Chapter One

My eyes floated over the gorgeous woman’s body as I realized the weight of what I had done. Whether the Boss allowed his wife to sleep around on her own time or not, I knew he did not allow his men to fuck her. I had heard stories of men being dried in concrete and dropped in the sea for doing less than what I had just done. And yet, I found my cock stirring at the thought of being inside her.

Marlene was closer to twice my age than my age, but that fact was reflected in numbers only. With a fit body, plump round breasts, and gorgeous smooth skin that glowed bronze, a man my age would be lucky to be shown favor by such a woman.

More than one night—hell, more than fifty nights spent deployed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, thinking that it may be my last on this planet. That I would die alone in a bed of sand surrounded by a nation who hated me. Perhaps that made me a fool now to take such a risk, but I figured tomorrow could be my last night on this earth, regardless. Men do not write destiny, we only live it.

I crawled closer to the woman, preparing to make my move as I smelled her light floral scent. That was when the glass broke. A thousand pieces of glass rained across the floor on the other side of the bedroom door, and I looked up.

My first mistake.

Bullets jabbed through the door and snapped by my face. My tactics were distracted, and that distraction nearly got me killed. Marlene’s scream was like a high-pitched fire alarm as the bullets chewed away at the headboard of the bed. Wrapping my arms around her slender waist, I held her to me as I rolled off the side of the bed. I landed on my back and felt Marlene drag down the sheets as she landed on me.

“Under the bed,” I grunted to her and shoved with one hand as I crawled to the foot of the bed. The shooting was still going on when I slid my pants on and fastened my belt.

Shooting automatic fire through a door. Blindly. This was panic. This wasn’t professional.

I drew my pistol and went out of the master bathroom. It connected to the hall which came out the side of the living room where I approximated the attackers. I heard the shooting slow as two of the four shooters reloaded and started shooting again. Cracking the hallway door, I peeked outside to confirm it was clear.

The amateurs don’t even have security watching the hall.

Taking a last breath, I leaned out of the bathroom just far enough to see the first shooter. Under the darkness of the living room, he was nothing more than a darker shadow in a graying black room with white leather couches. I aimed for the ribs and put two bullets in his ribs. He fell to his knees, and I shot him again. Raising to my feet, I pushed forward in a slow, deliberate walk. The two men that stood in front of the first were just realizing their comrade was down when I gunned them down in the backside. Three rounds a piece.

I came to where the hallway met the living room and saw the muzzle flash of the fourth shooter turn my way. It was a machine gun of some kind. It was fast and dangerous. Bullets dotted across the wall beside my head, and I dove behind the nearest sofa. The lamp and nightstand beside it toppled over and more glass shattered. The fourth charged my position. He fired blindly into the couch and yelled like a warrior charging into battle. But when he peered over the back of the couch to fire the finishing blow, the man only saw the empty floor. I quickly crawled to the far side of the couch and fell onto my side so I could look around the front of the couch. Firing one time, I saw a spurt of blood come from his head as the last man fell to the ground.

Was this them? did they already know what I was doing with his wife? How could they know so fast? How could they—it can’t be the Italians? Not because of what I and Marlene were doing at least... They had no time to mobilize a strike like this.

I cleared the rest of the twenty-five hundred square foot apartment for any more of them. Peaking in the hallway, I saw it was all clear. These guys were far from professionals, but they still may have a backup man or men in a car downstairs.

“Marlene!” I yelled, returning to the bedroom and getting on all four. “Marlene, come on. It’s safe.”

Marlene was squeezed between the hardwood floor and box spring. A painful frown froze on her face as she quietly screamed in terror.

“Come on, take my hand. We have to hurry. There could be more of them, or the cops can be here any minute. Come on!”

But Marlene wouldn’t budge. Her tears rained droplets over the floor and formed a puddle. The woman was stuck in a psychological paralysis from the trauma. It sucked being in an ambush. Not everyone was cut out for it. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for a gentle introduction to gun fights so…

Standing up, I grabbed the lip of the wood bed frame and grunted like I was doing a deadlift in the gym. The bed creaked, then groaned, and Marlene yelped with it as I flipped it on its side, and the mattress flopped against the bathroom door. Marlene was shrunk into a fetal position. It took a little more coaxing than grabbing her arm and pulling her to her feet to get her going.

“Wh—what… Why were they shooting at us?” Marlene stuttered while staring into the living room. Coming to, she started drying her tears as her voice hardened with every word. “Are we safe? Are there more of them? Does he know?”

