No Greater Loyalty (22 page)

But her lesson wasn't complete.

"I promise, before this is over, your appetite will be completely sated...but as I said, only when I'm good and ready for that to happen."

Nikki frowned, blinking in confusion. "I...I don't understand."

Angel smiled, directing his attention back to her body. "You will."

Although at a loss at first, it didn't take long for Nikki to realize exactly what he meant. He set about making her feel more pleasure than she could almost stand, and that was the intention. Her punishment was Angel reiterating the power he had over her body. The lesson was intense lest she forget it any time soon.

Nikki lost count of the number of times Angel brought her to the brink of satisfaction, dangling her over the edge allowing her to get close enough to almost touch it before pulling her back before she could fall. He taught the lesson well, his actions detailed and precise until she understood: Angel would decide when she orgasmed. Only him. Yes, he wanted to be inside of her just as much, or more, than she wanted him there, but just as he controlled her body, he kept a tight rein over his own as well. Iron clad self-discipline. Mind over dick. His gratification would come later.

He licked, and kissed, and nibbled every inch, every crevice, every orifice of her body. Not one area was left untouched. This was supposed to be punishment, but the way he worshipped her body while withholding her sexual climax was the most exquisite torture she'd ever experienced.

Angel looked down at Nikki, her face contorted with wanton desire. His patience already stretching at the boundaries, Angel settled himself between her thighs, the tip of his dick poised and ready to end the torment, and without warning, he plunged into her until he was completely sheathed in her heat.

That was all Nikki needed to explode. Her high-pitched screams and gasps filled the room as Angel fucked her with relentless vigor.

"Is this what you were waiting on, baby?" He scooped his hands beneath her ass cheeks and drove into her wet, silken walls. "Can you feel how deep I am, Nikki? So. Fucking.
Deep
."

Nikki's pussy squeezed him tight, her hips meeting him thrust for thrust. "Yes! S-so good, so deep, Angel!"

Groaning her name, Angel kept his eyes locked on her. He orchestrated each masterful stroke with the express intention of gifting her with ultimate pleasure.

Nikki threw her head back, preparing for the onslaught of another orgasm. Angel slipped his arm around her waist. Making sure his dick remained lodged inside of her, he lifted himself to his knees, effortlessly bringing her with him until Nikki sat astride him. She automatically locked her ankles around his back so that she wouldn
’t lose one single inch of him.

Angel proceeded to fuck her without missing a beat, working it like the true boss he was, inside and out of bed. He reminded her without words that he
owned
her. He owned her mind, her body, her very got damn soul. He always had... and he always would.

"Oh...
shit
, Angelo." Nikki bit down hard on her lip as he took hold of her ass, parting her luscious cheeks for deeper penetration, filling her up.

Angel rocked her up and down his shaft, increasing the momentum, depth, and angle of his dick, leading her effortlessly to another orgasm.

"Baby, yes!"

"God, Nikki!" He fucked her through the climax until her pussy quivered around him.

Lying her back down, Angel never stopped. Nikki trembled beneath him. The contractions from deep inside her very core sent him full speed to his own powerful completion. Muscles tense, Angel plunged once, twice more. Seconds later, he spilled his seed in long, continuous spurts until he was spent and so utterly satisfied as only Nikki could do.

Arms trembling, his breathing deep and harsh, Angel lowered his forehead to Nikki
’s for a moment before smoothing her hair away from her face. He took her lips in a kiss that was gentle and tender then slipped out of her and pulled her into his arms.

Her head tucked under his chin, Nikki snuggled close, throwing her leg over his thighs and curling her arm around his waist. She felt Angel's chest lift and fall with the deep breath he took. Nikki lovingly kissed his hard pecs, letting out her own sigh.

"Thank you," she told him in a sleepy voice.

Angel
’s fingertips drifted up and down her spine in a lazy caress. He kissed the top of her head in response. He had intended on them starting on round two, but from the rhythmic puffs of breath he heard she was already asleep. He could wake her of course, but she'd had enough for one night. He was confident he'd quelled her rebellious streak, at least for the time being.

