Buttons and Lace: A Dark Mafia Romance

Chapter One Pearl Winter raged through New York City. A colossal force of nature, the snow caked against the skyscrapers and sprinkled the streets with icy kisses. The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center still stood tall and proud, but it was quickly blanketed with a white sheet. The tree stood in the living room, and a string of white lights had been wrapped around it. I always insisted on a real tree in the apartment. That pine smell from the great outdoors really brought the holidays to life. It left pine needles all over the floor and it was difficult to manage, but it was still worth it. I held the ornament in my hand as I tried to find a place to put it. It was covered with sloppy red paint, and a picture was wedged in the center. It was Jacob when he was eight years old. He made it for a class project and took it when he moved out of his parents’ place. Christmas was difficult for me to understand because I’d never truly celebrated it. I grew up in a foster home, and the one time I was adopted, my adoptive parents quickly took me back when they realized having another child was too much of a financial burden. It was just a few days before Christmas. A knock sounded on the door, and my fingers almost released the ornament. If it crashed to the floor and shattered, I never would have been able to forgive myself. Jacob cherished his childhood. He had two loving parents who adored him and a sister he battled every chance he got. I returned the ornament to the box before I opened the door. A man in a black leather jacket stood across the threshold. His long black hair was slicked with grease, and his bushy eyebrows made him formidable. The leather boots on his feet gleamed with melted snow from the sidewalk. Like he owned the place, he stepped inside. “Where’s Jacob?” “Whoa, hold on.” I placed my palm against his chest and pushed him back. “I didn’t invite you inside. So keep your ass across that line.” I tapped my toe against the metal strip that separated the hallway from my apartment. His eyebrows furrowed even more. “Now, how can I help you?” I didn’t know this guy, but he sure knew Jacob. “I want to see Jacob.” “He’s not here right now. Who are you?” “He’s not here, my ass.” His accent was thick, possibly Italian. “I know he’s back there. Tell him to come out, or I’ll make him come out.” “He’s really not here,” I snapped. “He’s at work. What’s this about?” “It’s none of your concern.” He shot me a menacing look before he stepped away. “He better pay up. He can’t run forever.” “Pay up what?” I stuck my head out so I could watch him walk away. “Just tell him to pay what he owes, or he’ll pay with his life. It’s that simple.” He kept walking, not breaking his stride. I walked back into the apartment and locked the door behind me. Jacob owed money? For what? Student loans? He told me he paid them off about a year ago. Unless that was a lie. *** Jacob walked inside an hour later than he usually did when he came home from work. He glanced at the tree but didn’t compliment the lights and the ornaments. He tossed his bag on the counter and immediately grabbed a beer from the fridge. He didn’t acknowledge my existence. “Uh, hi?” He twisted off the cap and downed half the beer in a single gulp. Jacob and I hadn’t been the same in weeks. He didn’t kiss me when he came home from work. s*x was limited, and when it did happen, he got off quickly then rolled off me. While we lived together, he was never really there. Every time I questioned him, he told me everything was fine. “Hi.” I was getting sick of his bullshit. I didn’t have a lot of patience with people when it came to bad attitudes. People needed to get over whatever issues they had and just move on. Whatever hardship he thought he lived through, mine was far worse. “Jacob, what’s your problem?” In response, he took another drink of his beer. “You’re like a zombie around here. We don’t have s*x and—” “I got fired.” He finished the beer before he dropped the empty bottle in the sink. It clanked loudly as it spun around until it came to a stop in the drain. He gripped the edge of the sink, his heavy coat covered with snow. I shut my mouth when his words washed over me. It explained his closed off behavior the second he walked in the door, but it didn’t explain why he’d been so withdrawn all month. But now wasn’t the time to ask questions. He grabbed another beer from the fridge and twisted off the cap. “I’m going to shower.” He downed all of it before he tossed it in the sink. This time, the bottle shattered, leaving broken pieces of glass everywhere. He left the kitchen and headed to the hallway. “Do you want to talk about it?” I forgot about the strange man who came by the apartment in light of Jacob’s bad mood. It didn’t seem important anymore. And to bring it up would be insensitive. He didn’t turn around. His back was to me, his shoulders wide and powerful. Even from behind, he looked like a man who had nothing to believe in. Hopelessness radiated from him in radioactive waves. It affected everything in his vicinity. “No.” *** A week went by, and Jacob stayed home every day. He didn’t try to look for another job. He sat in front of the TV and drank beer all day long. His lithe build would quickly change into a hanging beer belly if he kept it up. I was an engineer working for the city. My job was to organize construction in the surrounding areas. Just six months ago, I worked