Ciao Bella Read online

  “Rightfully so. Punzini and his crew are a bunch of criminal thugs with no respect for women or for life,” Frederick added.

  “That was partially their reputations on the streets. I just wish there had been a way to resolve it all so that Mom and Dad could have kept that building. It was Dad’s parents’ place too. Generations of Puchenzis forced out.” Bella felt sad about that as she looked away.

  “There was a lot more to it, Bella. Things that you don’t need to ask questions about or even know. Just rest assured we all protect our own. We’re in this business together, all doing our part, sharing our professionalism, education, and abilities to strengthen the family business. Nothing can destroy a family that puts one another first and doesn’t keep secrets,” Cordero said in a tone that was both in warning and with pride. She didn’t need to be told that family came first. They were Italian. Of course family meant everything.

  “Well I don’t want to upset Dad, so I think I’ll stick to my jogs and maybe sneak a class in here and there at the studio,” she said to them.

  “Just make sure that you’re always aware of what’s going on around you. Don’t get caught up in your music. Pay attention,” Cordero said firmly.

  “Or your reading with your nose in a book and unaware of anything but the story you’re into,” Frederick said with a smile.

  “I always do,” she replied and then wondered if she should mention the guy she caught watching her, or she thought he was watching her. Would her brothers freak out and worry? Probably and then they would forbid her from jogging. She couldn’t let that happen. She was fine.

  “I know it isn’t New York, but we did leave in a hurry and on bad terms with multiple people,” Frederick said to her and she didn’t like the tone he used. It was like he knew something or there was a lot more to them leaving in a hurry.

  “You know something, so share it,” she challenged.

  “We should just tell her so she’s cautious,” Ricardo said.

  “She’ll be smart and she’ll remain aware and diligent on her safety,” Cordero said.

  “What is it? What do you know about us leaving New York so quickly? What?”

  “It isn’t important. Just promise you’ll always be aware of what’s going on around you and follow your gut,” Ricardo told her.

  “I will. I always do.”

  Chapter 2

  “That right there is what happens when you don’t comply with Trevor Vasto,” Commander Lucas Shay told the men. They were all gathered around a meeting room in Fayetteville State Police Headquarters. Up on the wall, there was a wide screen television with a picture of some guy Trevor and his crew beat up and then cut up, ultimately slitting the man’s throat.

  Lucky looked at his brothers and at the Buristoff brothers.

  “Need I ask, but if they know it was Trevor and his crew, then why aren’t they behind bars?” Lucky asked the commander.

  “As usual the feds are after a bigger catch. However, by putting some tails on these guys several new avenues have opened up into a specific unsolved murder.”

  “Which case?” Century asked.

  “The two NYPD cops that were killed while on patrol in Brooklyn. Got a call from Detective Floyd. As soon as he caught wind of the progress and this murder somehow being connected to the murder of those two cops, he wanted to join forces to bring some justice to those officers and close the case. Plus, that guy Pino you all nabbed while doing surveillance, he’s connected to Trevor Vasto. Now that is where both your teams will come into play here. You guys investigate and explore this avenue, and, Buristoff, you guys get this one.” He handed two separate folders to Lucky and then Century.

  “We’re doing surveillance in a van in Houston?” Lucky asked as he read over the file quickly. He started to hand the pages to his brothers.

  “Wait a minute. This is connected to the Valderez family in New York? That’s the guy who had his hands in everything from drug dealing, loan sharking, and illegal casino businesses to terrorist activities and ties to Al-Qaida. What the fuck is this?” Century asked.

  “Luther, that piece of shit. He’s got more lawyers than he has friends. Every time his name pops up associated with a case there’s trouble,” Gordon added.

  “Exactly. The big picture, though, are the connections to Assid Jhakla, an up-and-coming scum bag who is part of a cell in Afghanistan. But as if that isn’t enough, the guy is a business man and has ties to Vasto and Valderez, and you all need to figure out what their little operation is distributing,” Lucas said to them.

  “Wait a minute, Assid Jhakla sounds familiar. Is that one of the names that popped up on that case we took on last year with the interception of illegal weapons imported through the trucking circuit?” Chord asked.

  “Bingo. You got it. Turns out our small-time smugglers were dabbing into some big-time shit. The feds are on top of that case and handing the investigative route in that area. Your paths may cross, so, Sodo and Slane, could you try to cooperate and not give shit to the feds, especially if Andrews is involved?” the commander asked them.

  The others chuckled, but Slane remained straight faced.

  “Only if that dick stays out of my way and my team’s,” Slane said.

  “Ditto,” Sodo replied.

  “Wonderful. I can see how this might end up. Just focus on the task at hand, and we will handle things as you progress. Watch your asses though. I’m not looking at this as being so cut and dry, a little surveillance, some camera footage, and nothing more. These men, the others involved, have too many connections to Asid Jhakla, and anything involving terrorism makes this case more dangerous. Watch your asses and keep one another posted on the progress.”

  “Understood,” Slane said and then they went over their plan of action and decided who would go where and how they would begin the process.

