Violent Heart: A Dark Reverse Harem (A Death So Sweet Book 3) Read online

  I was unhurried in putting the safety back on and returning my gun to its rightful spot on my hip.

  Shooting Roman Russo would be a death sentence, but I would’ve risked it. The realization was almost startling, because it was only something I would do for Lola. No one else. Maybe I was more on edge and prone to rash decisions after what happened to my brother, but to know I would go against a man like Roman to save my girl…

  It was shocking, really, especially since there was a time when I used to tell myself Lola meant nothing, that she wouldn’t be sticking around for long. And yet here we were. Funny how things changed.

  Maddox slowly made his way back to the couch, while Sylvester cooed over Lola, “Are you alright?”

  Lola could not stop grinning. She was a wild one, definitely. She liked the danger, liked the pain, but I knew it was only because she’d grown up in constant anguish and fear. The human mind could get used to so many things, adapt and overcome.

  Or go mad while trying to.

  I was under no impression Lola was sane, but I didn’t think any of us here were, either. We fit together, almost too well.

  “I’m fine,” she said, glancing around at everyone. “Well, now that you’re all here, I can finally spill the beans.” When no one said anything, she went on, “I’m glad you asked what beans I’m referring to.”

  Her remark caused Carter to groan in annoyance and Roman to narrow his stare, but she had my full attention, along with the Luciano brothers’.

  “After Carter went running for his girlfriend, I was taken upstairs in the club,” Lola went on, no longer pacing but still appearing just as uneasy as she’d been earlier, before Roman had tried to choke her out. “You’ll never guess who was there.”

  The cabin fell silent yet again, and Lola made a big show about staring at all of us, as if she was waiting for someone to guess. That girl needed to speed things up. No one here was patient, and Roman looked like he still wanted to kill her, so there was that. Get this show on the road, Lola, I willed to her.

  Plus, the sooner this was done, the sooner I could maybe get her to myself. Even though my mind was on my brother, I was happy to have her back, to know she was safe and unharmed. I wanted to feel that smooth, porcelain skin against mine and hear the sounds she made while I was inside of her.

  “Tony,” she spoke the name of our most recent traitor, and my skin prickled. If that fucker was here, I’d make sure he spent his last days in misery. We’d suspected before, but now there really was no excuse. The Gilded Rose was DeLuca territory, and for Tony Torio to have been there, it meant he was waiting for her, meant he helped plan it all.

  Roman should want to strangle Tony, not Lola.

  “Tony was there, waiting for me. He must’ve gotten there before Carter and me, because I didn’t see him before then,” Lola went on. “He told me it was a three-pronged attack. The DeLucas attacked the Dollhouse—” AKA Zoey’s place of work. “—to get Carter out of there, and they also attacked your place.” At that, she brought her big, blue-eyed stare to me.

  My place, the apartment I shared with Mike. We’d gone home after seeing her off, and the rest was history. Terrible history.

  “That got you all distracted, so the DeLucas could get me,” she said, shrugging. Her expression read that she was conflicted, and I couldn’t help but feel like there was something else she wasn’t saying, something more.

  Sylvester’s back was rod straight, his eyes wide as he asked, “The DeLucas had you? Did they hurt you? Did they know you were the one who poisoned their old man?”

  “That’s the thing. Carl DeLuca’s dead.” She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. “Everything that happened was orchestrated by—”

  “Tony?” Maddox cut in, leaning forward. His fingers were clenched into fists, his knuckles white.

  Lola shook her head. “The Bloody Princess.”

  I closed my eyes. Bianca DeLuca, the heir to the DeLuca throne.

  “You’re saying Bianca staged it all?” Sylvester questioned, the repercussions of the truth felt in us all.

  “Bianca got Tony. She was the one who convinced him to get me to poison her father. While he was sick, she killed him. She’s been in charge, gathering soldiers to her side, for years now. She told me she had her sister killed because she wasn’t strong enough.” At that, Lola stared at Maddox. “You never told me your mother was a DeLuca.”