No more description of ‘he’ was necessary. I knew she meant her husband. The boss. The mafiaoza's wife was back. She wanted revenge… I reloaded my gun and found three additional clips on one of the shooters for the same pistol I carried.

“I don’t know…” I said. Fishing my cell phone out of my pocket, I saw three missed calls and a single unread text. They all were from Lorenzo. Clicking on the text message, I read the few words twice before they sunk in.

Lorenzo

‘Alpha is burned. Proceed to Bravo.’

“Fuck.”

“What? What is it? Are you going to call Tommasco?” Marlene asked, naming her husband to throw around the power of his unseen presence. “I will if you—”

“No, no phones,” I said and snatched her phone from her hand.

“What? why?” she said almost angrily. The old Marlene was almost back.

“We’re compromised. We’re leaving here in thirty seconds,” I said and looked around the floor of her bedroom until I found a wad of pants and a top that was a mix of grays and blues. I would later find out they were her dirty yoga clothes from that morning. “Here. Put these on and find some shoes. Something comfortable that you can run in. Go!”

It was my shouting that spurred her into motion. While she did that, I stole the wallets of the four men, returned to the bedroom, and raided Marlene’s jewelry box. Dumping everything into a medium-sized beige coach purse she had on the floor, I could tell Marlene had more questions for me, but she held them. From our altitude of being in a top-floor apartment, I could see red and blue police lights on the interstate coming our way. Three police cars.

“Okay, we have to go,” I said.

“Wait, I need my phone. All my contacts. I don’t know their numbers,” she protested. I took her phone and tossed it out onto the balcony. Apparently, the crashing glass was the destruction of the sliding glass door to the balcony. They must have gone to the roof and scaled down and into the balcony to make entry.

Ballsy.

“That was my fucking phone, you piece of shit!” Marlene cussed as she followed me into the hall and onto the elevator. Once under the fluorescent lights, I realized how revealing Marlene’s athletic shirt was without her wearing a sports bra, and I did my best to keep my focus on the task at hand.

We’re not in the clear yet.

When the elevator doors opened, I kept my left hand holding Marlene’s arm tight to me as I exited, and on my right was my pistol holstered on my hip. I kept my hand on it in case I needed to draw it quickly. There was no one there. It wasn’t until we passed the front desk that we saw the bellhop dead on the ground behind the check-in desk. A blackish-red blood gathered around his body.

“God…” Marlene gasped as I walked us outside quickly.

The sound of police sirens was nearing, so I took us around the building and down a walking path that cut through a small nearby park. Curving through the woods, I saw through the shrubbery as the first police cars arrived. We kept walking, not looking back again.

Chapter Two

“Yeah, anywhere up here is fine,” I said.

“But sir, there’s nothing here,” the cab driver said. His polite voice was thickly accented. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to a hotel or—”

“I said here is fine. Stop the car,” I said more sternly.

We had walked for another half a mile before we happened upon a cab going the opposite way. I waved him down and paid him five hundred dollars up front if he wouldn’t activate his dash cam or report the fare in his log. He was hesitant, but the sight of the five one-hundred-dollar bills won him over.

Marlene hadn’t said a word since leaving the apartment building. Her silence was unusual for her personality but appreciated right now. It wasn’t like this was how I planned my night to go, either.

The cab slowed to a stop beside a curb and a grassy lot. I gave the cab driver another five hundred dollars and thanked him for his discretion. Then reminded him he just broke a lot of rules with his cab company. He didn’t want to get in trouble by talking about it with anybody. The cab driver nodded and agreed. It wasn’t until the cab pulled away that Marlene’s anger arose like an agitated cobra.

“Where are we? Why did you have them drive us to the middle of nowhere?” she asked.

“Just trust me, okay?” I said, setting the pace with a fast walk. “That back there was a professional hit—well, a professional hit as far as gangs are concerned. They weren’t targeting me.”

From the glance over my shoulder, I could see the words filtering through Marlene’s hard exterior. The realization that she had just survived an assassination attempt.

“Why? Who would dare…”

“I don’t know,” I said, with a hint of anger at being in the dark as well. “Lorenzo called and texted me while we… were distracted…”

Marlene looked away, feeling more exposed than normal.

“Said that we had been compromised,” I said as I took a right down a private drive after walking a few hundred yards.

“Compromised? What does that mean?”

“It means our phones, phone numbers, addresses, names… they were all obtained by someone who shouldn’t have them.”

“Who?”

I turned on Marlene and lost it. “I don’t know! I don’t know any more than I did ten minutes ago! I was just nearly killed, just like you too! Just give me a fucking breath!”

