Chapter One

I changed lanes, and my eyes alternated their focus between rear view mirrors and the road ahead in a continuous cycle. No tails. The boss had called him specifically to be on alert this week. To watch his wife with a close eye. He wasn’t specific, but it was something serious if the boss was calling. The last time I had spoken to the boss was over a year ago when I was first brought into the family. I wasn’t Italian, of course. Like most Americans nowadays, I’m a hodgepodge of a dozen different nationalities, but that worked in my favor when I joined the Italian mob. They like Americans, in general. If I had been Greek, Spanish, or Irish, forget about it. They wouldn’t have touched me. But American? They know Americans don’t take sides. There’s no blood oath that we carry. We’re individuals, and that’s what the boss needed.  

However, until now, my work for them was a bit more sporadic. One-offs. Asset protection and delivery, transportation… a year straight of having five thousand dollars deposited in my checking account a week from an LLC that employed me as a contractor. And all I had to do was wait for a phone call that came two, maybe three times a month. The pay wasn't bad for an entry-level job for a dishonorably discharged soldier, considering my assignments. Now, I was questioning that.

“Hey, new fucking guy? Is this as fast as you can go? I’m going to be late?” Marlene yelled from the back seat. The lingering touch of her distant Italian accent folded the end of each word. “Hello? Are you deaf?”

“No, ma’am,” I said with as much composure as I could muster. “I’m going the speed limit. Your husband said not to draw any extra attention to—”

“My husband lives in Italy,” Marlene said, waving her hand in the rear-view mirror. I tried to respond, but I could hear Marlene cursing at herself or whoever was on the phone with her. She ranted into Italian for several minutes and shot glares at the back of my head. All the while, I could only wonder how long this assignment would last.

It had been five days, but the boss hadn’t said there was a particular end date. All my other assignments lasted three to four days, six days max. I was told they were adding to Marlene’s security because of some kind of deal happening. They wanted someone with my skills as a former special forces operator to watch her rather than the regular guy who was more gangster than professional. Surely this can’t last much longer?

“Ohh, oh, I must go, love you, mwah!” Marlene signed off her call as she answered a second. It was her husband. The boss. They spoke in Italian as she held the phone up to her body and giggled as they must have been video chatting. I made several more turns and pulled to a stop at the red light. Marlene sighed and released a small moan.

My eyes flicked up to the rear-view mirror and saw Marlene had hiked her long red skirt up to her taut belly with one hand as she spread her legs. All the while, she held out her phone with the other hand, filming it. Marlene wasn’t wearing any panties. Slipping a finger between her lips, the gorgeous woman began to masturbate in the car. There was a honking horn, and I realized the light was green and quickly lurched forward. Marlene’s eyes glanced at me, then quickly looked back to her phone as a smirk competed with the look of pleasure on her face.

Listening to the wet sounds of her fingers pumping in and out of her pussy was hard enough, but the added moans and screams made it nearly impossible for me not to react. My cock twitched, then stretched out in my boxers as I made the last turn. There was an obvious code amongst the guards against flirting or even looking like you were lusting after the Boss’ women. Doing so was a swift way to end up with your feet stuck in a bucket of concrete and being dropped to the bottom of the ocean.

“Ohh ohhh yahh oh fuck! I’m cumming! I’m cumming!” Marlene moaned with her feet spread to nearly touch both doors. Her hips raised and fell in the air as she smacked her wet pussy and convulsed as she came.

I cleared my throat as I pulled into the event. It was some Miami Independent Film debut. A red-carpet event for people who were local celebrities. Marlene said her goodbyes while adjusting her dress and lowering her skirt. When I pulled into a park, I exited the SUV and handed the key to the Escalade to the valet. The half dozen photographers waited to see who was inside, and I realized Marlene was waiting for me to get the door for her. Opening it, I took her hand and helped her out of the vehicle to a sea of white flashes and catcalls by the photographers. It wasn’t until she had moved on that I looked down and felt the wet pussy juices on my hand from hers.