  * * * *

  Bella walked along the lake front trying to catch her breath after her six-mile run. She took a slug from her water bottle and headed toward the bench that was farthest from the playground. It was a great day for a run. A little cloudy, a light breeze, and she took the time to sit down and read a little. She wanted to see what happened to the woman in the next chapter. Did the man from the train station, the stranger, approach her and ask her out, or did he miss the opportunity and the local mechanic who always worked on her hunk of junk finally ask her out? With anticipation and a smile she sat down, taking her small drawstring back off her shoulder, and took out the book.

  It wasn’t long before she was lost in the storytelling, and then lost in the first kiss by the stranger on the train. Her face flushed and heat hit her body. Was that really what it felt like to kiss and be kissed by someone you had strong feelings for and even loved? She never knew such a kiss. She thought maybe she did when she fooled around with Pasqual, one of the summer help at the restaurant on the city when she was seventeen. He was twenty, gorgeous, had that thick Italian accent, and was very smooth with his words and his flirtations. Yet when they kissed, something was missing and soon it became more of a game, and exploration that ended pretty quickly and with her brother Cordero catching them. God, she had been so embarrassed, yet she felt like it was a pivotal moment in her life, in her personality as she got so brazen with her mouth. She felt empowered in a way, so naive to think that kissing a boy, well, an older boy made her somehow more mature, worldly. God, those were the days. She knew nothing yet claimed inside to know it all. To put on a face of empowerment of control when meanwhile she was ultimately weak when she let Pasqual kiss her, and continue to kiss her and use his techniques to manipulate her mind and make her think it was true love.

  She sighed and continued to read, the kiss no longer so impressive on the pages, but descriptive enough to draw her back in and make her unaware of anything else until someone cleared their throat.

  She gasped, closed the book, afraid whoever was there might read the sexual words exploding from the pages as the couple explored one another further and fu
rther. When she locked gazes with Chord McCantry, six feet five, dark green eyes, scruff along his cheeks, dark brown hair, muscles bulging against a black T-shirt, wearing jogging attire, and staring down at her with a smirk, she was speechless. The man was hot, older, much older than any man who ever flirted with her or looked at her with desire in his eyes. “Good book?” he asked and licked his lower lip as he came around the bench. Had he seen the pages? Caught what she was enthralled in? Oh God, she hugged the book to her chest and swallowed.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you sitting here all alone and not really paying attention.”

  “Paying attention to what?” she asked, squinting, preparing herself to get out of the shock that this gorgeous seasoned soldier was talking to her.

  He nodded upward. She slowly looked up just as the sound of distant thunder rolled through the sky. The clouds were moving in, the sky getting darker. It was going to rain any moment.

  “Oh, wow, where did that come from? Shoot.” She started to gather her things, first putting the book in her drawstring bag, of course. God, why did she feel like she got caught doing something naughty? Why did Chord stop? She barely knew him. Only spoke cordially when he or his brothers or their friends came into the restaurant.

  The wind picked up, and a gust sent her water bottle flying off the bench. As she got up to grab it, so did Chord, and as he reached for it their hands touched and she stopped and looked up at him. His eyes went from her face to her chest, and she knew bent over like this that the tank top exposed more of the deep cleavage of her breasts. She abruptly stood up, covered her top with her hand, and then looked away. Leaves were flying around and people were running to their cars.

  The thunder struck loud and seemed really close by. She jumped and he reached for her, placed his hand on her hip, and she looked way up into his dark green eyes. He immediately looked away and around her, then slid his palm from her hip to her hand, and grabbed it.

  “Come on, we aren’t making it out of here, unless you parked someplace close by?” he asked. She shook her head.

  “I ran from home.” He looked her over, squinted but like it angered him that she ran from home. Before she could figure it out he was pulling her along. “Come with me this way.”

  She tried yanking her hand free despite how good it felt to hold his hand. It was huge, hard, calloused, and she felt the shivers run along her skin and her nipples even hardened. Christ she was attracted to him like she was to his brothers Slane and Lucky. Oh God would she be attracted to Vince too? That wasn’t a good idea. Why would she even think these things? She was a one-man woman. Wasn’t she? She questioned as he pulled her along the pathway and then through more secluded area as the rain began to come down. She panicked, but he pointed ahead and she saw the gazebo, empty, shelter, and she sighed in relief as the thunder rumbled and lightning struck and the misty rain turned to a complete downpour.

  “Shit!” he exclaimed, and they were really running fast and got into the gazebo as the heavens seemed to open up upon them. She was drenched and he was too. They stopped, stared at one another, and he looked her over. She did the same to him. He looked so sexy, the shirt wet against his obvious pectoral muscles and abs of steel. He rubbed his jaw and looked away, cursing under his breath. She didn’t understand and feeling uneasy she went to fix her top and noticed that it was completely see through and her nipples were hard and showing through. She pulled her bag over her chest and was mortified. He had turned away. Why? Did he think she was unattractive? Immature because she didn’t even know the top was see through now that she was soaked? The thunder and lightning continued and the rain poured down. She shivered as he turned around to face her.

  “Got anything in there to cover yourself. To keep warm I mean?” he snapped at her, looked down at her, eyes narrowed and hands on his hips. She was shocked at his abrupt tone and attitude, but then got caught looking at a piece of long hair that covered part of his eye, how water dripped over his tan, scruff cheeks to his chin and off of him. She needed to get her shit together.