  “She wasn’t,” Sylvester said, shaking his head as his brother remained broody and silent. “She left her family to be with our father. She had children. And then…”

  “Then Bianca had her killed to stir the unrest between your two families,” Lola stated, confident in every word she said. “I met with her. She told me everything.” Her jaw tensed, and for a moment, she looked down. “She believes your family is on its way out, and she wanted my help in finishing it. She heard from Tony that I killed Mario, and she was—well, not exactly impressed, but something like it.”

  “She wanted your help?” Sylvester spoke, trying to piece it together. “With what? What did she want you to do?”

  Lola swallowed, letting out a long sigh before saying, “She wants me to kill you and Maddox. She gave me seven days to do it.” As if she felt guilty for what Bianca wanted her to do, she quickly added, “She also wants me to keep performing at the Gilded Rose, but I don’t think I’ll grace that club with my voice again.”

  Shit. Bianca wanted Lola to kill Sylvester and Maddox? My mind raced. That bitch was definitely crazy, and not in the good way.

  “After the coordinated attacks, I don’t think sitting back and pretending they didn’t happen is an option anymore,” Lola spoke with a shrug. “Bianca knows your family’s hold on the city isn’t as strong as it used to be. She’s been planning this for years, and she’s not going to back down until you’re all dead and Richard is alone, and then, I assume, she’ll kill him after weeks of torture.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Carter muttered under his breath. “And how do you figure that?”

  The look Lola gave him in return stopped him from saying anything else. It was not the anxious expression she’d worn just moments ago; it was the complete opposite. A calm, calculating look. “Because,” she said, speaking matter-of-factly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “it’s what I would do.”

  “Well, I assume you’re not killing us, since you’re telling us this,” Maddox said, running a hand over his face, lost in thought, for once. “We need to come up with a plan. We need to get back at the bitch.”

  “Agreed,” Roman hissed out the word, pure venom.

  “Now, hold on, we can’t just—” Sylvester’s attempt at calming everyone down was interrupted by Richie, who had just stepped into the house. Until now, he’d been listening through the wide-open front door.

  He adjusted his tie, careful to avoid staring directly at Lola as he addressed his sons, “She needs to be eliminated, but more than that, the city needs a demonstration, a show of power. They need to be reminded of who we are. We will stay here, rest up, make a plan, and then enact it. There’s no longer a point in waiting. The war that has edged upon us these last few years has finally arrived, and there’s no running from it.”

  With Richie’s words, everyone in the room knew there would be no arguing, no going against him. The decision was made. If the DeLuca’s wanted a war, it was a war they’d get. We might be on the side with fewer numbers, but that did not necessarily mean we would lose. We had quite a few great shots here, along with a fucking serial killer.

  The DeLucas wanted blood? Oh, they’ll get it. They’ll get it, and they’ll regret ever asking for it.

  Richie wanted to talk to his sons and Roman and Carter after that, which meant I had to watch Lola. And, by extension, that meant I had to be away from my brother, since Richie still didn’t want to deal with Lola at all.

  Lola took it in stride, walking to my side and hooking her arm through mine, saying, “That’s fine. Let them hammer o
ut a plan. That’s the boring part, anyway. Why don’t you and I go for a walk?”

  Going for a walk, leaving this cabin and Mike, it wasn’t what I wanted to do, but right now I didn’t have a choice. Hell, I’d be stuck permanently at his bedside until his big ass woke up, if I was able to.

  As Lola blinked her big, blue eyes at me, I sighed, my resolve weakening. If there was one person I’d take instead of my brother, it was her. She would make a fine distraction, and after spending so many hours worrying about her and my brother, it might be nice to simply revel in the fact that she was fine.

  At least one of them was. I didn’t know what I’d do if something had happened to them both.

  With a short nod, Lola and I drew out of the house. Besides not wanting to leave my brother, I also wanted to be a part of the planning. But, honestly, I was practically just a loyal henchman. I did whatever they wanted me to, and I did it with no hesitation. Even if we faced our deaths here thanks to Bianca DeLuca, I would not back down. I’d kill them all if I had to, for Mike, for vengeance, for trying to turn Lola to their side.

