Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty-Four

Gloria’s eyes flitted up, heavy-lidded and swimming with a desire to rekindle what she’d taken the night before. She licked her lips. “I’m not that sore.”

He chuckled. “You’re too sore for what I have in mind for you.”

“Don’t you think I should have a say over my own body and what I’d like you to do with it?” she asked, arching a thin brow.

“First of all,” he said, bending his head to kiss her exposed collarbone. “You have every right to tell me exactly what you want me to do to you. The more detail the better, in fact. Second of all…” He ran his nose up her neck and sank his teeth into her earlobe. “It’s my body.”

“Technically it’s Serg…”

The moment of sensual surrender ended as Frankie seized her throat in his hand and shoved her back against the mirror which cracked as her head connected with the glass. Her eyes didn’t bulge or widen. They merely met his angered expression with a look of triumph, as if she’d been purposefully goading him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he warned.

“Like what?”

“Like you want me to punish you for what you were about to say.”

“He’s come to collect, hasn’t he?” Gloria rasped past his hand. Her heart rate remained steady beneath his fingers as she waited for an answer.

“He’s come to try,” Frankie emphasized.

“When?”

“Any time now. We need to leave to speak with Accardi about it,” Frankie said between clenched teeth, trying to control his rage at the fact that Sergei Vasiliev had any ownership of what was, in every other way, his.

“You’ll have to let me go to do that,” Gloria said, her tone light and a smile playing in her eyes.

Frankie leaned forward. “Before I do… I want to hear you say it.”

“What exactly am I supposed to be saying?”

Frankie smirked. “That you’re not his. You’re mine.”

Gloria smiled but there was mischief in her eyes. “You’re mine.”

“I’m glad you think so, but that’s not what I told you to say,” Frankie warned.

“Make me say it,” she taunted in a throaty voice. Gloria spread her legs, making him want to drop to his knees and worship her.

“One ride on my dick and you can’t get enough?”

“One ride on a dick and I can’t get enough,” she corrected.

His fingers tightened around her throat and her eyes rolled backward in a way that had nothing to do with lack of oxygen. She was doing it all on purpose. Fucking hell, he truly was screwed. He needed to take back control… so he ignored his instincts and released her.

“Get dressed,” he whispered as her eyes slowly blinked open in surprise. “We have work to do.”

“You son of a…” Gloria hissed as he walked out of the room. He heard her footsteps following in his wake and smiled to himself. “Is that your little catch phrase?” she asked. “‘We have work to do?’”

Frankie turned at the top of the stairs and started walking backwards down them so he could maintain eye contact. She followed after, one step at a time, the sheets around her body held in one hand.

“I’m second in command to one of the most powerful families in the country, Gloria…” He stopped and she nearly tumbled over him. He caught her arms and shrugged. “I’m kind of a big deal in this city, you lucky girl.” He continued down the stairs as she rolled her eyes. “I’m always working. So yeah, I think the phrase fits. I’d prefer something more edgy but, I’m sure Scooby Doo thought the same thing.”

“You’re comparing yourself to a beloved cartoon character?” Gloria mocked.

Frankie stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “We both know I could never measure up to Scoob.”

“That’s true. I’d classify you more as the Tasmanian Devil or Wil E. Coyote type,” Gloria said, her smile turning up at the edges.

Frankie leaned forward. “You want to see how right you are?” he challenged.

Before she could formulate a comeback, Frankie lurched forward, grabbed her by the knees and threw her over his shoulder. She didn’t flail as expected. Instead he felt one of the knives he kept in his waistband skim across his skin as she yanked it from his pants. The tip of the sharpened blade pressed against his lower back, just above his kidney.

“Put me down, Frank, or you lose a kidney,” Gloria warned.

“Ohhh, that’s hot, Vixen,” he said, readjusting her on his shoulder as he walked toward his security room. “Seems a bit extreme though.”

“You only need one kidney.”

“Then it would be a shame if you took the last one I had left,” Frankie divulged.

“You lost a kidney?”

He input his codes and used his thumb to unlock the door. “Yeah, the last time I took a woman’s virginity and threw her over my shoulder.”

He felt a sharp stab in his right ass cheek and flung her down. Gloria landed on her own butt, cushioned by the sheet around her.

“Ow,” Gloria whined, shifting slightly to rub her butt.

“You stabbed me!” Frankie said in disbelief.

She smirked and scrunched her nose while holding the bloody knife up as if she were gloating. “Wasn’t the first time and, knowing you, it won’t be the last.”

“This is unhealthy. I see couples counseling in our future,” he said, turning toward his wall of monitors which lit up with one shake of the mouse.

“Holy crap,” Gloria whispered, hoisting herself up so she could look over his shoulder at the various monitors. “Do you record all of this?”

