CHAPTER 3

KAI

I'm ready for our meeting. I want to get this over and done with. It's morning, and my mind is firmly set on not killing Maisy. The sight of her last night, water droplets from the shower clinging to her thick lashes, her bare shoulders glistening in the light, and two perfect mounds protruding from the towel wrapped tightly around her body, made my heart pound. And she didn't show a flicker of terror that she was being held by the heads of not one, but three crime syndicates.

Orion wants her dead. It'll be tough changing his mind. We've always followed his lead. As someone who's a practicing lawyer, he knows what's best when it comes to liabilities. The funny thing is, I didn't expect Logan to back me. To be on the same footing as him makes me feel good, powerful. Like he's in my corner for once. Since we met thirteen years ago at that deserted factory, despite the pact the three of us made to stick together no matter what, Logan and I have always been in competition. But deep down, we love each other. He's the brother I never had.

I decide I had enough time lying in the bed so I leave Lisa's bedroom and go in search of coffee.

Orion's kitchen is big, with a large island in the middle and an equally imposing wooden table next to the wall, enough to seat fourteen people. Logan and Orion are already there, sitting opposite each other and talking.

Logan's swearing under his breath. "For fuck's sake…"

I pour myself a large cup and sit next to him. They both seem agitated. "What's going on?"

Logan sounds somber. "She knows Camila was here."

My jaw drops. It can't be. Fuck. "Then the rat's blood on her face must be for you. Or all of us." My head is spinning as to who knows about us.

"You know what this means." Orion cuts through us like a knife through a birthday cake. "She must die."

I nod decisively. No one's immune from execution when they have that kind of knowledge. Logan looks at me and nods too. I feel you, man. What protectors we are. We said she'll be safe and now we can't deliver.

"There's more. Last night she was running away from a pimp. Got stamped, meaning she was medically checked maybe three, four hours before we saw her. They inserted her with an implant, the whole shebang."

"Who's the pimp?" I snarl. At least I can take it out on him when she's gone.

Orion shakes his head. "She won't tell."

Maisy's been cagey about everything. I wish she'd tell us who the fucker is.

"Who's gonna do it?" Orion asks bluntly.

I lower my head. This has always been the easiest part. When people have it coming we have no problem killing them. If it's one, or ten, meh, work is work. But now, today, fuck me if I'm pulling the trigger. If I must–if I'm told to–I will, but I don't want to.

Logan looks away, a clear indication he doesn't want to do it either.

"In that case, all of us will pull the trigger," Orion concludes. "Or do you pussies want me to do it?"

In the distance is a faint noise of a door opening, and Orion stops talking. He turns toward the staircase, listening to the barefooted footsteps that grow louder until Maisy appears. She's wearing an oversized t-shirt that comes down to just under her ass.

"Good morning." She smiles, and my cock twitches. I follow her every step as she saunters in front of us and behind Orion, to the coffee pot. Orion doesn't move.

"Good morning." My face lights up. I know it does because Orion scolds me with a glare.

Logan grins. "Good morning, Maisy."

She picks up the coffee pot in one hand and looks around for a cup.

"They're in the cupboard, on the left," Orion says without turning around.

She opens the cupboard. The cups are on the second shelf, too high for her. She pushes herself up on tiptoes and just about grabs one, but it slides from under her fingertips and gets nudged further from her reach. She stretches again, and her t-shirt rides up.

Oh, dear God! She has nothing on! We are spectators in the front row of the show called Maisy's Perfect Round Ass. My cock throbs in appreciation, but only for a moment, because I remember I'll be blowing her brains out soon.

"Can someone help me, please?" she purrs.

Logan huffs under his breath, "The way she says please, sweet Jesus mama!"

Before we can move, Orion jumps up, pulls out a cup, and sets it on the kitchen counter. "It wasn't that high," he growls at her. "And if I remember correctly, I gave you some underwear."

She frowns at him before pouring herself a coffee. "I can't wear someone else's underwear."

She stands up for herself; good for her.

Orion rolls his eyes and looks at us. "Let's not make it messy." His overly composed voice means he's one step away from a killing frenzy. It's chilling.

The three of us jump to our feet at the same time. Nobody's being a pussy now. The screeching noise of our chairs alarms Maisy, who drops her coffee cup to the floor. She obviously senses what's coming–except the buzzing message on all of our cells stops us in our tracks.

Orion's clearly annoyed at Maisy for dropping the cup, breaking it into pieces with coffee splattered all over the floor. He reaches for his back pocket and Maisy raises her hands as if to protect herself.

"No!" she yells.

"Orion, stop!" I shout. Maisy's face is splashed across the screen of my cell, with 'Wanted' written in the message.

