Enforcer: A Prequel Novella to the New Mafia Trilogy (12 page)

          “Damn.”

          “Trust me, I know and I’m sorry.”

          “No, I understand and want to be able to take my
time with you,” I said, pulling her against me and wrapping my arms around her
waist. Her head fit nicely underneath my chin and I held her, enjoying the
softness of her body.

We separated slowly and kissed one more time before parting
completely. “I’ll see you work,” I said before leaving. I don’t even remember
the drive back to my apartment. My thoughts were on Miranda and how I couldn’t
believe she had feelings for me; so much so that we both stood up to Marco –
defending us – and he accepted it, or at least I thought he did.

I strutted, actually strutted, into Crimson later that
evening. Joey D. was on the sofa in the employee lounge playing a game on his
phone when I walked in. As per usual he only had pants on. I think he liked to
give the girls a show, although he’d never cop to it. Joey looked up and
grinned when he saw me.

          “It is definitely Tuesday,” he said.

          “Yeah so, what’s that supposed to mean?”

          “It’s the day you go shooting with Rand and you
come back glowing like a freakin’ bride-to-be.”

          “Shut the fuck up.” I pretended to take a swing
and he blocked, chuckling away. “Are you jealous that I don’t have the same
glow after we go shooting on Thursdays? Maybe if you had an ass like Miranda’s
I would.”

          “Yo, don’t talk about my ass.” Joey got all
serious, making me laugh. He was the worst homophobe, so of course I had to
fuck with him.

          “Hey, the girls aren’t the only ones around here
who like it that you hang out in here half-dressed,” I said with a wink.

          “That’s not funny. Who are you talkin’ about?”
Joey got up and walked over to his locker. Reaching in, he pulled out his deep
red shirt that had “staff” written on the back and quickly put it on.

I was almost bent over laughing at his reaction and he wore
a thunderous expression when he turned to look at me. He didn’t hesitate at
flipping me off before stalking out of the lounge.

Kara, one of the servers walked into the lounge a few
seconds later, just as I was getting ready to leave. I needed to head to the
security office and make sure all of the cameras were functioning. Kara and I
had hooked up when I first starting working at Crimson and she’d been clingy
ever since.

          “Hey Grant,” she said, brushing against me as we
passed each other.

          “Kara.”

I didn’t realize she had followed me out of the lounge until
she caught up to me, boobs bouncing, threatening to spill out of her tight,
low-cut shirt. She did have a nice rack.

          “What’s up?” I stopped at the top of the stairs
that led to the main part of the club, noticing a section of the newly replaced
carpet was peeling up, creating a trip hazard. “Hold on.” I pulled my phone out
of my pocket and fired off a text to Joey, asking him to find a roll of duct tape.
It wouldn’t look pretty, but taping the section down would prevent someone from
tripping and suing Marco.

          “Okay, what do you want?” I was deliberately curt
knowing that she would read too much into it if I was nice to her. We’d been through
that before.

          “We haven’t hung out in forever. What are you
doing after work?”

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. As I was bringing
my arm down, I caught movement in my peripheral vision. I looked over to see
Miranda by her office. She had paused in the middle of unlocking her door and
was watching us. Kara continued to yammer on, but I ignored her. Miranda shook
her head and smiled.

          “No. Whatever you’re asking, the answer is no. I’m
not interested in you,” I said, cutting Kara off mid-sentence. Her eyes filled
with tears and I groaned. “We hooked up forever ago and that’s all it was, a
hook up. Now go get ready, we’re opening in half an hour.” I left her standing
at the top of the stairs. Maybe it was a dick move, but she was clearly
delusional if she thought there was anything between us. Instead of going to my
office, I walked into Miranda’s. She was just getting ready to sit at her desk.
Before she could, I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind and pulled her
close.

          “Grant, we’re at work!” she admonished me, but in
a whisper.

          “I know, but I can’t stop thinking about you,” I
kissed her neck and let her go. “Also, I am here on business.” I filled in her
in on the carpet and that she needed to call in a repair to the installers.

          “That’s why I get paid the big bucks,” she said
with a grin and sat down behind her desk, grabbing a pad of lime green post-it
notes. After writing the reminder down, she looked up at me. “I can’t stop
thinking about you either. Now go, leave me alone so I can concentrate.”

I left her office looking forward to meeting up after hours
and finishing what we started in her entryway. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a
chance.