  Lola could’ve done it too, I realized as our shoes hit the dirt just beyond the cabin’s steps. Her arm was still interlocked with mine, her short, small frame such a switch from mine. She was unassuming and when she wasn’t grinning her crazy smile, she looked harmless.

  She wasn’t, though. Lola Harding was beyond dangerous, a serial killer who’d killed for years now. She had no loyalty to the Lucianos, none at all. The way they’d all treated her, especially in the beginning, had been awful. A bitch on a leash. But now, things were different, and I was reminded of that every time I looked at her, each time I watched Sylvester or Maddox with her.

  They used to hate her, and now that feeling was drowned out by something else.

  Since we couldn’t exactly walk into town, we chose to hike through the woods. She had to let go of me in order to focus on where she walked; there were no true hiking trails here, so it involved a lot of ducking out of the way of branches and stepping over fallen trees.

  Lola was the one who broke through the silence of our walk, saying, “I’m sure your brother will be fine.” I opened my mouth to respond, but I realized I didn’t quite know what to say, so I said nothing. She took that as a cue to keep going, though, adding, “I don’t think Big Daddy would have a doctor coming here who didn’t know what he was doing.”

  Big Daddy? Her nickname for Richie was amusing, and I caught myself smiling, even if only for a few moments. Richie would absolutely loathe that name, and if he ever heard her say it, he might just try killing her himself.

  I didn’t want to talk about Mike, not right now. Instead, I changed the subject, referencing what they were discussing back at the cabin, “This might be the end for us. All of us.” Yes, it might not matter how good that doctor was; we might die in this fight, anyway.

  “It won’t be.”

  I stopped walking, staring at her. Lola kept moving for a few more paces, but then she realized I’d stopped, turning to face me with a slight smile. She practically beamed, so sure of herself and us. How could she possibly know we would all make it through this? There were no guarantees in life, even if you weren’t caught up in a blood war like this.

  As if sensing my doubt, she took a step toward me, stopping when she stood in front of me, mere inches separating us. Her chin tilted upward, her eyes locking with mine. “This won’t be the end for you, or any of the Lucianos,” she said. “I’m going to do whatever I have to to make sure you make it through this.”

  My jaw hardened. “And what about you?”

  Yes, what about Lola? Maybe it was stupid, but I didn’t want to see a day when she wasn’t there. She might be grating sometimes, but other times, it was like she was the air I needed to fill my lungs. God, that sounded pathetic, didn’t it? This girl had me caught in her web, and I didn’t even know how the hell it happened.

  The smile she gave me then told me all I needed to know. Lola genuinely thought we would all make it through… but she wouldn’t. Just from the expression on her face, I could tell she thought she would die. Or maybe she wanted to—and that possibility made my blood run hot with rage.

  “We all know I’m more expendable than you guys,” she said. “If someone has to die, it should be me. I’m not… I’m not one of you. It isn’t like I can have a future. Remember, I dug my own grave when I killed Di—” She stopped herself from saying whatever it was she was moments from saying, correcting herself, “Mario. And, before that, I knew for years I was never meant to have a happy ending.”

  I took a tiny step toward her, angling my head down as I glared, the fury I felt at her words unbearable. “Stop it,” I hissed. “Stop acting like, like you’re expendable. You might’ve been at the beginning, but now? Now you’re a part of this, a part of us, whether you like it or not.”

  Because I couldn’t help myself, and also because I wanted her to see the truth in my eyes, I brought my hands to her neck, holding onto the sides of her throat as my fingers wove through her hair. Not exactly a tender, loving gesture, but now wasn’t the time for an act like that, anyway. Now was the time to make this girl realize just how important she was to me.

  And that I couldn’t lose her.

  “You’re a part of me,” I whispered, lowering my forehead to hers as I shut my eyes. Her skin was so soft on mine, so cool and perfect. I almost felt too fucked up to be near her. “I refuse to lose you, to let you go off and play the hero. None of us are heroes here, Lola. Not a single one.”

