Saved Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Gavin
“You look like shit,” Sean remarks when I walk into the living room. He’s sitting next to Freddy, the two of them checking something on their phones. “I thought that getting laid would make you into a nicer person.”
“He didn’t get laid,” Freddy offers helpfully. “I cockblocked him. Or, rather, the news about Nick Prince did.”
“What a fucking dick.” Sean grins at me and pats the seat next to him on the sofa. “Come on, brother.”
Shaking my head, I stalk into the kitchen and pour us each some whiskey. It’s a little early in the day to start drinking, but not when you’re dealing with as much shit as we are. We have to figure out how to keep Clara here and safe and make sure that Nick doesn’t realize that we have her.
That I have her. I fucked up by taking her from the strip club in front of so many people and now I have to fix it.
Handing my brothers their glasses, I sit down across from them. “What do we know?”
Sean speaks right up. “Nick had someone out looking for Clara all this time, I guess. They might have found out where she was before you took her but it must not have been until you pulled your little stunt last night. We don’t know if they were waiting to move on her or everything happened too quickly for them to get their shit together.”
“But it doesn’t matter,” Freddy interjects. “The facts are that they know she was there, they know she’s not now, and they’re going to be looking for who took her. That’s you,” he adds, pointing at me like I don’t already know it. “So you have some decisions to make.”
I know exactly where he’s going with this. “I’m not giving her up.” Even the thought of letting Clara go is enough to make my back stiffen. I can’t handle the thought of letting go somewhere else, of letting anyone else get near her. She belongs to me. I knew it from the first time that I saw her.
She might not think that she’s anything special, and she might think that she can just run away from whatever problems she has in her life, but that’s not the way it is any longer. I’m never letting her run away from me, no matter how badly she might want to.
Sean shrugs. “You could, though. You could let her go and let Nick do whatever he wants with her. You’d be out of it and wouldn’t have to worry about whatever shit he’s going to pull. It’s the best way to protect the family.”
“Yeah? Is that what this is about?” I stare at my two brothers, doing my best to read them. We don’t always see eye-to-eye, but we always have each other’s backs, no matter what. It hasn’t ever mattered in the past what we need from each other, we’re there. “You two really telling me to get rid of her so that we can just ignore whatever problem might come our way? Fuck that.”
I’m pissed and about to stand up and storm out of the room to sink my cock into her little cunt when Freddy laughs.
“Fuck, Sean, you trying to give our brother a heart attack? Sit down, Gavin, he’s fucking with you. We know what this girl means to you or you wouldn’t have brought her all the way across the damn country. We’re here for you, but you’re fun to fuck with.” Freddy drains his drink and pours himself some more from the bottle on the coffee table between us.
“Seriously, Gavin, you looked like you were about to have a heart attack.” Sean grins at me.
“Fuck you both.”
“Isn’t that your captive’s job?” Sean leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees like he really wants to look me in the eyes. “Seriously, though, brother, what’s the game plan here? You tell us what you need from the two of us and you know that we have your back. We just need to know what we can do to help.”
Good. Sighing, I sit back and run my hand through my hair. If my two asshole brothers weren’t going to help me then I’d be pretty fucked, but I feel better knowing that they were just being dicks. I can handle them wanting to just see me squirm, even though it pisses me off a little bit that they thought it was okay.
“I need information on Nick,” I say, tapping my fingers on my leg. “I reached out to Johnny Accardi for whatever information he can dig up for me, and as soon as he gets back with me, I’ll let you two know what he has to say. Right now I think that I just need to hunker down with her and make sure that she stays safe. If Nick shows his head around here, of course I’ll kill him, but I doubt that he will.”
“He will.” Clara’s voice is soft but I whip around like someone just fired a gun next to my head. She’s dressed in the clothes I gave her, standing in the doorway that leads to the hall. Her hands are held in front of her body like she’s not sure what to do with them and she gives me a small smile.
“He will what?” Freddy asks.
I can’t tear my eyes away from her while I wait for her to respond. She’s gorgeous, finally relaxed and peaceful, although I can see an undercurrent of fear running through her.
