BONUS CHAPTER

SLATE

Brynne whines as the cuffs dig into her wrists. She arches off the bed as I pull one nipple clamp off, thrusting inside her and feeling her fluttering walls around my cock as her cuffs grate against the metal headboard of the bed.

“You going to be a good girl for Daddy and come, bunny?”

I tease the next clamp, tugging but not pulling it off, making her breathless.

“Yes,” she breathes, and I don’t know if she does it on purpose. Sometimes, she loves to earn my ire.

I tug harder, nearly making her come as she arches off the bed.

“Yes, what?” I growl.

She opens her eyes, finding mine in the haze of pleasure. “Yes, Daddy,” she says, her voice so husky it shoots straight to the head of my cock.

“That’s better. Good girls behave, bunny. I don’t know how many times I’ve taught you this lesson. You’re hard-headed,” I taunt.

She moans as I lean down and capture her lips, swallowing each little noise she makes because it lathers my soul in happiness.

“Please,” she begs, and I fuck her harder. Deeper.

“Fuck, your cunt feels so good this morning, love,” I snarl, biting her jaw as I pull the second nipple clamp off slowly, keeping her from coming abruptly.

“Goddamnit, brute, let me come,” she begs, her eyes turning feral.

“I’m not done playing with you yet. And also, who are you to give me orders, Mrs. Ricci?”

The baby monitor goes off as Nico groans to life in his bed from the dead sleep he was enjoying when I started this endeavor nearly an hour ago.

Brynne gasps, hearing him, her eyes working between me and the monitor.

She presses my shoulder back as if trying to get me to pull out of her.

I shake my head, thrusting deeper, making her eyes grow heavy again, reminding her where she’s needed first.

“Ah, ah, ah, that little fiend gets enough of your attention. You’ll deal with his daddy first before you go to him.”

She moans at my words, and I tickle my hand down the chain connected to the nipple clamps. The very chain that’s connected to the final clamp that’s on her clit.

“Mama?!” Nico cries from his crib, and Brynne fights the urge to go to him as I grin.

“Slate, don’t…”

I smile. “Come for me, Mama,” I taunt, pulling the clamp off her clit as I hasten my pace.

She cries out, body convulsing as she comes around me, and I shove inside as deep as I can, coming so hard I nearly collapse on top of her.

“Fuck!” she breathes, shuddering as the last throes of orgasm wracked her body.

“Good morning, Mrs. Ricci,” I tell her, kissing her slowly to bring her back to reality.

“Yeah, you skipped that bit before,” she jokes.

Nico’s sadness turns to rage on the other end of the monitor, and I grab the key and release Brynne from the cuffs. She moves to get off the bed, and I press her back down, shaking my head.

“I got him. You take your time.”

She smiles and snuggles back into the mattress. “You sure?”

I nod. “He and I will bring you breakfast.”

“And coffee?” she asks, eyes pleading.

I smile, kissing her nose as I get off the bed. “And coffee,” I confirm.

I get Nico up and change him, placing him in his high chair and making him some french toast sticks and banana—his fixation this week, I’m confident it’ll change next week.

“You have the worst timing, you know that?” I ask him as I hand him his sippy of water.

He doesn’t say anything; he looks at me with dark eyes, assessing why I’m out here instead of his mom.

I smile, tousling his hair as I hear the coffee machine beep that it’s done.

“Hurry up, we’ll take Mama some breakfast.”

He puts his sippy down and shovels his food in his mouth hastily.

I never thought I’d live this life, and sometimes, I still have to pinch myself. It’s like I wake up happy, content, and blessed in another man’s life.

When Nico’s done, I clean his face off and grab the tray to take Brynne her breakfast and coffee, heading down the hall as Nico toddles behind me.

I kick the door I left cracked open to find Brynne on the bed, papers spread before her, and her reading glasses on the tip of her nose.

She only had to get them last week, and I like them on her.

She looks up, smiling when she sees us both.

Gathering the papers, she sets them on the nightstand with her glasses and phone.

“Working so early, Mrs. Ricci?” I ask her, placing her tray in the middle of the bed as Nico throws his sippy cup for her, nearly knocking over her coffee.

We both laugh as I shake my head and lift him onto the bed.

He crawls up onto Brynne’s lap and snuggles close. She kisses his head.

“Did you sleep well, little love?” she asks him, and he nods, basking in her adoration.

“Good.”

I spread some cream cheese and jam on her rye toast—her current fixation—and hand it over to her. “What were you working on?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m looking into selling a few of the Bianchi properties that were being used in Dad’s trafficking rings, and Alyssa found the ones she deems the best fit to either turn into something for the neighborhoods or to sell, but I’m worried about all the reports of missing girls lately, that they might fall into the wrong hands.”

I nod. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Might be best to see where things go before making a move.”

We only started using the docks to import and export substances we’d much rather corner the market on than have come into the city by other means a few months ago.

If people are going to do it, it should be safe.

“You might be right,” she says, biting her toast as Nico eyes it disgustedly.

“Speaking of which, I have a meeting with Father Russo later; I don’t remember if I told you.”

“On a Saturday?” she asks. “Why would Father Russo want to speak to you?”

Father Russo not only married us but recently had christened Nico, as well.

I shrug. “I don’t know. Also, when do our jobs only require us to only work on weekdays, bunny?”

She sighs. “I know, but lately, we’ve done very well keeping the weekends to ourselves.”

