“Please,” I call out to the stranger as he just stands there, saying nothing, watching all this unfold without lifting a finger. “Please, help me.”
TWO
RICARDO
* * *
Carlo is groveling down the line when I get on the train. He’s stuttering, fighting to get his words out. “I’m so sorry, Don Bianchi,” he says at last. “I don’t even know how this happened. It was a brand new car.”
I know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking that my car broke down and he’s my mechanic. He’s on the hook for this. I might have him shot before it’s even been towed back to the compound. I’m having to take the train, leaving myself out in the open. Exposed to trouble.
He knows that I’m deciding whether to kill him for this. His words are falling out. “I swear to you, I’ll fix it by tonight. You have my word. I’ll never let it happen again.”
“I know you won’t,” I reply. I know he’s been taking money from Don Colombo to fuck up my fleet bit by bit. This was a test and I’ve got all the proof I need. He’ll be dead before sunset.
I step through the door into the carriage and that’s when my life changes. I hang up the phone while Carlo is still pleading with me. I don’t give a shit about that anymore.
In front of me is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. My entire attention is on her. Obsession swallows me whole. I must possess this woman.
I barely even notice the people holding onto her. They’re no threat to me but she is. I could let my empire turn to ashes to get a taste of those sweet lips of hers.
She’s got ash blonde shoulder-length hair framing an innocently round face. Button nose, high cheekbones, thin eyebrows above piercing blue eyes that are wide with panic. She’s fighting to get free from four people surrounding her. Two of them are holding her by the arms. There’s a knife waving in the air.
It only takes a second to work out what’s going on. A standard theft. No doubt they were planning to take her purse and be off out the station before she had a chance to alert anyone.
Only now fate brought me on board and the Reaper might get four more bodies by tonight.
“Let her go,” I say. The four of them all turn to look at me. There’s a single delicious moment when I think they might try and take whoever just spoke to them. They look like they’re about to tell me to get lost.
Then they realize who I am.
It always happens like this. The moment of delicious realization. Their faces turn pale as if I’m draining the blood from them already. Fear flashes across their eyes. Real pure terror. I love to see it. Never fails to amuse me.
They loosen their grip on her, staring at me like they’re about to shit themselves. Maybe they already have.
“Sorry,” one of them mutters as they all scrabble back from her. He’s got a stupid haircut and a serious meth habit by the looks of things. “We meant no disrespect.” He scurries backward, almost tripping over his colleagues in his haste to get away. The others start to turn, falling over each other as they run.
Another second and they’re gone out the door, sprinting away along the platform toward the exit. I’ll remember their faces. None of them will be alive to see tomorrow’s dawn.
The woman they were trying to roll has collapsed into the nearest seat, her head sagging downward to her chest. I can’t help but notice how good her tits look in that demure black dress she’s wearing. My cock twitches at the sight. I want to rip that dress off her, see what her pussy tastes like. There’s no one else in the carriage. I could grab her and fuck her and no one would dare to stop me.
I have to control my lust. She’s just had a serious scare and I’ve got places to be.
She’s not crying but she’s close. Now is not the time to be thinking about dominating her, making her cry out my name while I pull her hair back and slap her ass. I shake the thoughts from my head. It takes more effort than it should. What is it about her that’s bringing out the more brutal animalistic lust inside me?
I’ve been bored by women for a long time. They all throw themselves at me, wanting a piece of my fortune. Not her. She has barely looked at me yet. Maybe I’ll let Carlo live. Thanks to his tinkering with my cars, I’m here looking at a vision of heaven in a long black dress.
“Are you all right, miss?” I ask, taking the seat across from her, my legs sticking out into the aisle. The seats on trains are always too small. Beer cans are laid on their side on the table beside us. The stale alcohol smell hangs in the air like a bad fart. “Did they hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” she replies in a mumble. She looks up at me, blinking slowly. I’m lost in her eyes for a moment. I don’t just think of fucking her. I get a snapshot of our entire life together. A ring on her finger. My baby in her belly. Raising our child. Growing old as a couple. All in the time it takes to snap your fingers.
She frowns at me. Did she feel it too? That joint vision of the future?
“Would you like me to call the authorities?” I ask. “I could have those miscreants picked up for what they did to you just now.”
“Don’t bother,” she replies with a bitter laugh. “The cops wouldn’t do anything. They never do.”
I could tell her about how many cops I own. I could mention that once I’m done with the funeral I’m going to, I’ll be making a call that will end with the four of them wearing concrete boots down in the bottom of the river. “You’re certain I can’t help?”