Marlene's face creased at first like she was a coiled spring about to snap back at me. But by the time I finished my rant, her face relaxed and turned sorrowful. We walked another mile in silence through the pitch black. I felt Marlene stay close to me now. The fear of the darkness and the critters hooting and howling in the night was only made worse when she realized where we were.

The woods cleared to a long private field revealing under the moonlight the private cemetery we had come to disturb. Clicking on my small pocket flashlight, I searched for the names. Stepping over the dead, I felt a pull on my shirt. Marlene had a fistful of the rear of my shirt and wasn’t letting go.

“Mark Spinelli… Rachel Spinelli…” I read out loud.

“Who are these people?” Marlene asked in a whisper, as if not to wake the dead.

“Fuck if I know,” I said and fell to my knees. Guesstimating the middle between the two gravestones, I dug my fingers into the grass and dirt and pulled away chunks at a time. It took about five minutes and it was just when my fingers were feeling raw that I felt them scrape a metal box.

I felt the unasked questions mounting inside Marlene but appreciated her restraint in not asking them, so I rewarded her with explanations.

“It’s a dead supply stash. Intended for something like this. A last resort,” I said as I opened the tin box. Inside were several ziplock baggies. One had three envelopes that were thick and stretched to its limits with dollar bills. Another had a phone and phone charger, and a third had a gun with three full magazines. I put them all in her purse except the phone, which I turned on and was surprised to see it still had a quarter of the battery charge in it.

I dialed the contact listed as ‘Bravo’ and waited. Lorenzo answered.

Chapter Three

I sat in the motel chair in the corner of the room and allowed my vision to blur as I stared at the TV. It was the early morning news, playing on low volume. The chirps of birds fluttered outside as the sound of traffic was beginning to pick up as morning rush hour neared. It was almost dawn, and the gray was touching the sky outside. I peeled back the thick curtain that smelled of smoke and was probably twenty years old and checked the parking lot and road once more. A man carrying a lunch box and wearing a construction hard hat and fluorescent vest exited his first-floor room and went to his truck. I watched him pull off but saw nothing else of interest. The shower cut off, and I heard Marlene step out of the shower and begin to dry off.

We hadn’t spoken since leaving the cemetery. I made an effort to give her her space to process the information. Lorenzo was nearly out of breath when he answered his phone.

“Go,” was all he said.

“It’s Michael,” I replied but kept my words short, not knowing what kind of situation Lorenzo was in.

“Is she alive? Do you have her?” Lorenzo asked, and he took a deep breath as if he had just stopped running.

“I have her. Can you talk? Is this secure?”

“Yes, yes, give me a report,” Lorenzo said. The man spoke conversational English, but it was heavily accented with his native Italian language. Lorenzo was Tommasco’s head of security and a former Italian special forces soldier. Though with his advancing age he was relegated to a more managerial position, I had seen him move and handle himself. I knew he could still operate at an efficient level.

“Four guys attacked us. They came in through the balcony. Sprayed hundreds of rounds into Marlene’s bedroom before I put them down.”

“And Marlene?”

“Unhurt. She’s beside me.”

“Put her on,” Lorenzo said.

I handed her the phone and watched her face as he spoke to her.

“He’s dead?” she cried out, and I already knew who she cried for. This was a major hit by another syndicate. Another mafia family or another gang altogether. This was an international operation with coordinated hits happening on at least two continents simultaneously. This was big.

Marlene nodded and wiped away tears for several minutes before handing the phone back to me.

“I don’t have a lot of information right now, but Tommasco is dead, as are his brothers and cousins. We think it was the Greeks,” Lorenzo said. His breath was under his control now.

“The Greeks?”

“We were completing a major deal with another family this week that would have infringed on the Greek territory. A new port we were taking over. The deal went bad and minutes later the shooting started,” Lorenzo said.

It made sense why they wanted me here to watch Marlene this week now, at least. I was also happy to confirm that Tommasco wasn’t having us assassinated because I fucked his wife. However, this wasn’t much better of a situation. The Greeks were just as ruthless and in a major family hit like this one, they took out everyone—including hired help like me. Plus, that’s not even addressing the elephant in the room.

“Lorenzo, I’ve got a major problem,” I said.

“Policemen?” Lorenzo guessed.

“They’re not after us yet, but it won’t be long before they get what they need to find us,” I said, thinking back to the mess I left behind. “Security camera video, fingerprints, DNA… it’s all back there for them to find. And if the police find us, then the Greeks will soon after.”

“Okay, get someplace where you can lie low for a while. You have the stash money?”

“Yeah.”