“He will come for me if he knows where I am.” She takes another step into the room but pauses like something’s holding her back from coming any farther. “The contract with my dad was pretty ironclad and he won’t just let me run away from it. If he’s still looking for me after all this time then that should tell you something.”
“You think that he’d come here and try to take you?” It sounds ridiculous and I want to hear it from her to make sure that I’m really understanding her correctly. “He’d risk coming to the house to try to take you from me? Is he stupid?”
“He’s not stupid. He’s cruel and dangerous, but not stupid.” Clara chews on her lower lip for a moment. “He’s also rich, so he has access to weapons and people that are going to be willing to do whatever it is that he wants them to do.”
“We’re rich,” I tell her, and I notice the surprise in her eyes. “Trust me, Clara, there isn’t a damn thing that he could buy that I couldn’t buy, too. The money isn’t the problem for me. It’s the fact that he’s cocky enough to think that he’ll be able to take you back from me.”
The two of us fall silent for a moment and then Sean clears his throat. Even though I don’t want to take my eyes off of Clara, I turn to look at my brother.
“Are you sure that she should be walking free right now? You seem awfully confident, brother.”
“I’m right here,” Clara snaps, but I hold up my hand to stop her.
“She’s fine right now,” I tell Sean. “When we leave the house I’ll make sure that she’s safe.”
“Safe.” She spits the word at the back of my head like it’s a dagger she wants to use to hurt me. “You mean locked up, am I right? I’m safe here, according to you, but you don’t like the thought of me running free.”
That’s it. I can handle a lot of things from her, especially since I know how sweet she tastes and how much more I want to take from her, but she’s not going to talk to me like that. Standing, I whip around and close the gap between the two of us before she can respond.
“Listen, Clara,” I say, taking her by the arm and pulling her down the hall with me. “You want to run your sweet little mouth? Tough shit. But I have something much better that you can do with it if you’re bored.”
Her face is pale. She was so willing to suck my cock a short period ago but now that I’m actually going to make it possible for her, she sure doesn’t have much to say.
“Fine, then. You can’t stand there and act like that in front of anyone, do you understand? My goal is to keep you safe, Clara, but that doesn’t mean that you get free reign of my house to be a cunt.”
She sucks in a gasp at that and turns to face me, digging her heels into the rug by my bed. I want to throw her onto the bed and fuck some sense into her, but her wide eyes make me stop to listen to her.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she says, clawing at my arm. “Seriously, Gavin, don’t hurt me. You could, but don’t.”
“I have no desire to hurt you,” I tell her. “Don’t you get that? I’m going to keep you safe. Don’t you worry one bit, Clara, nothing will be able to get you in here.”
There are four doors leading out of my bedroom. One to the hall, one to the bathroom, another to the closet, and a fourth door that I lead her to. She’s crying now, shaking her head and trying to get me to let go of her, but my fingers sink hard into her arm as I pull her with me.
“Don’t do it,” she begs, yanking back on my arm. “Please, Gavin, this isn’t who you are! You’re better than this, I know it! If you’re going to do anything to me, just put me back in the basement, but don’t put me in there!”
“You think that I’m better than this?” I stop, one hand on the doorknob, and stare at her. “You think that you’re going to work your way out of this one by telling me that I’m better than this? Oh, Clara, you have no idea who I am, yet, do you? I’m not better than this. I was trying to be, but if you’re going to push my buttons then I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe.”
She’s going to argue, I know it, so I throw open the door and shover her inside. Almost immediately, her back hits the other wall and she tries to spring out at me, but I slam the door shut and lock it, reaching up to engage the three other locks that hold it tight. Once they’re locked, I slip the key into my pocket and step back.
She’s screaming, I’m sure of it, but I can’t hear her. She can just cool off a little bit in there, it’s not like I’m going to leave her for very long.
Just long enough to get her head on straight. Just long enough for her to realize that I’m the best damn option that she has to staying alive and in one piece.
Now that I know she’s safe, I have some other shit to deal with. Nick Prince may think that he can just waltz in here and take her, but that’ll never happen.
