Bones (Dark Kingdom, #5) — Chapter no 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

MIA

Three weeks later

“FIND ME” BY TeZATalks plays in my ears as I approach the beach house. Slowing to a walk, I remove the earbuds and enter through the glass front doors, placing the cell on the table in the foyer. Taking a deep breath to calm my racing heart from my run, I make my way to the kitchen.

The house sits by itself right on the ocean. The back of the house is nothing but floor-to-ceiling sliding glass windows. I leave them open all the time. I like to hear the ocean. The breeze and the smell remind me of Italy.

Even though I was trapped in that castle, I miss the view and the warm weather. I wonder if that’s why the man who bought me shipped me here?

I dream about him. The way he kissed me, then just left. I hate the way my body reacts to him, even in my sleep. I wake up alone with my skin tingling. So I run. It helps clear my mind. I try to forget him, but it never seems to work. He’s still here, demanding attention. His presence fills the large house. His scent lingers in the air. Even the ocean can’t mask it.

I go to turn around and enter the living room but freeze. A cold chill runs up my spine and paralyzes me where I stand. Someone’s here. My skin tingles, and I break out in goose bumps. I didn’t see any cars in the driveway when I returned. But then again, I was only gone for about thirty minutes. I didn’t run as far as I had been. “Hello?” I call out.

Silence greets me, and my breathing becomes louder. Blood rushes in my ears, and I swallow. “I know you’re there.” I can feel it. The coldness in the room. Maybe the man is here to kick me out. Or to take me back to my father. I’ll beg him not to make me go. This is the freest I’ve ever felt in my life, and that’s pretty fucking sad.

Laughter comes from behind me, and my stomach drops. Two distinctive sounds that I’ve known all my life.

I turn around to see my brothers, Matteo and the twins standing there.

Matteo leans against the glass door.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, taking a step back. How did they find me?

“Mia?” Matteo, one of my older brothers, sighs, shaking his head. The one who ripped me from the pool and drugged me. “The question is, what are you doing here?”

I look for anything that I can use to defend myself. But even if I had a loaded gun in my hands, they’d still have me dead before I could use it on them. Our father has trained them like dogs. Money. Power. Kill. That’s all they know. Pussy is just what they do for fun. A man can get that anywhere, my father always says.

Matteo’s eyes run up and down my black yoga pants and red sports bra.

It makes my fucking skin crawl when he smiles at me like I’m another one of his whores.

“Nice place.” Lorenzo nods his head, looking around while walking toward the open kitchen.

“Please leave.” I breathe as tears sting my eyes. I don’t want them to hurt me, and I also don’t want them to destroy this house. It doesn’t have any photos or décor, but it doesn’t need it. Some things are just naturally pretty.

Matteo rubs his chin, pushing off the glass. “Afraid we can’t do that.”

“What do you want?” I take a step back.

Matteo yanks me toward him, slamming my body into his. I try to push him away, but he holds me tightly. His hand slides down my high-waisted yoga pants to cup my ass. “Stop!” I shriek in horror, my heart pounding.

“Matteo,” Lorenzo says, sounding bored. “She’s your sister.”

“So?” Matteo leans down and kisses my sweaty neck. I feel bile in my throat. “Pussy is pussy, and my dick is hard at the moment.”

I hit my fists into his chest. He shoves me away, making my legs hit an end table by the couch. The sound of it scraping across the floor fills the

room while I try to stay on my feet.

He laughs at me.

“We need her to still be a virgin,” Gabriel adds, finally speaking. He’s always been the quiet one.

Matteo smiles. “You know virgins are my favorite.”

“I’ll find you one later.” He rolls his eyes.

I’m gonna be sick.

“I could fuck her mouth.” He shrugs carelessly.

“I’ll bite it off,” I warn. No way in hell will I let him get that close to me.

He laughs. “There is a device known as the spider gag. It prevents your mouth from closing.” My eyes widen that he even knows this. “I could shove whatever the fuck I want into your mouth, and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“Why are you here?” I demand, knowing they didn’t come here to fuck me. Even if the sick bastard has considered it.

My father kept me locked away in Italy most of my life with the twins, but Matteo never visited me. I think my father did that for a reason. Or at least I like to think that he tried to protect me from that monster.

Lorenzo jumps off the kitchen counter. “We’re here to send you back.”

I shake my head. “I’m not going back to Italy.”

“You are going to Las Vegas. Back to Bones.”

