Antonio
I made my way to the hotel lobby and walked up to the front desk. “Hi, the name’s Bond. I’m checking in with Becca.”
“Becca Bond?” she asked me, looking through her glasses.
I nodded and smiled at the front desk agent. I read her name tag. “Yes, I’m looking for Becca Bond, please, Catherine.”
“Oh, sure, Mr. Bond. What was your first name?”
“James,” I said, giving her a wry smile. “James Bond.”
She smiled a little too overtly. “Here’s your key, sir. Mrs. Bond said she’ll meet you in the room.”
“Sounds good. You have a very good afternoon, Catherine.”
“It’s evening, sir,” she squeaked, and I nodded.
“It sure is.” I grabbed the key and headed toward the elevator. I turned and looked over my shoulder. I saw Jimmy sitting on one of the lobby chairs as planned. I nodded and pointed to my watch. He held up all ten fingers, and I gave him a thumbs-up. I headed to the elevator and then went up to the room. I used my key to get in.
“Honey, I’m home,” I said as I walked inside. Serena was buck naked on the mattress, smiling. She jumped up off the bed and headed toward me.
“There you are, Antonio. You’ve been such a bad boy.”
“Don’t forget my name’s not Antonio,” I said as I gazed at her, trying not to let my pity and anger show through.
“Oh, I’m sorry, James.” She laughed. “James Bond, you are fucking hot as hell.” She pressed her hands against my chest. “I should be so mad at you, you know that, Antonio? I mean, James. Daddy was so upset. He’s going to take you and the Marchesi famiglia down.”
“Well, we’ll have to take care of that situation, won’t we?”
“I’m sure we can come up with something,” she said, pressing her breasts against my arm. I felt her lips against my cheek, and she kissed up and nibbled on my earlobe. Her hand slid down the front of my pants, and she squeezed. I wasn’t even close to being hard. I quickly moved away.
“So, how’s everything going?” I asked as I looked around the room, making sure that there was no one else in there with us. I mean, I knew Serena. She wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t bring one of her bodyguards to a rendezvous with me. Her father would kill her.
“I don’t want to talk right now, Antonio,” she said, grabbing my hand and pushing me down onto the mattress. I smiled up at her as she got onto my lap. She sat on my groin and started moving back and forth, her breasts bouncing up and down as she began to perform a lap dance. I had absolutely no interest in touching her, kissing her, or being touched by her. In fact, I couldn’t believe that I’d ever slept with her. She was so different from the beautiful Callie. My heart thudded for a couple of moments as I thought about her. My little lamb, she hated me. I knew she hated me. I’d done this to her. I’d betrayed her twice. I couldn’t see how she’d ever forgive me, and that was okay. I didn’t need her to forgive me as long as I made sure she was all right.
I could feel Serena’s hands on my belt buckle as she started to pull it off. I knew I had to be patient. I couldn’t act like I wasn’t interested. I leaned back and ran my finger down the side of her arm. She started to undo my pants and slid her fingers in. I felt the tips of her fingernails reaching into my boxers to pull out my cock. I quickly grabbed her hands and pushed her back onto the bed, and she giggled.
“But, Antonio, I want to see the big wolf.”
“And he wants to see you, too,” I said, grinning at her. “But first, let me pleasure you,” I said, pressing my lips to her cheek.
She bit down on her lower lip and hummed. “Oh, I want to be pleasured by you. The pussycat’s been waiting for your long tongue.”
“Well, pussycat doesn’t have to wait much longer,” I said. I reached into my back pocket, held up some rope, dangled it in front of her. “How about we make this interesting, darling?”
“What do you mean?” she said, blinking. I grabbed her wrists and the rope and tied it quickly.
“You know, just some fun.”
“You’re such a kinky bad boy, Antonio.”
“Well, that’s why you love me, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t say I love you.”
“Well, you wanted to marry me.”
“I wanted to marry you because your cock is the size of—” A banging on the door made her pause. “What the fuck is that?”
“Oh, must be room service. I ordered some champagne,” I said, smiling at her.
“Oh, champagne. I hope you got the good stuff.”
“I did. And I also got some chocolate and strawberries and some ice cream.”
“Ice cream?” She stared at me in surprise. “Why ice cream?”
“So I can lick it off of you,” I said, licking my lips. I looked down at her naked body and tried not to shudder. “You are so fucking hot, Serena.” There was another banging on the door. “All right, I’m coming,” I said.
She looked at me with a girlish smile. “Oh, Antonio, you make me so fucking horny and wet. Dad’s going to kill me if he finds out I’m here.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” I said as I headed toward the door. “He won’t know.”
She giggled again, and I opened it. Before she knew what was happening, Jimmy was inside the room, I had locked the door, and he had his gun out and was pointing it at her.
“Oh my God, what the fuck is going on?”
I walked over to the bed and shrugged. “Hey, I’m sorry to have to do this, Serena, but you need to video chat your dad right now.”
“What?” Her jaw dropped, and her face paled. “What are you talking about?”
“I said, ‘You need to video chat your dad right now,’ or Jimmy’s going to blow your fucking brains out.”
