Blood and Secrets 5 (The Calvetti Crime Family) Read online

  “Was that really fucking necessary, Carina?” Valentino asks, gripping her by the ankle. Without picking her up, he proceeds to drag her through the house.

  “Not really,” I say with a shrug. “But the bitch deserves it.”

  It still stings to be in here, even after all this time. The way my parents and Rossi treated me when I was here left a scar the size of Texas on my soul. It altered my mind. Made it damn near impossible to get close to anyone without my hackles rising.

  The moment we’re back in the hallway, I feel goose bumps break out across my flesh. My eyes train on the door that leads down to the basement, forcing memories to surface along with my unease. Memories I wish I could compartmentalize—push them back into the recesses of my mind, forgetting them for the rest of my days on this earth.

  A soft hand brushes across my lower back, causing my head to tip up and stare into Mateo’s bottomless, molten-chocolate eyes. A soft look graces his masculine, newly shaven face, making him appear younger than his almost thirty years. His eyes flick toward the door, then back to me, before he leans forward, pressing a chaste kiss against my temple. His lips are soft and warm against my clammy forehead, giving me the sense of calm that is always just so him.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he whispers.

  “Even if we leave, this place is always going to haunt me. Especially the things that … especially …” I stammer, trailing off.

  Pulling away, his eyes stare deeply into mine. Nothing else matters except him and me and what we mean to each other. “When this is all over, I promise you, Carina, that you will have your revenge against the people who lived here.”

  “How? They’re dead.”

  “There’s a match and a jug of gasoline with your name on it, babe. We’ll light this place on fire and watch it burn to the ground together. Because it’s you and me, and anything you want, I’ll move heaven and hell to make it happen.”

  I’m desperately trying to keep my emotions at bay, but it’s hard when everything around me reminds me of a time I would rather forget. A past that paved the way for the person I am today. That time of my life ruined any chance of me being normal; a woman who dreamed of falling in love and having a family of her own.

  The most I can hope for is not allowing myself to spiral out of control near the people I’ve grown a semblance of a relationship with, which makes any type of future I have to seem pretty bleak.

  Nodding my head, my stomach continues churning as we make our way to the back door. I try to focus on Mateo’s hand at the base of my spine, but nothing I do can take my mind off the true meaning of this house and the ground it sits on.

  The amount of torture I went through by the people who were supposed to love me the most. It eats me up inside knowing that, because of them, I’ll never be normal—that there will always be a part of my brain that revels in the sight of blood, death, and chaos.

  I know regular people don’t think like this. That they are hardwired to think differently—to want the best this life has to offer. I also know, without a doubt, that I’m not one of them. I don’t want a fancy, cozy little family to keep me warm at night. Family has done nothing but turn their backs on me and torture me since the day Luca left without a backward glance. They turned me into a cold-blooded killing machine with no morals or sense of right and wrong.

  They completely and utterly destroyed me. I’m nothing more than a husk. A person with a mind forced to stay on autopilot of pain and misery.

  That’s one of the reasons I refused to lose Mateo. It may have just started as a job between us, but now, I can feel more. He doesn’t treat me as if I’m some invalid. He treats me as an equal—a partner in life and in blood. He gets me. Even with all my hang-ups. I’d fight to the death for him, then walk across a bed of hot coals to go toe-to-toe with the devil himself.

  Falling in love with him was easy, now that I think about it. His mere presence ignited my soul the way no other ever has. He brought me back to life. Now, I’ll spend the rest of my life fighting for him. Because it’s the least I can do for someone who’s given me so much. For a person, even with his faults, was able to fall in love with someone who was never supposed to be capable of feeling such emotion.

  I just hope the weird feeling I have is wrong. That it’s only my overactive imagination. Because if I’m right … something tells me this is only the beginning.

  3

  MATEO

  Rain falls from the heavens, punishing everything in its path as we pull up to my lavish home. It’s the first rain of the season, signaling that spring isn’t too far behind. I should be ecstatic that winter is just a distant memory behind me, but I’m not. I’m too focused on the woman with her head in my lap as she sleeps peacefully. I’m too in tune to the other woman hog-tied in the back of the SUV, whimpering, and silently crying for her release.