However, he didn't fool himself into believing she would forget about the Raven/Hawk situation. She wouldn't bring it up again, but that didn
’t mean she wouldn’t mull it around in her mind. If the subject arose between them again, it would be because she'd discovered something tangible and concrete.

He'd have to remember to touch bases with Hawk. Angel wanted something on Raven, and he wanted it soon. If Nikki happened to discover he'd set her sister up to be discredited with the DA's office and possibly disbarred, so be it. His wife
’s loyalties were to him, now. Of that he was sure. She would be angry and pissed off, that he didn’t doubt...but she would be so while standing beside
him
. Not her sister.

Finally feeling the fatigue his adrenaline had pushed aside catching up to him, Angel closed his eyes. It would only be for a couple of hours, but that's all he could afford to indulge in. Dominick was scheduled to be back home tomorrow and once he was, they needed to move and move quickly. Melania had been entirely too silent. He knew from experience, when the enemy was at his quietest that was the time they were most dangerous. Melania more so than others.

He was tired of playing this game with her. He vowed they would have Dominick’s son within the next couple of days…and they would all be rid of Melania Cruz once and for all.

Angel kept two cell phones with him at all times, one for his family, the other for business. He'd been asleep for less than two hours, when the latter rang. He instantly came awake, his instincts telling him whatever he was about to hear wouldn
’t be good.

Carefully untangling himself from Nikki, he grabbed the phone and sat up on the side of the bed. Knowing who it was by the ringtone, his voice was curt and to the point. "What is it, Oscar?"

"Angelo, I just got a call from Benny." He hesitated, but only for a brief moment. "It's Dominick."

An icy hand of fear plowed through Angel's chest, constricting his heart in a tight, unyielding grip. He'd only felt like this once before, and that was when he'd discovered his parents had been in a car accident, which neither had survived. 

Angel slowly uncurled his tall frame and stood up, trying to steel himself for the news Oscar was about to deliver.

"What about Dominick?" He vaguely noted how normal his voice sounded. "Is he...?"

"No. He's alive. For now."

Angel leaned over, placing a trembling hand flat on the end table beside him. He sent up a silent prayer before straightening and forcing himself to concentrate.

"You said 'for now'. What the hell does that mean?"

"Melania's people gained access to his room about thirty minutes ago. Angel...they've got him. The cartel has Dominick."

CHAPTER 35

"I want to know how in the hell this happened, Carlo, and I want to know right got damn now!"

Angel was on the third floor of his mansion that he used strictly for his business. Pacing back and forth, he grilled his lieutenant and demanded answers.

"Someone was supposed to have been guarding them twenty-four/seven!
You
were supposed to oversee that, Carlo! You!" Angel stopped in front of the younger man and leaned in close, his face a furious, intimidating mask of unrestrained rage. "For the last fucking time...
what
...
happened
!" he yelled.

A lesser man would have cowered where he stood, but to Carlo's credit, he only winced in the face of his boss's anger. He was deeply unsettled by the magnitude of Angel's wrath, but he looked Angel in the eye as he spoke, taking full responsibility for the fuck up.

"It was decided that Benny would be the one to accompany Dominick this weekend. He shadowed them everywhere, when they went to the pool, dinner, shopping, but –"

"That's not answering my question, Carlo." Angel cut in, his tone going from boiling hot to ice cold. His patience was non-existent. His hands itched to tear something apart, destroy it, and right now, Carlo was looking like a prime candidate to take his anger out on. "I won't ask you again."

Oscar stood up, making an effort to intervene. Carlo was a good soldier, loyal to Angel to a fault. "Angelo, at this point, the 'why' is not as important as getting Dominick back alive. You can’t completely blame Carlo, he..."

Teeth clamped together, Angel's lips drew back to form a menacing snarl. Eyes that glittered with a dark, foreboding fury travelled in an intentional slow crawl until they landed on Oscar. The warning in them was very clear. He spoke his next words with precise emphasis.

