Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 28

Arwen moved at a snail's pace to her desk and sat down gingerly on Thursday morning and wondered what the hell had ever made her think she knew what she was doing when it came to s*x. She had muscles aching she hadn't known existed and she held a doctorate in physiotherapy. Adrianu Cavallaro was the master of everything wicked and naughty and he had not been content with her submission until she had surrendered and begged him to stop. Only when she finally spoken her safe word did he stop. She had felt guilty because he hadn't c*m but instead, he had laughed at her and said he could finish in the shower. She had begged him to finish on her and watched as he had m*********d over her body. She had been enthralled with his control as he finished in mere minutes from the time, she had uttered her word. She was still trying to figure out how he managed such self-control. She debated whether his control would be useful on a Bellona assignment. It was superb.

This morning, after passing out in his arms, she had awakened alone in her bed with a note he'd had a matter to take care of and to rest for the day. She had disobeyed of course. She had driven herself to work in her car, instead of using the bike. Deidre had commented she looked worse than she had when they'd gotten on the plane in Boston, but she had dropped the woman off at school with the promise to pick her up after.

Now she was sitting at her desk wishing she had heeded his advice and stayed home. She was wrecked. Thoroughly and absolutely wrecked. He was a beast, and she was a butterfly in comparison. She dropped her head to her desk in defeat. "Jesus Christ, you look like s**t," a mocking voice called from her doorway.

"Chavez, if you are here to mock me, I will kill you." She didn't look up.

Cat's voice spoke up from next to her desk as she lifted her head by the hair, "what happened to you? Deidre said you had gotten food poisoning in Boston, but she'd managed to get you home okay and you were fine, but you don't look fine." "This isn't the food poisoning." She grunted as she tried to sit up, but her swollen nether regions protested at the adjustment in the chair. Her body was battered and bruised. It felt exhilarating and excruciating all at the same time.

Jesse started laughing, "I know that body language. First night I spent with Torben, I couldn't walk straight. If I'm honest, I still walk crooked after one of his escapades but man you look rough."

"I'm f****d," she whispered as she leaned in her seat and stared at the ceiling. "I thought I knew what I was doing. I was wrong. I'm so f****d," she repeated in a whimper.

Cat chortled with glee. "You look like you have been, for about twelve hours straight."

"Ten," she corrected with a sideways glance. "He started at six-thirty, and he only stopped at four-thirty. He left at five with no sleep and with so much energy he could have done a commercial for energy drinks." "Who?" Cat asked.

Jesse shrieked, "don't you say it. Don't say it. I'll vomit!"

"Adrianu Cavallaro," she moaned his name as Jesse made gagging noises and Cat fist pumped the air in excitement. "My body feels like he turned it inside out and then left me to dry."

"I don't want details," Jesse complained

"I do," Cat pushed Jesse and sat down in a chair and rolled it towards Arwen. "Spill all of it. Did he change his rule?"

"We changed the rule to one we both agree on and, I'm not spilling it all. We realized we have similar interests in the bedroom, and he felt the need to explore a lot of them."

"b**m style?" Cat wiggled her eyebrows.

Arwen tried not to react and just stared at the ceiling.

"Come on Arwen. You're the only one of out of all of us who was a daddy's girl, but your daddy was a marine. Your uncle was rough and tumble too. You don't like soft, gentle hands. You like it rough and rugged. No shame in it." Cat pushed a tendril of hair off her cheek, "did he give it to you rough and rugged?"

Jesse grunted and sat in the other chair, kicking her feet onto Arwen's desk. "Not that I want details about how my cousin f****d you into next month but let's pretend it wasn't my cousin and it was some guy named Billy-Bob from a farm in Kentucky," she grinned at Arwen's look of surprise, "did Billy-Bob get you to teach him how skilled you are at bull riding and cracking whips?"

"You two are sick," she protested and closed her eyes, her head tilted back to the ceiling. A smiled tugged her lips, "it was more bareback horse riding and getting plowed like a John Deere in a field."

