Imperfect Bride: An Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance (Blood Empire Book 5) Read online

  I slip through the bushes. Wood branches scrape at my arms and slap my face. The row of foliage isn’t thick, and I step through on the other side with a pounding heart.

  I take all of two steps before a wall of flesh jumps out in front of me.

  Crying out, I stumble. Big, strong arms wrap around me, and Warrick’s stern expression flashes in front of my eyes as he tosses me over his shoulder.

  “Did you think you could slip away from me so easily?”

  I hang over his muscled shoulder for a moment before my wits return. “How did you know?”

  “I saw it in your eyes. You’re not very good at hiding things from me, Everly. Don’t ever try it again. And don’t ever think about leaving me. I will go to the ends of the Earth to find you and then I will haul your ass back here and spank it.” His dark growled promise has my stomach knotting in a way that excites me rather than scares me.

  To punctuate his words, he slaps my bottom as he carries me into the house. The last thing I see before he slams the French door is the abandoned whiskey bottle.

  Without another word, he hauls me upstairs. The tension in his shoulders gives me the impression that he’s very serious about that spanking if I dare step out of his sight.

  Since he carries me to his bed, I have nothing to worry about.

  He kicks the door open and then shut. In a few strides, he reaches the bed and tosses me down. I bounce and scrabble into a sitting position, but he brings his big body down on top of mine, pinning me in place.

  The force of his gaze pins me in another way.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he demands in a low voice.

  I open my mouth and then close it. I shake my head.

  “You want to sneak off and leave me?”

  My heart sings out no loud and clear. My head is what anchors me in life, though. My wits have gotten me through life with my mafia overlord daddy who tried to sell me off and life with an addict mother. Not to mention a creepy uncle who wanted something sick.

  Blinking up at Warrick, taking in his beautiful chiseled features, I realize that all the things in my past were awful and twisted. What I have here with this man? I have a life filled with promise.

  My breaths rasp faster as I grow bold enough to reach between his legs. Stroking his cock through his jeans, I meet his gaze. “Let me suck you.”

  His eyes narrow at the corners, but the darkness in them never leaves.

  Pushing off me, he stands at the bed and rips off his clothes again. With his thick cock in hand, he holds it out to me. “You can try to make it up to me with that pretty mouth of yours, wife, but it probably won’t work.”

  Warrick

  As I empty my cum into my wife’s throat, I lose myself in the way her eyes pinch shut while she pleasures me. It’s as if she gets off on it, and that’s something I need more of in my stressful life.

  I never thought of myself as a controlling man in bed. I leave that up to my old man who was a Dom over my mother, come to find out years after her passing, and to my brothers.

  But when I grab a set of handcuffs out of a bottom drawer, I have control in mind.

  At the sight of the cuffs, Everly sinks her teeth into her plump bottom lip. “You’re not going to…” Her ragged voice ends on a higher pitch.

  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  “But why? I’m sorry I tried to run. You don’t have to restrain me.”

  I take a step toward her, the open cuff extended toward her wrist.

  “Please, Warrick. I don’t like being restrained!”

  The catch in her voice has me looking at her harder. A sliver of fear lights her eyes, the same one I saw when that motherfucking uncle of hers was looming over her in the bakery.

  “I see we have some barriers to break down tonight. This is one more, but we are doing it together. Hold out your wrist.”

  She hesitates, eyes pleading.

  “Trust me,” I say.

  I see her chest inflate and know she wants to try.

  The heady swell inside me urges me to take her by the wrist and strap the leather cuff around it. It’s lined with mink and won’t hurt her.

  She turns her head and looks down at the black sleeve circling her skin. “Where did you get these?”

  “A gag gift one Christmas from my cousin Dub.”

  “They’re…soft inside.”

  I hold out the other cuff for her to slip her hand into of her own free will. “I won’t hurt you. I think you need this.” I duck my head to catch her gaze. “Do you?”