Bones? What kind of name is Bones? Vegas? That’s where we lived before my father sent me to Italy. “No …”

Matteo reaches out and grips my face tightly. His fingers dig into my cheeks, making me whimper. “You will do what you were bred to do and spread your fucking legs,” he growls. “Your mouth was made to suck cock, not talk. You are at the motherfucking bottom of authority and will do as you’re fucking told.”

“He doesn’t want me,” I try. “He almost killed me.” Even though that’s true, he didn’t for some reason. A part of me knows that he was trying to help me. Why else would he pay all that money, drug me, and then send me away? I’ve had no communication since that night three weeks ago. I have a cell phone, but it only has one number in it—I’m guessing it’s his number since I didn’t recognize it. I’m not sure why. I’m sure he had the number to the phone he left me, yet I’ve had no contact with him. Bones may have spared my life, but he had no plans to ever see me again.

“If you don’t go back willingly, we will force you back.” He lets go of me.

“Why do you want me with this Bones guy?” I ask as tears build in my eyes. I take a quick look around, wondering why Luca isn’t here. He would never let them hurt me. Luca has always been my savior. My protector. He’s the only one in the family who seems to care about me.

“Dad wants Kingdom,” he states, shoving me away.

My chest tightens at that, knowing exactly what he means. I should have known—the skull ring on the man’s hand. I knew it looked familiar. I’ve met Bones once. A very long time ago. “He’s a King,” I whisper more to myself.

I know what Kingdom is. My father used to work with Mr. Reed—one of the hotel and casino owners. I might not have been allowed to have a life, but I knew what and who my family was. And my father did a lot of work out of our house. I’ve seen what he is capable of and know who he dealt with on a daily basis. They were all as sick as him.

“How … how would my going back to Bones help Dad get Kingdom?” I wonder out loud, trying to make sense of this.

“Because the Kings own Kingdom now. They have for years.”

I shake my head, feeling around for the couch before I fall onto it. But what does it have to do with me? “How am I supposed to make that happen

by going back to him?”

Gabriel laughs like I just told a joke.

Matteo sighs. “I blame Dad for this. He hasn’t taught her shit.”

Lorenzo’s eyes meet mine. “You seduce him. Make him fall in love with you.”

A laugh bubbles up in my throat, but the leveled look he gives me makes

me swallow it. “You’re serious?”

They say nothing.

“I’ll give you two weeks.”

Lorenzo snorts, cutting off Matteo. “Two weeks? Be serious, man. This is Bones.” Lorenzo looks me up and down, but it’s with disgust, not

lustfulness.

Thank God.

“He’s not gonna fall for her shit in a matter of two weeks. She doesn’t even know how to seduce a man.” He tilts his head to the side. “I’ll give you three months.”

“It’s impossible,” I argue. “No amount of time will help me accomplish that. You guys don’t know him—”

“Oh, we do.” Matteo interrupts me. “We know what he likes. What he craves. And you’re going to be the fucking bitch he needs to break him.”

My hands fist in my lap. “He almost killed me.”

Matteo smiles. “Girls like you make it so easy to take what we want.” He sighs, and I frown, having no idea what he’s talking about. “The dude likes

a submissive woman.”

I swallow, knowing exactly what that means, but I still ask.

“Submissive?”

They both nod, but Gabriel’s the one who answers. “Bones likes a woman who will crawl on her hands and knees, begging to be fucked.”

I can see that. The way he dominated in the limo was all I needed to know about him. He commands the room. “Well, sorry, but that’s not me.” I may have been sheltered my entire life, but I still had the internet, and the twins always had girls coming and going in Italy. I know what sex is even though I have no experience in it. No matter how many romance novels I’ve read, they couldn’t prepare me for what he wants. I stand from the couch and start to pace the room. “And he almost choked me to death,” I snap, trying to come up with excuses as to why Bones wouldn’t want me.

“What would I even say when I just show back up?” I growl. They’re insane.

Matteo waves a hand in the air. “We’ll take care of that.”

I almost roll my eyes. “How?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re asking me to do the impossible,” I spit out.

“It’s not that fucking hard,” Matteo snaps, getting irritated. “You lie down and spread your legs. Let him fuck whatever hole he wants, however he wants.”

Lorenzo runs a hand through his hair. His tell that he’s getting pissy as

well.

“I don’t want to.”

“It doesn’t matter what you fucking want!” Matteo shouts. “You will go back, and if you don’t go willingly, I’ll drop your ass off at his fucking doorstep, naked and crammed in a box!”

I bite back a few choice words, not wanting to get hit. It’s been nice not having a hand to my face. “Why does Dad want Kingdom so bad, anyway?

