War of Hearts Read online

  War of Hearts

  Julia Sykes

  Copyright © 2018 by Julia Sykes

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by Rebecca Cartee

  Cover Design by Popkitty Design

  Cover Image by CJC Photography

  Cover Models: Gus Caleb Smyrnios, Lauren Summer, Jeremiah Buoni

  Contents

  1. Ashlyn

  2. Joseph

  3. Ashlyn

  4. Ashlyn

  5. Joseph

  6. Marco

  7. Joseph

  8. Ashlyn

  9. Ashlyn

  10. Joseph

  11. Ashlyn

  12. Joseph

  13. Marco

  14. Ashlyn

  15. Ashlyn

  16. Marco

  17. Ashlyn

  18. Ashlyn

  19. Ashlyn

  20. Joseph

  21. Ashlyn

  22. Ashlyn

  23. Joseph

  Epilogue

  Sweet Captivity Excerpt

  Also by Julia Sykes

  Connect with Julia!

  Chapter One

  Ashlyn

  My heart jumped into my throat as soon as I stepped into my darkened apartment. Instinctively, I sensed danger. I knew the man was there in the split second before his hand clamped over my mouth, the pressure propelling me backward so I bumped into the door behind me. His movements weren’t violent enough to cause me pain, but they were terrifying enough to make my pulse hammer through my veins. My soft scream was smothered by his big hand.

  “Shhh, Ashlyn,” he said, steel lurking beneath his horrifyingly gentle tone. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  I recognized the voice. I’d heard it once before. The low rumble haunted me in my dreams, leaving me sweating and twisting in my sheets at the memory of the darkness that lurked just beneath his skin.

  Marco. Joseph’s frightening acquaintance. Marco, the dangerous man who had appeared one night and stolen the man I loved away from me, making Joseph disappear and abandon me; shattering my heart in the process.

  Anger swelled along with fear, and I shoved at his chest. When that accomplished nothing, I curled my fingers into claws, ready to rake my short nails across his face.

  He caught my hands easily before I could inflict damage. He released my mouth for a moment while he grasped my wrists. Then, he shifted them into one hand and pinned them over my head. His other hand returned to my mouth to cover my fresh scream.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again. “I need you to calm down and listen to me. You’re in danger, and I need to get you out of here.”

  I shook my head as best I could with his firm grip on my face. The only danger was the threat he posed.

  “You don’t understand,” he continued. “Joseph didn’t tell you about who he really is. Who we are. The kind of men we are. He wanted to shield you from it, but that’s over now.”

  My mind spun, struggling to process what he was saying. What could he possibly mean? Joseph had possessed a sinfully sexy bad boy vibe, but he’d worshipped me. He’d treated me like something precious and called me his angel. It was why I’d fallen for him, hard and fast. My first love.

  It was why my heart was ravaged and I walked around with a hollow place in my chest, aching deep in my soul for the last month that had passed without him in my life.

  “Our enemies will come for you,” Marco said. “I won’t put you at risk like that. I won’t let Joseph go through that. He can’t lose you again. Not forever. Not like this. I won’t fucking allow it.”

  Enemies? What the hell was he talking about?

  I twisted in his grip, sure that he was my enemy. He was pinning me against the wall and smothering my panicked screams. Fear I’d never known rolled over me in a toxic wave, making my head spin and my stomach turn.

  Marco stared down at me. The faint streetlight streaming through the windows caught on his features, the shadows enhancing the hard planes of his face and stubble-covered jaw. The light gleamed on his close-cropped dark hair, and the illumination caught in his black eyes. They sparkled with keen intelligence as he considered me.

  After a moment, his lips hardened to a thin slash, and he nodded.

  “You’re not going to come willingly. I can see that. But I planned for this.”

  He released my wrists, and my hands closed around his forearm, trying to pry his hand away from my mouth so I could let out the scream he was trapping behind my lips.

  He swiftly retrieved something from his pocket. Dread flooded my system when I recognized the syringe.

  I redoubled my efforts to escape as he removed the cap with his teeth. I tried to kick him, but he was too close for me to get any leverage, his thigh wedged between mine. My harsh cries caught against his hand, and mindless panic prevented me from fighting effectively. All I could do was try to free my face from his hold, and his strong arm kept me securely pinned, despite my frantic efforts.

  The needle gleamed in the dim light just before the sting kissed my neck. His movements were careful rather than violent, and there was minimal pain.

  Seconds later, the fear that wracked my senses began to fade away. Warmth enfolded me, and I sagged against him. One final whimper of protest slipped through my lips, but my tongue was too heavy to form the pleas for mercy that tickled at the back of my mind.

  “Everything will be okay.” His promise floated down to me as I sank into darkness.

  Corded arms closed around me, catching me before I fell.

  “You’ll be with Joseph again soon,” he said, his voice smooth and oddly comforting. “We’ll keep you safe.”

  Safe. With that strange reassurance, I surrendered to the darkness, and the world disappeared.