"I was
not
talking to you, Oscar. I was speaking to Carlo.
I
will decide who is and who is not at fault. Do
not
interrupt me again. Do you understand me?"

Angel didn't move his gaze from Oscar for several long moments. The sharpness of his words was a testament as to how extremely angry he was. Yes, he could be short with Oscar at times, brusque and impatient, but he rarely spoke to him like this. His focus was on finding Dominick, not coddling his men and sparing their fucking feelings! There was no room for incompetence in his world. Incompetence bred carelessness, and carelessness could cause the loss of life. He was damned sure going to make sure the life loss was not his brother's.

Angel purposely waited for Oscar’s acknowledgement, and when he gave it by nodding that he understood, then and only then did Angel return his attention back to Carlo. His stare bore into the younger man with a force that was almost palpable. "I'm waiting."

The first inkling of an emotion close to fear finally materialized in Carlo's eyes, but he determinedly pushed it down. He knew Angelo detested fear, as did he. Fear equaled weakness, and that was something his boss didn't tolerate or respect.

Carlo shifted from one foot to the other, but didn't break Angel's gaze. He instinctively knew that wouldn't be a good thing.

"My apologies, you're right. To answer your question
–"

Before he could finish the sentence, a knock sounded on the door. Angel had left instructions that he was only to be interrupted for one reason and one reason only, so he knew his men had brought Keisha to him. Samantha had been picked up from her mother's a half hour ago and safely delivered to Angel
’s home. Now that Keisha was here, Angel could at least breathe a little easier knowing he had Dom's family with him where he was confident they would be protected.

Angel took a couple of steps back from Carlo, the glare he imparted telling him that the reprieve would be a brief one. They
would
finish this conversation as soon as he finished talking to Keisha.

"Come in," he called out, turning to face the door.

The minute it opened, his face softened, instantly transforming him from the cold, dangerous man he'd been a few seconds ago, to a concerned patriarch whose only thought was bringing comfort to his family. Keisha looked so scared and lost; Angel knew she was barely keeping it together.

He opened his arms, gesturing her towards him.
“Come here, baby."

When Keisha spied him standing in the middle of the large room, her face crumpled. Her wounded eyes were bloodshot red from crying and she was on the verge of hysteria. Even though her feet seemed weighed down by blocks of concrete, she took one step, then another until she practically flew across the room and launched herself at Angel. Her arms encircled his waist in a tight hug as she sobbed in his chest.

Angel ran his hand over her hair, whispering soothing words in her ear and letting her just unleash her torment for a moment.

"It's okay, Keisha, I have my men on it now. Melania hasn't had that much of a head start. Las Vegas is
my
city.
My
house. I will tear it the fuck up if need be until I find my brother. Believe me, there's nowhere they can try to hide that I won't find them."

Keisha became notably calmer as she listened to the quiet conviction in Angel's voice.

Reaching down to cup her face in between his hands, Angel bent down eye level to her, his gaze fierce and confident. "And make no mistake, we
will
find him. Until we do, Dominick can take care of himself. You know as well as I do, with that mouth of his, he can shit talk the best of them, right?"

Fingers curled around the material of Angel's shirt, Keisha stared over his shoulder, thinking about what he said. Her lips turned up just a tiny bit at one corner. A laugh mingled with a sob escaped, but she nodded in agreement.

"Now, I need you to tell me, step by step exactly what happened. Don't leave anything out, no matter how insignificant you think the detail might be."

Taking a huge, expansive breath, Keisha concentrated and proceeded to tell Angel everything she remembered.

"I was asleep, but something, I don’t know what, woke me up. That’s when I noticed Dominick wasn't in the bed so I got up to look for him." Keisha's eyes flooded with tears again when she remembered the scene she'd stumbled in on. "As soon as I walked out the bedroom, somebody grabbed me from behind and put a gun to my head and...and..."