***

The club was in full swing and we had already reached
capacity. We pushed the limits, knowing the fire department wouldn’t spring an
inspection on us, but there was only so much volume our staff could handle. I
certainly wasn’t expecting Marco to call me into VIP and send me on a job any
soldier was capable of doing. It was definitely below my pay grade, but Marco
insisted, his bottomless dark eyes glittering, reminding me that he knew where
the bodies were buried and he guaranteed that my DNA was wrapped up in the
plastic sheets along with the remains. He was referring to the beginning,
before I knew who I really working for and I knew exactly why he was doing it
after he all he was a master of manipulation and intimidation. Swallowing down
my pride and reminding myself that I needed to appease Marco in order to keep
Miranda, I left to do the job, leaving Joey D. in charge of security.

The job kept me out until close to 5:00 in the morning and I
crawled into bed, already half asleep by the time my head hit the pillow. I had
been out for maybe four hours when my phone kept ringing. I went to put it on
silent when I realized it was Marco calling.

          “Hello?” I answered, my voice thick with sleep.

          “Get your ass to the Speak.”

          “Now?” A dial tone was my answer.

When I arrived, I walked up to a condemned row home replete
with boarded up windows and crumbling concrete stairs leading to the front
door. I knocked and the door opened slightly to reveal Sam, the doorman who I
swore never slept because no matter what time of day, Sam was there. I gave him
the current password and he let me in.

Since it was early in the afternoon, the bar, which had been
a living room in a former life, was dark and empty. Marco was in the back kitchen
area with Al and Rico. They were all sitting around a white Formica table
drinking coffee. The table was trimmed in chrome and had a fifties vibe to it.
At The Speak, all of the windows were boarded up and had been that way since
Prohibition, yet lines up sunlight still managed to filter in through gaps,
bouncing off of the chrome. Marco’s cousin, Telly, was guarding the back door
that led out to an alley. This too was boarded up.

          “Grant, ‘bout time you got here. I need you to
help with a clean-up. Big Tone’s whore OD’d last night and left quite the
mess.” Marco handed me the address, it was written on a torn off piece of
cocktail napkin.

          “Don’t we have cleaners for this?”

          “She didn’t die, but she did puke all over the
place and she shit the bed. I need you to clean it up. The cops have already
documented everything.”

For the next two weeks, my life consisted of being Marco’s
bitch. He continued to send me away from Crimson and kept me so exhausted I
barely had time to shower and eat. I rarely saw Miranda, even had to cancel our
standing Tuesday shooting date and that was definitely Marco’s intention.

Finally Marco was called away to Atlantic City for business
and I had a night of normalcy at Crimson, but I was dead on my feet and
pounding Red Bulls to stay awake. Miranda called me into her office and I sunk
down heavily in the chair in front of her desk.

          “Damn, you look tired.”

I nodded my head and rubbed my hands over my face to
stimulate the nerve endings and perk me up.

          “He’s doing this on purpose isn’t he?”

          “Yeah.”

          “Ugh, my dad’s such an asshole. I’m sorry. I can
talk to him - tell him that your absence has been interfering with operations
here.”

          “No, that will make things worse. He’s testing me
and reminding me he’s boss. I get it.”

          “I had a feeling this would happen. He took it way
too easy.”

          “You’re worth it,” I found the energy to flash a
grin.

          “Come back to my place tonight. You can sleep in
and I’ll make you breakfast.”

The idea of sleeping with Miranda perked me up, the promise
of breakfast just icing. “I’m in, but need to stop at my apartment first.”

          “That’s good. We don’t need people seeing us leave
together.”

          “Right, I’m your dirty little secret.”

Miranda smiled and shook her head, inserting a stack of cash
into the counting machine on her desk.  I left her office, making sure the door
was locked and secure.

Between the anticipation of my night ahead with Miranda and
the lack of sleep, time seemed to slow down to painful crawl. Finally last call
was announced and half an hour later the bright lights came up, signaling it
was time for people to leave. It was after 3:00 when I left to stop by my
apartment.

I quickly brushed my teeth and threw my toothbrush,
deodorant, change of clothes and a box of condoms into a plastic bag from the
grocery store. With the essentials in hand, I drove over to Miranda’s house,
parking in the street behind her Mercedes.

She answered the door before I even had a chance to knock.
As soon as I was inside, she was on me. Her lips seeking mine out the moment I
lowered my head to make up for our height difference. Her hands were in my
hair. Releasing my bag, it dropped to the floor.  Scooping her up, she wrapped
her legs around my waist. Miranda had changed out of her work clothes and was
wearing an oversized t-shirt. When my hands cupped her bare ass, I realized
that was all she wore.