Chapter Two

The movie premiere was a dull affair. Enough private security and local cops working overtime assignments to ensure nothing would happen. It was the clubs that Marlene toured afterward that had me nervous. After connecting with three of her friends who appeared to be models or influencers… some kind of non-job job… I began escorting the four of them to a series of bars, starting with the most exclusive and, thus, the safest. By the time I parked the car in the valet lane of the fifth club, the three girlfriends had gone their own ways, leaving Marlene to decide to go to the Tree Bar.

“Ma’am, I really think we should—”

“No,” Marlene said, raising a palm to stop my sentence. “I really think you should drive my car when I tell you to.”

Biting down on my tongue, I took a deep breath and released it. “Yes, ma’am.”

The club was as chaotic as I imagined it to be. Then it got worse. The internal security was almost zero inside the place, and the number of people was way over capacity. I paid for VIP access for Marlene, which was standard protocol for her when she was clubbing, but the woman ignored the selective section for the main dance floor that was covered wall to wall with bodies.

Standing at the top of the stairs, I tracked her movements through the crowd.

“Fucking woman…” I sighed under my breath as I watched her dance between men, disappear for twenty seconds, then reappear, grinding on another woman. I had half a mind to charge into the crowd, toss her over my shoulder, and carry her out kicking and screaming.

Don’t think that will go over too well with the boss.

Not that there were too many known threats meant to be at a place like this, but it was the unknown threats I was concerned with. The boss had several rival gangs in the Miami area that weren’t fans of the Italians, but that would have to be a fool to go after a boss’ wife. Such an attack meant war—a bloody war. The only time the family of a boss was touched was when the boss himself was assassinated. Then, it was like a lion taking over a pride. The newcomer kills the mate, cubs, and all the remnants of the former boss. You’d have to be insane to ignite a war like that.

I stood for over an hour and a half as I watched Marlene switch between dancing on the floor and flirting with various well-dressed men at the bar. I hadn’t even thought of how I would handle her going home with another man. It was widely known that the boss had many girlfriends besides his wife, but no one spoke of Marlene.

Was it common knowledge she slept around and I just didn’t know?

It appeared we were going to find out. Marlene had selected a suitor. A clean-shaven bald man with a square jaw who wore a three thousand dollar Armani suit. I knew because I had the same suit in my closet. The man passed the bartender and large wad of dollar bills and the bartender pointed them down a back hall reserved for employees. I quickly followed, crossing the room, and entered the hall when the bartender was not looking. The hall turned and became a series of doors. Most were closed, but the few open revealed private rooms with sofas, TVs, and minibars. Marlene made eye contact with me from the room she entered at the end of the hall. Her face switched from laughing at what her new friend had said to an icy stare that appeared to be more of a warning to keep my distance.

By the time I reached the door, she had shut it, and I heard the latch lock. Stretching out my neck, I paced momentarily to let off the steam. If a heavy bag was available, I would have unleashed a sprint of body punches. I was so angry.

How could a woman who has lived the life she has been married to the man that she is, be so inept when it came to the danger she is putting herself in?

Tossing my hands in the air, I gave up and resigned myself to the door guard while Marlene got her fuck on. I had already decided to message my contact tomorrow and request a transfer. I didn’t care. I’d go to Italy to do some work if I had to. About five minutes after a blaring music roared from inside the room, I heard more noise. Clicks, thuds, a humming sound… I couldn’t place it and moved my ear closer to the door. I rolled my eyes as I realized I was probably listening to the woman getting railed, but then I heard the scream. It was a sharp sound that didn’t sound like pleasure. It sounded like fear.

“Ahhhmmm! Help!” she cried. I could just barely make it out through the door.