  Since leaving Carina’s childhood home in the suburb, I’ve had nothing on my mind but wanting to torture Camille for everything she’s done to my familia. It’s like a compulsion—a necessity so fierce burrowed beneath my skin like a living entity.

  Secrets are a detriment to this life. But, when the secrets are about the people I’m closest to, I can’t help the need to eradicate them. To have everything out in the open, so I’m not taken by surprise when things come out of the woodwork to get even for an unidentified evil I didn’t know I committed. An unfamiliar threat I didn’t know I had.

  Running my fingers through my wife’s hair, I smile down at her as a sigh of pleasure slips past her lips. This is also an unknown I didn’t see coming, but one I wouldn’t change for the world. Carina completes me in ways I didn’t think anyone ever could. She gets me. She knows there’s a part of me that thrives on bloodshed, yet she takes me just as I am—scars and all.

  Leaning forward, I run my lips over the side of her face. Her skin is silky smooth under the pressure of my lips, and so warm it causes a breath to catch in my chest. She’s by far lovelier than I deserve, but I’ll prove to her every damn day that I can make her happy—that we can have a blissfully full life if we simply take it.

  “We’re home, baby,” I whisper, licking the shell of her ear. A cute little grunt escapes her, filling my heart to the point of bursting.

  “Take me to bed,” she mumbles sleepily.

  As much as I want to concede to her demand, there’s too much work ahead of us for that. More skeletons in our closet that needs to be aired out before we can have that blissful life I yearn for.

  “I have to do some work, but I won’t take long.”

  Her eyelids flutter open, catching on mine. I see so many questions swirling in her eyes, but she doesn’t voice them. Instead, she relents, nodding. Running my fingers down the side of her face, I genuinely smile when she leans into my touch, pressing her lips against the pad of my thumb.

  Without taking my eyes off her—like I could even if I wanted to—I order my brothers into action. “Take that bitch to the basement and meet me in my study in ten minutes.”

  After exiting the vehicle, I turn toward Carina and easily slip her into my arms. She’s small, fragile. Her body fits perfectly against mine. It amazes me how a woman this petite is a force to be reckoned with. How her might is so much more powerful than her physique.

  “I love you,” she says with a sigh of contentment.

  My heartbeat picks up in rhythm as I shut the door and start making my way inside, her words affecting me more than any ever have.

  Before her, I wasn’t anything like I am now. I was hard and sadistic and completely emotionally closed off to those around me. Before her, the only thing I cared about was getting off, making deals, and making sure those deals came to fruition. Now, with her in my life, it’s so much more.

  I’m still sadistic. Still, a hard-ass who doesn’t take excuses. Still a man with a long road ahead of me. Yet, I know she’ll be there. Through thick or thin, Carina will always be by my side.

  And I have no doubt I’m going to need tha
t anchor—that tether to this world—as I travel to the darkest parts of myself to figure out this clusterfuck of a mess I find myself in. I’m going to need her as I tap into that part of me that throws caution to the wind, as I kill my way through New York to find the person threatening my familia’s life.

  Staring straight ahead, my chest swells as a wave of protectiveness threatens to swallow me whole. “I love you, too.”

  It takes everything in me to leave Carina in our bed, alone, while I head back downstairs to take care of some business. Shit has been going on for long enough, and it’s time to get to the bottom of things. For starters, Valentino. Who is that man? Why did my familia seem so at ease around him? Why did Carina seem so at ease being near him?

  Stepping into my office, the chatter instantly dies down around me. Half a dozen sets of eyes beam at me as I make my way around my desk, instantly noting the absence of Vinny’s laptop. It momentarily stuns me, but I don’t show it as I take my seat. With my nerves on overdrive, I open a drawer to my left and lift my box of marijuana out. Quickly rolling a blunt, I put it between my lips and strike the lighter.

