Merciless Prince: A Dark Mafia Romance (Brutal Reign Book 1)

I never ignore a phone call. But right now, I’m fucking busy.

The light from my buzzing phone drifts through the steam of my bathroom and I ignore the hum for a few more strokes.

I haven’t jerked off like this since I was a teenager, but the taste of Elisa’s dewy nectar still stains my fingers and compels me to satisfy my needs. I’m still shocked that I managed to hold off back there, but I’m glad I did. The pretty little flower may have been ready for a quick fingerfuck, but she isn’t ready for the real thing. The D’Ignoti princess is mine now, and I’m careful with my possessions, especially the ones I pay so much to acquire.

But Elisa isn’t just any old possession. Her skin is so soft. Her pussy so tight. Her whimpers so pure. I furiously beat off to the fresh memory of her taste until pleasure explodes from my cock.

Another unexpected sensation comes over me when I don’t immediately regret anything after my seed washes down the shower drain.

There’s no shame. No guilt. I bought her. There’s nothing strange about that in this dark world we occupy. What is strange is that I would be so gentle with my enemy’s daughter. Maybe she tricked me with her little docile act, but I believed that she was scared. I also believed that she wanted everything I gave her.

There’s a fire to her that I wasn’t expecting from a sheltered princess. She tried her hardest to fight back. Not just against me, but against her arousal too. She lost, of course. But that doesn’t mean I can’t commend her for trying. If there’s one thing I know about the human body, is that it’s impossible to go against its instincts. Elisa’s instincts wanted me to ravish her.

I feel myself smile. Good. That’s what I need. If I’m going to get my revenge, the D’Ignoti princess is going to have to want me. To need me. When I bring a broken daughter back to Ciro and he sees that her eyes and her heart and her body only yearn for me, then he will be truly broken, then he will truly have nothing left. Then I can kill him.

My phone isn’t ringing anymore by the time I towel off and head back to my room. The cage I chose to lock Elisa in sits directly opposite from mine, across the courtyard in the middle of the hollowed-out rectangle mansion my family built here when we regained our wealth and power all those years ago.

The well-manicured green space in the middle is where my family’s ramshackle cabin once stood. It’s the cabin where my family lived after Ciro betrayed my father and left him to suffer and die. It’s the cabin that I never got to see because I was Ciro’s prisoner. It’s the cabin my mother died outside of.

This whole mansion is a tribute to her and her loving memory. It was built over the tree that my little brother Nolan found her hanging from one misty morning. He was only nine. She was only forty-two. Both far too young for such a tragedy.

We cut down that tree and pulverized the soil with pavement, but that hardly stopped the pain. Still, we left a little lush pocket in the middle of the mansion. An open-air courtyard with all of my mother’s favorite plants and flowers.

Cutting from my section of the mansion to Elisa’s is a hidden skyway that juts through the taller foliage of the atrium. It leads to a locked door in my captive’s room. One that I can use to see her anytime, if I ever feel the need to be sneaky about it. But this is my domain. I rule this swatch of wild forest like a lion. Out here, I never hide. And when I return to the city tomorrow, I’ll never have to hide there again either.

I gaze out of my window to the stained-glass window of Elisa’s bedroom.

I’ll never be far from her, but I can’t be too close. Not yet. My plan doesn’t involve rape. I’m better than that. Buying a wife may not be unheard of in my world, but forcing your enemy to sell his daughter to satisfy his debts to you is harsh, even if I don’t plan on forcing myself on her.

She wanted what I gave her. And I wanted it just as bad. She’ll break for me eventually and then my family can finally have some peace.

My phone buzzes with a reminder of my missed call. It’s not like me to zone out like this, but it has been a busy day filled with excitement and satisfaction.

Nolan.

Before I can call my younger brother back, a text comes through. It’s also from him.

Sorry, forgot about your big catch! My congratulations can wait until the morning. Have fun 😉

I can’t help but smirk. The cheeky bastard. I’m sure Shane is just waiting to pile on me too, but as the youngest brother, he’s gotten used to waiting until Nolan and I are done pushing each other around before he joins in.

I’ll speak to them both tomorrow. Same with Dad. As successful as today was, tomorrow is the true start of my new life. Tomorrow is when I’m officially anointed. The moment Elisa signed that marriage contract she sealed her fate, and advanced mine.

This unholy union was the last obstacle standing between me and absolute power. Dad is stepping down and handing over the reins of our operation to me. The Kilpatrick Clan, along with all of our holdings and assets, both legal and illegal, all of our men and underlings, all of the fear and respect we command, all of our power. It will all be mine. CEO of Kilpatrick Inc. Don of the Kilpatrick Clan. Leader of the Irish mafia and new king of the underworld.

It’s going to be a good day, and when it’s all through, I’m going to come home and fuck the brains out of my newly captured princess.

Morning comes and so do I. Again, I can’t take my mind off of Elisa. The idea that she’s just across the courtyard, probably still naked, has my cock as hard as a rock.

But there’s business to attend to. Today is a big day, and I’m not one to be late.

