PUSH: Ultra Alpha MMA Badboy Mafia Romance (Southside Brotherhood Book 2) (13 page)

She blew out a breath, watching him put the raw, pink meat between his lips. It took her a long second to get her stomach to give her the go ahead to say anything else.

“Good. I’m very pleased with your work ethic. You truly are a genius of an order I’ve not experienced before. This is new ground for the family. You will usher us all into a world of legitimacy and a level of wealth that will give us a position of power that has eluded us. I’m quite enthused.”

You look it.

“Well, I’m just happy to be a cog in the wheel of such an honorable undertaking.”

Colin tapped his knife on the edge of the porcelain plate, staring her down.

For a second, Lilly could hear her mother’s voice. Urging her to yield to the tradition, to find something to love, or even like about her soon-to-be husband.

If he never opened his mouth, he would be nice to look at. I’ll give him that. Older, sure. But god, when he starts to talk, everything that could be considered attractive evaporates like mist off a bog. How could I have been so naive? So fooled by him all those visits back home. Was I so superficial I was swept off my feet by a complete lunatic? A sociopath in an Armani suit? No. He was different then. He played his part so well; he truly is a sick man.

“Why do you think our families make arrangements such as ours?” Colin set down his fork and knife, his hands folded casually across his dark suit.

“Is this a trick question?” Lilly stabbed at her flavorful iceberg lettuce, putting a larger than polite gob into her mouth with an overzealous
“ummmmm”
while staring back at Colin.

Her mother’s voice echoed again in her head, telling her to play nice, to try to make it work, for all of them.

Colin let out his usual sigh of irritation, and she felt the skin on the back of her neck tighten.

“All right. You and I, we have a job to do. Your intelligence precludes you from accepting your fate and quietly enjoying the privileges it would provide. You are far from a naive village girl, gleeful to be living in such luxury without a thought as to what you may have to give in exchange. So, here is my suggestion, for tonight, lay down your arms and I will do the same. Ask me what you will. I will answer you, and let us try to find a civil place where we can dwell for the next twenty years as husband and wife. What is it you want?”

Lilly felt the heat rising in her cheeks.

This was new, but she bore no new trust from this suggested offer of a truce. Still, she was intrigued, and her mind scurried around thinking of how to approach this new battlefield.

“Okay. I’ll bite. Why do we have to get married? I mean, I can do the work, finish your project without the marriage. It’s superfluous.”

Colin looked bored already.

“Your father and I have an agreement. That is why. In our own way, we are honorable men. He wants you here —” Colin waved a hand toward the crystal chandelier and hand-painted Italian fresco that covered the domed plaster ceiling of the enormous dining room. “— secure within the family. He thinks it is what is best for you and all of us. Bringing our families together can only help us all prosper. For too many years, we worked against each other. Now, working together, everyone will prosper.”

“Everyone?”

“
Yes.
Everyone, including
you.
You are a valuable asset. An asset that with our union will free my family from a long-standing debt with yours. Mistakes were made. Debts owed.

“It was before my time, but that doesn’t make it not so. By taking you as my wife, Topher agrees to clear the debt — the mistake
—
and all of us can move on. Besides, he does not have the same connections and, shall we say, sophistication to pull off such a legitimate business venture. The development of this new software will create a chain of events that, hopefully, results in an IPO that should solidly place us in the field of legitimate legal gambling. A social network megaplex for online bets, from weekly football to online poker. With your genius, it will launch us into another world.”

“So, all those times you came to visit. All the flowers and gifts, the promises to my mother, none of that meant anything to you. It was all just part of the game. You need me to clear your family debt, whatever that is, and my father needs you to bring him into the twenty-first century. So, I get ignored for the first 16 years of my life, then, when I show some monetary value, suddenly everyone wants a piece of me. I feel so loved.”

“And you need me to give you the one thing you want most.”

“The thing you promised to give her when I got on that plane and agreed to marry you. Well, someone who looked like you at least. Because, we both know, whoever that was who courted me, made all those visits and promises, that wasn’t you.”

“I haven’t broken my promise. I have simply delayed its execution. And, the longer you take to complete your part of the terms, the more likely it will be that your mother will die without ever receiving what I offered.”

“Yes, but the ‘terms’ changed when I got here. And so did you.”

“Well, we are where we are, Lilly. Just finish the job. You have not exactly been the smiling, gracious country girl I first met either.” Colin turned from indifferent to annoyed. “I will pay for your mother’s treatment, just as I said I would. Set her up with the best of the best. You are the one who holds her fate in your hands. Finish the work. And all— ”

He apparently became too bored to even finish the sentence. All this civility obviously wearing him out. He picked up his fork and stabbed another pink morsel of lamb, and Lilly swallowed the rush of sick heat.

Deep breath. Go. This one’s for you, Mom.

“Okay. I get it,” Lilly said.

She felt the wheels grinding inside her head, but she could feel the iron door was still open a crack.

“I haven’t given you the best of me,” Lilly went on. “I’ll admit that. I’m not all that easy to get along with, and I’ve been playing the righteously indignant part until I’m even tired of myself. So, I will do my job, as I have been. I’ll stop some of the sniping, the pouting, and indignation. But, I want some more freedom. I mean, you have two cavemen on me like I’m on suicide watch. I do know how to drive, you know. Let me cart myself around now and then — I’ve seen that cavern full of cars. I’ll take the little Nissan. I don’t care about what I drive, but give me a little freedom. Where will I go? To work, then home, work, then home. It’s not like I have an active social life here. You’re pretty much my only friend.”

Lilly let her sarcastic hook hang there while she held another huge bite of salad on her fork in front of her smirking grin.