  Inhaling deeply, I turn my attention to my brothers. “Where is Vin’s laptop?”

  “Where it belongs,” Valentino inserts, stepping forward. “It didn’t belong here after his demise, and I confiscated it.”

  I don’t like the way his words come off as if he’s better than me. It strikes a chord that instantly flips my bastard switch. “And who the fuck are you?” I ask, taking another hit.

  “Valentino Bianchi,” he states as I slowly exhale the sweet smoke from my lungs. “You may know me by John Stewart.”

  Narrowing my eyes, my gaze travels from his head all the way down to his feet. Bringing my eyes back up to his, I cock a brow. “Come again?”

  Craning his neck to the side, he breaks eye contact with me to stare at Dom. “Do I really have to go through this shit again?”

  Shrugging his shoulders, Dom tears his eyes away from Valentino, smirking. “Shouldn’t have kept yourself in the dark for so long, bitch.”

  Valentino releases a sigh of exasperation before bringing his eyes back to mine as I slowly puff on the joint, feeling myself marginally calm with each inhale. “I was tasked with protecting you since the night your mother died. The papa has a vested interest in you, though he won’t tell me why. No one knows, for that matter. Nevertheless, you have been my charge since that night, and I’ve stopped countless people from getting their hooks in you. Carina, before she switched sides, slid under my radar.”

  “Slid under your radar?” I ask, chuckling. “Her brother accepted a contract for my head years ago, and she just slipped under your radar.”

  “I couldn’t blow my cover, boy!” Valentino yells. “I was only supposed to intervene if you were put in harm’s way. You weren’t because I saw for myself the way Carina changed. You didn’t know I was there, but I was. I saw everything—even the most intimate parts between you all—to make sure you were in capable hands. How was I supposed to know that you’d allow your dumb ass to get taken by Camille?”

  Anger claws at me to be set free. It wants a piece of Valentino for the shit job he’s been doing since my mother’s demise. If he was assigned to protect me, then he should have damn well been doing just that. Not portraying himself as a lousy, no-count lawyer that can’t get shit done.

  His face blankets in anger. “That bitch had connections I didn’t think anyone outside the brotherhood had. She knows things and exploits them to her advantage. While I was busy blending in, taking over John’s life after I snuffed his out, she slipped through the cracks. Her name isn’t even Camille Vandercliff, for Christ’s sakes. It’s Camille DeRossini, and I’ve yet to find out her fucking connection to all of this.”

  Slipping forward in my seat, my brows furrow in confusion. “DeRossini?” Why the fuck is that name so familiar?

  Closing my eyes, I mentally start flipping through the people I’ve met through the years. Their names and faces speed by on the back of my eyelids. I feel like I should know that name from somewhere. In my world, if you’re not top dog, your last name holds no weight. Instead, you align yourself with a familia, then use their name as collateral when doing your business. Eventually, the last name you were given at birth doesn’t make a bit of difference if you aligned yourself with a familia of power. It’s hard to place a face with the name, but I know I’ve met someone with that surname before.

  Tension fills the room, becoming denser the longer I keep my eyes cinched tight. I hear my brothers barely whispering amongst themselves, but I’m too invested in figuring it out to pay attention. It isn’t until a face I know too well flashes before my eyes. The sound of his voice slithering its way through my memory, jogging it like the man that stopped by when Camille was keeping me in Carina’s house.

  Jerking open my eyes, every ounce of hatred I possess courses through my veins. “Adriano!” Jumping out of my seat, I square off with Valentino. “You mean to tell me all this time our father’s right-hand man had a kid we didn’t even know existed?”

  “What are you talking about?” Valentino asks, suddenly alert.

  “Adriano’s last name is DeRossini,” I say. “The only reason he goes by Calvetti is because of our connection—how close he is to my father. No one knows his true last name except for members of the Calvetti familia. We did that because without our name, what he says holds no weight in our world. He’s piggybacking off our reputation!”

