Wicked Sins: A dark BDSM mafia romance (Secrets in Blood Book 1) Read online

  Wicked Sins

  SECRETS IN BLOOD

  BOOK ONE

  DANI RENÉ

  Contents

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  Franco

  Prologue

  1. Franco

  2. Raina

  3. Franco

  4. Raina

  5. Franco

  6. Raina

  7. Franco

  8. Raina

  9. Franco

  10. Raina

  11. Franco

  12. Raina

  13. Franco

  14. Raina

  15. Franco

  16. Raina

  17. Franco

  18. Raina

  19. Franco

  20. Raina

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek

  Matteo

  Sneak Peek - Bound

  Also by Dani René

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2022 by Dani René

  Edited by Emily Lawrence, Lawrence Editing

  Proofread by Erin Carter

  Cover Design & Formatting by Raven Designs

  Cover Photographer: Christopher, CJC Photography

  Cover Model: Marcel Pospiech

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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  Franco

  There is a moment in every person’s life that offers them the one thing they so hungrily search for to make them whole. Some fall in love, some land their dream job, and others find happiness in their solitary lives.

  For me, it was the moment my father slipped a pearl-handled gun into my hand and allowed me to take a man’s life. I watched in awe as the blood drained from his limp body. I smiled when his eyes flickered one last time with knowing. With the realization that he’d taken his last breath.

  There was power in it.

  I found my calling.

  As I stepped toward my first victim, I smiled. He was the first person I’d snuffed out without blinking. I took the gold fountain pen that still sat in the top breast pocket of his navy-blue designer Tom Ford suit. When I brought it up to my face, I noted the droplets of his blood on the object and smiled.

  You can’t take from the dead, Franco, my father uttered from behind me.

  His hand on my shoulder grounded me as I slipped the pen into my pocket, then turned to him. Si, non ne ha più bisogno. I told him that the dead man has no use for a pen in hell.

  That’s the moment I earned my nickname.

  My father lovingly gave it to me as a fifteen-year-old boy and from that moment to this, as I lean in and meet the cold dead eyes of my victim once more as a thirty-eight-year-old man, I smile and tell him, “You’ve now met The Keeper. I trust you’ll remember my name in hell.” And pull the white handkerchief from his pocket and stuff it into mine.

  I no longer have to look at the objects to know that I sprayed their blood on each item I take. Because I ensure the bullet hits just right, allowing my gift from the dead to be covered in the ruby-colored liquid of my new possession.

  Prologue

  RAINA

  “Dad,” I call, racing into the study to find my father hunched over a box. He’s rifling through papers and documents in such a rush I’m not sure he’s even heard me enter. “Dad,” I try again and he startles, spinning to face me.

  “Rai, come in, baby girl.” He offers me the warm smile I’ve grown up seeing on his face. My father is almost sixty, but he can pass for fifty. Even though he’s getting older, he still keeps up with me.

  I had my eighteenth birthday a few months ago, which has allowed me some freedoms, but he still monitors me. I’m the only child still at home. Growing up, it was just my brother and me. However, I’m thankful my older brother is no longer living at home. At thirty, he said he needed to venture out into the real world. What I think he meant was he didn’t want Dad watching what dangerous things he was doing.

  I’m close to my parents, but it’s Andrea, my brother, who I’ve never been able to be around for longer than a family dinner. There’s a darkness that surrounds him and it scares me. When he finally left home, it was as if I had lifted a weight from my shoulders.

  “What are you doing home so early?” he questions with a frown.

  “I finished up classes early. There wasn’t anything going on after, so I figured I’d come and see if you needed any help. You know I enjoy doing your filing.” It’s a lie, but it easily slips from my lips. A terrible feeling had twisted in my gut when I was in English class, so I asked if I could leave. Since I’m ahead in class, Mrs. Drummond said it’s okay.

  From a young age, I knew my father was involved with dangerous men. Even though he’s always kept it hidden, I stumbled across documents years ago that I knew gave away my father’s connection to our ancestors.

  I have always connected the Lombardi name with the Nostra, and even as a young girl, I understood what darkness lies in my family’s history. My father, the man who does the accounts for a dangerous organization, can no longer hide his secrets from me.

  Daddy has been good to keep me safe, but I have a feeling Andrea has already taken a walk down the sordid path. And as much as I know our father wants to protect us, I’ve already stumbled into that life without even knowing it.

  They’re all dangerous.

  Violent men. The kind you see on the television who hurt people.

  We’re part of the familia and there’s nothing we can do to stop it or to change our destiny. I know it, my parents know it, and soon I’ll have to walk that fine line of right and wrong.