My staff will look after Elisa while I’m away, and if all goes smoothly, I’ll be home before dinner, revved up and ready to push her even further than I did last night.

After a quick shower, I’m out the door.

Dad’s the first one to contact me. That’s no surprise. My younger brothers are used to staying out late and sleeping in, but Dad doesn’t ever seem to rest. I’ll be glad to finally give him some time off when I take over the empire.

“How’s the D’Ignoti girl?” he asks. Despite being just as ruthless as anyone I know, Dad wasn’t completely comfortable with this plan. Taking your revenge out on an innocent goes against some old country moral code or another. Plus, he knows the torture of having your child be captive to your enemy. He might have some PTSD regarding the matter. I might have some too. But it was the only way, and I think he saw how intent I was on taking every last ounce of Ciro’s soul. He’s been nothing but supportive, if cautious.

“She’s perfect,” I say, connecting our conversation to my wireless headphones. Being out in the Catskills has its benefits. Safety, for one. We own this plot of land from here to the horizon and every inch of it is covered in security equipment and outposts with armed Kilpatrick men.

But it’s also got its drawbacks. Isolation. A two-hour drive is the quickest way into the city on wheels. But I’m not limited to just wheels out here. The Kilpatrick Inc. helicopter is already ready for take-off by the time I climb into the back of it. I’ll be at our headquarters in downtown Manhattan in thirty minutes. Max.

“How’s old Ciro holding up?” I ask, knowing that my Dad has promised to keep a vigilant eye on his old friend.

“Restless. He seems to be trying his best to test the new boundaries we’ve imposed on him. I’ve been watching the highlights of his first night on the compilation tape our security team sent me this morning, and it doesn’t look as though our old friend has slept a wink. I’m afraid he might go mad, locked away in that castle, not knowing who he can trust anymore.”

That brings a smile to my face. “Good. That bastard needs to know how it feels to suffer.” My smile falters as I look out of the helicopter window and down onto the endless stretch of dark forest below. Horrid memories of my time as Ciro’s captive, with all the pain and tragedy it caused my family, drag the edges of my lips into a heavy frown. “I’ll make him pay, Dad…”

“I know, son. I’m right there with you.” A silence follows our exchange. I hate when Dad gets quiet like this. Despite the enormity of our success since I was returned to him, I know he still lingers on all that pain. It hurts me especially, because there’s no one I look up to more than my dad. He’s my hero. And he’s done everything in his power to make up for all of the evils this dark and violent world has bestowed upon us in the past.

“What’s your ETA?” The Manhattan skyline rises in the distance and I spot the tip of our building rise above all the others.

“I can see you,” I smile.

We continue talking for the rest of my short ride. Without harping on the darkness of our pasts, we’re able to reminisce about all that led us to this bright day.

Dad talks about how he can hardly believe I’ve come this far. By lunchtime, I’ll be the CEO of a fortune 500 company. Who would have thought I’d ever make it this far? When I was finally returned from my stretch as Ciro’s captive, I was practically feral. Now, I fit snuggly into my custom-tailored suits and comfortably order a global empire around.

But I make sure Dad knows that I appreciate where all of this comes from. His hard work. Even after his old friend Ciro betrayed him and left us all for dead, he never gave up on himself, or on us.

The helicopter settles down on the landing pad atop our building and I see Dad waiting for me by the rooftop door. Neither of us are particularly tactile people, but for the first time in a long time, we greet each other with a big bear hug. “I’m proud of you, boy,” he says.

My chest swells with pride. “Couldn’t have done it without you, big guy.”

Sure enough, we’re the first two at the office, but it doesn’t take long for Nolan to show up with a handful of documents and a hurried demeanour about him. “Congrats!” We hug too, but he quickly pulls away for a playful punch and some more pertinent business. “Wish I could think of more to say, but I really need to pour over these pages before we do the whole transfer of power thing.”

“Maybe if you had gotten up a little earlier you would have had time before the meeting?” Dad teases.

“I was up all night getting them ready in the first place!”

I can’t help but laugh. “Hey, that’s what I want to see out of my second in command!” I defend him.

This is typical Nolan. There’s little doubt in my mind that he’s telling the truth. He probably spent hours burning the midnight oil. But only after spending a few hours before that at his nightclub.

I hardly blame the kid. He’s only been out of law school for about a year now, and since he doesn’t have to worry about getting his assignments in on top of all of the family business stuff that he is privy to, he finally has some free time to take advantage of, and a lot of steam to blow.

“Yeah, old man. We’re king now!” Nolan jokes back. “No more early morning meetings. After this brouhaha is over, I’m taking my first nap since grade school.”

Dad just shakes his head. “Neither of you are going to have any time for naps. I haven’t slept in years.”

“You wear it well, Pa,” I smile, silently dismissing my younger brother.

Setting his documents down at the far end of the conference table, Nolan gets to work making sure all of the legal documents are in order. Sure, we had Dad’s team of more experienced lawyers draft the terms of my acquisitions, but Nolan needs all the legitimate work he can get his hands on. Unlike me, my younger brothers have mostly been brought up on the clean side of our family business.