  I’m practically frothing at the mouth for revenge. The treachery feels like a punch to the gut. He’s supposed to protect and council our father in decisions. He’s supposed to be one hundred percent devoted to our familia, never going against us.

  “Mateo,” Dom says, his voice unsteady. “If Camille is his daughter, then …”

  No. Fucking. Way. The realization nearly brings me to my knees. It can’t be. What Camille said is wrong, and I’m going to punish her for it. Because there’s no way I can be connected with a traitorous, pathetic pussy like Adriano DeRossini!

  “Then if what Camille said is right, that means I’m his son,” I release, feeling the walls close in around me. “The son of a traitor.”

  4

  CARINA

  Feeling the bed dip beneath me, it wrestles me from sleep to see Mateo’s silhouette crawling toward me—prowling, more like it. I don’t move, let alone breathe, as his figure gets closer and closer, his nearness prickling against my skin. The moment his face is bathed in silvery rays from the moon, my heart starts pounding inside my chest. The look in his eyes is feral, heated—closed to half-mast as they peruse my body with obvious desire.

  His eyes stay on mine as he grabs the duvet hiding my naked body. His eyes hungrily eat me up as each inch of velvety skin greets his gaze. I nearly come undone as he licks his lips, then takes his bottom lip between his teeth, biting it, as his eyes continue to roam over my body. It’s been so long since I’ve had my husband. I’m nearly a weeping puddle of wetness saturating the sheets.

  “I want my wife,” he seduces, his words nothing more than a growl that hits me between my thighs, like it has a direct link to my arousal.

  “Come and take me,” I reply breathlessly, feeling a subtle ache beginning to build in my core.

  Regardless of my words, Mateo will do what he wants. It’s what I like most about him. He doesn’t take no for an answer, and he’s the most unapologetic man I’ve ever met. It’s a complete turn on when a man makes no excuses for the things he wants. And right now, he wants me. All of me. The piece of his world that’s been missing since he was taken.

  “Spread your legs.”

  I did. Without hesitation.

  My heart drums out a hurried pace in my chest, fiercely overpowering me with a feeling of anticipation for his next touch. Reaching into his jacket, I hear a click, my eyes widening as he removes his gun from his holster. Putting it on the bedside table, he rests his full weight on top of me. It feels so good to feel him a
gainst me, even if he’s still fully clothed. As if on autopilot, I wrap my arms and legs around him. His eyes darken with lust, searching my face as if he’s trying to memorize every single inch of my flesh.

  Still completely and impeccably clothed, my nails dig into the skin at the base of his neck as he trails his lips over the column of my throat, just barely touching me, teasing me.

  My skin is on fire; my body buzzing with awareness. I’m so needy, the merest touch makes me want to collapse and beg for mercy.

  I can’t recall the moment I became so addicted to him—to his touch, his taste, his smell, and his soft, sexy words he whispers in my ear as he’s owning me—but I have. I’ve become so hooked on him that I can’t even fathom a life without the silver-tongued bastard.

  His tongue flicks over my earlobe as his hand moves down my stomach, teasingly light as the tips of his fingers barely brush across my heated skin. His rough, calloused fingers cause goose bumps to break out across my flesh as I thrash under him. “How much do you want me, baby?”

  More than words can ever describe. “Just touch me.”

  I yearn for that connection between us. Ever since Liam and Jake forced themselves on me, I haven’t felt the same. I’ve been withdrawn, distant. My body needing the one it calls home to take away the memory of Liam rutting against me.

  His firm grip captures my chin in his hands, tilting my head toward him. The moment my eyes meet his, I barely make out his form with the absence of the moon shining through the windows. “I said, how much do you want me?”

  “I want you with everything I have in me,” I whisper breathlessly. “I want you to take away what they did to me before I killed them and replace it with all of you.”

  His eyes harden momentarily as if he’s processing what I just said. “What who did to you?”

  “Liam and Jake.” Tears burn at the back of my eyes as I see that distant, cold look wash over his features. He doesn’t look surprised, probably because that bitch told him exactly what they were going to do, and he just didn’t believe her until now.