Several laugh out loud as the auctioneer chuckles into his microphone, tapping his gavel twice to get everyone's attention.“You haven't even seen it all yet,” he notes in a sing-song voice.Two sets of hands take hold of my arms and force me to turn.When they do, I catch a glimpse of the blinking red light coming from the top corner of the room.Felix is recording this. Is it for me? Well, I should say is it for him?To show those who won't pledge loyalty to him what happens if you are his enemy? Or is it to hold onto after these men leave. Material to blackmail them when it suits h
A Bride For The Mafia King Lone Ranger
Callahan"I don't think..." the man starts then stops. "Shit!"I follow his gaze to where another vehicle drives erratically toward us from inside the gates. It's a large SUV and I can only make out the shadows of the two in the front seat. The driver honks his horn angrily."Petrov," the one with the clipboard says."Mother fucker," the other one curses.The driver lays on his horn opening his window and flipping us or the guards or the whole lot of us off as he barrels toward us and even over the music, I can hear him laughing."Fucking asshole," clipboard guy says as he jumps backward.I hit the gas and pull through the gates, only managing to miss the SUV by a hair. In the rearview mirror I see it swerve as if to run over the soldiers."Who the fuck is fucking Petrov?" Antonio asks."He's the asshole that got us in," I say once we're far enough away from the gates that I can't see the soldiers stationed there anymore."Two guards at the front door," Antonio says.I park the car wh
A Bride For The Mafia King Pound The Alarm
Callahan"Any chance we can get eyes on the estate? Gauge what we're walking into," I ask Diamente as we drive toward the location in Eindhoven. I watch the dark sky, the raindrops only a nuisance on the windshield now. Clouds are rolling angrily in the distance, illuminated by still-silent flashes of light.Dante is coordinating more manpower and Antonio is sitting beside me staring out the window, hands fisted."We can't get closer than the public road leading up to the house. They've got their own drones," Diamente says."Of course, they do."I have him on speaker phone but I'm not sure Antonio's listening."From what I've learned about past auctions, they issue, at most, two dozen invitations. In most cases, the buyer himself doesn't attend. They send someone in their place. None of these men want to be in the same room together if they can help it. None of them want to be seen.""Makes sense. How do they know what they're bidding on?""A brochure would have circulated prior to th
A Bride For The Mafia King Shocking Standoff
Portia“Which one started the crying fest here?" she asks, eyes on the girls.The guard who is responsible for the guilty one, pushes his charge forward.The woman steps toward her, cocks her head to look at her then touches her face, wiping away a tear. "Look what you've done to your face. Your makeup will have to be fixed, The others too."The girl swallows standing suddenly, very straight. I realize why when I see how the woman with the clipboard is holding her chin, nails digging into skin."But there's always one example to be made," the woman says and gestures to the other woman to step forward. “I'm going to give you a choice. Each of you sobbing will have the same choice to make if you're still crying like babies when I'm finished with this one."The one from the kitchen steps forward and raises her hand to show what she's holding. It's a large wooden paddle that I imagine can do real damage.“We'll need to make sure our customers understand there's a reason you're crying. Six