“Stay put and I’ll put together something for you. I need to check on the rest of Tommasco’s family first.”

“Okay.”

“And Michael…” Lorenzo added with a sternness in his voice. “You’ll be compensated for your efforts, but only if she lives.”

I had thought about his last words before hanging up often in the time since then and even now as I switched my attention between the news and the window. Lorenzo knew I was a hired gun. I wasn’t a part of the family and had no business giving up my future, my life, or my freedom to protect Marlene. He was giving me an incentive to protect myself because he knew I would be fleeing at the first chance that I got.

How come running or abandoning Marlene had never crossed my mind? I was paid well for the work I have done up until this point, but not well enough for this.

The unanswered questions swirled in my mind as Marlene exited the bathroom. Her wet black hair draped over her bare shoulders as she shuffled across the faded carpet, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her blossom that hung down to her thighs. I looked at her and felt my eyes pull down her body, so I looked away. The silence felt uncomfortable, so I filled it.

“I’m sorry for your husband,” I said, realizing I hadn’t said it yet.

Marlene sat on one of the two queen-size beds and made a face at the maroon and white design on the comforter. It had been a while since the woman had experienced the poor side of the world.

“We were never really husband and wife,” her voice soft and resolved. “He was my shield. A man I saw three months a year if I was lucky.”

I said nothing as I watched Marlene get lost in a star on the wall behind the TV.

“Nineteen years old. That was how old I was when he found me,” she said. A mix of disgust and amusement in her voice. “And he was already forty-six years old. We married a week before his forty-seventh birthday. Can you believe that?” she glanced over her shoulder and I watched her eyes bounce over me before a sad smile came over her face and she looked away. “Almost the same age difference between you and me. But he protected me. And now my shield is gone.”

Standing, I walked with my gun at my side. Her eyes followed the weapon as I placed it on the dresser beside the TV, within arm’s reach, as I sat down on the bed beside her. My suit jacket and tie removed, I only wore my black button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

I didn’t speak for a long moment, though I felt her yearn for my words. I didn’t like making promises I couldn’t keep so I weighed each word carefully before speaking. Placing my hand on the edge of her knee, I looked her in her eyes and said, “I’m your shield now.”

There was a long moment where the two of us were lost in each other’s eyes before we both moved. Our lips met in the space between us as I cupped her cheek and pulled her body to mine. The back of my hand felt the streaks of her wet hair as she tilted her head into me. Her small feminine hands pawed at my chest as our kisses turned desperate. Like they needed to continue in order for us to breathe. My tongue lapping inside her mouth, her tongue intertwining with mine, I felt her fingers making quick work of unbuttoning my shirt and ripping it free from being tucked in.

Shrugging the shirt off my shoulders, I turned on her and followed her back to the bed as she lay. Fingering the wet locks of hair stuck to her cheek, I pulled them down to the bed as I took her chin in my hand and turned her face to the side. My lips and tongue traversed up her neck, drinking the moisture left on her from the shower as I kissed up to her ear and tongued around the diamond stud rings on her lobe.

“Ohmmm…” she cooed, and I felt her shake her chin loose in my grip and take my finger into her mouth as she had before. Biting it at first, then slowly slid her lips down to the back so that my fingertip touched the back of her tongue.

Sitting up, I undid my belt and dropped my pants to see a hungry look in Marlene’s eyes as she looked down at my throbbing hard cock. Undoing the neck of the towel, she used both hands to undo it and revealed her naked body just as she spread her legs. The woman’s gorgeous body looked like a bronze statue to perfection. She was a Greek goddess formed to perfection with ample round breasts and hard pink nipples that pointed away from one another. Her trim waist was toned and firm but had the soft look that a woman desired.

Marlene’s beauty contrasted with the utilitarian musculature of my body. My slightly pale belly was shadowed by the striations of my abdominal muscles and thick, round blocks of pectoral muscles formed from years of morning workouts. Marlene didn’t seem to mind. Her eyes glowed as I crawled between her thighs like a predator.

The girth of my shaft pressed on her wet slit and slid up and down slightly as I bent low to take her breast in my mouth. Planting a dozen kisses around the underside of her boob, I saw the coy smile sprout on her lips as her breathing increased. My lips wrapped around her nipple just as I felt her legs lift and wrap around my hips. They pressed my hardening shaft harder into her clit as she groaned. I felt the moisture of her pussy cover the bottom of my member as it dragged along her clit with every motion.

“Oohhh… gah… yes…” she moaned as I switched to her other breast. My fingers massaged and circled her wet nipple as I tongued her other one. “Oooo… ohh ye… ahhh!”

