Spite

  Solace Book 2

  Cat Austen

  Copyright © 2023 Cat Austen

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2023 Cat Austen

  All rights reserved. Quotes used for review purposes are cool, though.

  Cover photo credits to Archi ron on pexels.com

  Cover by Cat Austen

  Self-published by the author because she’s a control freak.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author's Note

  Previously in Solace

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  Titles by Cat Austen

  About The Author

  For the girls who turned their darkness into demons and are working on killing them.

  As always, this book is for the stay at home moms. I hope your coffee is exactly how you like it and the Youtube ads during Blippi aren't the stupid five minute ones.

  For everyone who read Solace and felt connected to it in some way.

  For Ashley and Haley. Thanks for understanding my love language of weird ass TikToks in the middle of the day.

  Author's Note

  This book contains adult content and is not suitable for minors under the age of 18.

  Content includes but is not limited to torture, death, violence, violence with weapons, alcohol use/abuse, marijuana use, discussion of human trafficking, drug distribution. Pregnancy (NOT EMILY), mentions of pregnancy complications (NOT A MAIN CHARACTER).

  Dubious consenting exhibitionism and voyeurism, consenting exhibitionism, and voyeurism, use of BDSM bondage, blindfolds during sex, sort of blood play, knife play, wax play, and spanking. Anal activities including rimming, fingering, toys, sex, and prostate milking (can we call it something else? Jfc). Male/male sex, male/ female sex, male/male/female sex.

  Devon’s bad attitude, Emily being a bitch, the terms “ass blast” and “butt nut,” the loss of Milo’s virginity, and metaphorical laundry.

  This book contains scenes of BDSM that may not adhere to safe practice standards. I encourage you to research safe ways to play if you are inspired. Let’s leave the unsafe practices for the fictional characters, babe.

  All efforts to keep a detailed content warning list have been made and any missed triggers are solely the author’s fault. If content that needs to be listed is found, please contact me at cataustenauthor@gmail.com and don’t report to Amazon.

  Previously in Solace

  If it has been a while since you’ve read Solace, here’s what you may have forgotten:

  Plot: Emily, a suburban kindergarten teacher, catches her mayor husband Gregory cheating with his secretary tied up on the work conference table. He claims Emily wouldn’t be into BDSM, so he had to stray. Gregory is a general piece of shit and says he wants to make their marriage work because it would look bad for his career in politics to divorce his high school sweetheart for his secretary. Emily says, “fuck that” and divorces his ass anyway.

  Emily feels ostracized by the town, her job, and her family after her divorce. During her post-divorce hair style change she is approached by a woman who gives her a business card with a phone number on it. Desperate to get away she calls the number and gets herself kidnapped. Excuse me, “forcefully hired” by a mafia they call the “family business” and is decidedly Not Only Italian Anymore. It’s 2023, baby.

  Luckily, her kidnappers new bosses are three hot mafia bosses named Sterling, Milo, and Devon. She struggles to feel safe in their home until they start to respect her and give her responsibility in their business operations. This happens after she kills a dude who tried to kill them.

  They find out their leaders, Devon’s dad and Milo’s uncle (Anthony and Matthew), are getting involved in human trafficking with a mafia from out of town (leaders are Giovanni and Taz).

  As a part of a deal with the out-of-town mafia, the guys have to be a part of an MMA fight. Sterling and Milo win but Devon loses. But he was a total asshat about training, so he deserved it tbh.

  They plan to confront their leaders about the trafficking, but Emily and Milo are in a car accident and then taken to a basement. They’re tortured for information on their mafia operations by Giovanni and Taz. The other mafia believes that Anthony and Matthew are making political connections, and they feel threatened by it. It’s a whole Thing.

  Sterling and Devon are told that Emily and Milo are dead, and they spiral. But Sterling has a drunken epiphany and sees their Air Tags located in a mechanic shop in town. They sober up and check it out and end up busting the place down and killing everyone to get to Their Babes. Emily and Milo are rescued, and Emily is a bad ass and helps kill Giovanni and Taz.

  But not before Giovanni and Taz tell them that Anthony and Matthew are responsible for Milo and Sterling’s parents’ deaths and paid for Emily and Milo’s deaths. It’s a sad story, dude.

  They finally get to confront Anthony and Matthew and be like “Hello we’re not dead, fuckers!” and Devon demands control over the gangs. Surprise! Gregory the Douchebag Ex-husband is in that meeting as well as other local politicians. Devon announces to the room that Anthony is a terrible person who killed his friends for power. Matthew is like “Omg, you killed my brother?!” and ends up getting shot by Anthony. RIP.

  Devon kicks Anthony out and is like “I’m king of this town now. GTFO.”

  Solace ends with him asking his mom, and other oldies of the family business “Are you with us or against us?”

  Romance: Sterling makes videos of him masturbating and role playing for a video service called Personal Cameras, and Emily finds it. Milo catches her just after she touches herself while watching Sterling. It’s awkward. Then Milo gets involved and makes a video with Sterling and they go viral.