Trying the doorknob, I felt it was locked and immediately stepped back. Tucking my leg and kicking my heel into the meat of the door, just like I was back in Afghanistan, I watched the hundreds of pieces of wood splinter into a thousand directions as the door burst open. Charging inside, the stereo was turned all the way up with a new heavy rock tune playing. I turned and saw two black leather couches facing each other, and on one of them was Marlene. Her dress was hiked up to her belly, and her legs kicked in the air. Her hands were tied behind her back, with Andrew standing over her with no shirt on. To muffle her screams for help, Andrew had a pillow shoved down hard on Marlene’s face.

I moved quickly, already noticing my ward’s legs slowing their kicks. It was from exhaustion, or she was close to suffocation. The roar of the guitar solo on the maxed-out sound system was loud enough that Andrew didn’t see me coming until I shoved him hard, bouncing his back off the wall and into the other couch. Swatting the pillow off of Marlene’s face, I cupped her cheek as I watched her wide eyes almost roll backward, then forward and rest on me as she gasped for air.

“Hey, you motherfucker!” Andrew yelled as he stood up from the couch and swung a looping hook at my face. Cupping my ear, I raised an elbow and, blocked the punch with my shoulder, and quickly countered with a straight cross that struck his chin and stumbled him back a step. Andrew made a half-hearted counter-strike that I chopped down with a parry as I sidestepped and landed a tight hook to his jaw. The bald man crumpled to the couch, and I shoved my knee into his belly as I landed five more complex shots to his nose that bloodied his face and made him go limp.

Satisfied with his level of injury, I switched couches and went to Marlene. I pretended not to see her red panties as I grabbed her skirt and slid it down her thigh before carefully turning her to her side. Removing a tactical, spring-assisted pocket knife and flicking it open, I cut the tie that was used to tie her hands behind her back. She immediately sprung to her feet and started kicking the unconscious man and stomping on his crotch while shouting in Italian. I grabbed the back of her arm, pulling her away.

“No, no, let me do thi—” I said and was startled when Marlene turned and embraced me in a tight and desperate hug as she sobbed. Not knowing what to do or say, I hugged her back and said, “It’s okay… he’s never going to hurt anyone again. It’s okay…”

After a few moments passed, I got us separated and sat her on the couch as I removed several zip-ties I had in a pouch. Marlene watched intently as I zip-tied the man’s hands behind his back and his ankles together.

Chapter Three

It was nearly three in the morning by the time I pulled the car over to the side of the road. The bridge I parked on was dark and poorly lit in spots. The MacArthur Causeway was a place I had done work before and was familiar with it. Marlene sat beside me in the front of the vehicle. Her tears and sniffles had followed us all the way from the club. Using the tip of her finger, she carefully dried her eyes and tried not to smear her makeup any more than she already had.

“Are you sure you want to be here for this?” I asked gently. “I can get someone to take you home…”

“No, I’ll stay with you,” Marlene sniffled, then looked at me with sad eyes. “I thought I was going to die.” She broke into tears again as she cupped a hand over her mouth, and she took gasping breaths. Aside from a few bruises on her arms and suffocation, she was lucky to survive as long as she had, with no lasting damage. “He… was just so mad out of nowhere,” she continued. “He changed as soon as we were in that room. He just held the pillow down on my face so hard. He didn’t even try to fuck me, and… and…”

Marlene was gasping in a panic again. I picked up the bottle of water in the center console I had cracked open for her and opened it.

“Shhh, shhh!” I whispered, “It’s okay… it’s okay… I have to take care of this. You can wait in the car if you want.”

“No, I’ll come,” she straightened and turned her face serious. “I want to see.”

Exiting the car, we both walked to the rear of the vehicle, and I took my time taking in the surroundings. The empty road was free of cars. There were no boats in the water nearby. I didn’t see any security cameras. There was no need to inform anyone what happened. Laying a hand on the boss’ wife had a certain consequence that must be carried out swiftly. I would call Lorenzo in the morning, and the boss would know by tomorrow afternoon. They would be glad to know the man was dealt with.

When I felt satisfied, I popped my trunk. The bloody mess that was Marlene's date was hog-tied and gagged in the trunk of my vehicle. His eyes were wide and panicked as I dragged him out and dropped him on the concrete. I stood him up on wobbly feet that were bound together. Marlene’s face hardened, and she stared at the man who could speak but only could give her pleading eyes.

