Wounded Redemption by Brook Wilder
Chapter 10
Nico
Rory was silent all the way back to the penthouse, and I was glad. I was too pissed off to carry on a conversation about what had just happened, not believing the gall of my father and of the fucking DA to show up uninvited to the funeral of the man that they had both gotten killed.
Though I believed that my father was personally responsible for Harper’s death. Preston had just helped him along.
I knew what he was doing. He was trying to insert his presence into our lives, remind us that he was still in charge, and it fucking pissed me off. One bullet. That was all it would take to take him down, yet the moment I did that, I would be putting Rory and Anthony in danger.
Fuck me, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go all out and kill the bastard without an actual plan, one that seemed to fail at every turn.
It wasn’t until we arrived in the penthouse and Rory was holding our son that she looked at me. “I can’t do this,” she said quietly, her eyes downcast.
My fucking heart stilled in my chest. “What can’t you do?” I couldn’t lose her now.
“I can’t fight your father like this, Nico,” she whispered, her eyes finding mine. “I don’t know what I’m doing or if we can even do anything to take him down! Preston came today to taunt me, though I don’t think he was expecting Carmine to be there. What if your father thinks I have said something? He will come after Anthony and me and you.”
I was at her side in a minute, gathering them both into my arms. “Shh,” I said, pressing my lips to her temple. “It’s going to be all right. I swear it.”
She trembled in my arms. “Do you really believe that, Nico? How can it be all right? Your father wants to kill us!”
Anthony started to cry, and Rory moved out of my arms to soothe him, going through the motions of getting his bottle while I stripped off my coat. She was right. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be all right. Hell, I didn’t even know what to do now. I had a thought, a plan that would hit my father where it hurt the most, but the moment I executed that plan, I had to be ready for him to come after me. It was going to be something he didn’t see coming, something that he thought I didn’t have the fucking balls to do.
This was about revenge, not proving myself to my father. He had tried to run my life for long enough.
We spent the next hour getting Anthony settled and in the arms of the waiting Tilda before departing to our bedroom to change out of the funeral attire. The moment the door closed, I locked it, leaning against the wood. “You did good today,” I told Rory as she stepped out of her heels. “You stood up to him and didn’t react.”
“I wanted to kill him,” she answered, her hands clenched at her sides. “I wanted to take my knife and ram it into his gut for even getting into my personal space.”
I pushed away from the door, crossing the room to take her arms in my hands. “I know, and you will have your chance. We have to stick together from now on. He’s not done. We aren’t the monsters, Rory.”
She sighed, biting her lip. “I know. I just want this to be over, Nico. I want to have a normal life.”
I snorted. “You married me. Nothing is normal about that.”
A hint of a smile played on her lips. “You’re right. I can’t be normal if I married you.”
In a flash, I had her off the floor and on the bed. “What are you doing?” Rory squealed, pushing at my chest lightly.
I ran my hand up her leg, pausing just under her pencil skirt. “I’m about to ravish you.”
Rory laughed. “Oh my God, Nico. You sound like a cheesy romance novel!”
“Hey, it works in the books,” I grinned. “Why not try it on my wife?” More importantly, I had gotten her to laugh, and some of the tension eased in my chest. My wife shouldn’t be worried about matters such as her father-in-law wanting to kill her or the war that was brewing.
She should be laughing, smiling, gasping my name, all of which I planned to have her do this afternoon.
“Tell me,” I said as I slid my hand over her knee, pushing up her skirt in the process. “When is the last time I tasted you?”
“Nico, we don’t have time for this,” she stammered as her creamy thighs came into view.
“Oh, fuck yeah, we do,” I countered, my cock hardening as I caught a glimpse of her black lace panties. “In fact, my calendar is clear for the rest of the day.”
I heard her sharp intake of breath as my mouth replaced my fingers on her thigh, her arousal hitting my senses full force. We both needed this, a chance to forget, even if for a little while.
Her hands found my hair and I knew I had won, moving my mouth up her leg and placing it directly in the center of her already wet panties.
“Nico,” she gasped, trying to move. “This is crazy.”
I clamped my hands onto her hips and held her in place, my tongue dragging over her slit. She tasted like heaven and sin all wrapped into one, and I wanted more.
I needed more.
I removed a hand long enough to hook my finger to the side of her panties and haul them aside, exposing her glistening mound. “Fucking gorgeous,” I told her before leaning in for a taste.
Rory whimpered as I delved in, teasing her until her hands clenched tightly in my hair, holding me in place.
I knew what she wanted, and I was going to give it to her.
Her legs tightened around my head, and she arched against my intrusion, panting my name. “Nico, I’m close.”