on a project to repair one of the bridges. Most of the time, I worked during the day, but sometimes, I had to go in during the evenings. When I came home that day, I had to hide my irritation. Jacob turned the apartment into a mess. The sink was full of beer bottles, and the trash can was overflowing. He didn’t acknowledge me when I walked inside. He never acknowledged me. “In case you weren’t sure, the sink isn’t a garbage can.” I cleaned up his mess after a long day of work and choked back the harsh words I wanted to say. “Sorry...I meant to take out the trash.” I changed the garbage and threw out the old one in the chute at the end of the hallway. When I came back, Jacob still hadn’t gotten up off his ass to greet me. Instead of waiting for that to happen, I opened the fridge and looked for a snack. In labeled Tupperware were meals prepared for Jacob—by his mother. I really hated her sometimes. He was perfectly capable of cooking for himself if he had any wish to get off the couch. When he fell on hard times, she enabled him, making him even lazier than he already was. This had gone on long enough. “Jacob, some strange guy came by the apartment the other day. Said you owed him money or something.” Jacob didn’t react at all. The only motion he made was a quick shift of his eyes. They turned back to the TV almost immediately, like that information didn’t mean much. “I played poker one night and didn’t have the cash on me.” “So you paid him?” “Yeah, I took care of it.” My intuition told me he was lying. Living on the streets during my youth and having to survive a foster home taught me how to read people with unusual precision. “Because he made it sound like you owed him a lot of money.” The guy was six two and rough. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy Jacob would hang out with. He sighed while his eyes remained glued to the TV. “I told you I took care of it.” I placed my hands on my hips as I walked farther into the living room. “Are you telling me everything?” Jacob sat up straighter, rolling his eyes. “Would you get off my ass? I just lost my job and you’re nagging. I hate it when you nag.” He threw the remote and stormed to the front door. “I’m not nagging.” I followed him. “I just feel like you aren’t telling me everything.” He grabbed his jacket and walked out. “I told you everything. You’re the one who’s paranoid.” *** Weeks went by and nothing changed. Jacob continued his streak of depression, closing off from reality. He continued to make a mess in the apartment, allowing the dishes in the sink to overflow and the garbage can to reek of leftovers. Despite my anger, I held my tongue. We didn’t have s*x during that entire time. That put the length of our abstinence up to two months. I wasn’t a s*x addict, but I needed to get off on a regular basis. Otherwise, I became grouchy. The fact Jacob didn’t want me just irritated me. We slept in the same bed, but he stuck to his side. I stuck to mine. When I came home from work one day, something had changed. The apartment was clean, and the TV wasn’t on. Jacob wasn’t parked in front of it with a beer in his hand. “Jacob?” He came down the hallway with a bag over his shoulder. “Hey, babe.” He had a smile on his face, the first one I’d seen in forever. And he called me babe. He wrapped one arm around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Whoa, what was going on? “Why are you in such a good mood?” “I got a job.” “Oh, that’s great.” Thank f*****g god. I was sick of him moping around and getting fat. There was more housework for me to do, and the place quickly became an inhospitable environment. “I’m so happy for you. What job is it?” “I’m the new account director of an investment company.” “Ooh...fancy title.” “I start on Monday.” “That’s great. You deserve it.” “The pay is great, and it comes with benefits.” “Even better.” I eyed the bag in his hand. “What’s that for?” “Well, I thought we would go on a vacation before I start work.” A vacation? Wow. I really liked this new side of him. “I’m always down for a vacation.” “How about the Bahamas? They have great weather in the wintertime, and the flights are pretty cheap.” Going on a vacation of any kind sounded perfect to me. Jacob and I hadn’t gone anywhere in a year. The last vacation we took was to Florida, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. “The Bahamas?” I couldn’t hold back my excitement. “Seriously?” “Yeah.” His eyes finally held signs of life. He was animated and happy. It was a stark contrast to the lifeless man who’d been walking around the apartment for the past few weeks. “We’ll stop at a few islands. First is St. Thomas.” I jumped into his arms and wrapped my body around his. “This is going to be so much fun.” His arms immediately circled my body, and he pulled me close to him. He reacted to me immediately, and slowly, his lips found mine. He gave me the first kiss I’d had in weeks. And it felt so good—just the way it used to. His arms lifted me from the ground, and he carried me into the small bedroom we shared. Clothes were dropped, and our naked bodies wrapped around one another. He was inside me a moment later, and we moved together on the bed. I hadn’t gotten action in so long I knew I would come immediately. It had nothing to do with his performance. I was just that tense. And I was right. I finally had an orgasm that washed over me and cleansed me. It was just what I needed after those weeks of hell. Exactly what I needed.