Vita Mia (Battaglia Mafia Series Book 10) Read online

  She paused. She looked at him again for a long moment before speaking. “You’re right. This isn’t all there is. There’s definitely more.”

  “Really?”

  MiaBella tossed a glance to the left. There was another door. A double door. It was closed. “That’s where real things happen. Entrance into that room will cost you your soul.”

  “What? What happens?”

  “None of our business is what. Those fancy people, actors, rappers, athletes, politicians, and church ministers that are here buy these diamonds to get admittance to that room if my brother says so.”

  “Can we look inside?”

  “No. This is all I can show you. Trust me, for your safety and mine. Look,” she pointed at the camera that was aimed at them from the corner of the room. “Say cheese!”

  Ryder glanced to the camera and felt his blood chill in his veins. He was recording them and they were videotaping him. “If I even walk towards that door my brother’s men will come in here and pound the shit out of you. And they’ll put me on a plane and I’ll never get to come back to America.”

  “Me? Why attack me?”

  She smiled. “They don’t like you, so they’ll take it out on you and then take me to my brother.”

  “Why don’t they like me?”

  “Because you’re with me, stupid.”

  “And who are you? Really? Who is your brother?”

  “Brothers, I have two. And they aren’t as scary as my big sister. Trust me,” she said.

  “Now I’m worried,” he chuckled.

  “You should be,” she smiled.

  “Is that why you brought me in here, to show me how important you are?”

  “No,” she said and looked at the stuff in the room. “To show you how disgusting this is. Do you know in Africa how many kids; children have to die for these diamonds? And those artifacts, have the blood of innocent people on them too. It’s disgusting. I hate it. I wish Papa could stop them. He was a real hero.”

  “Oh?” Ryder said.

  She sucked in a deep breath and sighed. “I don’t know why I like you.”

  “My smile?” he asked.

  “Yeah, it’s your smile.” She glanced to the door. “Well, you have impressed your actor boss. Trust me. He saw you come up these stairs with me. That should get you a promotion, so take that and make it work. We need to leave.”

  Mia started for the door but Ryder grabbed her arm. She paused at his touch. It was as if she weren’t touched often. He wasn’t kidding when he said she had a uniqueness to her that he couldn’t turn away from.

  “One peek. When will I ever get to see this any of it?”

  “It’s not something you want to see, Ryder. And it’s not an item to purchase. It’s just a conversation to have with my family. Just a conversation.”

  “A conversation? You telling me that people spend a king’s ransom for a conversation with your family? Bullshit.”

  “Money isn’t the root of all evil Ryder. Power is. And today power looks different. I shouldn’t have brought you in here. We’ve stayed too long. I’m sure my brother knows by now.”

  “Why did you?” Ryder asked. “You don’t know me. This place is intense, and those guards that follow you look scary. Why did you come up to me?”

  “Because you’re Ryder. And you don’t belong here. I know how that feels. It makes me feel like me. I don’t belong either.”

  Ryder glanced from the jewels to the locked door. He’d seen and learned enough. After all, it was the Illuminati. The closer he gets to the real power the bigger the stakes.

  “Is there a way out of here that’s not under surveillance? Where we can be alone?” He took her hand. MiaBella looked up into his eyes.

  “We have to leave the way we came. But I do have an idea,” she whispered.

  MiaBella went to the door and pulled him along with her. She dropped his hand and opened it. Ryder watched her step outside.

  “Ha bisogno di usare il bagno,” Mia said to the men.

  Ryder was third generation Italian. He spoke a little. She was fluent. She announced to the men that Ryder needed to use the bathroom. Two of them glared at Ryder. But Mia grabbed his hand again and pushed through the giants. She walked fast in the opposite direction. Two of the guards followed.

  “Ryder,” she said. “Go into that bathroom. There’s another door that will take you to a room. Move fast and go out into the hall. Find the first door on your left. It’s a butler’s closet.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s an old saying. Take the stairs down to the kitchen. Then go out into the veranda. There is another door that you have to open from outside. Take that door and the stairs up to the third floor. The fifth bedroom is mine. Wait for me there.”

