Take Me Higher: (A Chicago Mafia Syndicate) (Castaletta Book 1) Read online

His eyes burned with a torrent of emotion. "I'm the Underboss of this family, and the last time I checked, you answer to me, do you not?" He moved toward me in two steps, his large body towering above me as he pressed me to move until my back slammed into the wall behind me.

  "Don't try and muscle me. I will fuck you up, Demetri DeMarco." I pushed back, putting my hand in the middle of his chest and pressing into the delicious muscle underneath.

  He wrapped his hands around my wrists and pressed me tighter against the wall, his body holding me in place. Every part of me came alive and buzzed with liquid-hot need.

  He leaned in and whispered softly in my ear. "Your father is expecting you. Because you're hurting and I love you like a sister, I'm going to let you go, but watch yourself. I run this syndicate, which is what you wanted when your turn came up. Don't fight me because I will win — every fucking time."

  He ran his nose down my neck, breathing in deeply as his cock hardened against my stomach. I wasn't the only one that needed a long night of fucking. He needed it too. I tried hard not to imagine what the beautiful woman he might find would look like. How she would feel having such a powerful man drive into her. I had to make sure to never know who he slept with. The bitch wouldn't wake up from her next nap if I did.

  He released me, and I immediately reached up and pulled my hair down, running my fingers through it as I took a shaky breath. There was nothing more that Demetri enjoyed than gripping a handful of hair and forcing his woman to do what he pleased. He needed the reminder that the day was long gone when I would be that woman. It was only my desire, and yet to deny him was almost as enjoyable as having him. I turned and walked toward the stairs, shaking my ass more than was needed.

  "Fuck you, D." I looked over my shoulder with pseudo hate in my eyes. My pride was bent but never broken. He could play man of the house all he wanted. Whether he liked it or not, I was going after my mother's killer, and I would be the one to bury the knife deep in the fucker's throat.

  No one took from my family without getting the wrath due them for it. I wasn't the Underboss of the family because managing people was for pricks like D. I wasn't the Consigliere because paperwork was for pussies like Marco. I was the enforcer because with my skills, my looks and my gun, nothing could stop me.

  "If it would make you feel better, I'll give you the night. Anything you want. No holds barred. Just me and you, Izzy," he called as he walked down the stairs behind me.

  Lust swelled inside of me, racing through my veins and teasing the most sensitive parts of me. To spend the night with him and give him full access to any part of me sounded like carnal bliss. He knew how to use his hands, his tongue, his cock to make the world shatter. I'd experienced it years before, and never had I been taken care of as well since that night.

  I pretended to ignore him and walked down the hall toward my father's office as if I hadn't a care in the world. I paused at the door, knocking softly and waiting until my dad called out for me to enter.

  I looked back at D before pushing the door open and snickered. "I appreciate your offer. Really, I do, but I hate investing in the cleanup job needed when the journey to get there isn't even long enough to put your seatbelt on for. Save your shit for a girl who doesn't know how to fuck. Impress her real good, hmm?"

  I pushed the door open and walked in, hating myself for stabbing at him. He didn't deserve it, but he most certainly wasn't going to pull the overprotective brother card on me. Nothing felt more like rejection than him putting me in a familial category. It was the same as saying that the fire burning between us would never — ever — be quenched.

  I had two brothers and had worked my ass off to make sure they were aware of my ability to be the balls of a large organization like ours. D wasn't going to undermine that, no matter how noble his actions might seem.

  "Fuck you, Izzy." His words were nothing more than a whisper, the anger in them giving me the fuel needed for what my father was asking me to do later that night.

  Hopefully the guy on the hit list was hot, blistering hot. A good hard fuck from behind with my eyes closed would be well deserved. I could take out my aggression on his body and then put a bullet in his skull.

  Sounded like a date made in Heaven.