Her girlfriends erupted in loud laughter, and she finally sat up straight. "Honestly though. I asked him where he got his energy and he said it's an Italian thing. Is this real? If so, why have I not tried Italian before?"

"Nope," Cat shook her head, "I have definitely dined on Italian and did not come out near as wrecked as you are." She met Arwen's gaze, "drugs? He is a mafia kingpin."

"No way," Jesse argued. "His body is a temple. I've heard so many sermons from him since we were kids. We can sell the s**t, but you never taste the product. Ever." "There's no way he touches anything other than booze," Arwen agreed. "Although," she sat up and looked at Jesse, "a few times I've smelled cigarettes on him." Jesse gave a snort of disgust, "he picked up the habit in boarding school as a teenager. I thought he quit years ago though."

"I want to know how you went from deciding you were going to walk away because of Sicily to sleeping with him," Cat asked curiously. "Like what happened?"

"Deidre happened." She sighed and pulled into her desk in frustration.

"You f****d Cavallaro for your cousin?"

Arwen slapped at Cat with a file off her desk, "no. Bitch."

"Then?"

Jesse was leaning forward, "spill it."

"You know the little convenience store up the block from the gym?"

The girls nodded.

"Never, ever, buy their wine or claim chowder."

Jesse was instantly horrified. "You never buy red wine from convenience store. You may as well just chew moldy old grapes."

"Deidre had a date with Mathis and so I asked one of the girls to watch from a distance but then I got lonely in the room. I was hungry and nothing on the room service menu appealed to me, so I went for a walk and ended up at the convenience store. Bought two," she held up two fingers, "bottles of their cheapest red, a container of Boston clam chowder and a bag of sour candies and then watched that movie where the dog dies like ten times."

"Arwen," Jesse started laughing. "You threw yourself a pity party."

"I did." She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "The chowder tasted funny, but I thought it was the combination of it and the shitty wine. Turns out it was spoiled. Deidre checked the expiry date on the container when she found me with my head in the toilet. Expired like an entire week before I ate it." "You're lucky you're not dead," Cat put her hands over her mouth in horror.

"Of course, the cheap red wine gave me a migraine," Arwen nodded as Jesse waved her hands at her like she should have known better. "Dee tried to call you both and Corry too but didn't connect with anyone. She barely got me on the plane. Told the flight attendant I had taken medication too soon and it made me sleepy. Then she," she started laughing at the thought, "my sweet cousin who is so innocent and lovely, broke the law."

"Broke the law?" Jesse was stunned. "What did she do?"

"Snuck her phone into the lavatory on the plane, took it off airplane mode and checked for messages. Nobody had called her back, so she called Addy."

"He played white knight," Cat said with a sad smirk. "Please tell me you didn't fall for the savior thing."

"Nope. Worse." She made a face, "he got under my skin. Kept telling me he wasn't there for me but for Deidre. Said he had promised her if she ever needed help, he would help her. He put me to bed and then left to go have lunch with my cousin and his goons." "No way."

"Oh, she was chuffed. She said his guys helped her get one of your mom's lasagnes into the oven." She shook her head at Jesse. "They had a big Italian feast in my kitchen with Deidre as the hostess and they made her feel she was the best thing since sliced bread. They cleaned up and then when her girlfriends called demanding to know details about her date with Mathis, Addy reassured her, he would stay until I had dinner so she wouldn't worry and arranged transportation for her to and from Portia's." "Fucker!" Jesse slapped the table. "And then told you he only stuck around to make her feel better for leaving?"

"Yup."

"So, you jumped him," Cat queried.

"No, I didn't jump him, but he was in faded jeans, no shirt and barefoot in my house," she looked at Jesse. "He might be your cousin but even you have to admit, his body is banging."

"Why was he half-naked in your house?" Jesse made a face of disgust.

"He and the guys worked up a sweat doing Deidre's physio program with her. Then they helped her with the yard chores. He showered."

"Whoa, wait, back up," Cat held her hand up. "He and his goons, had lunch with your cousin, worked out with her, helped her in the yard, took care of you on her behalf and then drove her wherever she wants to go?"