  Ryder double blinked. “How do you know all of this?”

  “Me and my cousins have escaped a few times this way,” she grinned.

  “If I get caught then—“

  “Do you or don’t you want to hook up?” MiaBella asked.

  “Ah... yeah, okay.”

  “Go! I will distract them. And when they can’t find you, they won’t look. They just want me.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Later... I’ll explain later.”

  Ryder did as she said. He went into the bathroom. And there was indeed another door. He slipped into the bedroom and then back out into the hall. The butler’s closet did indeed prove to be a stairwell. He imagined back during the old plantation days this was how the servants made it up to their master’s rooms to deliver tea or meals. He arrived in the kitchen and found it to be overrun with staff. No one took notice of him. Several servers bumped him in their hurried tasks. Ryder kept going. He went out of the door she told him of and in search of the next door by the veranda. From there it was pretty simple. He found her room with no problem. However, there was little in her room to indicate she’d spent time in it. No luggage, just a few magazines scattered on the bed.

  Dejected, Ryder went to the desk and sat. He removed his glasses. He unfastened the band to his watch and at that moment realized he had recorded MiaBella and everything she said to him. His first reaction was to delete her providing insider information. But he paused and stared down at the tiny video image, fascinated by MiaBella and her openness. It wasn’t the smoking gun, but it was good. With the video footage of all the celebrities present and the gems in that room no one would question his content. He might have gotten all he needed thanks to her.

  There was a sound. Voices. Ryder turned off the video feed on his watch and set it down. He stood and listened. He heard MiaBella raise her voice and speak very fast in Italian. He found that sexy. He didn’t know any black women who spoke Italian so fluently. She came inside the room and closed the door so quickly that whoever accompanied her couldn’t possibly see Ryder inside.

  “You made it!” MiaBella grinned.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  Ryder stood like a gentleman in his tuxedo. MiaBella approached. She reached behind her and lowered the zipper to her sparkling mini-dress. It peeled away from her sexy body slowly. Beneath the dress she wore a black half bra and matching lace thong panty that reached high up her hip. He admired how the triangle of fabric barely covered her vulva and slipped between the juicy lips of her pussy. He had done nothing to earn the privilege of seeing all of her beauty. She rewarded him with a quirk of her eyebrow in response to his look of surprise. He hoped adoration flashed in his eyes and not the predatory urges surging in his loins.

  Mia stopped right before him and he couldn’t even bring himself to speak her name. She grabbed his face in her hands and pulled it down to hers very slowly to slip him some tongue and sweetly tease him with a kiss. He thought to stop her, but that resistance was weakly overturned by the taste of her. In just kissing her, his face flamed hot as the sun and his ears burned. His mouth was a desert until her tongue slipped inside. And when she pressed her sexy curves up against his body he had no choice but to touch her
the way he’d desired.

  The kiss ended. Ryder stared in a dazed, lust filled trance.

  “Do you like me?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I like it.”

  “No. Do you like me?” she asked.

  Ryder nodded.

  “Yeah, yeah I like you.”

  “Then touch me like you want it; I’m yours,” she said. The statement unzipped his head and poured molten hot lava over his brain. She was his? Was that a promise, because he sure felt like it was one. Ryder lifted her petite frame into his arms and held ass cheeks in his hands. They two were perfection in his palms positioned above his groin. He wanted to lick her hot pussy and feel it’s pussy sweat over his zipper. He wanted to savor the seduction. He’d had plenty of sex with women, but never like this.

  While kissing MiaBella a tiny voice whispered in his head reminding him to be careful. He didn’t know her. There were evidently risks to the setup of this place. Nothing that felt so good ever came to him without a price. But desire ruled out sensibility. He carried her to the bed. MiaBella’s arms were locked around his neck. There was such an urgency in her takedown of him it spiked his adrenaline. When he brought her on the bed she finally let him go. She only lifted slightly to release her bra clasp. Her breasts were not small or large, they were perfect for her size. He especially loved her nipples. He swiped his tongue over one and then the other before sucking and rolling her thong-panty down from her hips and shapely thighs.