  Chapter 8

  Demetri

  She was such a bitch, and yet all I wanted to do was throw her against the wall and fill the whole damned mansion with the sound of her begging for release. I moved to the drink cabinet with my body hard and aching for the chance to tower above her once more as she groaned my name between clenched teeth. I would put my foot down if I had to. She wasn't going to end up like Vivian on my shift. Period.

  I could come up with a million reasons how it was my responsibility to keep her safe, to keep all of them safe, but Izzy was different. Although I lusted for her to the point of breaking, it wasn't just about lust. It was love too. She was the toughest bitch I knew, and yet I’d seen around the edges of what Joe had turned her into and knew her before that transition. She could play her fucking games with someone else, but I knew her down to her core. A little more pressure, and she would relent.

  "You fall asleep, baby?" Joe's voice rose behind me as I worked to pour a glass of bourbon.

  Lifting it to my lips, I drained it in three gulps. The Don had no clue of just how deep the level of angst existed between the beautiful enforcer and myself.

  I turned as Izzy responded, her features softening and becoming more feminine and sweet.

  I couldn't help but notice the way her jeans hugged the curve of her hips, the swell of her ass. The silky tanned skin that ran around the space between her waistband and the tight black T-shirt she wore begged for the attention of my tongue. I swallowed hard and poured myself another glass as I eye-fucked her again. Her shitty comments about me being a bad fuck were almost comical. The last time we'd given into each other, she'd screamed “More!” far more than my name.

  Joe's lifted brow caught my attention. "D, are you trying to drown yourself, Son?"

  "No, just trying to stifle emotions I don't want to deal with." I shrugged and tilted my head back, emptying the second small glass. The burn was good, needed. The warmth rushed through my veins and stabilized my desires — at least for the moment.

  Joe's face fell, and his eyes diverted to the desk in front of him. A heavy sigh left him as he moved a few papers around, picking up one and extending it to Izzy.

  "This is Parker. He is a slick bastard, and though I like the kid, he's fucked up and has to pay for it." Joe shrugged, his enthusiasm seeming to have been buried with his beautiful bride.

  "This the cat that borrowed two million and disappeared?" I poured one more glass and walked toward Joe and Izzy as the pretty vixen studied the picture before her.

  I stopped behind her and leaned in, looking over her shoulder as I pressed my erection to her ass. I shouldn't be the only one to suffer.

  Reaching around her, I took the paper and moved to her side as I took my turn to study the guy. He was good looking by most standards, which irked me more than it should have.

  "Yeah. Anyway, that's him. He will be at the bar tonight at eleven." Joe picked up a small glass of bourbon from his desk and took a sip.

  "Is Izzy going to get the money from him?" I looked over at Joe.

  "I'm right here. Talk to me like I'm in the room." Izzy barked out, forcing me to acknowledge her. I turned to face her as a smirk lifted my lips. I handed the picture back to her as she snatched it from me angrily.

  Busted that fake-ass calm, didn't I?

  "Are you going to take money from him to repay your father?" I hated the layer of sarcasm coating my voice and I knew that my tone belittled her, but it was a game we'd played for a long, long time.

  I needed to back off for a few days though. In all honesty, I was worried about her. She was crushed by her mother's death.

  What the fuck was I doing?

  I reached out to touch her shoulder, but she moved back, walking toward the door to
the office. "Izzy... "

  She gripped the door handle and turned to look at Joe.

  His eyebrows pulled together as confusion brushed across his features.

  I would be questioned over our reaction to one another as I had been many times. Joe had warned both of us over the years to not let anything interfere with business, including each other.

  "Eleven o'clock at the Moonlight Bar?" My beautiful girl was gone, and the enforcer that protected the family had taken her place.

  "Yes, be safe, baby and don't play with your kill. He's a dangerous man." Joe stood, pressing his hands to the desk in front of him. "I'm serious. I know he's handsome, but hear me clearly. His looks are deceiving. He's a viper, Izabella. Get in. Get out. Nothing more."

  I butted in, unable to help myself. "Let me do this one. You need a night to yourself, Izzy. It was a long day. Please." I moved toward her, stopping only as she lifted her hand and Joe coughed, warning both of us.