Marlene cried out when there was a strong flex of my cock into her clitoris. Her hands moved about my shoulders and the back of my head, grabbing and clawing at me as if the tease had gone too far. The pleasure was passing on to torture. Her body couldn’t take it anymore. Moving my lips to hers, I felt hands clamp on my muscular back as she kissed me deeply. Marlene’s hips maneuvered beneath mine. She was desperate to get me inside her.

“Ugh, gahd, fuck me, Michael. Fuck me now!” Marlene commanded as she broke from the kiss.

I leaned back to remove some pressure off her clit, and immediately, Marlene reached down between us and began reverse stroking my shaft. Feeling her milk me with every pull of my cock. Once there was enough room between us, she lined up the bulbous head of my cock with her dripping wet slit. Pushing my hips forward, I watched her eyes go wide and her eyebrows high as the head of the cock spread her lips open and began to fill her. For a moment, her breathing stopped as she went silent, taking me in in every sense of the word. Then, in response to her pussy clenching on my cock, I felt my shaft flex back inside her pussy.

“Ahhh yes, ooo fuck!” Marlene cried.

Pulling out, I shoved my cock back inside her, making her cry turn into a yelp. I felt her arms snake around my arms and back and hold me to her as I thrust inside her. Our eyes didn’t want to look away from another’s.

“Oh gahd, yes. Yes! Fuck me…” Marlene’s voice broke and her eyes took on a pleading look as I pounded inside her.

I saw the innocence hidden away within the hard exterior of the severe woman beneath me reappear in her eyes as I flexed inside her and felt her squeeze around me. Her eyes and moans engulfed me in a way that no other woman had before. She bit her lower lip in almost a frown as her screams grew louder and her breath panted.

“Oh god… oh god! I’m gonna oh god I’m gonna cum!” she cried.

Thrusting inside her faster, I heard her octave change, and her moans turned into screams as her fingernails dug into my back.

“I’m cumming!” she sang as she took another ragged and desperate breath. The whites of Marlene’s eyes appeared as her eyes rolled backward and her ankles interlocked behind my back. My thrusts became short but quick as she stuffed my entire girth inside her tight pussy. It was when her body and pussy lips began to convulse that the orgasm struck me, and I came hard inside her.

We kissed deeply as I swallowed her moans, and she swallowed my grunts. Our sex organs communicated as I flexed inside her, and her pussy clenched around me with every squirt of warm semen inside her.

We stared breathlessly at each other, panting and holding one another just like we held on to the moment. The sun rose outside. Slices of sunlight shined through the corners of the motel window that weren’t covered by the thick curtain. Sleep claimed the two of us quicker than I could stop it. Our bodies pressed together, the world outside went away, and there was only us.

Chapter Four

We awoke in the late afternoon to honking horns and kids laughing as they ran up and down the stairs like it was a play gym. Marlene’s face pressed to my chest, and my mouth and nose were buried in her sweet-scented hair. Separating felt like a task in itself. Our physically and emotionally exhausted bodies had rebooted and molded into one another. I couldn’t remember a time since my first deployment. I slept eight hours in a row like that.

We set to work getting some of the essentials we needed for the next few days. Using one of the dozen prepaid Visa gift cards in the cash envelopes, I ordered from Walmart for groceries and clothes to be delivered from the nearby Walmart. I allowed Marlene to use the phone to select what clothes she wanted, which was a huge mistake. The twenty-minute window I gave her to shop turned into two hours of browsing their selection of clothes, and all of that time was more focused on her complaining of the terrible low-quality fashion sense the store possessed and how she would not be caught dead wearing any of that.

Conversely, my shopping lasted seven minutes when I found large plain T-shirts and bought three in black, found blue jeans with a thirty-two waist and bought two of them, and so on… an ultimatum had to be given when I realized she only had one pair of underwear added in the cart.

“Nope, that’s all you’re getting,” I said as I walked away with the phone and started the check-out process. “Enjoy your one pair of clean underwear and re-wearing your dirty yoga clothes…”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Marlene said in a panic as she chased after me.

“Nope, you had your chance. Our delivery window is about to close, so that’s it,” I said as I felt her hop on my back and stretch for the phone.

“No, no, I take it back—ah! I don’t even like that pair of underwear!” she swatted at the phone.

“For the love of…” I sighed in disbelief. Turning back towards the bed, I reached over my head and grabbed her back as I threw the woman over my shoulder and onto the bed. She landed with a bounce on her back and let out a yelp and a giggle at the flight. Tossing the phone back to her, I looked at my watch and turned on the stopwatch setting. “You’ve got five minutes. At five minutes and one second, I’m buying whatever you have in that cart.”