“You fucked with the wrong bitch,” Marlene said with a stern voice.

She hawked a wad of spit that landed on his left eye and the bridge of his nose. The man cursed and writhed, getting ready to retaliate, when I drew my sidearm from the holster and shot him four times in the chest. Marlene stepped back, and her hands jetted up to her ears with each gunshot. As the rapist stumbled backward into the bridge railing, I seized the moment and reached down, scooping a hand around his thigh. Lifting him, I flipped his heels over my head into the ocean below.

Turning to Marlene to check on how she was doing, I holstered my pistol and didn’t see fear in her eyes. The makeup washed down the sides of her eyes, which reminded him of the terrified woman before, but he no longer saw her. He saw a hardened mob boss’ wife.

Chapter Four

There was an almost psychopathic change in Marlene’s personality from the minute she spat in her attacker’s face to now. After dumping the man’s body, we quickly left the scene. Before I managed to get the car off the bridge, Marlene was already looking in the mirror with a tissue, fixing her mascara and drying any missed tears on her face. By the time I pulled into the parking garage for her Miami highrise apartment, Marlene was back to herself. Her makeup was clean, edged, and sexy. Her shoulders were straight and back, and attitude-filled eyes. Something was reassuring in the return to normality, even if it meant the brief human moment we shared together was gone. At least Marlene could come through the other side.

Being attacked as a woman was bad enough, but witnessing what I imagine was her first homicide would be too much for most women. Marlene had been a mob boss’ wife for twenty years—since she was seventeen years old—of course, she had known of hits, murders, and worse, but at that level of the game and her being a woman, it wasn’t likely that she was party to them.

Until now, I thought, wondering if me allowing her to be there would come back to bite me in the ass.

Arriving at Marlene’s apartment building, I nodded to the bellhop and brought her to the top floor. It was the penthouse suite apartment—an enormous apartment with vaulted ceilings and luxurious hardwood floors. I escorted the lady to her room, past the plush white leather couches of the living room, and swept the entire four-bedroom apartment for intruders just to make sure she felt safe. She looked at herself in the mirror again while I did that. She tucked her hair behind an ear, plucked at her dress around her breasts, and modeled different sides to herself.

She just came home from the club. Isn’t she about to wash off all the makeup, take off the dress, and go to bed? Who is she looking pretty for?

“Ma’am, I searched the entire premise. No one is here. You’re safe,” I said, holding her gaze long and strong to show that I believed it.

A wisp of a smile broke in the corner of her lips that seemed genuine. Like he had said the magic words, regaining her composure, she reached for her purse.

“What are you? Twenty-four? Twenty-five years old?” Marlene asked with insultingly raised eyebrows as she dug in her coach purse with one hand.

“Twenty-three, actually,” I said, sounding as careless as I could manage.

Marlene rolled her eyes as she tapped a single cigarette free from her pack, flipped it between her index and middle finger, and delicately raised it to her lips. “God,” she complained while lighting it. “How did I get such a baby protecting me?”

I sensed this was a rhetorical question, but it was answered anyway.

“I’m good at what I do,” I said.

The older lady eyed me suspiciously. Her gaze was powerful. The dark mascara and eyeliner surrounded by her tan, olive skin gave her the look of a Greek goddess who stared with piercing eyes. Not wanting to relinquish weakness after being insulted for my age, I didn’t break eye contact either. The long seconds ticked by as the seductive trail of smoke drifted up from the cigarette in her fingers.

Finally, her eyes softened, and her lips curved slightly. “And what is it that you do?” she asked, taking a slight drag from her smoke.

I racked my brain for the brief second I had for consideration, trying to come up with a clever answer, but when none arrived, I went the other way.

“I hurt people who need hurting. I protect people who need protecting,” I said.