Orion's staring at me, looking vexed. "Is it okay with you if I check my cell, Kai?" he asks sarcastically.

"Oh, sure, I thought… Never mind."

"What are you waiting for?!" he yells at Maisy. "Clean this shit up!"

I glance at Logan's cell. He's got the same message as I have. I look at Orion and he's staring at his screen.

He sits down, and we follow suit. Maisy's on the floor, soaking up the coffee with a tea towel. Her t-shirt gapes at the front and through the opening I have a partial view of her breasts bouncing about.

I'm mesmerized.

She looks up, her eyes shiny with tears.

Orion speaks more softly. "Maisy, come sit here."

She pushes herself to her feet and hesitantly sits next to Orion. She's eyeing all of us, looking unsure of what to expect. I make her another cup of coffee and set it on the table in front of her.

"Are you hungry?" I ask.

"No." She takes a long sip of coffee and blinks at me over the cup.

Orion doesn't beat around the bush. "Why are you wanted by Milan the Dog?"

She looks at him, then at us. She takes a few large gulps before placing the cup back on the table. We are silent, waiting on her to start talking.

"I ran away from his pimp last night."

"That's not the reason why he sent every mobster in town searching for you," Orion replies. "There's a bounty on your head. He's not doing that for just any whore."

She stares him dead in the face and talks through gritted teeth. "I'm–not–a–whore!"

"You ran away. I get that. But there's something that you're not telling us."

"I wouldn't work for him."

"Have you ever worked for him?"

"No. I don't know." She sighs. "I did some work for Jerry, my landlady's husband. That's how I'd pay my rent. I thought that was working fine. Until the day before yesterday. They came in the morning, killed him, my landlady too, and took me with them. The order was, I'm to work for him from now on."

"Why?"

"While I worked for Jerry I saw loads of documents, both legal and illegal. And when they found out about my… my…" She regards the three of us like she's waiting on something, maybe to see if we know something, but we just stare at her impatiently. "My photographic memory. They know I still have them in my head."

"Photographic memory?" Logan's eyebrows shoot up. "Like some sort of live database?"

"Anything I lay my eyes on, I remember. That's how I knew this house belonged to you, Orion."

"It's O-RYON," he snaps.

I'm confused. "Wait, you saw Orion's address in Milan's documents?"

"Yes."

"What about us?"

"There are many Logans and Kais that I've come across in my twenty years of life. What's your full name?"

"Kai Delgado."

"Logan Vitali."

Her eyebrows lift slowly. She seems to realize who we are, and nods. "Yes, you too."

"Fuck, man. You are valuable," I conclude.

"So what, he thought you'd become a whore, and then work for him?" Orion is not letting her forget. "And what would your family say? Surely someone'll be looking for you?"

"I have no one. He thought he'd punish me first, get me to see what that life's like before I submit."

"You ran away, and you came here?" I ask her.

"I saw Camila, and… um, I knew of her. Um…" She takes a deep breath and exhales. She looks at us as though she's letting us in on a big secret. "Over the year I worked for Jerry, apparently I was being filmed in my home and at that time I had a boyfriend. They said they had enough material to produce an adult video. I did things with him that I don't want anyone to see. And I found out Camila produced the film already."

The three of us look at each other. My cock twitches at the thought of Maisy in an adult video. But I shake off the idea just as fast. I wouldn't want to see her with someone else. Knowing me, I'd have to kill them.

"Where is Camila? Did she see me?" she asks.

"No, she didn't see you," I say.

Orion is not easing off with the sarcasm. "And then what? Were you going to ask her nicely for the video recording?"

She nods. "If anything like that gets out, I'll never be able to work as… um, as a schoolteacher."

"Ha, you want to be a schoolteacher?" Logan laughs.

Her eyes instantly fill with tears again. "You think I can't?"

"No, no, I didn't say that. It's just… What will you teach?"

"I don't know. I want to help kids. I can make a career out of it."

"Sure. Sure."

"Maybe you can help me get the video recording back in exchange for the information I know Milan has on you?" she asks in a small voice. Proposing a deal with the mafia. She's brave. "If anyone can do that, it's you."

Orion narrows his eyes at her, and we all wait on him to speak. It seems he's not swayed by her full lips and bosoms, not yet. "I'm gonna be straight with you, Maisy. We're the worst people for you to have gotten involved with." He observes her closely, no doubt trying to find any sign of treachery. "Although out of the two evils, we're a touch better than Milan the Dog."

"What does that mean?" she breathes.

"You were as good as dead up until five minutes ago."

"But now you want to keep me for yourself and use me, right? Huh. Figures. Everyone's the same when they know what I can do."