"It seems my cousin has a soft spot for your cousin," Jesse gave her a look of confusion.

"You should see her with him," Arwen responded. "She never shuts up. Jokingly called him dad when he picked me up for our date last week and last night when she got home from Portia's he sat downstairs with her for at least thirty minutes while I tried to drown myself in the tub soaking my bits." Arwen huffed, "she has no fear of him at all."

"He reminds her of her dad," Cat said quietly. "Your uncle and your dad were strong, dominant men who took care of their family. He immediately gravitates to wanting to take care of her and she is responding to it."

"She's not the only one," Arwen complained. "I forgot how much I like being spoiled and pampered."

"I thought he just railed you?"

"When we got home from the airport and I had puked multiple times, he put me in the shower and washed me down. He put me to bed. When I said I took a bath to soak my bits, he's the one who ran my bath and he dried me off." "No wonder you boned him."

Arwen was quietly studying her hands. "When I'm with him, everything spills out of me. I joked maybe the way Jesse makes people comfortable is genetic. I can't help it. I know whatever I say to him stays with him." At Jesse's start of surprise, she shook her head, "Well not that! Jesse, I'm not so stupid around him, I'd never tell him about Bellona. I will tell you though Jesse, he really thinks you are a part of a squad of superheroes. You foolishly made the comment to your uncle about him being under the protection of your family and he immediately put the group of women he saw you with in Vegas at Fight Night as your Famiglia."

Jesse rubbed her head, "are you kidding me?"

"Nope. I know we talked about it before, but you need to know, he really does believe you're into something dangerous."

"f**k," Jesse sighed. "I'll have to talk to Artemis."

"Maybe, maybe not," Arwen shrugged. At Jesse's frown of confusion, she gave a humourless laugh, "he told me he knows better than to poke his nose into details which is clearly not his business. He said if it were anything you wanted him to know about, he would know. Since you haven't told him, he sees no need to know or seek out answers."

"Not even if it's you?" Jesse held her gaze. "Men like him don't like secrets from their lovers."

"He told me I could keep any secrets I felt I needed to keep. In fact," she made a face as she suddenly remembered his words from the evening before, "he said if it made it easier for me, I should just pretend he already knew all my secrets and to think of the worst of them and know whatever it was, he was okay with it."

"Do you think he knows you shot Luca?" Cat asked seriously. "How would he know?"

"I told him I was in Toronto, and I have all the plane tickets, work, and confirmation I was indeed there. He can't prove otherwise." She gave a sad smile, "but if he ever really did replace out, I don't think me murdering his father is an event he can just pretend to be okay with."

"We definitely need to report to Artemis. I f****d up," Jesse said seriously. "Luca got under my skin, and I told him the only reason he was alive was because my family kept him alive. I got ballsy. I was thinking Luca and his guard were going to be dead in seconds so it wouldn't matter what I said. I forgot about Addy forgetting nothing. The man's mind is a steel trap."

"Well, let's make it a two-fer when we go see Artemis," Arwen sighed, "because while medicated and sick as a dog, while Adrianu Cavallaro was taking care of me, completely on Deidre's behalf," she spoke mockingly and the girls' grinned, "I told him how I killed all eight of my aunt's rapists and put two of them through a woodchipper."

"Jesus f*****g Christ, Arwen!" Cat jumped from the chair, sending it flying backwards. "Are you insane?"

"No. Yes. Maybe?" she sighed, "I left out all the Bellona parts. I simply explained on behalf of my aunt, I went on a murder spree and the reason Agent Pencil Prick won't leave me alone is because the FBI thinks two men are still at large. I couldn't let him believe they were alive because if he thought for one second Deidre was still in trouble, he'd be searching endlessly to replace them. He got the agent's face yesterday. He's going to be digging into how we connected. I can't have him digging more."

"Like the girls in the crate," Jesse sighed and looked at her. "You did the right thing, in my opinion Arwen." At Cat's hiss of fury, she held up a hand, "she's right, Cat. If Addy thought for one minute two men were still on the loose looking for Deidre and Arwen, he would leave no stone unturned. It means he'd be digging into s**t he shouldn't be digging into and would eventually figure out, through means far more diabolical than the FBI, Arwen shot and killed all eight of them and if the FBI digs into what he's digging into, she's made. Better he knows she defended her family. He's not going to say anything to, and she has kept him from looking for ghosts and causing more havoc than necessary."