  Chapter Two

  Joseph

  “I got you a present,” Marco said, a sly smile on his lips that I didn’t trust for one second.

  I shrugged, unimpressed and uninterested. Nothing interested me these days. Not since I’d lost her. I’d tried to run away and find a normal life, and I’d found Ashlyn: my pure, perfect angel.

  Then, Marco had tracked me down and dragged me back into my own personal hell. I didn’t want this life of violence and cruelty. All I wanted was to be free of it all. I thought I’d had a chance at that when I had met Ashlyn, and now that the dream had crumbled, I was hollow and apathetic.

  So I didn’t really give a fuck if Marco had gotten me a golden unicorn. Nothing would faze me now.

  “Is that why you made me come here?” I demanded, wondering why he’d invited me to his family’s estate on Long Island. I’d been with my father in the city, trying to defend his claim as the head of our family, once the current boss—Victor Lombardi—passed. And Victor’s death of natural causes was imminent.

  Unfortunately for my blood relatives, there were other powerful men within our mafia family who wanted to take power. That was why Marco had dragged me home: to protect my dad and his presumptive position. And they’d all been worried that I was dead, so I supposed it was a small mercy for them that I’d finally been found after months of hiding out around the Harvard campus.

  Besides, I might not like my life, but I didn’t hate my father. I didn’t want to see him dead.

  And I didn’t want to put Marco at risk, either. The man who’d been my lifelong surrogate brother might have been killed if I’d stayed away. He needed me to watch his back, and I’d abandoned him. I knew that must have hurt him, and I still carried guilt over my decision to leave him behi
nd.

  So why the fuck had he gotten me a gift?

  The sly smile was still fixed on his hard face. “I told you, I got you a present. I had to stash it here. Come inside and see.”

  I blew out an exasperated sigh, but I stepped across the threshold and entered the ostentatious mansion. There was enough white marble and gold gilding in the décor to blind a man. The effect was overwhelming, but Marco’s father, Leo De Luca, had never been a subtle man, and this was his home. Even if he rarely came here these days. He was too busy defending my father’s position from within the city, too. As Dad’s best friend, Leo would die to protect him. Just as Marco would do for me.

  Marco began walking toward the elegant curved double staircase, and I followed. Curiosity stirred somewhere deep inside me, but it was faint. Nothing really caught my interest these days. Not since I’d lost Ashlyn and my dream of a normal life with her.

  When we got to the top of the stairs and turned toward Marco’s bedroom, I stopped. Anger—my one familiar emotion—bubbled up.

  “Do not tell me you have a girl in there,” I said through gritted teeth. If a three-way was Marco’s idea of a present, he’d fucked up big time. I wasn’t interested in anyone but Ashlyn. The idea of touching another woman made my stomach twist.

  His smile sharpened as he turned the knob and pushed the door open. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  Just before my rage could rise, all the air was knocked from my chest. I reeled back a step at the horribly entrancing sight before me. She was even more beautiful than I remembered: alabaster skin contrasting with her silky dark hair. Her lovely eyes were closed, her long lashes resting on her cheeks.

  “Ashlyn,” I rasped her name when I finally remembered how to breathe.

  I didn’t realize I moved, but suddenly, I found myself at her side. I fell to my knees beside the bed where she was laid out on her back. I grasped her hand in mine. It was just as warm and delicate as I recalled in my fantasies.

  She didn’t respond to my touch in any way; she remained still, her breathing deep and even. Like an enchanted fairytale princess, waiting for her true love’s kiss.

  The idea turned my stomach. Because she wasn’t unconscious from some fantastical spell.

  Marco had drugged her.

  I rounded on him with a snarl, but I didn’t move away from her. I couldn’t. “What did you do?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at me. I might have a few inches of height on him, but he was broader, and from my kneeling position, he loomed over me. Over Ashlyn.

  I shifted my body between them, shielding her from my best friend. I knew he was a dangerous man, but he’d never done anything to hurt me.

  “Why did you do this?” I prompted when he didn’t answer my first question. “Why the fuck would you do this to her?”

  Didn’t he realize what he’d done? I’d left her behind to protect her. If my father’s enemies had discovered her, they might have used her to get to me. I was Dad’s weak spot, and Ashlyn was mine.

  “You missed her,” Marco said, as though that were explanation enough for the horrible crime he’d committed. As a career criminal, he wasn’t above kidnapping. But abducting Ashlyn was a personal crime against me. He’d put her at risk by bringing her anywhere near me.

  I wanted to rage at him. I wanted to attack him, to hurt him in a way I’d never contemplated before.

  But I couldn’t move away from her. I couldn’t let go of her hand. She was so small, vulnerable. I couldn’t leave her side, not while she was unconscious and powerless to defend herself.

  Not that she could have defended herself against Marco. My brutal friend didn’t hurt women, but then again, I’d never have imagined him capable of something like this.

  “You abducted her because I missed her?” I seethed. “Don’t you understand the danger you’ve put her in? She was safe in Cambridge. She was safe without me.” The last declaration left ashes on my tongue.