  “I don’t but I’m fine.” She looked away and out toward the rain. There was no one around. She shivered again. “Christ, you’re shivering,” he said and pulled her into his arms, shocking her speechless. Her cheek hit his steel chest, his enticing cologne attacked her senses. She needed to get a grip. She didn’t know him well enough to have him hold her like this. She went to pull back and she stared up at him.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. He looked at her face, her eyes and lips, then back into her eyes. “Trying to keep you warm. You’ll get sick, then what?” he asked.

  “It’s warm out, and once the rain passes, the heat will be right back,” she said.

  He slid his palm up from her waist to her arms and shoulder then right to her cheek. He stroked her jaw and she froze, stared into his eyes, her head practically tilted back to her shoulders. “What were you reading, that you were so lost in thought you didn’t even know what was happening around you?” he asked. She felt like the same thing was happening right now. That his face, his lips, the attraction she felt was louder than the sound of the pouring rain outside of the gazebo.

  “Just a good book.”

  “About what?”

  She wasn’t going to tell him.

  She went to look away, but he held her jaw now, caressed his palm along her lower back and ass. She wanted his hand to move lower. She wanted him to kiss her. Her lips parted. “Just a book,” she said again.

  “God, your eyes are incredible. You’re so beautiful, so young.” He stroked her jaw.

  He lowered down and she couldn’t move, didn’t want to move, and a moment later his lips touched hers and holy God she got confirmation that she knew nothing about men, about an attraction, a lust, or anything even remotely close to the power she felt surge through her body as a man like him kissed her like this.

  A moment later she was fully in his arms, he was delving his tongue deeper in exploration, and she was moaning into his mouth. He squeezed her ass, lifted her up higher against his body, and she felt the ridge of his thick, hard cock against her belly. She started to panic. She was out of her mind, lost in a kiss with a stranger in the woods, in a gazebo in the rain. How romantic, how sexy, how mysterious, how stupid. She could barely process what was happening, and he was thorough in his exploration, especially as he cupped her breast and stroked his thick thumb along her nipple. Her hips moved by their own accord and he rocked against her when she felt her pussy spasm.

  He pulled from her mouth. “Holy fuck, baby.” He lifted her up so she was straddling his hips, and he pressed her against one of the posts. He kissed her again, slid his palm up under her tank top, and pinched her nipple, tugged on it as he moaned into her mouth. The rain splashed against her shoulders, her neck, and even hit her cheeks, and they grabbed onto one another. She ran her hands up under his shirt in the back and felt his muscles, the hardness of his body as he rocked against her. He towered over her, controlled her completely, and it was so incredible she felt her body coming again. He trailed his mouth from her lips to her neck and then to her shoulder. He suckled away the wetness of the rain, and she looked down, panting, unaware of how hot and heavy this was getting and out in the open. She realized instantly what was happening and she looked around them and still no sign of anyone. It was only them, in the woods in a rainstorm, two strangers making out like secret lovers. She was fantasizing but the reality was right here, right now.

  “Chord. Oh God, we have to stop,” she said as he slid his tongue into her sports bra and licked her nipple. She gasped, pulled back, and started trying to wiggle free. He held her tighter. “Whoa, slow down. Okay, Jesus, you’re right,” he said, out of breath and indicating he was just as shocked by this as she was and just as aroused. He looked her over. “You’re incredible. Come home with me,” he said and she was mortified. Her jaw dropped and tears stung her eyes. He squinted and she had to recover quickly. She needed to not come off as the ine
xperienced virgin but rather the worldly, experienced woman who was not a simple fuck, that just because he did it for her didn’t mean she would give up her virginity for more of this. Her body protested and was obviously ready to give it up. What she was feeling was foreign yet desirable. She wanted more. But no, no, she wouldn’t be some woman he screwed. God, what the hell was she thinking?

  “Put me down,” she said and he shook his head. He looked at her top.

  “Look at you. My God, you don’t even know what you did to me. What you look like right now,” he said and she followed his line of sight to her breast that was half out of her sports bra, her deep cleavage, then to her swollen lips as he thumbed them.

  “You’ve shocked me, Bella. Fucking shocked me big time. I mean seeing you today, watching you from afar with that smile, your cheeks flush as you read some book and had no idea about what was going on around you, was incredible to watch. I felt angry that you were so oblivious and that anyone could come by and try something, and then I felt protective, and I immediately walked closer, especially as I saw some guy watching you before he caught my eye and continued walking.”

  “A guy? What guy?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters is this. What happened right here. I want more.” He kissed her again. She wanted more too, but she knew that wouldn’t be smart. She pulled back, and he must have sensed her need to slow things down because he slowly released her lips but nibbled on her bottom lip before completely letting go. He looked away from her and toward the woods and park. “The rain is slowing down.” She reached up, unable to resist touching his cheek. He was carved from steel, the scruff along his cheeks hard, sharp to the touch, and another indicator of his masculinity besides the muscles. He looked back down at her, squeezed her by her ass up and against his body.