I removed my mouth long enough to look at her. “Then let go, Rory.” I wanted her to flood my mouth with her release, to coat my tongue with nothing more than the taste of her.
She screamed my name as the orgasm overtook her, bucking against my mouth. I groaned as her flood burst onto my tongue, coating her entrance for my cock.
Fuck, Rory was going to make me come in my pants.
Once her body quit shaking, I stood beside the bed, yanking my shirt over my head and reaching for my pants. “I want to fuck you,” I told her. “Until we can’t remember who we are.”
“Oh God,” she whispered, watching with lidded eyes as I removed my pants. She was still fully dressed, but it was going to take too long for me to remove her clothing.
I needed to be inside her.
Dragging her panties down her legs, I threw them aside and grabbed her ankles, pulling her to the end of the bed. “You are going to feel every inch of me,” I said as I positioned myself.
“Nico, please,” she begged, trying to reach for me. I hooked her legs on my shoulders and slid into her, groaning as her tight sheath swallowed my cock. Inch by inch, I felt her contract around me, her warmth sliding across my sensitive skin, and knew I was going to embarrass myself this time.
I couldn’t stand it. She was so fucking tight, so fucking wet that all I could think about was having her quivering around me as I pounded into her.
So that was what I did. I angled her hips until she was sobbing my name, orgasm after orgasm racking her body while I gritted my teeth and held onto mine. “Fuck,” I finally said, clenching my jaw as I pounded into her. “I can’t.”
Her eyes flew open, and she stared me down, her hands clenching into the sheets on the bed. “Nico.”
“Rory!” I answered her in a hoarse shout, spilling my seed into her. I felt it clear to my toes, collapsing on top of her a moment later. “Fuck, I love you.”
She let out a little laugh. “I would hope so, after that, and I love you too.”
This was all that mattered, this overwhelming love between us, and I would fight to the very end to keep it.
**
I barely heard the chime of my cell phone later on, drowsily lifting my head off Rory’s chest. “Leave it,” she murmured, her hands finding my hair.
“I wish I could,” I said, rising reluctantly to locate my cell in my coat pocket. It was Vincent, and I swiped to answer the call. “This better be fucking good.”
“You must be busy,” he said dryly. “Preston Roberts was found dead outside the NYPD thirty minutes ago.”
I looked over at Rory, who must have seen the look on my face, for she sat up. “What is it?” she asked immediately.
“Preston is dead,” I answered.
“Deader than a doornail,” Vincent supplied. “What do you want to do, boss?”
We didn’t need to talk about who had killed the DA. I was 99 percent sure it was my father, likely Elias carrying out his missive. Preston had fucked up by coming to the funeral today, and my father had carried out the plan that he had assured us would be a show of solidarity.
Apparently that was shit too. “You know what to do,” I said to Vincent before ending the call. What my father didn’t know was that I had my own plans, not fucking trusting anything he had said or any promises he had made to my wife.
“Nico,” Rory started, swallowing hard as I rejoined her in bed. “What are we going to do?”
I smoothed her hair back from her face. “We are going to lie in this bed and wait.”
She arched a brow. “Wait for what?”
An evil grin crossed my face. “Wait for the shit to hit the fan, love.”
“But your father is sending that as a message,” she started as I got her to lean against me this time, my hand tangled in her hair. “He’s coming.”
“He won’t be after a while,” I stated, clenching my jaw. My father had forced my hand, and I was about to show him I wasn’t as weak as he thought I was.
An hour later, my cell rang again, and this time, I put it on speakerphone so Rory could hear. “It’s done,” Vincent replied. “He’s dead.”
Rory looked at me with wide eyes, and I knew she was thinking I had killed my father. “Elias,” I told her, wishing I could hand my father’s head on a platter to her. The time would come, but right now, I had taken out his minion, cutting off his circulation to the NYPD. Now my father would have to rely on others to do his business or handle it himself.
“Oh my God,” Rory breathed. “You killed him?”
“Technically, I did,” Vincent spoke up. “But who’s looking at the facts anyway?”
I ended the call before my second-in-command could get any cockier, taking Rory’s shaking shoulders in my hands. “An eye for an eye,” I said softly, searching her gaze. “Not for the fucking DA, but for Harper.” I had conveniently come across some information right before the funeral that had implicated Elias in killing Harper, so this hit was only sweeter knowing I had taken out Harper’s killer.
“He killed Harper?”
I nodded. “And now he’s dead.”
Rory swallowed a few times before she threw herself at me. “Thank you, Nico. Thank you.”
I loosed a breath, glad that my wife wasn’t running away screaming in terror. I was a fucking monster, but it was because I wanted to ease her pain.
Now the real fight was about to be on.