  “Condom,” she breathed. “Un momento Ryder, per favore.”

  He glanced up and saw she was pointing to the purse on the nightstand. Ryder glanced to the purse and then her. She came prepared? There was something about that fact that dampened the mystery and innocence he loved about her. Was it all an act? Again, the voice whispered in his head to be wary and slow the passion down.

  Ryder eased off her. He reached for the purse. MiaBella’s eyes seem to stretch with excitement. “You’ll need to go slow. Okay? Until I like it. That’s what Lola said.”

  He wasn’t sure he heard the request. He was busy undressing. When he ripped open the condom and slid it over his upturned cock, he glanced over to see she’d scooted up against the headboard. She’d brought the pillow up to her body and covered her breasts and pussy. Her thick hair was a bit tangled instead of its smoothed flatten style framed to her face. The crimson lipstick was smeared from her mouth to her chin and cheek. Her imperfection made her even more appetizing. She was a dream. Not only had he found the truth of the Illuminati, he’d found her. He crawled across the bed to her and that shy look in her eyes matched the sweet smile to her lips. It felt genuine. Ryder snatched away the pillow and tossed it to the side. He hadn’t even asked her what her last name was, why she knew Italian fluently, and why she chose him. He didn’t care. He eased between her thighs and delivered a kiss to her lips as he thrust into her. She cried out as if he’d struck her. And the resistance he felt between her soft vaginal walls was indeed oddly gratifying.

  “No! Slower, please,” she pleaded.

  “Slow what—“ Ryder paused. He looked down at her curiously. Before he could question her, she reached between them and grabbed his balls and gave a hard squeeze. Ryder gasped. A surge of excitement speared his groin and he went in her again, and again. The tightness was the best part and though his thrusts became smoother. His youth made him less able to control himself. Maybe it was the place, maybe it was her, maybe it was both, but several thrusts and he ejaculated hard and fast inside of her. He dropped on top of her embarrassed. Yet she clung to him as if it were the best sex of her life. That too alarmed him. He lifted his head and looked down at her and then a cold hard truth descended on him. Her mystery, her girlish naiveté, and her sweet innocence could only mean one thing. “Please tell me you’re over eighteen?”

  She nodded.

  “How old are you?”

  “Old enough.”

  “How old?”

  “I’m twenty.”

  Ryder let go a deep sigh. “Thank God.”

  “And you’re my first,” she said.

  He frowned. He looked into her eyes as he lay plugged inside of her with a deflating dick. That’s what was different. The sex that broke his dick after only a few pumps wasn’t magical or mystic. She was a virgin.

  “Are you kidding?”

  He pulled out of her and looked at his dick. The condom had a streak of blood. “Oh shit, you’re not kidding.”

  “It was good, wasn’t it? I was good?” MiaBella asked.

  “Good? Mia... why? You don’t know me. Why would you do this? With me! Here! Oh shit!”

  She sat up with an alarmed look on her face. He got off the bed as if she were illegal or forbidden. She didn’t understand his reaction but time on the streets and in the detention system had taught him to trust his instincts. She belonged to someone. Her brothers were the Illuminati? She’s a virgin with armed guards following her and he fucked her? Shit!

  “You’re mad at me? What did I do wrong?”

  Ryder stammered. Then the very worst started to happen. She started to cry.

  “No. No. Hey, don’t cry. Wait!” He put both hands up to stop her.

  “I never do this! I would have never done this, but Lola said I had too. And I didn’t know what to do. I only said to go slow cause it hurt me. You didn’t have to be mean to me.”

  He went to her side. “Hey. Calm down. Fuck. It’s okay. Just chill.”

  “Noooooooooo! Get away from me,” she shouted.

  “Wait, please. Jesus! Please!”

  She looked at him with pain on her face. “I don’t get to do or see much. Lola has already lost her virginity. Me and Jewel haven’t. So I told them I would tonight. That I’d find the perfect guy and I’d do it. They didn’t believe me. I mean... it’s not easy to do this. And you looked, you were acting differently from the others.”