  Lola hummed in my grip, her chest heaving against mine as she breathed in deeply. She did not dare to pull away from me, did not try to twist away from my grasp—good, because then I would’ve had to chase her, and right now chasing was the last thing I wanted to do.

  What did I want? I wanted to breathe her in, to relish in the feeling of her smooth skin on mine. I wanted to let go, let it all go. I… I wanted comfort in the most carnal way.

  “If you die, we all die,” I murmured, my nose grazing hers as our lips neared.

  “If we win, do you think Daddy Luciano will forgive me for killing his son?”

  At that, my eyelids lifted just a crack. Lola stared at me, desperate for an answer I could not give her, and that made my heart hurt. My tattooed hands gripped her neck and her hair harder, and I whispered, “If we win, I will do everything I can to protect you.” Even then, it might not be enough, but it was all I could do, all I could say. I was never a man to promise anything, especially going against the one man I was loyal to above all others… but for her, for her I would bring the entire world down.

  And then, because we might not have much time left in this world and there was no better time than the present, I spoke quietly, “I love you.” Maybe my love was fragmented, maybe it was a bad time with everything going on, but if we died next week, I wanted her to know how badly she’d gotten under my skin.

  She let out a soft laugh, and I pulled my head back, unable to stop the glare from forming. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you,” she swore up and down, lifting up her hands and holding onto my arms. “It’s just… I literally just realized the same earlier today. Or was it last night?” Again, she chuckled. “I don’t even know. What is time? I—”

  I had no doubt in my mind that she would’ve gone on forever and ever, but what she’d said finally sunk into my thick skull: she realized the same. Lola loved me back. Wasn’t that what everyone wanted to know after confessing their own feelings?

  So I kissed her. I brought my mouth to hers so quickly I think I surprised her. Whatever else she was seconds from saying, she had no chance in saying it. I swallowed her future words, stealing her breath, devouring everything she was as I let passion guide me.

  Lola’s lips melded to mine, supple and wanting, just as hungry as I was. Within the next moment, I had her spine backed up against a tree, my body grinding against hers as I ate up whatever sounds that managed to escape her. My hands left her neck, roaming dow
n her sides, tugging at her clothes, wishing I could tear them right off her.

  God, I wanted her so bad. I didn’t care that Sylvester and Maddox were with her. I didn’t care that her heart belonged to all of us. As much as I would love to have her to myself forevermore, I didn’t mind sharing her, so long as I had her. So long as she was mine.

  Mine. That word fit so well here.

  Her mouth: mine. The beautiful, sensual groans coming out between our kisses: mine. The way her chest heaved upon me, supple and tempting: mine. The squirming her lower half did as I ground my hardening midsection upon her: all fucking mine. Every last piece of her was mine, and no one was going to take her from me.

  Lola turned her head, and I trailed my mouth along her jaw, kissing up to her ear and nibbling on the lobe. She let out the breathiest sigh I’d ever heard before asking, “Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” She laughed at her own joke.

  Gone were the days when I’d held myself back from her. Gone was the time when I tried to fight what I felt for her. Instead of pulling back and putting distance between us, I did something the old me never would’ve done and suggested, “Why don’t you reach down and see for yourself?” A teasing offer I knew she wouldn’t pass up.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” she muttered, grinning a sly, mischievous grin as she felt me up. Her palm rubbed against the outline of my dick, stroking it through the fabric, and I felt my top half shudder.

  I reached back to take the gun out of my pants, dropping it to the dirt below. “Maybe,” I suggested, “you should take it out just to be sure.”

  Lola didn’t have to be told twice. In the blink of an eye, she was working to undo my belt and my pants, and I gave her just enough space between us so she could undo the zipper and pull my length out, stroking it with a hand so soft there were none in the world to rival it.

  A groan left me. God, that felt good. The only thing that felt better, in fact, was her mouth, and obviously her cunt. Right now, though, I was content to let her touch it, let her play with me. We were in no hurry to get back, and there wasn’t a better distraction in the entire world than the girl pinned between me and the tree.