Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen

Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen
Asher’s response to Frankie’s revelation was nothing more than a narrowing of his eyes.

“You sure did go through a lot of trouble to get us here. Buying a club, hiring a staff. I mean, the furniture alone must have cost a fortune. All of that and yet it took all of three seconds for me to figure it out.” Frankie walked over to Gloria and pulled her into his side, making Asher even more red in the face. “I mean, come on, Ash. You wanted me here. Why else would you use your birth name?”

“If I had the name ‘Jimmy Jones’ and I wanted to be taken seriously in the illicit crime game, I might change it too,” Gloria argued, smiling at the man now, for once, at her mercy. “Much easier to get by with a name like Rubanov, Donati… Thompson”

“True, Vixen, very true,” Frankie agreed. “Honestly, I’m hurt you thought me stupid enough to not notice what you were doing: going around to different clubs playing cat and mouse, antagonizing Accardi by killing off his men.”

“Then, allowing it to be known you were seen at this exclusive club on numerous occasions,” Gloria elaborated. “Painting it as the perfect target to go after Sergei’s biggest weakness.”

“An exclusive club, whose high level of security would prevent information like that from getting out unless specifically leaked,” Frankie added, tsking his tongue. 

“He used you as bait and you thought you’d reeled us in, didn’t you?”

“You set a trap. You just didn’t expect us to be smart enough to know it. Honestly, I’m hurt.”

“The communication between Sergei and his men? We cut it. Right now they’re down in the tunnels, flicking their dicks, playing cards, waiting for an order that will never come while Sergei is racing to get to them before we escape into the night… Except he’ll be too late. For us. For you.” Gloria smiled, feeling more powerful than she ever imagined she could. 

“What were you thinking, not having more reinforcements here ready for us?” Frankie asked with a shake of his head.

“He figured stripping us of our weapons and clothes would make us weak,” Gloria mused. “I would think someone who’s seen you naked would know better.” 

Frankie chuckled and reeled Gloria in to kiss her on the temple.

Asher rotated his neck and glared across the room at Gloria. “You bitch,” Asher hissed.

Gloria pressed a hand to her heart and opened her mouth in mock horror. “Me? What did I do? He’s the one who hit you,” she answered defensively.

“This is all because of you. You couldn’t just marry Sergei, huh? Would a life with him really be so bad?”

“You tell me,” Gloria answered, putting both hands on her hips. Asher scoffed and readjusted himself in his seat. “That’s what I thought. At least you maintain your own autonomy. You can go where you want, do what you want. Have your own career. Be a fucking man. I’d be nothing if I were with him,” she said, starting to shout her anger and frustration. “Nothing! But a fucking hole to screw and an empire to pass on! You chose that life!”

“I didn’t choose shit, you whore!”

Now it was Gloria’s turn to scoff. “No one forced you to be Sergei’s plaything.”

Asher rolled his head back to the headrest of the chair and stared upward. “A life for a life,” Asher whispered, shaking his head. Gloria looked from Asher to Frankie, whose jaw twitched at the comment. Asher laughed and his eyes connected again with Gloria, only this time his gaze was filled with pitying understanding. “You and I are a lot alike, Gloria. Far more than you think. Both of us tied to a man, desperately wishing for another to save us.” His eyes moved to Frankie. “Except he can’t be a knight and shining armor for us all, can he? I was left to rot and spend my days on my knees while you ran and still had him chase you.” 

Frankie’s jaw clenched and he turned away. “I’m going to make the call,” Frankie growled. 

“Call? We took your phone, Frank,” Asher said with a chuckle as though he were teasing a friend rather than mocking a man who beat him with a stick and tied him to a chair. 

Frankie opened his mouth and pulled a wire from between his molars while Gloria ran her fingers inside his mask to find the small circular device she’d sewn into it. 

“Thanks, Vixen,” Frankie said, taking the transmitter that looked like a coin battery from her outstretched palm. “Do you really think we’d be stupid enough to walk into a trap without a plan of our own?” Frankie murmured in response to Asher, his good humor smothered as he took the device and connected the wire to it. A couple of taps in Morse code and it was done. He spun around and dropped onto the couch, glaring across the space at his old lover. 

“What’s the plan now?” Asher asked. “Use me as bait, same as him? You think I’ll be enough to force Sergei out of hiding?”

Frankie nodded. 

“He won’t,” Asher said. “He’s comfortable where he’s at. He’s got everything he needs and will just wait you out, forcing your hand and bowing down to his level. Literally.” Asher laughed. “What a tangled web we’ve gotten ourselves into, huh, Donati?”

Frankie leaned forward. “You want to blame me? Gloria? There’s no one to blame but yourself. You’re selfish. Always have been. You take what you want with no care how you’ll hurt someone else. A life for a life,” Frankie growled with derision. “Love isn’t taking choice away but giving it. It’s a decision. You condemned me in that prison cell, Asher. You didn’t love me.”

“I saved you,” Asher protested. “In that cell, from Sergei’s wrath. I loved you. I… I still do. I gave up my life for you. Every day I sacrifice for your safety. To protect you.”

“I don’t need fucking protecting,” Frankie sneered. 

A few moments of silence passed before Gloria broke the tension by stepping in between the two. Frankie’s glare shot up and softened. She took a few steps toward him and he opened his knees to allow her between them. She placed both hands on his shoulders and climbed onto his lap. Gloria leaned forward and kissed him gently, not a possessive, heart-pounding declaration but one of understanding. She pressed her forehead against his. 

“All this talk about love being a choice coming from a guy who stormed an enemy’s compound to steal me away,” she whispered. 

Frankie chuckled and flattened his palm against her back. “I gave you a choice,” he argued back, the tone of his voice becoming lighter.

“When?” she asked on a laugh. “When you ordered me to get on the bike? When you called me your pet and forced me to my knees under that table?”

He smiled and kissed her chin. “When I asked you to marry me,” he reminded her.

“How could I forget that?” she asked, smiling and grinding her hips against him, showing him physically how she would choose him, want him, no matter what the cost, no matter who was watching. 

“I’ll get it framed so you don’t forget again,” Frankie promised, kissing her on the lips, their audience fading into the background.

“Mazel Tov,” Asher grumbled. 

“Shut the fuck up, Asher. I’m on my honeymoon,” Frankie whispered, pulling her chin down to claim her mouth again. 

Gloria heard a series of clicks above her head. As the clicks turned to bangs, Frankie pivoted so that he was lying on top of her, but he did not break the fusion of their lips. Cement rained down on them and dust clouded the room as they continued to grasp desperately for the connection that continued to be broken. Once the dust cleared, a round of throats clearing made Frankie pull back and look up. Gloria blinked over and over until she could make out the figures. Accardi, Leo, Conor and two men she didn’t recognize stared down at them from the hole they’d just blown in the ceiling.

“Any day now, Donati,” Accardi called, throwing a rope into the hole for them to climb up. “Sergei and his forces are only a few minutes out.”

Frankie looked back down at her and sighed in longing. “All those membership fees for a sex club and yet all we got were cock blocks.”

“Come on, Frank,” Gloria said, laughing, as she pushed him away. “Live to screw another day.”

Frankie groaned as he got up. He pulled his robe off and draped it across Gloria’s shoulders as Conor landed beside them. “Dibs on the chick. You can haul up the dude.” 

“Not on your life,” Frankie told him, allowing no time for argument as he grabbed Gloria in one hand and the rope with the other.