She's being impatient, and that gets Orion every time. He pinches the bridge of his nose. "No. I didn't say that. We'll help you get the tape, and possibly get Milan off your back, in return for the information on what you saw about us. This is not you working for us, or us using you. This is simply us obtaining our data. Milan cannot have information on us if we haven't consented to it."

Maisy runs her tongue over her lower lip. "And then? I get the video recording and I can go?"

"Yes. Meanwhile, you'll have to stay here and out of everyone's sight."

"I get it. Lay low for a few days," she says quietly to herself, staring into her cup.

"Let's start with the name of your pimp," I growl.

She just shakes her head and takes another gulp of coffee.

I raise my voice, frustrated. "Why won't you tell us?"

"Why?! I was lucky to get away last night! I read about his operations in Jerry's documents, and it's terrifying what goes on in there. I won't be a number in his books, and get sold off in the Middle East!"

"Kai, we will not be going about killing people. We need to be smart about this," Orion says, trying to mollify me, but it's no use. I could kill every person who ever touched her by the end of the hour.

Maisy's eyes widen. "What are you going to do?"

Orion delivers his response by leaning in, speaking straight to her face, clearly expecting some sort of reaction. "I don't think we'll be telling you all our plans, Maisy. After all, you could be lying about everything."

"I'm not!" she protests.

"Says the whore with a stamp on her back."

Visibly hurt, she scrunches her brows. "I–am–not–a–whore!" Eyes filled with tears, she stands up and runs out of the room.

"Orion, man, come on!" I scold him as I get to my feet. "She's not one of your perpetrators. Cut her some slack."

I run after Maisy and stop in the doorway of her bedroom when I see her sobbing, frantically trying to put on her jeans. She buttons them up, curls her hands into fists and lunges at me.

"I'm not a whore, I never was! You hear me?!"

I pull her perfect body into my arms. "Calm down, Maisy. Ignore him, please."

"No! Let me go! I want to break his face!" She fights me, kicking me hard and punching me wherever she can reach.

"You don't want to do that. He was only joking. Hey. Hey!"

I hold her firmly, wrapping her in my arms, her scent overwhelming me. After her earlier teasing, now that she's nestled in my chest she's even harder to ignore it.

Easing off, she cranes her neck to look at me. Her eyes are full of innocence. Her lips are parted and she's breathing heavy. She definitely needs air.

I let her go and cup her face instead. "I will never let anything happen to you. Is that clear?"

Within my hands, she nods. I wipe her tears away and lower my lips to kiss her forehead. All of a sudden, she pushes herself onto her tiptoes and kisses me.

She doesn't know what that does to me. I'm not hiding it, but I'm sure if I reciprocate, I won't be able to stop myself. Still, I press my lips to hers and kiss her back. She moans softly.

I have to tear myself from her to speak. "You don't have to do this." My cock is getting hard and I'm reminded of all the filthy things I want to be doing to her.

"I'm sorry. I… I just… I'm sorry." She turns around and stands with her back to me. "Please, go."

My heart hurts for her, but I will not use this moment of weakness to sleep with her. She deserves better. And more. I may be a sadistic and cold-blooded murderer, but I'll be dammed if I ruin another woman again.

I turn and walk back to the kitchen.

ORION

While I grow more frustrated by the whole situation, Logan pleads.

"We don't ever get to hang with girls like her anymore. Or ever," he's saying. "She could stay with me. I'll keep her safe, you know I will."

"Do you want to go jerk off and come back in ten?" I ask.

His reason to have her in his home holds up 100%, but I need his balls empty when he talks to me. Usually, he doesn't oppose me because deep down I'm always thinking straight. And that's saved his life too many times. Why? Because my cock knows when to make an appearance. And now is not the time.

"Just imagine being in the company of someone normal–" Logan starts, but I've had enough of his crap.

Kai walks in, which is good. He's equally irresponsible, so he too can hear what I think of it.

"Imagine what?" I snap. "We'll be holding her prisoner, and when we're done with her… then what? Nobody knows about us. Do you want to put that at risk? We don't even know who she is, for God's sake!"

Logan doesn't respond. He knows I'm right. Kai too.

"Do your research on her. I will too. We have a good reason to ask questions now, seeing as everyone's talking about her." Exasperated, I stand up. It's time they leave. "Go home. They must be looking for you all over town."

I walk out of the kitchen still in disbelief. A schoolteacher! I've seen a fair share of liars in my life and she's by far the worst. And why wouldn't she give us the name of her pimp?

She thinks all men think with their cocks. Well, I'll be glad to change her opinion.

Hope you enjoyed the story so far! You can read more on Amazon - search for

ORION Ruined, New York Mafia Vengeance: Book 1 by Alexandra Iff

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