Chapter 1

Chapter One

Three Months Later

Gio

"We're short again. " Paulie looked down in frustration at the till before lifting his head to look sheepishly at me. The problem was, I couldn't blame him. This wasn't the first time the thief had hit, and I'd been on guard one of the previous times. There was no rhyme or reason to it, no pattern we could discern, and we never knew what was going to go missing.

The first time, it had been a bottle of rum. We'd thought it was just a mistake.

Then, the mistakes kept happening. A bottle there, a bottle here. A wad of cash there, a wad of cash here. Little things that could easily be chalked up to a mistake, except when they all started to add up…

Last time, it had been a bracelet from a stash of jewelry that had been on its way to my aunt.

This time it was cold, hard cash again.

We weren't the only ones. Not that we bandied about the fact that we had a problem with a thief, but we kept our ears to the ground, and we knew that there was a rash of small burglaries among the wealthy and elite in the city. Who was rash enough to also steal from the Familias, though… that was the question.

Someone with a death wish. Or someone who was too stupid to know they were Familias . It didn't really matter either way; the end result would be the same. Normally, I'd let Tomas handle it—once I found out who it was—but this time, I was going to get more satisfaction out of doing the deed myself.

The thief was no more than a buzzing fly, but he was a hell of an annoying one. I wanted to be the one to swat him down.

"Just add it to the tally," I said tiredly, scrubbing my hand over my face. I reached for my pocket watch, cursing when I realized I had done so. It had been missing since Jack's wedding, yet my hand kept trying to find it when I wasn't thinking. I still didn't know how I'd lost it.

Grimacing, I turned my wrist to look at my watch. I missed my pocket watch, but I was determined to adapt to the new fashion now that I didn't have the family heirloom anymore. Buying a new pocket watch would only make me angry at myself for losing the one my great-grandfather had given me.

Of course, looking at the one on my wrist did the same thing, but I was hoping that, eventually, the sting would fade with time because they were different enough.

"I have to go."

It was two in the morning, and I wanted to check on Clara and make sure she'd gotten home safely. I hadn't been able to spare anyone to watch her this evening—not that anyone managed to keep up with her for a full evening, anyway. She was good at slipping past my men and even better at pretending she was doing no such thing.

In fact, I still wasn't entirely sure she knew I had men watching her in the evenings. Somehow, she always managed to lose them, but she never seemed to know they were there. It was a conundrum. Eventually, I would get to the bottom of it, but I didn't have the time right now.

First, I had to find the thief.

Still, I stopped by the boarding house where she lived on my way home. I'd gotten a key from the landlady a long time ago, and she knew not to question my comings and goings. Not that she saw me much, since she was usually abed when I stopped in. A place that Clara was all too often not. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cunningham was in her eighties and far too old to stay up long enough to tell me when Clara came home, which was why I set a spare man on her as often as I could.

Slipping through the darkened hallways, I silently opened Clara's door and breathed a sigh of relief. She was in bed, asleep, her short blonde curls spilled across the pillow like an angel's. Walking carefully across the floor to avoid the board that creaked, I stroked my finger over one of those curls.

Another reason I was so cut up about my pocket watch being stolen. My first night here, I'd cut the end of a lock from her hair. I'd kept it in that watch, tied with a little blue ribbon that matched her eyes exactly. Sentimental nonsense, yet the impulse had been overpowering. I missed touching the curl in my pocket watch, so I touched her curl now.

She slept through it, of course, as she always did.

Stifling a deep sigh, I went back out her door, closing it gently behind me, and made my way back through the boarding house, locking the front door before I went. Another late night in my lonely bed, hand on my dick, and wishing it was Clara's cunt… or mouth… or tight little ass. It was a routine I was becoming far too familiar with.

Sooner or later, something was going to have to give.

* * *

Clara

Peeking through my lashes, I watched as Gio let himself out of my bedroom. Again. Part of me wished he'd touched more than my hair, even though I knew it was for the best that he didn't. I breathed a sigh of relief, sliding my hand under the pillow to finger the metal pocket watch that I kept there.

His pocket watch.

I knew when he'd taken my hair, of course, the night before Hailey's wedding to his cousin, but I hadn't woken up to stop him. Sometimes, I told myself it was for my own safety; other times, I was willing to admit that some insane part of me had liked knowing he wanted a lock of my hair. Not that he had it now. I hadn't known he'd kept it in his pocket watch when I'd taken it.

Discovering the lock had almost made me regret stealing the watch because now he didn't have my hair anymore. Then I remembered how annoyed I'd been at him when I'd taken the watch, and I decided it served him right.

Rolling onto my back, I brought the pocket watch to my chest, tapping my nails against the hard metal. It was textured, quite bumpy, and I found myself doing what I often did with it after he snuck into my room—moving it across my chest to my nipple as it budded beneath the fabric of my nightgown. The bumpy metal against the lace of my gown created the oddest sensations, rousing the bud to further hardness.

The rapidness of my breathing increased as I moved the pocket watch over my clit, teasing it before moving it to my other breast and doing the same. Squirming, I pressed my legs together to ease some of the growing pressure as I teased my nipples, letting the sensations rouse my desire. Closing my eyes, I wondered what Gio would do if he ever came back after one of his nightly checks, if he ever returned to find me rubbing his stolen watch across my body.

With a low moan, I tugged the hem of my nightgown up and reached down with the watch to press its warmed, textured surface against my slick flesh. I moaned as it rubbed against the sensitive folds and the swollen nub. The sensation was utterly sinful.

I moved the watch up and down, in the opposite direction of my hips, getting the most amount of friction, of sensation possible. My slippery pussy rubbed over it again and again, making me gasp every time the hard textured surface pressed against my clit.

Catching the chain in my fingers, I pushed it inside myself. I had removed the hook the first time I'd gotten the idea to do this. The cool chain slid into me, adding to the sensations as my fingers moved, the heel of my palm keeping the watch in place. I closed my eyes, imagining what it would be like for Gio to walk back in and find me here, nightgown pulled up to my waist, his watch and my fingers buried between my thighs.

Would he be disgusted?

Aroused?

Both?

I whimpered as the throbbing in my core grew stronger, my climax swirling closer. I wished he was there, shoving the thin links of the chain in deeper with his fingers, stretching me open. I added a third finger. His hand was so much bigger than mine; two of his fingers would surely equal at least three of mine… probably more.

The stretch made me ache deliciously. I put my other hand over my mouth, muffling my cry as I tipped over the peak, panting and whimpering from the assault of sensations. My whole body quivered, then relaxed as I lay panting, sliding my fingers and the chain from inside me.

I was going to have to spend some time cleaning it again tomorrow.

It was worth it.

Wrapping my fingers around the warm, slick metal, I yawned and turned onto my side, my body still humming from the lingering pleasure. I was a very naughty girl, and I knew it, but as long as no one else did, I was safe.

Tiredly, my brain went through my mental checklist for the morning.

Clean the watch. Again.

Go to work.

Drop by the orphanage to donate the cash I'd collected for them today.

Perhaps tomorrow night I should take a break from my evening activities. I needed more sleep than I'd been getting if I was going to stay alert. The challenges to continuing my side work were growing every day.