  Her harsh sigh and jerky nod has me aching hard in a blink.

  Leaning over her, I whisper in her ear. “Let me take care of you.”

  A shiver ripples through her.

  I fasten the other cuff in place, locking her hands together. Then I gently guide them over her head.

  Her eyes are full of wonder as she stares at me, and something else. A light in the depths of those warm, brown depths has me clenching with need.

  I grip my cock at the base and give it a single, long stroke from root to tip, squeezing a bead of precum out for her.

  She licks her lips.

  “You want more of this on your tongue?” I ask.

  She whimpers.

  “How about here?” I nestle between her thighs, spreading them to accommodate my body. When I glide the slick head up and down the seam of her pussy, she cries out.

  “Are you afraid that your hands are bound, Everly?” I croon into her ear as I continue teasing her with my cock.

  “No! I want you.”

  “You trust me to take care of your every need.”

  “Yes!”

  “You need protected, sometimes from yourself.”

  She stills at that.

  “You need cared for.”

  She doesn’t respond, but her breaths come faster.

  “And you need me to do it all.”

  “I do, Warrick! Take me please!”

  In one hard shove, I claim her hot pussy. The tight walls wrap around my length, and I’m already on the edge of reason. A few small moans from my wife will have me spurting.

  I plunge into her again and again. She cries out and kisses my shoulder, neck and jaw. “I’ll always take care of you, Everly. Right now, you need to come, don’t you?”

  She issues a low moan in answer.

  I pound harder, sinking deeper on every pass. “You come when I tell you to come.”

  “I can’t—I’m sooo close! Your cock feels so good inside me.”

  My balls clench at her words. “Look at me.”

  She obeys, bringing her warm stare straight to mine without a hint of hesitation or artifice. She shows me everything she’s feeling through those eyes, and I can’t let her look away until I’ve seen it all.

  I search, and when I see that glimmer of emotion, I know without a doubt what I can make this woman feel for me.

  And damn if I don’t want it above anything else in the world.

  “Come now, baby. Come for me.”

  Chapter XIII

  Everly

  A month has passed since my wedding day. I can hardly remember those worries about scraping up enough money for rent and my sister’s school tuition.

  The mansion has every comfort I grew up with and more. It has much better company too. My sisters-in-law invite me downstairs or to one of their rooms every day for girl talk, the kind I’ve craved since my teen years when I realized my mother would never be anything more than an addict.

  Anders’ wife Avery has a bird in her room. Its beautiful songs seem to haunt the hallways as I head down to dinner.

  Warrick has been gone on business for two days. He didn’t say where or what or why, only gave me a deep, passionate kiss and reminded me that he will go to the ends of the Earth to find me.

  I still feel my skin prickle in awareness at those words. It showed at the time that he was beginning to care for me. Now a month into our marriage, I have no doubt that he feel
s something, even if he’ll never admit it.

  I don’t need love words. I’ve never had them anyway. It’s actions that prove how a person feels, and Warrick has shown me time and again how committed he is to me.

  I also haven’t heard from my family or even Detective Bly. Warrick probably scared them all off, sent them running back to Detroit, never to bother me or Melody again. I wish I knew for certain, though. When he comes home, I’m going to ask him about it all.

  Grabbing the heavy carved wood post at the base of the stairs, I propel myself toward the dining room where Avery, Luna, Camila and Zoey will be waiting for me to eat.

  I don’t get far before my ring tone fills the big space. I stop and grab my phone from my back pocket, bringing the brand-new device Warrick gifted me with right before he left to my ear. My nerves are pinging with happiness that it’s probably him on the phone.

  But another deep voice fills my ear.

  “Hello, Mrs. Rossi? This is Robert Schick, headmaster at Melody’s school.”

  My heart somersaults and my blood turns to ice. “I know who you are. What’s happened?” My tone’s already edging toward frantic. He’s never called me before.