“Okay, okay!” Marlene half laughed as her fingers bounced about on the screen.

Our delivery arrived without issue and Marlene had more to wear than just underwear, thankfully. Days went by of us locked in our room and never going out. It didn’t take long for it to become maddening for both of them. Marlene was used to a certain level of prestige and social life. More nights than not, she spent out eating with friends at this event or that club. I was not a social butterfly, but I didn’t like to sit still. I had no gym for my morning workouts and could only do burpees and situps while Marlene watched from afar.

Without intending to, we fell into a routine of a couple over the week spent together. Every night we fucked at least once, usually two or three times a day. Besides the obvious reason, it calmed us both down. Released from the stress and restlessness we both carried. Not able to escape Marlene’s questions, she found out about my past, my service, and my dishonorable discharge from the special forces. I told maybe one day if she ever got me drunk enough, I’d tell her about that.

Marlene talked about her relegated status of second-class wife due to her infertility and eventually her being shipped off to the United States ‘for her safety.’ I could tell it was hard for her. Not her treatment, though it was clear that too stung, but the fact that despite years of trying with her husband, she couldn’t bear his children. He had a daughter with a previous wife before they divorced, and who knows how many kids by now with various women, so she knew it was her fault.

On the third day, our photos were on the news. Still frames from the apartment lobby of me pulling a frightened-looking Marlene by her arm with my gun partially visible on my hip. That night I stopped shaving my face and ordered a pair of scissors and hair dye for Marlene. It was a battle to get her to do so, but I ultimately got her to trim her hair to shoulder length, then bleach and dye it blond.

The fact that the police only released our photos and not those of the four suspects who killed the bellhop seemed strange to me.

Perhaps the Greeks have a contact in with the police?

I had gone through the four men’s wallets and found their IDs. All of them were local, and none of them were Greek. It was on the seventh night in the hotel that I found something searching on the internet. One of the shooters I had killed had responded to a comment from an old high school acquaintance on social media stating he worked for Blue Stone, which I located with ease because I almost worked there at one point.

The phone rang in my hand and it startled me so much I dropped it on the table. Marlene, who lay on the bed and was watching some reality TV show, sat up and muted the TV. I answered.

“Yes?”

“Good, you’re still alive.” Lorenzo’s relieved voice came through the speakerphone.

“What’s going on? We’ve been here for over a week now,” I said and stood to pace.

“The Greeks are everywhere. They killed the entire family, his ex-wife…”

“What of the little girl?” Marlene asked and moved closer to the speakerphone. “He had a child with his ex-wife. Is she safe?”

There was a long pause that told me she was not safe.

Lorenzo spoke cautiously. “We have not found her, yet.”

Marlene cupped a hand to her mouth in a gasp and grabbed my shoulder with the other hand. I nodded to her, trying to tell her it’ll be alright.

“I am close to getting you two new IDs created. I’m arranging transportation now, but it will take another day—two at the most,” Lorenzo assured.

“That’s good news. Hey, I think I found who the shooters were who came for Marlene. They work for a small private security company based here in Florida. A place called Blue Stone. They tried to recruit me to run their high-value asset division when I got out of the service, but I took one look and saw the shit structure of the place and declined.”

“The Greeks must be contracting out in the United States,” Lorenzo thought aloud. “You must be careful. There’s no telling how many people they have paid off there. And I have checked on our three family guys there—all dead. You are all alone until I get you out of the country. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“Keep your phone close. I will call you soon.” Lorenzo hung up the phone.

Looking over to Marlene, I had hope in my eyes that wasn’t seen in Marlene’s expression.

“Caterina…” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“Caterina. That’s her name. The ex-wife’s daughter… she’s only ten years old…”

I made a face and almost asked how the daughter was so young if Marlene had been married to him for almost twenty years, but I stopped myself. Despite her concern for the girl, there was still the bite of jealousy at how her husband slept around so openly.

“You know better than I do,” I said rubbing my hands up and down her shoulders, “Lorenzo is good at what he does. If there is a way, he will find Caterina and get her out of there.”

Marlene nodded and melted into my arms like she was hiding from the cruel world we lived in.

Chapter Five

Marlene approached me from behind as I stood watching a news report. It was international news and a repeat of that. We had watched it three times already. ‘Bloodshed in Italy’ talked of the massacre of over forty men and women all over Tuscany, Rome, and the countryside that happened one night a week ago. There still weren’t any details given, but they were now saying authorities believed it to be related to organized crime.