  "I will do whatever the fuck I please. Until you replace me as enforcer for this family I will do my job, and your concerns and questions can remain in the confines of your own mouths. I'm not interested in being treated like a fragile little girl with pigtails. If that's the way you feel, then get someone else to do this." She lifted the picture of Parker in front of her as if to hand it back to us. Her hard gaze locked onto me, and my heart broke. She felt alone, and she was striking out. The only person in the world that let her be that little girl when she needed to was lying lifeless in a metal box under the earth.

  "Izabella." I took another step toward her, disregarding Joe. "Please let me go for you."

  "I'm heartbroken and wish I had someone to hold me tonight, but I don't, so Mr. Parker here is going to fulfill a longing I have, and once he's done... I'll open his chest with my knife." She shrugged and let the picture drop from her fingers as the life in her eyes faded. "Good night, boys. Don't wait up."

  She shut the door, and Joe laughed, dropping down in his chair as I swallowed the lump of regret in my throat. I walked back to the liquor cabinet and grabbed the bottle. I was going to be sick.

  "That girl is the crown jewel to all I have. I have no clue how I got so lucky." He chuckled again, pissing me off with his lackadaisical attitude. He somehow could compartmentalize the father that spun her around a dance floor in tap shoes from the Don who expected her to use any and all means to bring the world to heel before her.

  I couldn't.

  "I'm worried. I don't like it. She doesn't need to be out there tonight, Joe."

  "Yes, she does."

  "No, she doesn't. I'm going with her." I downed another glass of liquor before heading toward the door.

  "No, you're not, D. Come sit down, boy. Let me talk to you about upping our security detail." Joe motioned for me to come and sit before him.

  I had no choice but to follow his directives. I'd pledged my life to him. I sat the bottle down on his desk and dropped down in the chair closest to me as anger burned a line down my chest and worry grew like a wildfire inside of me.

  "Joe... I don't want her out there tonight. She burried her mother, and she's going to let that sorry bastard touch her, fuck her, Joe. I'm not having it. I don't ask for much, and you know it."

  "You ask too much of her, D. She's a killer, and she's the best I've ever seen. Don't turn her into a princess because you feel more than you should. You were fine a few days ago, and this thing with my sweet Vivian has caused you to project worry onto a situation that you shouldn't. It's softening you, and that's okay for today, but find yourself again by tomorrow. I need you. We all do right now." He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands over his stomach as he watched me intently.

  "I don't like it."

  "I do, and it's my call. She's a grown woman, and she was trained for this."

  "So tell her to kill him. There is no reason to fuck him first."

  "She needs a release, D. You do too. Leave her be. This is not your situation to get involved in. She works for both of us. I set this up because I know where her heart is. That's the last I'm going to say about it. Understood?" His voice dropped into a low, ominous sound that I'd heard a few times over the years before he unleashed hell on someone.

  "Fine. What do you need in terms of security?" I sat up in my chair with my shoulders painfully stiff and my jaw locked tightly. Red blurred my vision, and fury ate its way down my center to blister my insides.

  I would leave the house under the pretense of heading home and put a bullet in the motherfucker's head before Izzy ever got there. She wasn't thinking straight, and sex would complicate things. Not between her and this Parker idiot — he would be dead soon.

  Between her and me...

  Chapter 9

  Izabella

  My dress was tight and blood red, my high heels sexy with long crimson ribbons crossing along my calves. I brushed my fingers through my hair and leaned over to apply dark red lipstick to my full lips. I couldn't wear a bra thanks to the top being strapless, but it was tight enough that I didn't need to. Some part of me wanted D to come upstairs to give me hell again over leaving. I wanted him to see me, to covet me. I rarely dressed up unless it was needed for the job, and the last few times I'd looked put together, he'd been gone on business.

  I was a tease, but only for him.

  Standing back up, I let my eyes drag across the full picture I'd worked to create. It would do the job just fine. Too bad my heart hurt so fucking bad. Between loosing Mom and burying a proverbial knife in D's back, I felt worse.