  “I hate to give you this news, Mrs. Rossi.”

  “Out with it!” My voice echoes and brings the ladies running into the room. Their gazes fix on me, and I shake my head for them to wait while the words drop into my ear.

  “It appears that Melody is missing. We believe she’s run away.”

  My knees crumple, and I sit down hard on the marble floor. Luna reaches me first, her warm arm around my shoulders as Avery’s blue eyes loom before my vision.

  “Run away? Where? Why? Why would she do that? She’d never do that!” I hand the phone to Avery, who takes over talking for me.

  “Somebody give me a phone! I need to call Warrick!” I wave toward Zoey. She produces a phone and does one better in dialing my husband for me.

  His phone rings five times before going to voicemail.

  Zoey dials another number. In the back of my mind, I register that she’s speaking with Ryker, but all I can focus on is the fact that Melody is missing.

  She isn’t a bold child or a problem child. Leaving the school grounds without permission or on her own aren’t even possibilities in my mind.

  That can only mean one thing—someone took her.

  I lurch to my feet on a stagger. Grabbing onto the nearest piece of furniture, I’m helpless as my head spins for a moment.

  “Damn!”

  I focus on Zoey standing not far from me. Distress creases her brows.

  “What’s happening?” Luna’s normally big eyes are even bigger.

  “I overheard Ryker speaking to someone on the phone. Something about a warehouse and a raid. All the brothers are there now. There isn’t anyone to help us.”

  I shake my head wildly. “No! No. I have to get to Warrick. He’ll know what to do.” I release the surface I’m gripping and head to the front door. Not even a heartbeat passes before a cry sounds behind me.

  Avery grabs me by the arm. I glare at her and wrench free. “You can’t stop me from going to my husband and finding my sister!”

  “No, I can’t, but you’re not going alone.” She looks around at the others. “We’re all going.”

  Thank god for my sisters-in-law. They’ve been in the Rossi family longer than me, and they know how to get the job done.

  Avery barks orders to the servants and guards that get us out the door and loaded into an SUV. Luna is trying to get through to Gabriel, and Camila searches for maps showing all routes in and out of that school. Finally, Zoey is my rock. She fastens her hand around mine and doesn’t let go.

  “How old is your sister?” she whispers.

  My vision fades from the scenery blurring by the window to the beauty at my side. “Sixteen.”

  She squeezes my hand in reassurance, but not before I see her gulp. “We’ll find her. Don’t worry, Everly.”

  I don’t bother nodding in agreement. So far, little in my life shows me that everything will be okay. Not my mother, not my father, my uncle or Nick. My nonna tried to show me the good things in life through the cozy home she created for us, but she was gone too soon. A life with her barely touched on.

  My eyes burn with tears that I shove back.

  I will not cry today.

  I will fight today.

  “If anything’s happened to her…” I drag in a deep breath through my nostrils. The battle is real. Me versus my breaking point. Anybody who knows me knows that the only person in the world who’s important to me is my sister.

  And now Warrick too. But he’s tough—he doesn’t need me to worry about where he is. His brothers, and a dozen others loyal to the Rossis, always have his back. Who does Melody have?

  No one.

  Not even me right now.

  Zoey’s squeeze on my hand anchors me, and I emerge from the painful imaginings rolling through my head, flattening everything in their path.

  “We’ll find her, Everly.” Zoey believes what she says. Without a doubt, this woman trusts in the powerful reach of the Rossis.

  I must trust in it too.

  Minutes could be hours. My brain can’t catch hold of the hands of time any more than it can figure out what happened to Melody.

  “I don’t know what could have happened to her,” I whisper to no one in particular, but I feel all the ladies’ attention snap to me.

  I go on, unable to stop spewing my heartache and fears. “All I know, without a doubt in my mind, is that she would not leave the school. My sixth sense is that she was lured out. Somebody contacted her and she responded.”