  “Come in, Raina, sit.” Daddy gestures to me to take a seat in the comfortable chair only inches from where he’s busy. I curl onto the sofa instead and watch him. He offers another heartwarming smile and carries on what he’s doing. Then continues to speak to the box of documents rather than me, “I’m finishing up some work here, then I have a meeting,” he says easily but doesn’t meet my eyes.

  I know the meeting my father is talking about. He’ll go to see them. The names of these men are not new to me and if you asked me to recite them, I’d be able to do it with no list.

  “I was wondering if I can make us dinner tonight. The whole family together for once?” My question stills him for a moment before he shakes his head.

  Turning my way, he responds with guilt shining in his eyes. “Not tonight, baby girl. I may not be home until late. Your mother is meeting her friends for bingo, so it’s just you.” His voice causes a shiver to race over me. There are many times that my father stays out late, but something about his tone makes me fearful.

  “What are you doing, Dad?” I rise, stepping closer to him so I can look into those green eyes that match mine. “Tell me,” I implore.

  “You know my life isn’t easy, Raina. Tonight, I have a meeting with an organization who can help me. They’ll be able to assist with the accounts I’ve been in charge of with the companies who hired me. I want to take on less responsibility as I get older, and this meeting will allow me to plead my case.”

  “Are you meeting the Nostra?”

  My father glances at me, shock clearly written all over his face. “What? I don’t know what you’re—”

  “Dad, please?” I plead as he looks at me, and I can tell he’s trying to find a way out of this conversation without admitting to what I already know. “Don’t lie to me.”

  “Raina—”

  I step closer to him, stopping when his brows rise in surprise. “Tell me the truth. I don’t want more lies and secrets. This life… Our life… You need to tell me the truth. I’m an adult now.”

  He lowers his gaze to the floor. The guilt on his expression has my chest twisting and my stomach tight with anxiety. “You shouldn’t know about this, Raina. You’re far too young to even be talking about them. Even though this is our family legacy, I want them to keep you out of it. You’re innocent.”

  “What about Andrea?”

  He sighs sadly. Those eyes that offered me solace now hold apology. “He’s in this life now, no matter what.”

  Nodding, I step back from him with a sense of doom knotting my stomach. It feels as if there’s a serpent twirling itself around my organs, squeezing the life from me.

  “I love you, Raina. You’re a strong young woman and I only want what’s best for you.” His words hold my heart, weaving themselves around me. “Now go enjoy time with your friends and I’ll see you later. Okay?”

  “I love you too, Dad.” Leaning in, I wrap my arms around him, giving him a hug so tight and so fie
rce, trying to remember what it feels like when he holds me because it’s as if this will be the last time I’m ever in my father’s arms.

  My mind is racing a million miles a minute as I leave the office. Thinking of the names of the men Daddy works for, I wonder who exactly he’s meeting with. They’re all killers, volatile men who do horrific things.

  I tiptoe through the house, settling myself on the sofa in the main living room. I glance out the window, watching the gardener work in the blistering sun. Summers in Los Angeles are my favorites. I love the sunshine, the heat. It reminds me of happier times before I knew about the evil that lives in this world.

  The clouds are pulling over, an omen as far as superstitions go. Those gray clouds turn even darker and I want to run to my father, forbid him to go, but I know nothing will stop what’s going to happen tonight.

  The silence of the house keeps me tense. My stomach is in knots. Then I hear the footsteps of my father as he makes his way to the exit, and I know he’s heading to the garage, which is only a few hundred meters away from the barn door of our family kitchen.

  I know there’s more tension in this house than there is in a heist. My mother knows there is more going on beneath the surface of what my father has offered. I overheard the fighting one night, months ago, about a promise. A vow. I don’t know the details, but there was something scary in the way my mother uttered those two words.

  Perhaps that’s why my father is so adamant about hiding things from me. I found all my daddy’s secrets. And while I’ve seen what they’ve done, I wasn’t as fearful as I thought I’d be. That makes me as bad as them. I’m as evil as they are with things I keep hidden.

  Before I can tell him anything more, my phone buzzes. When I check the screen, I see his name.

  The man I’ve been seeing.

  We’re not dating. We’re not a couple.

  He’s a secret. My darkest sin.

  He’s a wicked man, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting him.

  If anybody knew I was meeting him, I’d be in trouble. But he makes me tingle in places I want to tingle. He makes my body heat. And my panties? He makes them wet. I know there’s something wrong with me. At least, I think it’s wrong, but he makes me feel like it’s right. He tells me girls like me need it. They crave it.

  And I do.

  When I wake up from my dreams of what we do, my hand is between my thighs. I’m a naughty girl and I do risqué things. I’ve learned from the men my father brings in here and seen them with women. They think the basement is off-limits, but they don’t know that the code was easy to decipher.