  He was a good man, and his concern wasn't unmerited. He would be back to his old self, supporting me and giving me shit in a few days, hopefully, but why did I have to strike back tonight? We were both broken. Was it really needed? What point did I prove? That I could win in a battle with him? And what had I won? A night alone needing him with no relief.

  Our relationship had always been a roller coaster of treacherous emotions, and nothing was going to change that. Tonight it just felt so much more volatile, like one more push and we would be tearing at each other, working hard to rip the first moan from the other.

  I pursed my lips and opened the bathroom door, stopping only to lean over and strap my Glock to my inner thigh as far up as I was comfortable putting it. There were very few places to hide weapons when your dress barely covered your thighs.

  My bedroom was chilly due to me having left the window open to my second-floor balcony. I walked across the room and moved out on the patio, looking for D's car and finding it there. I was surprised that he was drinking so heavily. There was no way Nathaniel would let him leave if he were blitzed, which I assumed he was. After watching him toss back three glasses of bourbon in my father's office, I'd have been shocked otherwise.

  I walked down the stairs with a small black purse on my shoulder that held my knife and a couple of large bills. I would catch Parker's attention without a doubt. It would be aggravating to have to divert any other attention I got, but I was in a bitchy mood. Things would work out perfectly.

  I glanced up as my father's office door opened and D walked out with a slight stagger. His hair was a mess from dragging his hands through it too many times, and his eyes were glassy. He was drunk. Great.

  He turned and pressed his back to the door as his eyes roamed over me like a teenage boy in heat. "You look stunning, beyond beautiful."

  "And you look drunk." I shrugged and turned to walk from the house as he reached out and grabbed my upper arm. I stifled a moan at the delicious tightness of his fingers pressing into me. How easy it would be to pour him one more glass and have him wake up wondering what happened between us. It would be far too much fun to tease him over the lies I could concoct, but I wasn't in the mood for playing games anymore. I was being a bitch to protect myself from breaking in front of him. I didn't need his pity fuck, or his loving kindness simply because life had bent me over.

  He pulled me toward him with strength far greater than I was capable of mustering at the moment, surp
rising me a little. A quick spin, and he had trapped me between him and the wall, putting his face inches from mine as his eyes moved across me again. The smell of liquor was usually a complete turn-off, but I couldn't help but wonder how it tasted on his tongue.

  "I don't like it," he barked low in his chest as he brushed his nose by mine.

  "The liquor? Don't drink it. Get Daddy to get something better." I moved back a little and lifted an eyebrow, hating that I was still goading him without fail, and yet unable to stop myself. The firm press of his chest against mine left my pulse racing as my body tightened in all the places I needed him to touch, to open up and claim as his own.

  "I don't like you going out tonight. Let me come with you. I'll take care of it, and then we can go back to my place, and I'll take care of you too. You need someone with you tonight." He licked at his lips and rocked his hips forward.

  "Someone? Just anyone?" I clamped my teeth together to keep the groan that pressed against my teeth trapped inside of me. I did need someone. Him. I needed him all over me, touching, gripping, forcing me into submission below him. In all areas of my life I was in charge and played queen, but for him I would bow. I couldn't help but wonder if he knew it. By the way he looked at me, I would have to say yes.

  "Me, Izzy." He slid his hands down my sides and pressed his fingers into the back of my legs before cupping the bottom of my ass and squeezing softly.

  It took every ounce of self-control inside of me to ignore the pull he had on me. I melted each time he walked into the room, but when he put his hands on me my body woke up and demanded carnality.

  "Let you? That's a change of tune. What happened to you playing the overprotective brother?" I chuckled mockingly.

  "Your father believes in you more than I worry about you." He squeezed again and tilted his head as he licked at his lips once more.

  The sight of his tongue left me wet and achy. I knew what he was capable of with that tongue. How many nights had I brought myself over the edge with the image of him using it on me in ways that would make most women blush with embarrassment?