“Well, I shouldn’t be long, love. I don’t know what he wants, but I can’t imagine that it would be anything requiring me to be there for hours on end.”

“Good, because I have plans for dinner for us.”

I grin. “Oh yeah, and what plans are those?”

She smirks wickedly. “They’re a secret. You’ll have to show up to find out.”

Nico tries to smack her toast, and I sigh. Getting off the bed, I walk around to Brynne’s side and snatch the beast upside down. He squeals with glee, never letting go of his sippy that dangles nearly to the floor.

“I’ll get this one washed up, shall I?”

Brynne smiles. “You mean I get to eat breakfast and have coffee peacefully?”

“That you do, Mrs. Ricci. You can repay me later.”

She waggles her eyebrows at me. “Consider it a deal.”

St. Andrew’s Cathedral is one of the grandest I’ve ever stepped foot in. Its exterior resembles something out of a midevil movie, with a king lurking inside.

Pushing inside, I take a moment to bring Holy Water from the Stoup and make the sign of the cross on myself before entering.

When I walk in the nave, Father Russo sits in his office, worrying his lip.

“Oh.” He startles. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He removes his reading glasses and places them on the open bible on his desk.

“You wanted to see me, Father?”

He thins his lips. He’s my age, but his hair is white as snow, a hereditary condition he got from his father. Father Russo has implored me to call him Luca more than once, but I refuse.

As he refuses to call me anything but my proper name.

“Yes, Ardesia. Thank you for coming.”

“What’s going on? You seem out of sorts.”

He does. His hair is touseled, and his shirt is unbuttoned. Even his eyes are frantic as he meets mine with them.

“I’ve been over and over this in my head, and I’ve finally come to a decision that I have to do what’s right,” he starts, and nerves skitter in my stomach.

“Alright…” I say anxiously.

“I got a confession last week from a parishioner, and I can’t keep it to myself. The burden is too heavy.”

“Father, tread very carefully. Breaking the seal of confession isn’t something you should take lightly.”

He shakes his head. “And I don’t. However, when someone comes into my confessional and admits that he’s involved in a scheme to kidnap and sell girls to prominent men in this city, I can’t sit by and let it happen. Not when he gave me locations of where the girls are.”

I inhale sharply. This is everything that Dante and I have been working to find out—the location of even some of the girls that have gone missing in surrounding areas. While no one has been brave enough to snatch girls from anywhere in Brynne's territory or mine, girls are going missing from other parts of the city at an alarming rate.

“If we do this, Father, you’ll be at risk of losing everything here. Your life as the priest, everything you’ve worked for,” I warn.

He nods. “I’ve sat with this information far too long, Ardesia. It’s eating at my soul at this point.”

“Alright, then tell me everything.”

After two hours of him recounting where the girls are located, I called Dante and Lorenzo to the church, and we four have been pouring over maps and plans ever since.

Father Russo is adamant that he’ll go with us when we move the girls out of Adamo territory, even after I try to convince him otherwise.

“A priest that fights beside the mafia in the shadows to keep his parish safe, that could be a comic book,” Dante says in jest, and Lorenzo shakes his head at him.

“If we do this, Father, it could get bloody. The parts of this city you see versus what I see are wholly different. You won’t be able to go back.”

“Yeah, the shit we see will change your outlook on a lot of things,” Dante adds, and I nod in agreement.

The father ponders for a moment as we all stare at him.

He shakes his head. “Knowing this has already begun to change something in me, Ardesia. I have to do this. For me. For the girls. I can’t return to my life as if these things aren’t happening. No matter what, I want to help. I want to come.”

“Alright, Father. Just know,” I say as I stand, holding my hand out for him to shake, “I tried to warn you.”

He stands and slips his hand into mine. “Keep me updated.”

I nod as I take all the maps and plans we’ve gotten so far back home to my mafiosi wife to pour over. Finalizing something this big without her would be fucked.

I need her input, and I need her assistance. She sees the things I sometimes don’t.

I know I’m late for dinner, but I also know that she’ll forgive me once I explain.

When I get home, she’s sitting at the table in a thong, sipping wine as candles burn in the middle of the table and dinner warms beneath covers.

“So, what the priest had was worthy of hours of your time, hm?” she grins.

She’s not angry with me. It’s more like she’s worked up another appetite while waiting for me.

The apartment is dark as I drop the papers on the table and look around.

Music plays softly from the system in the living room, and she looks up at me from beneath fake lashes she painstakingly put on to lure me into her trap.

She does that sometimes, lures me into her web to toy with me before devouring me whole. And I fucking love it.

“It was. I’m afraid we’ll have to work before we play, too, bunny.”

She bites her bottom lip, looking at the stack of papers I dropped on the table. Setting her wine down, she stands.

“That’s alright; I know you’re good for it.”

“Where’s the baby?” I ask.

“With Aunt Alyssa for the evening,” she says, popping her glasses on and reviewing the papers and maps.

I come behind her and wrap my arms around her nearly nude body. My lips graze her ear. “Mm, so we need to work fast, then.”

She inhales sharply. “We do.”

My hand slips down the front of her thong, finding her soaking wet for me already, and she moans, dropping the papers to the table and flattening her palms against it for stability.

“Daddy,” she moans.

“I need an appetizer, at the very least, bunny.”

I slip two fingers inside her and relish in the unbidden cries of pleasure she lets free.

Tomorrow, we start a war on behalf of the women of this city. Tonight, we feast in preparation.