  When I’m alone, I go down there and watch the videos they record. The dirty things they do. Those filthy words they call the women. And I get myself off. Because I’m a bad, sinful girl.

  My body likes the darkness.

  I revel in it.

  Only.

  It’s my secret.

  And I keep it locked away.

  1

  Franco

  The warehouse I enter is cold. My suit doesn’t offer much warmth from the cold East Coast winters, and when I’m working on this side of the country, I keep myself aware by reveling in the iciness. It allows me to feel the rigidness of my blood. Soon enough, once the job is done, I’ll fly home to L.A.

  It’s been years since I made my first kill. But with each person who falls victim to me, I know it’s the only thing in my life that makes sense. To fulfill my father’s dream, to step into his shoes and make sure that people know if they fuck with us, they won’t survive.

  No mercy.

  No second chances.

  When my cousin told me about this place, I thought he was making shit up, but as soon as I enter with Giovanni and Matteo flanking me, I can’t deny that Lucio was right. Even though he’s a Russo, I trust him more than his godforsaken brother, Cristiano.

  There’s a stench in the space, something you get accustomed to when you’re in my line of work. It no longer bothers me, the darkness, the filth. It’s life.

  “Franco Moretti?” The asshole knows it’s me when I step into the smaller room in the left corner of the warehouse. Lucio told me the man isn’t going anywhere and when I reach the nark, I find him bound to a chair in the middle of the large open space. The office we’re in is large, but the smell of urine and shit overpowers the space. “Please, we can pay.” His voice grates slowly over my skin. The movement is as if he’d taken a blunt razor and attempted to shave me.

  I hate it.

  I loathe it.

  But I stalk closer because he’s staring at me like I’m his savior. I’ve never been one and I don’t intend to be a fucking holy man now. I watch him in silence, pinning him with a glare. This asshole thinks he can lie, steal, and cheat the Nostra. That wasn’t his first mistake, though. He used our shipment to deal in people, women. That’s something I don’t condone, and it’s something I ensure never happens in my organization. I may not be a good man, but I don’t sell people.

  “I-I’ll g-give y-you a-a-anything,” he utters, and something about his fear makes me want to shatter every morsel of hope he has. Not because I’m evil, but because I’m standing here in front of my brothers, because I love the anguish on my mark’s face. I need them to see what this life is really like. I don’t sugarcoat shit.

  “You know, Bruno”—I turn to him, leaning on my elbow on my knee as I press my shiny black shoe on his cock—“I hate when people lie.” I’m posing like a fucking pirate on a barrel of rum.

  “P-Please,” he utters once more, but I bring the knife to his chin and slowly slice away a chunk of flesh, which falls onto his stomach. The blood that splatters over my Italian dress shoes only makes me smile. When I was younger, I would lose my shit, I’d curse, and lose my cool, but life has made me colder. I’ve learned to restrain my anger, to keep calm.

  “You’re getting worse,” Giovanni mutters as he lifts the flesh and places it inside the container. Once the lid clicks closed, I glance at my brother and chuckle. “I’m serious, Franco.”

  “Far parte del lavoro, fratello.” I smile, telling my brother that it’s part of the job. Pressing my foot down harder on the man’s crotch, I listen to his wails of pain and agony, but it doesn’t make me ease up because he doesn’t deserve it. You fuck with the Nostra, you lose your life or your dick. It depends on how I’m feeling that day and what your crimes were. When blood pools on the floor where the chair is situated.

  I watch my victim shudder as he bleeds out. I’ve ensured it’s slow, painful, and as he splutters, I can’t help reveling in the control I have over others. Things I want, I take. It’s how I’ve always been. Those around me know I don’t stop until the thing I’ve set my eye on is within my grasp.

  My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it, knowing who it is. I’ve been expecting his call for days, weeks even. I know he’ll call back or leave me a scathing message.

  “Get this piece of trash out of here,” I order my brother, Gio, while I wipe my blade with the clean white handkerchief. Tossing the material on the floor, I turn and walk out the door. Once outside, I pull my phone from my pocket and unlock the screen. There’s a message from my cousin. Lucio Russo is the younger brother of my cousin, Luciano. Since the passing of their father only a year ago, I’ve been stepping in to help with their organization. Loading weapons onto containers and shipping them anywhere in the world.

  The Russos are infamous for sourcing any arms you’d need or want. The Morettis are the complete opposite. You want something to take you higher than ever before, we’ll get that for you.

  Drugs and weapons are what we deal in. They go hand in hand beautifully and they offer us the income to live the life we have grown to enjoy.