It’s just a hotel.”

That gets them to laugh. “Again, Dad has taught her nothing,” Matteo adds.

“And he has three other business partners.” There were three other Kings; Bones had a brother who went by Grave, then two others. They said the Kings own it now. That makes four of them. “Dad getting Bones’s cut isn’t gonna help him.”

“Let us worry about that,” Lorenzo says.

Matteo gives me that slimy smile again.

“What?” My heart races as they exchange a look. Are they going to hurt the Kings? That’s the only way they would get all of it.

Gabriel nods once to him.

“What?” I demand.

Matteo takes a step toward me. “We’re here to help you, sis.”

Fear cripples me at his words. He’s never called me that before.

“What are big brothers for, anyway?”

“Make it good,” Lorenzo tells Matteo “Make what good?” I tremble, my legs buckling.

“You’ll see.” Matteo smiles right before his fist hits the side of my head.

My body hits the hard and unforgiving floor, and my ears begin to ring. I curl up in a ball as I feel a shoe hit me.

A hand fists my hair, and my head is jerked up. Matteo kneels before me, screaming in my face, but I can’t hear him. The pain is too consuming, the ringing too loud. I taste blood, and my stomach heaves as I swallow it.

Thankfully, the darkness takes me sooner rather than later.

BONES

I’M SITTING IN my office; it’s almost midnight, and I’m finishing an email when my door opens. I look up to see Titan enter. He plops down in the seat across from me and places his hands behind his head with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“What do you want?” I ask, not in the mood.

“You’ve been pissy for the past couple of weeks. More than usual. What

gives?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

Honestly, I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me. I’ve just been in a funk. But it’s been longer than two weeks. It started after I promised Luca I’d do him a favor. How was I supposed to know it was for his fucking sister? I thought it would require some bullets, a little blood, and maybe digging a grave. But no. It was much deeper than I could have imagined.

I flew her to California and left her at my beach home. I’ve had it for years and never once used it. One of the things they don’t tell you about

being a multibillionaire is that if you want to stay that way, you don’t get time off.

I’ve never been much of a vacation type of guy anyway. I prefer to keep my head in my work. I want to know every little thing going on in my business at any given second. But ever since I dropped her off, she’s been on my mind.

The way her body melted into mine when I kissed her. It was as if she had no control. Just like me. It’s had my mind in the gutter ever since.

“I’m about to head home.” Titan stands, getting my attention. “Need me to do anything before I leave?”

I go to tell him to get the fuck out of here, but my cell rings. I pick it up to see it’s Lane, a doctor we use for Kingdom. He cares for our Queens and any other time we find ourselves in a situation that requires a doctor. I

frown.

“What is it?” Titan asks.

“Not sure.” Holding up my cell for him to read the screen, his brows pull together. I hit answer before it can ring again. “You’re on speakerphone, Lane. I’m here with Titan,” I inform him in greeting.

“Bones.” He sighs and adds, “Titan.”

“What’s going on?” Titan asks him. “Everything okay?”

“I thought you guys should know that Luca is on his way.”

“What do you mean on his way?” I ask. “For what?” He should be working at Glass right now.

“I have to make this quick,” he rushes out. “The ambulance should arrive any second.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Titan snaps impatiently.

“Haven called me from Luca’s cell. Said she found him at Glass.

Thankfully, I was already here at the hospital tonight. Picked up an extra shift,” he rambles.

“Get to the fucking point,” Titan demands.

“All I know is multiple gunshots wounds.”

“Fuck.” Titan falls into his chair.

“I’ve done my best to keep it under wraps and quickly assembled a team that I know is the best and will keep their mouths shut. But I suggest you get here ASAP and bring NDAs. The last thing you want is for the world to know he’s been shot, putting Haven in more danger than she already is.” He hangs up.

“Motherfucker!” Titan jumps up from his chair and rushes out of my office to go get what we need. I find Haven’s name in my phone and call

her.

She picks up immediately. “Bones—”

“Lane called me.” I get to the point and hear her sniff. “Titan and I are on our way. Don’t speak to anyone, do you understand?” She needs to understand how dire this situation is. I can console her later.

“Y-Yes.” She sobs out. “There was so much blood—”

“Not a word, Haven.” I interrupt her, needing her to get her emotions under control for one second. She can cry on my shoulder when I get there.

“This is important. We cannot let anyone know that he’s there.”

“I won’t,” she agrees with a sniffle.

“Be there shortly.” I hang up, grab my keys out of my desk, and run to the elevator, where I meet up with Titan.