It’s part of the reason why I’m changing the game the second I get full control of our empire. No more playing with this mafia shit. What we can accomplish above ground is far more expansive than what’s left to conquer in the underworld, anyway. For the sake of my brothers, I’m going to turn us completely legitimate, ending a long path Dad started. He never had the opportunities I do now, and with a fresh pair of eyes, I know I can get us into the light, even if the monster I am was created in the darkness. After being Ciro’s hostage for many of my formative years, there was little hope of a normal life for me—I could hardly sit through a single half-an-hour class before flying into a rage as a teenager—but that doesn’t mean my brothers can’t be protected from the violence and the darkness.

Nolan was always getting lost in his books anyway. For him, being an academic came easy enough. Shane, our youngest brother, on the other hand…

“Well, look who finally decided to show up.” Dad sees him before I do. The twenty-five-year-old Rockstar look-alike wobbles in with a pair of dark shades on and a tousled muff of fire-red hair.

“Rough night?” I tease.

Shane plops down on the nearest seat and slowly pulls off his sunglasses. His eyes are bloodshot red, but a sly smirk comes over his youthful face. “I was just trying to find my own princess to ravage. Something pure and innocent like the package you’ve got isn’t exactly easy to find. I may have to pay our place in the Catskills a little visit…”

“Careful there, boy,” I growl, only half-playing around now. It’s no secret that I’m a possessive asshole when it comes to what’s mine. And Elisa is all mine.

But Shane’s inquiry has sparked Nolan’s interest too. “How was she? You don’t even look that tired. I bet you didn’t even—”

“Enough,” Dad says. His voice is low but filled with that air of authority that I admire so much.

We all stop playing around.

“This is serious business,” Dad starts. “All three of you are necessary pieces to this empire, and without your full concentration, it could all fall apart.”

“This old thing,” Shane smirks, tapping the wall. “You’ve built it pretty solid, Pa. I don’t think we could tear it down even if we tried.”

Dad sighs. It’s clear that he hasn’t imparted the gravity of our new roles onto my brothers properly. “Your foundation is solid,” he says. “And I trust you all. But we have enemies. We will always have enemies that want to besiege these walls we’ve built, and if you aren’t vigilant, then this empire of yours could burn to the ground in a second.”

“Our empire,” I remind him. Even if he is retiring, Dad is the one who built this tower out of that little ramshackle cabin in the Catskills.

“No. It’s your empire now. I will always be here to give you support and advice. But this is a clean break. I trust you, Aiden. Because of you, the biggest threat to our safety, Ciro D’Ignoti, is neutralized. Together, the three of you can rule the world. I’m just glad to have been a stepping stone on your way to greatness.”

“Shit, you’re going to make me cry over here,” Nolan chuckles.

“Cry on your own time,” I say. Dad’s right. There’s no time to waste. “Are those papers ready to sign?”

Nolan scrambles back to his pile and does one last check over. “Yes, boss,” he grins.

“Dad,” I say, gesturing to the bottom line of the most important piece of paper in this skyscraper. “Would you do me the honor?”

“The honor’s all mine,” he smiles. Grabbing a pen, he signs the deed.

I follow close behind. And just like that. It’s mine. All of it. At least, on paper. There’s still so much more I need to earn.

“Hey, I don’t mean to spoil the moment,” Shane’s voice comes from the far window. “But did we plan on setting any fires at the docks this morning?”

Almost on cue, my phone buzzes with an incoming call. It’s Cormac, head of our security operations. I answer immediately. “The warehouse is fucking on fire.”

From the top floor of Kilpatrick Inc. I can see the smoke.

“Is that ours?” Nolan asks.

“Son?”

I nod, before turning my attention back to Cormac. “How the hell did you let that happen?”

“I don’t know, boss. I was out on a reconnaissance mission. Thank god. When I came to drop off the equipment, I was met by this giant fucking flame ball.”

In the reflection of the window, I can see the snarl on my lips. I haven’t been boss for thirty seconds, and I’m already met with this shit?

“How did it start? Accident? … Or worse?”

“I don’t know.” Cormac is breathless. It sounds like he’s running around trying to see if there are any survivors.

“How many men are in there? How much equipment?”

“Fifteen to thirty men. Countless pieces of equipment. Hours of priceless information. Fuck!”

Rage boils deep inside my chest. What an unceremonious fucking start to my reign. Someone is going to pay for this. Accident or not.

“I gotta go. I’m trying to save what I can.”

“Call me back when you know what the hell is going on.”

With that, I hang up.

“Accident?” Dad asks. I can hear the dwindling hope in his voice. There’s no way this was an accident. And we both know it. The equipment we were using to keep a watch on Ciro was in that warehouse. It was supposed to be highly secure.

“Was it foolish to let him live?” I ask, turning my back to my brothers so they can’t hear the doubt in my question.

“No.” Dad is quick to reassure me. “We still have his daughter. And if he won’t talk, then you have to make sure she does.”