At this rate, they might have the story told in full in six years.

Marlene clicked off the TV with the remote and slid her hands around my shoulders. I was shirtless, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around my waist after having showered. She ran her finger over my biceps, my shoulders, and around my chest. Her hands were explorative and teasing at the same time.

“Let the past go,” Marlene whispered. “Live in the now.”

A smile cracked on my lips as I looked over my shoulder to meet eyes with her. From her height, her gaze barely reached my shoulders. Her lips pecked at my back as her hands rubbed with intention. Turning around, I towered over the lady. Her newly dyed blond hair brushed over her shoulders. There was a dazzling look to the color of her eyes as she looked up in mine.

“Here and now,” I said as my hands rubbed down her back to her backside. She was already naked. Waiting for me. Marlene hid a smile as she nibbled on her lower lip.

“Here and now,” she whispered.

I picked her up by her ass and heard a giggle escape her. Marlene’s legs wrapped around my waist as I pushed her against the wall and pressed my lips to hers. In less than a week, this woman had enraptured me. I was connected to her, and she was to me. We were bonded together.

Dropping my towel to the floor, I fed the head of my cock between her moist lips. Marlene clapped her hand to my back, digging her fingernails in as her eyebrows went wide. With her back braced against the wall, I pumped my cock into her pussy with fast, spearing thrusts.

The kiss broke away quickly as Marlene arced her head back and moaned, “Oh god! Yes! Just like that. Fuck me. Fuck me hard!”

I rammed into her, thudding into the wall until the noise became too loud. Tossing her onto the bed, Marlene was already turning onto her hands and knees when I pulled her back by her hips. The ragged breaths escaping her lips sounded like moans as she spread her knees apart and I fed the head of my cock back inside her. Gripping the meat of her hips, I pulled back as I thrust forward and heard a grunt of a groan.

“Ugh! Gah… you know how mm! you know how to do it. Fuck me, fuck me!” she moaned.

In a sprint of rough thrusts, my cock slammed in and out of the woman. Filling the room with the sounds of her moans and my body slamming into her, I clenched my teeth as I felt her squeezing my shaft. Reaching forward with one hand, I grabbed a fistful of her blond hair and pulled her head back.

“Ohhh yeah, baby. Fuck me good… fuck me hard….” She sang. Her breasts clapped wildly together as I bucked inside her. Her perfect tits clapped together and swung up to her chest with every hard thrust.

My other hand lowered to her ass and began to smack each cheek in fast strikes. The clap filled the room nearly as loud as her moans for more did.

“Oh gahd yes! Smack your fucking filthy slut!”

Smack! Smack!

“Ooooooooh! Don’t stop! Don’t stop! You’re going to make me—” she gasped.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

“I’m cumming!” Marlene’s body began to clench as she clawed at the bed. “Oh my god, I’m cumming ahhh!”

Thrusting inside her continuously, I felt her orgasm contract on my shaft, causing me to fight how badly I wanted to cum. My hands fell to her sides, and I leaned forward as her slippery wet pussy felt too good as it milked me. Flicking her blond hair back and over her shoulder, Marlene eyed me seductively with desperate, watery eyes.

“Cum inside me, baby! Cum inside me!” she begged.

“Ugh!” I groaned as I lost control. My hands cupped her luscious breasts and squeezed her body back against mine as I shoved deep inside her and held her. My throbbing cock flexed over and over as spurts of cum filled her pussy. We collapsed onto the bed with my softening cock still twitching inside her. I went to move but felt Marlene reach behind her and grab at my arm.

“No!” she smiled at me over her shoulder. “I like the feel of you inside me. Stay…”

Kissing the back of her neck, I laid back on top of her and interlocked my fingers with hers.

Chapter Six

The call came sooner than we expected. The next afternoon Lorenzo called and gave the address of an old fast-food restaurant that had since been shut down.

“It’s duct taped behind a bush beside the door. A manilla envelope. It has all your IDs in it. Go quickly,” Lorenzo said.

While he was on speakerphone, I pulled up the address on my map. “No, there needs to be a better location. That’s almost on the opposite side of the city from us. Pick someplace closer,” I said.

“I didn’t pick it. My contact did,” Lorenzo snapped.

“Have him pick another place then!”

“He already dropped the package. He won’t go back. It’s too risky.”

“Shit.” I stared at the door to the hotel room for a long minute.

“Lorenzo,” Marlene asked. “Have you found Caterina yet?”