  “I’m flattered, but you should’ve told me.”

  MiaBella nodded in agreement. “My family is really strict. I was only allowed to come here because Lola was performing. And I have to leave with my sister in the morning.”

  “So you aren’t her social media agent?” Ryder asked.

  MiaBella laughed. “No silly. And I don’t live in Harlem. My brothers do everything for Lola. I tweet and update her Instagram but Gianni said that’s not a real job.”

  “Yea, about your brothers?” Ryder glanced to the door. “Where are they?”

  “I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding! That’s normal, right?” she asked and showed him the blood on her fingers.

  “A lot? Are you bleeding a lot?”

  “No. Maybe. Did we do something wrong?”

  “No, it happens.”

  “Why are you acting funny? I thought all guys wanted virgin sex.”

  Ryder pulled the condom off and rushed it to the bathroom and flushed it. He came back to find her staring at him he brought a rag for her to clean herself. When she did he returned it to the bathroom. He then wrestled Mia back down on the bed and tickled her to lighten the mood. She laughed and he drew her in closer. “You’re a strange girl. Yes, we like sex. And yes, I liked sex with you. But this was your first time. It’s supposed to be special.”

  “Trust me, it is. I’ll never forget this night. I graduate in a month then I have to go back home.”

  “Where is home?”

  “Far from here. I loved New York. I loved being able to see my cousin. I loved the freedom. But Eve said I can’t stay. You gave me something special. Thank you, Ryder,” she kissed his cheek.

  “Can I ask a question?”

  She nodded yes.

  “Why did you choose me again? The real reason.”

  “I told you. I don’t lie. You’re not like them. I could tell. I wanted my first time to be with an American. I wanted a black guy,” she gave him a sheepish look. “But you were so cute, so I picked you.”

  Ryder laughed. “So let me get this straight. You’re not American? But you attend an American university,
and had to sneak in a party on an island to find a cute guy to... to have sex with? Sweetheart. I may not be book smart but that story makes no sense.”

  She shrugged. “It’s the truth. My life. It makes no sense.”

  “Where are you from?” he asked again.

  “It’s best you don’t know Ryder. Okay?”

  He kissed her lips. “Why didn’t I meet you in New York? Take you to a show and dinner then dancing. Why?”

  “Can we do it again? I think it gets better if you do it more, right?” she asked and reached for his dick.

  “How many condoms do you have?”

  “Four!” her eyes stretched with excitement.

  He nodded. “Let’s clean up and I can show you a few things. Ways to make you feel good with my tongue.”

  MiaBella nodded repeatedly that she wanted to learn everything. It was a dramatic change from the sophistication he sensed from her at first. She was genuine, when alone. She possessed the sweet innocence of a child, but the body of a woman. He planned to make up for his failures. MiaBella chose him and he was going to make sure she had a memory of a lifetime.

  Chapter Three

  August 22, 2016

  Jekyll Island, Georgia

  MIABELLA OPENED HER eyes. She was locked in place by Ryder’s arms and legs. He snuggled her from behind. They’d collapsed in exhaustion after sex the second time. And she knew it would be her last. The party was still going strong. It didn’t end until sunrise, and her brothers weren’t done with their guests. She wondered if Lola and Jewel were able to keep their promise and keep her big sister Eve from wanting to check in on her.

  She glanced behind her and saw Ryder’s sleepy face. He snored lightly. MiaBella wiggled out from under him. He didn’t seem to notice much. He flopped over to his back with a loud snore. MiaBella reached down at her feet and picked up his shirt. It smelled like cologne and his man sweat. She slipped it over her body and then pulled on her panties. She picked up the two condoms and held them out with a frown. She walked them into the bathroom and flushed them. MiaBella washed her hands. She dried her hands and checked her appearance in the mirror and her hair was a mess. She then stared at herself. She didn’t look different, she felt different. She felt confident. Lola was right. Mia sniffed and inhaled his scent.