Marlene smiled, showing off her wondrous white and straight teeth as she ashed her cigarette in a tray, “I like you, Michael. Tell me, are you going to be working all night?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Good. That’s good. I will feel better knowing you are outside my door.” Marlene’s smile somehow changed to a laugh to a joke I didn’t hear.

“Goodnight, ma’am,” I said, stepping backward and trying to leave professionally.

I closed the door and stood with my back to the door for several minutes before the sounds began. Light moans and flinted-pitched gasps. I could hear the gorgeous cries of Marlene’s voice as she masturbated. She did not try to hide the pitch of her voice. She wanted me to listen for a reason, and it was working. My cock stirred in my pants despite all efforts to stop it. Marlene, as I felt my cock flex against my pants.

Only minutes passed before I heard something else—my name.

“Michael,” she whispered. Like it was an enchantment of some kind. “Michael.”

There was no fear in her voice. No panic. I knew why she beckoned me when I turned to face the door. Taking a deep breath, I thought not to enter. Just to ignore her call. But my body moved like it had a mind of its own. Opening the door, I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.

Chapter Five

Marlene looked up at me from her bed. The covers were a mess beneath her. Her legs were strewn apart. Her inner thighs glistened. The moonlight from the window cast a white glow over the woman’s olive skin. Shadows covered her eyes, but I knew she’d stared at me. With every step closer, I walked closer to her. The woman inched lower on her bed. The same sexy red dress still draped from her body.

The woman looked up at me as she extended her hand and gently petted the crotch of my suit pants. With slow strokes of her palm, she brought my cock to life, and I felt it grow in my pants. All the while looking up at me with her haunted ocean-blue eyes. One of her black strands of hair looped down her forehead over her cheek, beckoning me to reach out. Brushing the hair away, he cupped her cheek and felt the woman tilt her head into his hand. She bit her lip as she groomed his cock harder, forming a c shape with her hand to work it around.

Rubbing my thumb over her upper lip, Marlene’s lips parted, and her white teeth quickly bit down on me as I depressed her tongue. The devious smile she made with my thumb in her mouth only made my cock throb harder. Marlene’s hands got to work undressing me. Unzipping my pants and unfastening my belt, she jumped and giggled when my pants fell to the ground with speed due to the weight of my gun holstered on the back of my belt.

“Is that dangerous?” she asked, glancing at my still-holstered gun.

“Not as dangerous as me,” I said evenly.

A fire was lit in the woman’s eye as she rubbed my hardening shaft toward my abs as she put her lips to my boxers. Kissing up the base of my shaft, she slowly peeled down the underwear and let my bare shaft brush across her cheek. Marlene’s delicate fingers wrapped around my shaft and stroked me tenderly. Her pink lips came together to press kisses on my balls one at a time as her pumping motion intensified. I felt her other hand loop around my bare thigh, her fingernails digging in just below my ass to keep me tight to her. As if I’d leave.

Shake her long black hair out of her face. Marlene panted with excitement through parted lips as she inched her mouth closer to the tip of my cock. Seeing the growing droplet of pre-cum she was pumping out of my shaft, her eyebrows came together as she whispered something in Italian, and she licked her lips. Extending her tongue, she licked a circle around the throbbing head of my cock before brushing the tip of her tongue over my urethra. When she pulled away, she held out her tongue to show the long stream of semen that dangled between her tongue and my cock before quickly bringing her lips back to my shaft and swallowing the entire string.

I released a gasp when I felt her moist lips wrap around the head of my cock. Marlene’s head bobbed on my cock, slowly at first. Inching forward and backward, she moved like she was making out with my cock. I felt her tongue lick and rub every side of my head as she hummed a note of approval. She wiped her free hand over several locks of hair that bounced over the side of her face.

Reaching down, I scooped her hair out of her face on both sides and pulled her hair back in a tight ponytail as she bobbed deeper down my shaft again and again. Each time, inching farther down my length. Her hand, pumping my shaft at its base, adjusted to cup and lightly massage my balls. For a married woman of thirty years, she knew what she was doing. Marlene’s tongue licked at every angle. Her lips put the right amount of pressure around my shaft, and her increasing speed was almost too much to bear. Every muscle in my body flexed at different times as I struggled to keep myself from cumming, only to feel her push down on me faster.