There was a pause that sounded like Lorenzo was caught off guard. “No, not yet. I’m still looking for her. Michael, my contact, left instructions in the envelope for how to get out of the country. Hurry,” Lorenzo hung up his phone.

Marlene was already celebrating with a dance at the prospect of leaving the hotel room, but I was still chewing over how to execute this play. I didn’t like Marlene driving across town with me, but I didn’t like leaving her alone here either.

“Okay, here’s how we’re going to do this,” I said as I loaded the second pistol and placed it on the end table beside the bed. “I’m going to go get this envelope right now, but you’re staying here.”

“The fuck I am,” Marlene’s face turned stern as she stepped to me. I was a head taller, so her tactic was not intimidating.

“I’m leaving everything but my weapon here so if I don’t return call Lorenzo and he’ll walk you through this,” I said, ignoring her response. “This gun here is loaded. All you have to do is pull the trigger. If anyone tries to get in here, you keep shooting until they don’t move anymore.”

Marlene’s face became sunken as she saw my resolve was greater than hers.

“Listen, I don’t know if this is an ambush or not. I don’t know if people will follow us, plus we are both more recognizable together than apart,” I said.

With pouting lips, Marlene admitted defeat and said okay. Hugging me tightly, she gave me a kiss that lingered and begged me to continue until it ended. “Just hurry back.” She commanded.

“I will.”

I took three different cab rides to get to the drop point and three more to return to the hotel just to make sure I wasn’t followed. The envelope was just where it was supposed to be. Aside from a few homeless, no one was there that drew my attention. On the second cab ride back to the hotel, I flipped through the documents. Driver’s licenses, social security cards, bank accounts, passports, birth certificates… Lorenzo’s contact was thorough. Assuming they were all valid and accurate, all they were missing now was money to disappear.

Things were falling into place. I could see a way through. I could see a future. Arriving back at the hotel, I breathed easier for the first time since the shooting began. Then I saw our hotel door was partially open.

Chapter Seven

It was dark by the time I made it back to the hotel room. With my gun drawn, I kicked open the door and knew instantly what had happened. Part of me wondered if I always knew in the back of my head. I just didn’t want to admit it. Marlene was gone. No one was there. And one of the beds was knocked to the side as if there was a struggle.

They had taken her. They had taken her.

Kicking the other bed into the wall, I cursed, “Fucking Lorenzo!”

He set this up. He was the only one who could have tracked the phone to our location. He placed the package far away to create a window to get Marlene.

It was Lorenzo. It was Lorenzo!

As if the trader piece of shit himself had heard his thoughts, the phone started ringing. I shot up with my gun at the ready. It took a minute of searching for the phone to see that it had been thrown into the corner of the room. There were eighteen missed calls over the last hour from Lorenzo’s number. I answered in rage, not caring about the possible ramifications.

“Don’t go! Did you go? Michael, it’s a trap. Are you there?” Lorenzo yelled breathlessly before I could even speak.

“You sold us out, you piece of fucking shit!” I screamed into the phone.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Lorenzo said. His voice was tired and strained. Like he was exhausted, injured, or both.

“The fuck you didn’t! You coward. They took her! They knew exactly where we were. They broke in and took her from the hotel. I swear to god I’m going to find you…”

“They had found us. I was with Caterina, Tommasco’s daughter, from his previous marriage. They used her as leverage. I couldn’t let them hurt her,” Lorenzo said.

I sneered, not wanting to believe it and even wondering if I cared.

“And how are you calling me now if you were taken?” I replied.

“The Greeks made a mistake. I was able to get free and escape with Tommasco’s daughter. We’re driving to a safe house now. That’s why they didn’t kill Marlene. Without Tommasco’s daughter as a hostage, they need Marlene to keep the rest of the operation working smoothly. The Greeks are after our distribution. They want our infrastructure. They needed a family hostage to keep them from acting out.”

“Marlene’s alive?” I said in wonder. The thought never occurred to me. I always assumed they took her to execute in front of someone or to do something terrible to her elsewhere.

“She’s alive, and they won’t lay a finger on her as long as operations continue to move smoothly,” Lorenzo spoke to a young girl in the background with the phone away from his face. It sounded like he was reassuring her of something. “Listen, Michael. This is more than you signed on for, and it’s a long shot at best, but… I have an address of where they’re taking her. There’s a small window before she’s moved, and we lose her forever. If you’re able to get her back before then, I might be able to get you both out of the country. There’s a house and an account in the Cayman Islands. Totally off the books. No one knows about them except me and Tommasco. You save her, and they’re yours.”

“Tell me where Marlene is,” I demanded, “now.”