Frankie chuckled, knowing exactly why she asked. “Don’t worry, I’ll delete the feed from the bathroom.”

“Why would you do that?”

Frankie dropped his head forward as he laughed. A moment later he sat back and pulled the keys from under his desk. He twirled them around his finger and turned for the other door in the room. “I’m going to have my hands full with you.”

“What are you doing?” she asked, as Frankie unlocked the door and picked up the bag of medical supplies he kept on hand.

“Checking in on my other guest.”

“You’re other…”

Whatever Gloria was about to say became lodged in her throat as Frankie opened the door to reveal the body tied to a chair in the center of the room. He watched her reaction carefully. Her mouth hung open until she was forced to close it in order to swallow. Her slim fingers constricted until her nails dug into her palms. The knife she still held in her hand looked as though it had become an extension of her arm. She pushed her shoulders back and her chest started to rise and fall in a dangerous rhythm that threatened to tug at the neckline of her makeshift nightgown. She took an unsteady step forward and nearly tripped.

“Why is he here?” she asked.

Frankie set his bag of medical supplies on one of the metal tables: the one below his wall of devices.

“The day after I found you, he, along with a few of his goons, tried to break into my apartment. One of the guards in the building caught him after his unsuccessful attempt. I had my buddy leave him here for me but I admit I haven’t had much time to…”

“He’s dead.”

Frankie clicked his tongue and proceeded to dump the supplies back into the bag. “Well, that’s no fun.”

“Looks like he died of blood loss and…. dehydration?”

Frankie turned to find Gloria leaning over the man bound by his wrists and ankles to a chair he’d had specially designed for the room. A sneer ripped across Gloria’s face and her right hand jerked upward, impaling the blade of the knife in the underside of the man’s jaw. Frankie’s own jaw dropped at the sight. She swiveled and unleashed her anger on him.

“Dehydration? Really, Frankie?”

“I’m sorry…. Is that not painful enough for attempted home invasion?”

“No!”

“Uh…”

Gloria turned and pulled the knife from the man’s jaw and then proceeded to stab him with it a dozen more times. Frankie watched, transfixed as his little vixen went completely postal. He wondered, about half way through, if his cum had some kind of toxin. If so, he was glad he’d never shot his load in another woman. The world would be overrun with murderous, psychopathic females… more so than there already were. The last jab landed in the man’s heart and Gloria sat back, her anger still sizzling.

“Do you feel better?” Frankie asked, unable to keep the smile from splitting his cheeks.

She shook her head and her ragged breathing caused her entire body to tremble. She walked over to him and he stood taller, unsure what to expect. She fisted his shirt in her hand and pulled him down until her lips could reach his. Gloria moaned and Frankie cupped her face as she worked out her adrenaline through their kiss. He let it go on until her free hand traced down his stomach. He caught it before she could reach dangerous territory. Gloria looked up at him in shock at her own actions. Her lips were swollen, her cheeks tinged pink and her eyes glassy.

“I’m afraid I might be one of those people who gets off on killing,” she whispered in astonishment, her eyes wide.

Frankie chuckled and swiped a drop of blood from her cheek, smearing it across her skin. “That’s okay, Vixen. I get off on watching.”

He picked her up and spun her so he could rest her on the table. His lips connected with hers. Her body liquified at the same time as his hardened. He held tightly to her waist so she wouldn’t melt. God, he’d never had a woman surrender to him so easily. It made his dick hard and he cursed under his breath at how he wouldn’t get relief any time soon. He loved her contrast to him. Her innocence versus his mayhem. Her smooth next to his callous. Her readiness to kill versus his… Well, they had to have a few things in common, he supposed.

The sheet came free of her body. He couldn’t remember if she’d undone it or him. Either way his hands skimmed her bare skin in reverence. As his right hand crested over her breast and she broke away from his mouth to drop her head back, Frankie’s phone rang. Gloria’s legs tightened around him as he growled in frustration. He sat back the best he could while her grip remained tight and looked at the caller ID.

He sighed and leaned forward to kiss her one more time before stepping away. “We need to go, Vixen.”

“What about him?” she asked, jutting her chin toward the other man in the room.

“Laundry chute,” Frankie answered automatically as he responded to Accardi before texting Hector to do a laundry run. “Get dressed. Or don’t. I could do with some eye gouging today.”

Gloria rolled her eyes upward as she hopped down from the table and walked out.

“Oh, and Gloria!” Frankie called, making her turn in the doorway. “Later, we’ll discuss what it is this man did to you to earn a postmortem, yeah?” Frankie asked.

“Yeah,” she whispered, her fingers fluttering over her thigh like a nervous tick.