  “No, she wasn’t,” Marco countered. “I’m not the only one who was looking into your disappearance. I’m not the only one who found your hiding place at Harvard.”

  My pulse pounded through my veins. Guilt and selfish hope tormented me. If Ashlyn had been discovered by my father’s enemies, then Marco hadn’t had a choice. He’d taken her to protect her.

  But that meant I was ultimately responsible for ripping her from her pretty, perfect life. I’d never wanted that for her. All I’d wanted was to cherish her and make her blissfully happy.

  That wasn’t reality, though. My reality was bloody and brutal, and I’d brought her into this tainted world.

  “We didn’t have a choice,” Marco continued. I barely noticed the we. Marco and I were a team, and while he’d made this decision on his own, I was now complicit in it.

  Because I wasn’t going to let her go. Not again. I couldn’t, now that I was near her.

  The fact that she might be in danger if I wasn’t here to protect her was an excuse to keep her. Some part of my mind knew that. If I were truly a good man, I’d tell her to go to the police for protection.

  But at heart, I was a selfish, hungry bastard. I wanted her, and while I’d been noble enough to leave her once, I couldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t.

  I turned back to look at her, to drink in the sight of her. I could still feel Marco’s presence at my back, but I didn’t care. He knew all my secrets, and his watchful eyes on us barely registered.

  Unable to resist her allure, I reached out and traced the line of her cheekbone with my thumb, trailing my fingertips along her jaw. I wanted to memorize every contour of her face, her body. Even my bittersweet, obsessive memories couldn’t compare to having her here with me.

  A little furrow appeared between her brows, and she let out a low groan. Despite the sound of discomfort, she leaned her cheek into my hand.

  “Joseph?” she asked groggily, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

  The sound of my name on her tongue went straight to my cock, and I immediately stiffened for her. Yearning and lust raged through my system, and my hand tightened around hers.

  From that moment, I knew I wouldn’t be capable of ever letting her go again.

  Chapter Three

  Ashlyn

  “It’s me. I’m right here. I’ve got you, angel.” I recognized Joseph’s deep voice, the smooth tone he used when he told me how beautiful I was.

  Despite my headache, I sighed and leaned into his touch. I kept my eyes closed as I reveled in the feel of his hand against my cheek, touching me with the careful reverence he’d always reserved for me. He was so big and strong, but he held me like something precious and fragile. His gentle hold was often at odds with the fierce way he kissed me; he worshipped me and devoured me at the same time. I found the combination addictive. I found him addictive.

  I longed to look into his eyes again. My lashes fluttered against the sudden wash of light, and I squinted as my pupils adjusted. When the world came into focus, I found myself captured in his beautiful, aquamarine gaze. Twin blue flames flickered in his eyes as he studied me with the familiar hunger that made my blood race.

  His lashes were just as long and thick as I remembered, his mouth just as full and sensual. More dark stubble covered his strong, square jaw than usual, as though he hadn’t shaved in several days. His glossy black curls fell around his face, his hair a bit unrulier than the last time I’d seen him. Even slightly unkempt, he was the most breathtaking thing I’d ever seen.

  “Joseph,” I rasped, his name catching in my parched throat.

  His brows drew together. “She needs water.” He wasn’t addressing me, but sleep still fogged my mind too thickly for me to contemplate it.

  “On the nightstand.” I recognized that voice, too. It was the one that haunted my dreams, the voice that had whispered through the darkness as the needle pricked my neck…

  Marco.

  I sat up with a gasp as the memory of his attack flooded my mind. The sharp
intake of air tormented my dry throat, and I coughed. My head throbbed and spun at my sudden movements. I swayed, and Joseph’s strong arm closed around my back before I could fall.

  “It’s okay,” he promised. “You’re safe. Drink.”

  A cool glass touched my lips, and I gulped down the water without thinking of protesting. I never had been able to deny Joseph when he issued those low, self-assured commands.

  When I’d drained half the glass, he took it away and set it aside. The mattress dipped beside me as he sat on the bed, cuddling me close. I leaned into him, breathing him in as he pressed a tender kiss against my pounding head.

  “Just breathe,” he cajoled. “You’re okay.”

  “She’ll be fine. She just needs to stay hydrated.”

  I stiffened at the sound of Marco’s voice. He was talking about me as though I wasn’t here, and I bristled. He’d shown no consideration for my wishes or wellbeing when he’d freaking drugged and kidnapped me.

  I looked past Joseph to glare at Marco. His black eyes stared right back at me, implacable. He obviously didn’t feel a shred of remorse for what he’d done to me. His blank expression betrayed no emotion at all.

  I shrank closer to Joseph. I looked back at him, unable to maintain eye contact with the dangerous man who loomed over us, his corded arms crossed over his massive chest. Marco oozed danger, a darkness that emanated from his soul. I’d felt it the first time I’d met him, and I definitely felt it now. He’d attacked me, abducted me. The memory of those strong arms pinning me against the wall and smothering my panicked screams made me shudder. Joseph’s hand stroked up and down my back, soothing me.