I released a groan, and she quickly moaned back. Breathing heavily through her nose, the mature woman's face fucked herself on my cock as it twitched and flexed between her lips. I came so hard I was dizzy as the strings of warm semen spurted on her tongue and the back of her throat. Feeling the length of her soaked tongue rub across the tip of my shaft, Marlene swallowed as she forced her lips down me, soaking my entire cock in her saliva.

“Ugh!” I groaned with a final flex.

When Marlene finally released her lips from my cock, a trail of slobber stretched down to her chin that she wiped away with the back of her hand.

“Mmmm…” she hummed with a high-pitched inflection. “You taste as good as you look. Here, darling. Let me make some room for you.”

Marlene leaned back on the bed with her legs spread. The skirt of her dress only covered the top of one of her legs as the slit revealed the perfectly shaved pussy lips. I moved forward, and Marlene scooted backward with a playful smile on her face. Following her onto the bed, I chased after her in a crawl. The married woman giggled as she turned on her hands and knees and tried to crawl to the head of the king-sized bed.

Slipping my hand in the crook of her skinny hips, I grabbed ahold of her, prompting her to release a yelping giggle as I pulled her back to press against my front. My firm, calloused palm rubbed up the front of her body, feeling every ridge and curve she had. Her hard nipples pierced through the thin sheen of her dress. When my hands cupped her breasts and mashed them together in a massage, I heard her coo and moan. Marlene’s tight ass ground sharply against my crotch.

Sliding my hand around her hips, I left a streak of her pussy juices across her flesh as I shoved her forward roughly.

“Ooo,” Marlene yelped and giggled as her hands caught her fall on the mattress. My palm followed the curve of her ass, and my thumb slipped down the black line of her ass crack, prompting a mischievous hooked smile over her shoulder at me. The tip of my middle finger made several wide circling motions over her slippery lips before plunging inside her.

“Oh! Yes…” she gasped desperately.

With a steady pace, I fingered her pussy with one finger from behind and listened to the high-pitched squeals escape her lips with every thrust. I inserted a second finger, and Marlene collapsed forward, biting the pillow as she moaned into it with her ass in the air. Brushing aside the red fabric of her dress, I watched the thin material slide up her body and nearly over her shoulders as her ass stood tall.

“Ooooo yahh… don’t stop…” Marlene whined. Her beautiful accent touched every note of her moans. “Fuck me… fuck me hard…”

My biceps and pectoral muscles flexed hard as my fingers pounded in and out of her pussy. I felt her juices soak my fingers as much as my hand as I stuffed inside of her. The arch of her back grew until it was shaped like a ‘U’ and her fists balled around the sheets that had been ripped from the bed.

“Ugh! Ah! Yes, yes, yes! Oh gahd! Smack my ass!” she begged.

Slapping my palm on her right cheek hard with a sharp sting. It made her yelp and then groan in a moan. “Oh ya! Again!”

Raising his hand, I smacked it down sharply, causing a red mark on her cheek.

“Ohhh!” she screamed as I pumped her pussy harder. Rocking her entire body back and forth with every thrust.

Smack, smack, smack!

Her ass cheek turned a bright shade of pink, and her hips buckled low as she cried out.

“I’m cumming! I’m cumming!” she grunted.

Her tan-brown thighs trembled and convulsed as she twisted the sheets beneath her. The orgasm overcame her entire body.

“Oh gah—gah! Yes!” she cried and fell to her side.

My hand glistened as I pulled it from her pussy. Crawling over the top of the woman, I used my dry hand to brush the hair out of her face. She was panting when she turned onto her back to look at me. We had time to share the briefest of smiles. Her glittering white teeth of her perfect smile.

The sound of glass breaking captured both of our attention, but the gun blasts that followed sent us both tumbling to the ground.