When she looked away as if reliving the horror in that hotel room, Angel turned her face back to his, making sure she focused in him. "Look at me, sweetheart. It's okay, you're doing fine."

Closing her eyes for a brief moment before opening them, Keisha continued. "It all happened so fast, Angel. I just remember seeing these people in the room. Dominick was holding them off, had one man in a...a chokehold while pointing a gun at another, but when I walked in..."

Keisha bit her lip until she felt the metallic taste of blood on her tongue. "Angel, they h-hit him over the h-head w-with this...this heavy statue that I could barely even pick up."

Keisha's voice rose to near panic. "He was barely conscious. Blood poured from his head, but he…he still tried to get up. They...the man he'd been restraining kicked him. He kicked him so hard. I kept screaming for them to stop, to leave him alone. Angel, he wasn't moving. They picked him up and threw him into the cleaning basket the woman posing as a maid rolled in. There was so much blood," she whispered. "Oh God, Angel, what...what if he's..."

Angel shook his head crooning softly to quiet her fears. "He's not, don't even think like that. Melania wants him alive."

"Last night, he made me promise to raise his kids together if anything happens to them. Armando too. Angel it was as if he knew he was going to...to..." Keisha couldn't bring herself to say the word.

Still holding her face, Angel gently wiped at her tears with his thumbs. "Dom doesn't think he's going to die. He's just being realistic. I
’ve had the same conversation with Nikki. Any of us could die at any given moment, Keisha, no matter how we live our lives. He was just preparing you for what could
possibly
happen...not for what
will
happen."

Keisha's breath hiccupped in her throat, desperately wanting to believe Angel. "That
’s what he said," she whispered. "That he wanted to prepare me."

"Dom knows I'm on this. He'll hold them off until we can get to him, that I know. I need you to reach down deep and find that strength I know you possess. I saw it when you went through that situation with Rochelle. I need you to lean on that strength now, just for a little while longer. Christian and Samantha need you, Keisha. They need their mother. Can you do that?"

At the mention of her children's names, Keisha blinked and brought Angel back into focus. She took a couple of fortifying breaths, and although they came out as little hiccupping sighs, he saw her square her shoulders and lift her head before nodding.

"Yes. Yes, I can do that."

Seeing the firm resolution in her eyes to do just that, Angel smiled in approval. He nor his brother had married weak women, of that he was sure, and situations like this were the reason why. When all was said and done and they needed them to stand strong and hold them down, Nikki and Keisha would do that at whatever cost. Neither Angel nor Dominick would expect anything less.

"Good." Angel kissed her forehead.

"Where are they? The kids, I mean. I...I need to be with them."

Seeing the imperceptible nod coming from Oscar, who stood behind Keisha, Angel followed the gesture to the door and saw Nikki standing there waiting on Keisha. "Nikki's going to take you to see them now."

"Alright. But, Angel..."

"I know, sweetheart, I'll let you know the minute we find something."

Keisha glanced back at Nikki, torn between wanting to stay, but as she told Angel, she needed to see her babies. Dom's babies.

Nikki came forward and put her arm around Keisha's shoulder. "Come on, sweetie. Christian just woke up. Samantha's with him and A.J. They'd love to see you and you need to see them."

"Yes, I do," Keisha answered suddenly anxious to hold them in her arms. Just that simple act would make her feel closer to Dominick until he came home. She looked at Angel and squeezed his hand before following Nikki to the door, but before she left, she stopped and looked at Angel.

"Promise me you'll bring him back to me. Alive." Keisha's voice cracked with emotion before she sniffed. Closing her eyes tightly for a moment, she opened them and whispered. "I need him, Angel. I can't go on without him. Promise me."

The intensity in which Angel stared at her was almost tangible. "I promise. There's no way I'm losing my brother. I'll bring him back."

Biting down on her lip, Keisha nodded. She followed Nikki from the room, trusting Angel to do as he promised. At this point, he was her only hope.