After all, he had to appreciate her honesty.

And humor. Right?

After a moment of his intense stare, Colin cracked what would have looked like a smile on any other face.

He’s taking the bait
.

“You realize what will happen if you break my trust.”

It wasn’t a question, and Lilly didn’t bother to respond. They both gave the other a glance before dropping their eyes and finishing their dinners without another word.

***

She’s here, close, and I’m sitting in this fucking office like a pussy waiting to report to the dick-tator. Why the fuck are some people allowed to breed? Father… Right.

When Flynn drove away from Southside around six o’clock, his phone began to jet off like there was some damn hijacking or something. When he finally got sick of the constant annoying dinging and buzzing, he found he was being summoned for a debriefing with the king of the dickheads.

“I’m coming, shit for brains.” Flynn spoke to no one as he answered the text demanding his presence with a clipped
‘Yah.’

Ignoring the next reply of annoyance from his father, Flynn thought at least he would have a sanctioned reason to be inside the house. He knew waiting was no longer an option, and his father had just given him an invitation to start his plan of action without having to climb up tree limbs and gutters this time.

Returning to his father’s office filled Flynn with memories of sitting in this old, ass-brown, tufted, hard-as-fuck arm chair when he could barely see over the edge of the mountainous walnut desk, listening to his father berate him on a multitude of his shortcomings.

As Flynn grew up, he did his best to hold back his vitriol, to take on Colin’s defamations and sarcasm in stoic silence. For a lifetime, it was the only parental attention he’d known. And, in some deep, empty part of himself, he craved something, some attachment to the man he called father.

Since Lilly arrived, that empty hole inside of him had begun to warm — to spin and whirl and create a craving like a tweaker for their next hit.

So unfamiliar.

So desperate.

And now, as he sat, he felt nothing — at least when it came to his father. Long gone were the twinges of hope for something resembling a relationship.

Instead, his mouth watered. The hard muscles in the tops of his thighs twitched and his palms warmed.

He could hear it, hear her.

Barely audible through the thick walls and 200-pound carved doors. But, it was there, and it stuck like a cold knife as the ivory keys danced under her fingertips.

She’s so fucking close
.

He blew out a breath, trying to silence the voice in his head.

Waiting had never been his strength, and since she’d arrived, he’d lost all interest in dipping into anyone else.

There was no more relief for the natural urge to fuck. There never had been anyone he’d wished for twice. But now, even a quick tension relieving blowjob held no sway.

He’d tried. After all, his dick hadn’t fallen off the day she arrived; it was his brain that ran roughshod off the damn tracks.

A mere month after the fire-haired, Irish imp had tangled her way into his life, he’d fought against her scent and her face in his dreams at night. He’d figured he could get rid of the itch by scratching it good and hard on someone else.

After all, he’d never felt this kind of itch before.

So, after four weeks of wondering what bus just ran him over, Flynn knew what he needed was a good, no-strings fuck.

When a ring whore stood half-naked inside the locker room after some bullshit un-sanctioned fight one night, Flynn sniffed and tipped his head toward the showers before running his hand through his sweat soaked hair as it fell in strips on his forehead

She followed, no questions. They always did.

Only, this time, he sent her back with her pussy still wet without ever bending her skinny ass over and trying to scratch the itch he couldn’t reach.

Fuck, what the fuck is wrong with me?

That was the last time he entertained the thought of anyone else.

Sitting here now, he couldn’t ignore Lilly’s pull, she was a gravitational force and he knew she was there from the soft sound of the piano playing three rooms away.

Unable to fight it anymore, he was on his feet, halfway across the Turkish rug when the door to the office flung open, and Flynn felt the air in the room turn to rat shit stink.

“Good. Sit down. How was the gym? Did you see anything unusual? Any signs they may be packing up, taking their little shit show down the tracks? Any decent talent?” Colin unbuttoned his jacket, pushed some papers to the side and sat down without meeting Flynn’s eye.

With a sigh, Flynn dropped back down into that family chair in front of the desk.

“No. It’s a dump, but no one looks like they are going anywhere. Good, old guy there. Knows his shit. I may just learn something. Work out this little memory.” Flynn raised his left arm and he felt the tight skin around the scar pull as he moved.

“Don’t get any ideas of becoming some unknown rising star.” Colin finally looked up from the paperwork on the desk to give Flynn a dead stare. “Sooner or later, they will find out who you are, so don’t draw attention. Stay mediocre, you’re good at that.”

Flynn shook his head. The sound of the piano stopped, and he felt his shoulders tense.

Hurry the fuck up. I’ve got more important things to do here tonight. Like, save your future bride from you. Show her what it’s like to have someone who cares more than his own damn life, what happens to her.

“I already called in to Topher,” Flynn said, trying to move the conversation to its conclusion. “It’s his damn gig over there. So, are we done?” Flynn fought to stay in his seat as both his legs vibrated and shook.

“What’s wrong with you? Is there something else you need to tell me?”

“No. I’m just doing what I’m told. You know me, I’m just an obedient soldier.”

“Don’t be an ass. Don’t be such a trite rebel. It’s boring. Besides, if you want to rebuild your fighting career, Southside is not the place. They’re nobodies, soon to be homeless nobodies. They can’t do anything for you, so don’t get any ideas. Just train, keep your ears open and head down. Take some shitty bar fights if you want, get laid. Gideon tells me you two had a bit of a row. Women serve a purpose, son, nothing more. Your fascination with her is getting boring. And irritating.”

Flynn drummed his fingers on his shaking legs as Colin signed some checks and set them to the side of the massive desk into separate envelopes.