Her eyes flickered, and she looked between the two of us. “What the fuck is going on here, Antonio? And I’m naked right now.”
“You ain’t got nothing I ain’t seen before,” Jimmy said, shrugging. I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing. I grabbed her handbag and brought it over to the bed.
“Call your dad.”
“You got to fucking untie me first if you want me to call him,” she said, glaring at me. “No wonder he wants to kill you. No wonder he told me to stay away from you. You’re a fucking jackass.”
“You didn’t mind that when you were sucking on my dick,” I said, and she ground her teeth.
“I should have bitten it off,” she said. “Then what would you have done?”
“Call your dad,” I said as I finished untying the ropes. She looked like she wanted to make a run for it, but then Jimmy pressed the gun to the side of her head.
“I wouldn’t be stupid if I was you.”
“At least let me put on some clothes,” she said.
“No,” I said.
“I’m not going to video chat him like this.”
“Fine,” I said. “Call him.”
She grabbed her phone from her handbag, grabbed a pillow, and covered herself with it. The phone rang twice.
“Serena, where are you?” Tommasso’s voice sounded angry. “The guy said you disappeared. Where are you?”
“I’m in Times Square, Daddy. I made a mistake.”
“What the fuck’s going on?”
“I went to meet Antonio but I—”
“Put him on the phone.”
“Papa, I’m sorry.”
“Put Antonio Marchesi on the phone.”
“Yes, Papa.” She handed the phone to me.
“Tommasso,” I said.
“Antonio Marchesi. You can fix this.”
“Fix what?” I said. We both knew what he was talking about, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of pretending I knew what he was talking about.
“I’ve got someone you want,” he said.
“And I’ve got someone you want,” I said.
“You don’t know where Callie is,” he said. “I know where Serena is.”
“You do?”
“You forget she’s my daughter. I’ve been tracking her phone. I’ll have my men there within ten minutes.”
“Okay. And I’m here with Jimmy, and we’ve got a fucking gun to her head, so if you want her to leave this hotel room alive, you’re going to have to—”
“You can fix this, Antonio,” he said, interrupting me.
“How do I fix this, Tommasso?”
“Marry Serena.”
“That’s not going to happen.” I laughed out loud.
“Then I’ll kill your princess right after I fuck her brains out,” Tommasso gritted.
“Where is she?” I was pissed off. I was not going to let him talk to me that way.
“Which she?” he said, laughing. “Oh, the things you don’t know, Antonio.”
“Don’t play games with me. Where the fuck is Callie?”
“You’re going to listen to me now, Antonio. You Marchesi men are sick motherfuckers. I’ve dealt with you for almost all my life, and I’m not dealing with that shit anymore. You marry Serena and announce your engagement this weekend or else.”
“Or else what?” I said. But he hung up the phone. I stared at the screen and shook my head. Then, I looked over at Serena. “Guess your dad doesn’t love you as much as you thought.”
Serena just shook her head, her eyes wide. Jimmy stared at me and then back at her. “You want her to call her dad back?”
“No, he doesn’t care,” I said, though that technically wasn’t true. I knew that Tommasso knew that I wouldn’t harm Serena so long as he had Callie. And I also knew that Tommasso knew that I knew he wouldn’t harm Callie as long as I had Serena. “We got to get out of here,” I said to Jimmy.
“What? Why?”
“Because her daddy’s tracking her, and they’ll be here soon. I can take care of them, boss,” he said, grinning. “I got two guns. I’m packed.”
“Maybe,” I said, thinking. “I still don’t know where Callie is.”
“Call your dad, boss.”
“What? I’ve already spoken to him.”
“Yeah, but he and Luisa have to know where Tommasso is. They’re thick as thieves. If anyone knows where Tommasso is or where he would hide people, it would be your dad or Luisa.”
“Fuck, fine, let me call my dad.” I was pissed. I didn’t want to call him again, but I was out of options. My dad answered on the second ring. “Listen to me, Don Roberto Marchesi, you are my father, but you need to tell me right now where Tommasso Romano would be hiding someone.”
“What are you talking about?” my dad said.
“Tommasso has something of mine.”
“Leave it alone, Antonio.” My dad sounded annoyed.
“Dad, I will personally go to the police and tell them about wife number two.” I paused. “Alessandro and I did a little investigating, and we’ve got a nice file full of information.”
“You take down a lot of people, Antonio, and a lot of people will be after you if you try to take me down. You know we don’t do traitors in the Mafia.”
“That means nothing to me right now, Papa. I need to find Callie.”
“These fucking Rowney women. That Rowney family.” He took a deep breath. “Come to the manor. I’ll give you what you want.”
“I need you to tell me.”
“I’m still the don, Antonio.” And with that, he hung up.
I stared at Jimmy, and then I stared at Serena. “We got to go,” I said.
“Your dad tell you where they at?”
“No,” I shook my head, “but I think he knows a lot more than he’s letting on.”
“You think so, boss?” Jimmy said, looking surprised.
“You remember my dad was singing that song, the hush little baby song? The one that Callie’s mom used to sing to her?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“I still don’t know why he knows that song. Let’s go.”