I awoke the next morning to Vanessa straddling me, her long, unruly hair falling in my face and tickling my cheek. She kissed me, then quickly ran her tongue down my torso. Her hands and mouth engulfed my cock before I was fully conscious.

“I must not have done a good job last night if you need to finish up today.” I moaned as her hot breath covered my full length.

She came up for air. “You were so good last night that I’m thanking you properly.” She smiled, and my heart melted.

“Keep that up, and your ‘you’re welcome’ will be very fast.” I lifted my hips to match her rhythm, feeling myself rise to full staff in her wet embrace.

She mumbled something that sounded like “That’s the point.” I pulled her up, loving what she was doing but wanting the real thing.

With that sexy smirk on her face, she climbed on top of me again, lowering herself down on me slowly. I watched in awe as she licked two of her fingers and began rubbing herself in time with my thrusts.

The world faded away, and she rode me, raising and lowering herself the full length of my cock with every stride. The control it took not to finish before she could catch up amazed me. When she picked up speed, her legs shaking with each push, I knew release was coming.

That’s when a knock on the door pierced our veil, and the world came rushing back.

“I can’t stop!” she cried out. Neither can I! We came together, too late to care if death was at the door.

Cruz called through the locked door, “Martin. Martin. Open up, man.”

Jumping from the bed in one motion, I threw on my pants and motioned for Vanessa to run to the bathroom. She gathered her clothes quickly and ran.

When I opened the door, Cruz met me with a hug. “I’m so sorry, man.” Then he pulled back. I was sure the scent of sex had wafted off me and assaulted him. He composed himself and entered the room.

“My, uh, shirt’s ruined.” I pointed to the crumpled bloody shirt in the floor, trying to cover for us.

“You OK?”

“Yeah, looks worse than it feels right now.”

“I bet.” He smirked but said no more about the subject.

Vanessa came out of the bathroom, her hair smoothed down and wet. “Hey, Cruz.” She sounded overly cheerful. I didn’t dare look at her for fear of it showing on my face.

“Good morning, Ms. Genovese.” Cruz offered her a smile. For the first time since taking this job, jealousy didn’t course through me.

“What’s the plan?” I screwed up my eyebrows and stared at the large cloth bag that I’d just noticed in his hand. The obvious outline of money stacks could be seen through the fabric.

“Wire transfer didn’t go through. It was blocked. We’re looking into it.”

“So you robbed a bank?” I asked.

“Funny. I went to your father’s,” Cruz turned toward Vanessa, “and he gave me what cash he had on hand.”

“Thanks for everything you’ve done, Cruz.” I gave him a stiff, uneasy hug, not used to such physical displays with the men in my charge.

“Don’t worry. We have everything covered. Word on the street is two men died at the Park Place last night. No word on whether Antony was one of them, yet. But that was some good work.” Cruz patted my back. I motioned for him to step closer so we could speak in private. Vanessa took the hint and went about digging through the bag of clothes and disappearing into the bathroom again.

“They know about the house in Canada. How the hell are they getting this information?” I paced the floor.

“Not sure, sir. I’ve got my guys working on it. The plate on that SUV came back to an Anderson, Christopher. We’re looking into it. There are over four hundred in the metropolitan area. In the meantime,” he looked up at me, hesitating, “you have arrangements to finalize.” Cruz handed me a folder with Ma’s name on it.

I couldn’t move to take it, so Vanessa did. She flipped through the papers and said, “She wanted to go home. Where’s home?”

“Caldwell, West Virginia.” I found the chair closest to the door and sat.

Cruz chimed in. “We could secure the house, have men posted. Your mom’s house was in the middle of nowhere. We’d see ‘em coming a mile away, easily.” I could see the wheels spinning.

Vanessa looked at me and smiled kindly. “I told you I always wanted to get away and live in a small town. Now’s my chance.”

Not waiting for me to argue, Cruz strode toward the door. “I’ll call Ms. Wallace and make it happen. Rodriguez is downstairs with Rhonda. You’re all set. You don’t worry about anything besides getting your butt home.” With that, he closed the door quickly behind him.

Marco showed up at the hotel a couple hours later as we prepared to leave. He’d called Vanessa and begged to see her off, which she agreed to, as long as Ophelia didn’t come with him. I took a load of things – we didn’t have much, just the money and a duffle bag of clothes that Cruz had gotten from Marco – to the car as Marco pulled up.

I peered inside the vehicle to confirm that nobody was with him, nobody named Ophelia at least, and texted Vanessa that she could come downstairs. Moments later, she emerged from the room with a fresh t-shirt and cut-off jean shorts. The sight of her stirred mixed emotions in me. I wanted to go to her, kiss her, and drag her back into the hotel room. But then I felt the presence of her trusting father beside me, and I shrank in my skin.

“Martin, my man,” Marco hugged me tight. “I just want to thank you for saving my little princess.”

“Just doing my job, sir.” I felt my face redden at the nickname. I’d betrayed this man’s trust.

“You take care of her. She’s all I have left.” Tears filled the mafia boss’s eyes. I knew exactly what he meant, as I realized that she was all I had left in this world, too.

“You have my word.”