          “Oh baby, you’re killing me,” I groaned and
captured her mouth again. I thought I was going to blow a load right in my
pants before we even left the entryway, which is where we still were, making
out like we had been starved for each other.

          “I thought work would never end,” she gasped when I
started kissing and sucking along her neck, her skin a tasty combination of
salty and sweet.

          “We’re here now.” Keeping one hand on her ass, I
slid my other along her pussy, tracing the outside of her lips. Miranda was
bare there too and smooth. My girl liked to wax. I slipped a finger inside and
began pumping, making her squirm and moan while she clutched desperately at my
shoulders. Inserting another finger without losing momentum caused her to buck
violently against my hand. She threw her head back the same time I felt her tighten
around my fingers. When I pulled them out, they were soaked. Sticking them in
my mouth, I licked them clean of her juices while she watched. Miranda’s cheeks
were flushed and her hair was a wild, dark mane. 

          “Let’s go upstairs,” she whispered. I set her down
and she slid along my body, pressing against my erection the entire way.

I grabbed my bag and then latched onto her hand, leading her
up the stairs to the second floor hallway. I remembered where her bedroom was
and within seconds, we were there regarding each other by her large poster bed.

Part of me, the pent-up sexually frustrated me, wanted to
bend Miranda over the side of the bed and take her right there. The other part
of me wanted to slowly savor every inch of her, push her to her limits and make
her cry out my name – maybe beg a little. Stepping forward, closing the gap
between us, I grabbed the bottom of her shirt and tugged. Miranda lifted her
arms and I pulled the shirt over her head. She stood naked in front of me, her
hair spilling down over her breasts.

Brushing her hair back behind her shoulders, I lowered my
head and took a nipple into my mouth. I started a teasing rhythm of sucking and
nibbling, alternating between both breasts. Miranda cried out and buried her
hands in my hair, hugging me closer.

I came up for air, admiring the swollen handy work of my
mouth as I unbuttoned my jeans and kicked them across the room. Miranda’s gaze
zeroed in on my cock and she licked her lips. She wasn’t the only one who had
opted not to wear underwear. I quickly disposed of my black t-shirt and she
dropped to her knees before me, circling the tip of my dick with her tongue
before I could stop her. It was my turn to bury my hands in her hair as she
worked me into her mouth, inch by inch. When I breached the entrance to her
throat, she kept going and my knees threatened to give out.

“Sweet fucking Christ, Miranda,” I growled, gripping her
hair, setting the pace of her ministrations and pulling away before I came in
her mouth.  “Get on the bed,” I ordered and she complied, climbing up on the
raised mattress. She didn’t lie down on her back, but stayed on her hands and
knees with her legs slightly spread apart.

I stroked myself, watching her display. Looking over her
shoulder, she wiggled her ass at me and I couldn’t resist the invitation. After
quickly rolling on a condom, I climbed up on the bed behind Miranda and grabbed
her hips, pulling her back so I could tease her entrance before thrusting into
her hard.

          “Oh, yes!” She cried out and lowered down onto her
elbows to ride out the heavy pounding. I loved seeing my fingers dig into her
soft flesh. She came hard and fast, but I wasn’t ready to finish just yet so I
pulled out and flipped Miranda over so she was on her back. My arms caged her
in and I settled between her thighs. She was a gorgeous sight lying there
beneath me with her dark hair fanning out on the ivory sheets. Her skin glowed
with a light sheen of sweat and her breasts moved with every breath. She smiled
at me as she ran her hands down my chest and abs, taking her time tracing each
muscle, causing me to tense up when she hit a ticklish spot. Then she ran her
hands up my arms, gently squeezing my biceps before cradling my face. We did
this for a while, touching each other, testing out the sensitive spots of our
bodies. I discovered she was really ticklish right below her breasts and when I
ran my hands down her legs, bending them at the knee to position myself between
them better, she giggled at the light brush of my fingers skimming the soft
skin directly behind her knees.  These giggles abruptly stopped when I thrust
inside her again. This time I opted for a slower pace, cupping her breasts and
squeezing her nipples, while sliding in and out of her, Miranda moaned and her
hips rose to match my movements. Her hand slipped between where we were joined
and seconds later her muscles clamped down around my dick.