"I disagree," Cat shook her head. "Artemis and Psych-One would too."

"I'll talk to them and if they want to do a debrief, they can but since Addy got arrested on the weekend, he's been on the warpath. On Tuesday he was on a chopper to one of his ships in the middle of the Atlantic to search through all the crates to look for missing women. He left a team there to keep searching. He's lost his mind trying to replace the missing girls."

"That's not good," Cat said quietly.

"No, it's not. He's the head of one of the most powerful syndicates in the world. He has resources at his disposal others could only dream of."

"We have more," Cat quipped with a smirk.

"It's the only reason we know what he's been up to," Jesse agreed with her. "These are women he doesn't even know. Imagine if he thought for an instant if a woman, he cared for was in danger?" He looked to Arwen, "you were right to tell him."

"He did ask me for the FBI agent's name." She had a sudden memory from the airport and groaned, "f**k, Agent Missing Weiner was at the airport when I arrived. Addy was there to collect us. He knows who he is. He spoke to him. I asked him what he said, and he joked he gave him my personal cell number."

"Why was he there?"

"I told you, Dee called him."

"Not Addy, FBI Agent Zero Inches," Jesse frowned at her. "How did he know you were coming in from Boston?"

She gave a sigh, "I don't know to be honest. I was out of it. Stoned on migraine tablets and vomiting my guts out with food poisoning. I was vomiting when I wasn't passing out." She grinned suddenly, "your cousin held my hair while I puked into an airsickness bag." "Let's nominate him for sainthood," Jesse growled. "We need to replace out why the Agent Serial Stalker is following you around again. It's weird."

"I want to shoot him."

"Speaking of shooting someone," Cat suddenly clapped. "I forgot why we came here."

Arwen frowned, "I thought you came to check on me cause Dee called you yesterday."

"Nah, Artemis told us Addy met your flight."

"You are f*****g bitches!" She threw a pen at Jesse who was laughing her head off. "Wait, why didn't she say anything about Agent Small Salami?"

"Maybe she didn't see him? She may have simply checked to make sure you got to the ground in one piece."

"Probably," Arwen nodded. "So then why are you here?"

"Your buddy Trace got released from the hospital today."

Arwen sat up straight. "No shit."

"Yup. We are all pissed he told Dee to kill herself. We have three teams of women who want a piece of him, including a retiree."

"Bliss?"

"Yup. You know she is mama bear over you. She was part of your recruitment and trained you herself. You are everything she ever wanted in a kid until she had her own." Jesse grinned. "Now she's wishing she had used her egg instead of Naomi's. I stopped by their place yesterday and the kid came into the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of Wonder Woman panties and a red feather boa and climbed onto a bar stool and told Bliss her breakfast wasn't going to make itself." "Damn," Arwen grinned, "I love their kid."

"Me too. Bliss said she was never going to teach her to fire a weapon. She has no self-control and no filter. She'd start shooting people in the street for breathing."

"Anyway, we're having a welcome home party for Trace," Cat interrupted. "Safe house six at ten pm. Be there or be square."

"I'll be there." She said with a smirk. "Deidre mentioned this morning Mathis wanted to do a virtual date tonight. She won't even notice I'm gone."

"Is our little girl going to have virtual s*x?"

Arwen gave an exaggerated shudder at Jesse's question, "I feel the same way about her having s*x as you do of Addy or Dylan."

"Duly noted," Jesse stood up from her chair. "How will you get rid of Addy?"

"I don't need to." She shrugged, "we don't live together Jesse. We aren't going to be together day and night. He has businesses to run and ghosts to chase. He already told me he likely wouldn't see me until the weekend." "Great. Party on!" Jesse held her fists out for the two women to punch.

Arwen smiled to herself as the girls let themselves out of her office. What a perfect day.