  There’s unresolved sexual tension between Sterling and Milo. Sterling is very confused by his feelings for Milo, but Milo is obvs in love with Sterling.

  Emily starts to have spicy feelings for her captors and there’s a slowish burn until she finally hooks up with Sterling. It’s pretty hot.

  After they are reunited after being kidnapped and tortured, Sterling and Milo admit their feelings for each other.

  Emily has nightmares about being kidnapped and Sterling comforts her with BDSM. He helps her reclaim her body after the torture. Sterling ties her up with ropes and her cries of pleasure call in Milo who thinks something terrible is happening. When he sees what’s happening, he says, “String me up, Rope Daddy” to Sterling and he is also tied up. Sterling puts in the work and gets them both off. It’s hot, it’s therapeutic.

  Emily realizes she might not be so vanilla after all.

  1

  Emily

  Devon stood breathless and manic eyed as he wiped blood from his lip with the back of his hand. “So… are you with us?”

  My heart pounded in my throat as we awaited their answers. The gunshot that killed Matthew still echoed in the room, making my bones feel like sharp-edged ice. The air I gulped down smelled like urine, sweat, and blood and it stuck to the insides of my lungs like sticky marshmallow.

  “We’re with you, baby,” Stephanie said tearfully. Her eyes were fearful and fixed on her son.

  “Yeah?” Devon barked at Harold, Victoria, and Brendon. He glared at each of them, looking very much like the mafia boss he was meant to be.

  “Of course,” Harold replied with a curt nod.

  Victoria’s chin was trembling, but she nodded, too.

  Brendon’s eyes were wide and focused on Milo. “Milo, man, of course I’m wherever you are. Marie would-” he broke off to look at Matthew’s body on the ground. “Oh, god.” He bent and put his hands on his knees.

  Milo’s jaw was clenched, and I gripped his hand at his side. He wouldn’t look at Brendon, his eyes unfocused and downcast.

  “You all say you’re with us, but why would we trust you?” Sterling growled. “You three knew our parents. You were there when they died.”

  “We didn’t know,” Stephanie urged, her hands out pleadingly in front of her. “Sterling, Milo, we didn’t know!”

  “Be that as it may, we are going to need time before we can trust you again.” Devon cut off his mother’s sobs. He looked down his nose at her with stone resoluteness. “I can’t trust you and I can’t keep you safe from… Dad. You need to hide until we settle this.”

  She nodded solemnly, looking down at Matthew’s body. “Sterling, Milo… your mothers were my closest friends. They both told me as soon as they saw your faces, they wanted out of this business. To protect you, so you never had to-”

  “That’s enough!” Devon spat, cutting off her reminiscence. “Get out.”

  Stephanie and Victoria left, but Harold and Brendon held back. Harold looked at the guys with an e xpression darker and more serious than any I’d seen from the deli owner. “I’m at your disposal,” he said.

  “Keep them safe,” Devon said, meaning Stephanie and Victoria.

  “Of course,” Harold nodded. “But-”

  “Harold, I can’t trust you either,” Devon said with a sharp exhale.

  “I didn’t know about Owen and Michael or their wives,” he insisted, sounding genuine.

  “No, but you were here, at this meeting with local officials. Did you know Anthony and Matthew had been going into business with Giovanni and Taz? That it was going to be human trafficking?” Devon asked, his calm voice delicately laced with venom.

  Harold blanched and glanced at Matthew’s body. “I didn’t know the nature of the business.”

  “Hm,” Devon said with a sniff. “Sounds like blind trust to me. More dangerous than malicious intent.”

  Harold opened his mouth to argue back but stopped and his jaw clicked shut.

  “Leave,” Devon demanded.

  “I’ll leave my line open. You can still contact me,” Harold said, looking at each of us.

  “No, close it,” Milo spoke up next to me. His voice was strained and rasping. “If we find out you had more involvement in any of this, I’ll track you down and kill you myself.”

  Harold nodded again and left, meeting the women in the hallway. I heard their voices as they descended the stairs, planning on how to leave their legitimate businesses while they hid.

  “You need to come see Marie,” Brendon said to Milo.

  “He doesn’t need to do anything,” Sterling snapped, his body still poised for an attack.

  Milo put a hand on Sterling’s arm to still the beast that was ready to burst from him. “Is something wrong?”

  Not anymore,” Brendon said with an exhale.

  Milo sniffed and nodded in understanding. “Where is she?”

  “At home with Doc,” Brendon said with a look like he knew that information would not be well received.

  “You said nothing was wrong,” Milo accused.

  “She- well, she’ll definitely want to see you right now.” Brendon shifted on his feet and looked at the door.

  “Fine. Sterling, go with Milo and Brendon. Emily, stay with me,” Devon said and wiped his bleeding lip on the sleeve of his white shirt with a wince.

