Brutal Power: An Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance (Bianco Crime Family)

Brody holds the door open for me as we walk into a sprawling Barnes and Noble out in in the Park West neighborhood.

“Got to admit, you don’t strike me as a literary man,” I tell him and loop my hand through his arm.

He grunts at me. “I like to read.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Thrillers. Horror. Stuff like that.”

“You’re just into crime novels.” I nudge him with my elbow. “You like to identify with the main character.”

“Only if the main character is a crooked lawyer.” He gives me a cheeky smile and pulls me down a quiet aisle. It’s the poetry section, and it’s empty as hell. He gently pins me up against the shelves and kisses my neck, his hands on my hips, and slowly moves them up to much more inappropriate areas.

“Cut it out,” I hiss at him, wiggling slightly, trying to get away. “We could get caught. You want that?”

“Maybe,” he says, and one hand teases my breast.

I smack it away. “Then you’ll ruin our meeting.”

“We’ll set another one.” He bites my lower lip. “Come on, baby. Don’t you want me to get you off right here next to copies of The Wasteland?”

“No, and if you can quote me one line from that stupid poem, I’ll take you into the bathroom and give you a blowjob.”

He laughs and puts a hand between my legs. “April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire blah blah blah. Is that enough or should I go on?”

“Okay, now I’m kind of annoyed.”

“I’m a lawyer, baby, I had to read a lot back in school.” He kisses me again and it takes some effort to finally push him away.

I straighten my top and take a deep breath, looking around to make sure nobody noticed that little groping, and fortunately the place is pretty empty for a weekday afternoon. I’m honestly impressed that Brody can quote T. S. Eliot from memory, but I’m not about to actually follow through with that deal.

Maybe at home.

“We have work to do,” I say and swat away his hands when he tries to grab at me again. I skip out of his reach and try not to grin my face off. That man can’t stop himself from touching me all the time and I catch him staring at me sometimes when we’re at home just sitting around doing nothing. When I get changed, when I brush my teeth, when I so much as move a muscle, he’s looking at me, and he always looks hungry.

I love it.

He follows me back into the main atrium, even though he looks unhappy about it, and I lead him over to the cafe. There’s a young guy sitting with a laptop and an old gentleman drinking a coffee and reading what looks like a spicy romance novel, but otherwise the place is deserted. We order drinks and take them to a table in the far corner.

“What are the chances we get stood up?” I look around and check the time. He should be here by now.

“It’s possible, but Captain Kennedy isn’t stupid.” He reaches out and touches my hand. “Relax. It’s okay. We’re in a bookstore in the middle of the day.”

I hadn’t notice that my fingers keep drumming on the table. He’s right though, I have a lot of nervous energy. I feel exposed and nervous, but I need to keep it together, since we’re definitely safe right now. Safe enough, anyway.

“And if he decides that he is stupid? He didn’t seem like your biggest fan.”

“He knows how this goes,” Brody says, his voice getting softer, his expression harder. “He’ll be here.”

And Brody’s right. We don’t have to wait much longer before the captain appears at the edge of the cafe, scowling around until he spots us, and stomps over. The old cop’s wearing jeans, a windbreaker, and a Chicago Cubs hat pulled down low over his face, and I swear I’ve never seen someone look more like a police officer trying to hide in my life. He slumps into the chair next to me, leaning back and crossing his arms, like he’s afraid he’ll catch a communicable disease.

Though he must not realize he’s already got it. The man’s been infected by the Quinn organization the same way all those other cops in his precinct have.

“I’m fucking here,” Captain Kennedy grunts. “Why’d you call?”

“Thank you for joining us,” I say sweetly and he gives me an annoyed look. “How are you, Captain? Everything good?”

“I don’t have a lot of time. Let’s skip the small talk and get to why I’m here.”

Brody’s jaw ticks. “Be nice to my wife, Kennedy.”

The captain looks like he wants to tell Brody to fuck right off, but instead he gives me a pained smile. “I’m doing fine. You’re doing fine. What the fuck do you two want?”

I kick Brody’s shin under the table to keep him from making a big deal out of Kennedy’s bad attitude. “We were actually hoping to work with you, Captain,” I say sweetly and lean back in my chair to study his reaction. He gives me nothing, which means he already figured that before showing up. “It’s not even a huge deal, really. Call it a minor favor.”

“I don’t normally do minor favors for crime families.” He glances at Brody. “What the fuck did you tell her about me?”

“Hear her out,” my husband says with iron in his tone. I swear to everything holy, the way he’s looking at Captain Kennedy makes me absolutely fucking wet. There’s a menacing power to my husband that only comes out when he’s playing the boss role and I love it so much.

“We have a mutual friend,” I tell the annoyed Captain. “Maggie O’Malley. From the zoning committee.”