  “Where do you think she went?” Zoey rubs my arm.

  “Like me, Melody has few people in her life she can count on. I’m one of them.”

  “You have us now.” Avery’s strong voice fills me with awe for how beautiful these women are inside and out. I don’t know any of them nearly well enough, but they share something major in common with me—they’ve all seen some dark things thanks to their families, and they’re now all united as Rossis.

  “Thank you.” My voice catches on the lump in my throat.

  “You believe someone told Melody that she needed to go to you, and she left with them?”

  I nod. The worst fear sinks deep into me. My head swirls with madness. “If anything’s happened to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “You can’t think like that, Everly. She’s going to be fine. If she’s anything like you, she’s resourceful and smart. She will survive until we find her. And we will find her.” Luna’s shining eyes and speech comfort me enough that I am able to focus on the landscape passing by the window.

  The city spreads out. Wherever this warehouse is, it won’t be surrounded on every side by buildings, which means what happens there will go unnoticed.

  What are the Rossis up to? I hardy want to think about the dangers Warrick faces down daily in the name of gain and power. Until this moment, I didn’t realize that if he dies, I’m out. Helplessly floating in the world like a ship without an anchor.

  People like Nick will be able to prey on me. My uncle too. Now I wish Warrick had killed him. As the miles fade behind us, I grow more certain that he’s behind Melody’s disappearance.

  Warrick

  “Watch these assholes. They’re known for jumping the people they make deals with.” My warning to the rest of my brothers comes mere seconds before the van pulls up and the men jump out, heading for the warehouse door.

  Gabriel gets into position, his hand on his weapon tucked in his waistband. His black eyes slide to mine. “Open it.”

  I give Anders a nod indicating what I’m about to do, and the nod moves from one brother to the next as we all prepare for an all-out war.

  We didn’t invite the weapons dealers here to splatter each other’s brains up the walls, but we Rossis don’t trust anybody. They know we’re here, and they’re going to take any chance they can to corne
r us, but we’re prepared.

  The crates of weapons I purchased off every single trader in the Chicago area are stacked behind us, and I gauge the distance and length of time it will take to dive behind one if bullets start zinging.

  I grip the metal door and whip it open. I’m faced with a big, ugly sloth of a man with a head that is the same width as his neck. Both disappear into a black leather coat. His scowl has me glaring back.

  “Welcome to Casa di Pistola.” I wave for them to come inside and join us for this deal.

  We haven’t met with these guys before. They’re from out of town, have a sales chain leading up and down the West Coast. They caught wind we had pistols, and that’s the best thing going on the streets right now. So much that production is up. It just so happens that we have the market cornered.

  Half a dozen more men enter behind Sloth. He braces his legs in a stance I’m sure he’s practiced in front of a mirror and stares at the crates. “That the goods?”

  I deal with a lot of dumbasses, but this one seems stupider than the rest. “No, they’re full of essential oils.”

  Gabriel lets out a groan. “Yeah, it’s the goods. You want to inspect a few?”

  Sloth nods. “Gotta make sure you guys aren’t trying to scam us by giving us empty crates.”

  A few steps from me, Kenzo issues a low warning growl in his throat. That noise has two of Sloth’s men stepping forward.

  Of course we Rossis can’t back down from a challenge. Kenzo and Ryker step forward too.

  All at once, their seven against our five face off with only a few paces of concrete floor separating us.

  I stare Sloth down. “You reach for that weapon, you’ll never know what hit you.”

  “Get ’em!” The bellowed command has guns out and bullets flying.

  Gabriel and I dodge behind a stack of crates, and men scatter around the warehouse to get out of the line of fire. Kenzo pumps two in the chest of one about to shoot him between the eyes. The man falls back, spread eagle on the concrete, a blood stain spreading.

  Shouts and screams of pain aren’t coming from our side. But somewhere behind me, a door blasts open and the unmistakable cry of a woman tears through us all.