  Milo gave my hand another squeeze before leaving with Brendon. Sterling stooped to kiss my sweaty forehead before following them out. Devon and I stood in silence as we heard their boots thump down the stairs. He was the first to move. His movements were jerky and fast. He cupped my face in his hands and his sharp inhale trembled and caught in his throat. Tears gathered at the bottom of his eyes. His terrified gaze was on me, but his mind was elsewhere as he swallowed his choked breath. “Fuck,” he said with a shaking exhale. I gripped his hand on my face with my hand that wasn’t in a sling and felt the swelling and wetness of blood on split knuckles. He closed his eyes and took a long, steadying breath before opening again. The tears were gone, the desperately fearful expression erased, and the cool demeanor of a mafia boss remained. While I felt good being trusted with a glimpse of his true emotions, I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t know how I could help him. He stepped back from me, and the scent of blood and urine in the room replaced his cologne and sweat.

  “In that cabinet are cleaning supplies. We need to…” he said, his voice even and calm, as he gestured to Matthew’s body.

  “We have to… his body?” I didn’t even know where to start.

  Devon’s lip twitched at one side in the only smile he could muster right now. “What do you think we do with bodies?”

  “Um, feed them to fish. Or maybe pigs,” I said, thinking back to the only clichéd information I knew.

  Devon smiled for real this time. “We just make a call, actually. We have a funeral home we’re connected to. Sonny’s family has worked with ours since before our fathers were in power.”

  “Sonny?” I asked as we gathered rubber gloves and bleach from the closet.

  “He’s an asset to us. He does a beautiful service for people within our family and he cremates the bodies we need disposed of,” Devon explained.

  “Handy,” I mumbled as I put the glove on my good hand.

  I wiped down the table and chairs with the bleach to remove fingerprints and any blood splatters. I did my best to not look at Matthew’s body on the ground for the thirty minutes it took for two men to arrive to remove the bloodied body. A third man came in, wearing a crisp suit and gelled hair. I assumed him to be Sonny. He spoke quietly with Devon, getting Matthew’s name and confirming details that seemed to have been made in advanced. The man seemed shocked to hear it was Matthew Holden he was taking, but Devon entertained no other friendly conversation. As soon as Matthew was gone and it was just me and Devon again, we looked at the large pool of blood on the floor.

  I gagged. Devon echoed me compulsively. “Don’t you start,” he grumbled at me as we both wiped our watering eyes.

  I gagged again. “Sorry, that was the last one,” I said through chattering teeth. He gave me the middle finger as he tried to stifle his gag against the back of his hand.

  Once our stomachs settled, Devon and I got to work, clearing up the blood from the floor. We were silent as we worked, only murmuring to each other when we needed the other to hand us something. I remained quiet out of respect for the man whose blood we were cleaning and for the man in front of me, getting bleach on the knees of his expensive pants. Devon seemed to be planning and plotting in his head like the leader he was trained to be. Trained by a man who had betrayed his own so deeply.

  “Hey, um, Mr. Bilal?” a voice came from the door and we whipped around to see the young gangster that had guarded the entrance earlier.

  “Tommy, what are you still doing here?” Devon asked, his posture relaxing when he realized who it was.

  Tommy gulped as he saw the last remnants of the blood on the floor. He couldn’t have been over twenty-one. “Um, I was wondering if you wanted me to go and stand guard at your house. I’ve been security there a few times, so I know how it’s done.”

  Devon hung his head. “Did my father call the gangs out?”

  “Yes, sir,” Tommy said with a nervous nod.

  Anthony wasn’t stepping down without a fight. We had expected it to happen, but it didn’t change the shock and betrayal of it. He was going to use his control of the gangs to cripple Devon’s power.

  “Then why are you still here?” Devon asked him and sat back on his knees.

  Tommy looked at Devon with his chin held high. “I heard what you all said in there. I know what Anthony did to your families. I can’t work for him like that anymore.”

  “You’re going to get yourself into trouble going against the Prospect Kings’ orders,” Devon said.

  “Prospect Kings?” I asked.

  “One of our gangs,” Devon replied. “One that doesn’t tolerate insubordination.”

  Tommy shook his head. “They won’t notice me missing.”

  “They will,” Devon said. “And I’ll end up cleaning your blood off the floor.”

  “Anthony needs to be stopped. I heard you say he was involved in human trafficking. We have enough trouble on these streets. We don’t need that bullshit.”

  Devon nodded and sighed, thinking. “Can you drive by the house and just let me know how it looks? Monitor it but don’t interfere with anything you see. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “On it,” Tommy said before leaving.

  Devon looked at me for a moment, letting me see a glimpse of his exhaustion.

  “Tommy looked to me for an order earlier. When all the politicians were scrambling to leave,” I said quietly.

  “He respects you,” Devon said and got back to scrubbing.

  “I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything to earn it,” I said, joining him.

  “Not that they know of yet. But you definitely had a hand in taking down Giovanni and Taz,” Devon reasoned. “He trusts you because we do. Because I, as their leader, had you next to me.”

 

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