“Yeah, sure, I know old Mags. What’s she got to do with this?”

“She’s got a neighbor problem. The sort of thing the police can handle, but haven’t, not yet anyway. We were hoping you could help us out by helping her out.”

Captain Kennedy looks thoughtful. “I like Mags,” he admits. “Feisty old broad. Doesn’t take any shit. Not terrible for a fucking bureaucrat.”

“Help her with this neighbor issue and we’ll owe you one.” I give him my best smile and note that Brody’s staring straight at me. The silly man is getting charmed by me and I’m not even trying. Which only makes me want him even more.

“I don’t typically do open-ended jobs like that.” Captain Kennedy licks his lips.

“We’ll pay the usual amount,” Brody supplies. “Which is more than fair considering how small this problem is.”

Captain Kennedy tilts his head side to side but the shrew bastard’s delaying. I can tell his head’s working, and I don’t like that, and I especially don’t like it when he speaks up. “You need this,” he says. “It’s important to you or else you wouldn’t have come straight to me.”

I glance at Brody. He’s got a poker face on but Captain Kennedy’s dead right. “We’re taking this seriously,” Brody says carefully.

Captain Kennedy waves a hand in the air. “I’ve got problems too, you know. I’ve got a bunch of fucking open cases stemming from that little goddamn war you threw a while back. You remember that? The fucking gas leak bullshit? If you can give me an arrest connected with that mess, maybe I can help Mags with her neighbor issue.”

Brody lets out a long, frustrated breath. My heart starts to patter and I shift uncomfortably in my chair. “I’m not sure that’s doable,” I say softly.

Captain Kennedy grins at me, the smug fuck. “I wouldn’t mind arresting you or your brothers, to tell you the truth, but it doesn’t have to be like that.”

“We can get you someone,” Brody says, and we both look at him. Captain Kennedy seems intrigued, and I’m mostly just surprised. We hadn’t discussed this. “And it’ll be someone good. But you need to make sure you live up to your end of the bargain.”

“The moment I have a perp is the moment Mags no longer has a neighbor problem.”

Brody grunts and nods sharply. “You got a deal. I’ll be in touch.”

“This was great. Really, I love dealing with you organized crime scumbags.” Captain Kennedy pushes his chair back. Brody says nothing, and we both know the asshole cop needs to get his shots in or else he might start looking too closely in the mirror. He walks off, sauntering a little bit.

“What the hell was that?” I ask, leaning in. “We’re not sacrificing any of our guys to that dick.”

“No, we’re not, but I’m starting to think we can deal with two problems at the same time if we play this right.” He’s staring after Captain Kennedy, his eyes distant. “To Carthage then I came Burning burning burning burning.”

“More Eliot?”

He pushes his chair back and stands. “Come on. We have some plans to make.”

I stand with him, but instead of following, I move around the table and push my hands against his chest. He looks surprised when I kiss him gently. It’s a chaste kiss, nothing inappropriate, but his eyes light up the moment I’m close to him.

“I believe I owe you something,” I whisper and reach down to tug at his belt.

His eyebrows raise. I turn and walk away, shaking my hips a bit, and head down a short hallway that leads to the bathrooms. I lead him into the men’s room, make sure it’s empty, and get down on my knees the second he’s inside, pushing him up against the door.

“Now this I didn’t expect,” he murmurs as I tug down his slacks. His cock’s already half hard and it springs out to meet my tongue.

I’m not making this slow and playful. I want to suck his cock and make him come, and I get right to work. He leans back against the door, keeping it shut, as I take him into my mouth and glide my tongue around his head, going deeper and deeper. He moans, those delicious noises, clearly not giving a fuck if anyone hears, and it only makes me want him more. That freaking confidence, that desire. The way he wants me is intoxicating.

I suck him faster, stroking with both hands, as he grips my hair. Suddenly, the door bumps as if someone’s trying to shove it open. “Closed for cleaning,” he barks at whoever’s on the other side. I pause, his dick in my mouth, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Doesn’t fucking sound like it,” someone says from the other side.

“Fuck off, it’s closed,” Brody growls and slowly pushes me down his shaft. I whimper and get back to work, sucking him twice as fast, my heart racing. If our friend out in the hall says anything else, I can’t hear over the sound of my spit on Brody’s cock, and it doesn’t take long before the taste of his cum floods my mouth.

I swallow every drop. He pulls me to my feet and kisses me. “Good fucking girl,” he praises as he buckles his belt back up.

The older man from the cafe’s waiting near the vending machine. He gives us a pervy grin, waggling his eyebrows, and Brody puts an arm over my shoulder to shield me from the weirdo. We walk out together, and as soon as we’re on the sidewalk, I burst into laughter, and he cracks up along with me.