Page 5 of Darkness and Duress
Fucking assholes. I glowered at them all and folded my arms over my chest. “You're seriously bailing on me? I thought we were friends.”
“Yeah, we are. Friends help friends. Which is why you will be dealing with Marco for us. Take one for the team, Henny. You're always eager to volunteer as tribute.” Poncho grinned, turning to the side to bend over and stick his ass out. “Y’know what'm sayin’?”
“Fuck off, all of you.”
Jericho slid up behind me with a slow grind, his palm pressed flat to my stomach. “Don’t be sour. You know you love it.”
I writhed against his hold and tried to pull away, but he simply tightened his grip. Suddenly, the dark, moody underground garage was thumping with heavy bass and a fast tempo beat as Molly turned up the sound system in his car. Jericho’s bump and grind took on the rhythm before he pushed me away—straight into Gramps’ hold.
“Henny's always willing and eager. Why not now, Princess?” Gramps spun me in place and before I could react, I was catching myself with my palms on the hood of the Caddy. Laughter and cheering erupted as Gramps made a show of dry-humping my ass. Under any other circumstances, I would have been fair game for the fuckery, but I was hungover, anxious, and yeah… a little hurt. All told, the playful teasing wasn't hitting right this morning.
“Get the fuck off, G.” I pushed back, fast and hard, to send him stumbling backward. I whirled on them all with a scowl. “I'm not in the mood. This isn't some routine thing. This isn't collections or cruising and we aren't at the fucking club. On top of that, you fucking assholes are sticking me with the biggest fucking douche on the planet. Alone. Mr. I hate the world and everyone in it, stuck up, holier than thou Prince Fucking Marco. So fuck all ofyou. Get your shit together and have some fucking pity on me because my day is about to suck.”
My gaze darted from face to face and I was taken aback by the stunned, fearful expressions all around me. No one ever listened to me, let alone responded seriously. I puffed my chest a little as pride swelled in my heart. Serves them right—
“Good morning, gentlemen.” The ominous click of dress shoes I could never afford echoed through the garage as the music disappeared in a flash. “By all means,Brandon, please continue. That was quite an impassioned speech.”
Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, with a side ofoh fuck. I slowly turned to face the chiseled stone sneer of my new boss. His gaze slid over my body like smooth silk, from top to bottom and back again. His sneer turned into a scowl of disgust. It stood out in contrast to his smooth, slick hair, his gorgeous sea green eyes, his perfectly pressed suit, and his rich olive complexion. He was absolutely gorgeous. He also hated my guts with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns.
“Oh… hey…” I resisted the urge to shrink into the shadows and puffed my chest even more. “Lookin’ good, hot stuff.”
He prowled toward me with a glint of murder in his eyes. The unmistakable cool indifference of someone who's taken a life and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Showing no signs of stopping, he pressed forward and forced me backward until my ass hit the hood of the Caddy and my palms thunked against the metal with a loud bang.
“Prince. Fucking. Marco.” He loomed closer, hovering as my pulse kicked up a notch. It was the single most confusing moment in recent history. Fear mingled with arousal as his gaze bored into mine. “I like the sound of that. Do me a favor—keep your fucking mouth shut unless spoken to. Seven is a very unlucky number for a crew and I have no qualms with culling the herd. Starting with the weakest link.”
I stifled a sharp intake of breath as he grasped my jaw, jerked my body upright, and flung me toward the SUV. “Get in.”
Everyone scattered as I stumbled to catch my footing. My heart skittered erratically. My palms were drenched in sweat. My dick was rock hard in my jeans. Holy fuck, this was going to be a long day. Despite knowing better, I scowled as I slung myself into the driver’s seat, muttering under my breath the entire way.
“What a fucking asshole.”
Chapter Three
Marco
This was exactly the type of bullshit I was expecting when my father told me he'd selected a group of people for me. Except, it was also somehow worse than I could have ever imagined. Did he honestly expect me to work with a group of clowns who were all friends with my little brother? This wasn't some new crew of well-trained thugs and enforcers. These were a bunch of imbeciles and infants masquerading as made men. The display I had witnessed after stepping out of the elevator made me sick to my stomach. The overt sexual displays. The loud music. The way Brandon fucking Fortini threw himself at all the other men like a little slut when we were supposed to be gathering for introductions ahead of an important day’s work.
I'd never liked Gianluca’s best friend. Ever. The little scumbag was a terrible influence, a horrible friend, and the reason my brother got sent away from home a few short years before I got swallowed up by the prison system. He was the reason my family was torn apart. I wanted to tear his throat out on a good day. Most of the time, I would have been happy to put a bullet in hishead and dump his body in the North River. Now, I was stuck being chauffeured around by this prick.
To make it all more offensive, he thought I was some pampered, entitled brat. My jaw clenched as I climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV and cringed at the takeout wrappers and empty soda cans littering the footwell. The pervasive stench of stale cigarette smoke, sweat, cheap cologne, and who knows what else invaded my nostrils as I shuddered.
“I was told you are aware of the instructions for today.” I plucked the index card from my breast pocket and flicked it into his lap with my fingers. “Drive.”
I caught the dour expression and angry glare from the corner of my eye, but I couldn't be bothered to give a single fuck. Let him be mad. Let him seethe and wallow in livid anger. It was the least he deserved. I settled back in the seat and cast my gaze toward the window. The less I acknowledged the presence beside me, the better.
Still early in the day, the sunlight bathed the world in the false promise of pleasant weather and lightened moods. Underneath the pale yellow light, everything was still and would always be dismal, grey, and claustrophobic. Buildings, windows, streets, cars all passed in a blur. My driver asked if he could smoke and I answered with a vague hand gesture. He answered with a beleaguered sigh as he rolled down the window and let the pervasive miasma of the city smog permeate the interior of the vehicle.
The pack of Marlboro Reds appeared in my peripheral vision and I smacked them away with the back of my hand. The answering swearing was strained and whisper quiet as he bent awkwardly to retrieve them from the floor.
The air between us was thick with tension and discord. I compulsively reached up to loosen my tie by a fraction to ease some of the suffocating heaviness. If this was what my futurelooked like, the soaring height of the bridge we passed over en route to Brooklyn would become a very promising option. I indulged in the fantasy. I'd never actually consider it for real, but the call of the void was a better form of entertainment than wallowing in my anger and disappointment.
A cell phone ring instantly set my blood to boiling as it crashed through the heavy silence of the car. I graced my driver with a scathing glare as he hurried to answer it, balancing it on his thigh as we continued through the traffic on the bridge.
“Yo, you're on speaker.” He stole a glance before snapping his gaze to the windshield.
“Word. It's Poncho. We just pulled up on the first location. Do you want us to sit tight or scope it out?”
Brandon, or rather Henny, deferred to me with a wave of his hand.