Page 89 of Tainted Love

“We’ll keep looking,” I say, refusing to give up.

I’m not going to let Marty Zappia coward his way out of this. I made a promise that he’ll pay for what he did to her. If I have to burn the casino to the ground in order to do it, then that’s what I’ll do.

“There has to be some other way to get his attention and—”

“I’ll go in.” Lucy sits up in her seat, rolling her shoulders back with confidence.

“Luce—”

“I don’t have the tattoo,” she says. “I can make it through security, no problem.”

“No.”

“What better way of getting his attention is there than bringing him face-to-face with a ghost?”

My head wags back and forth. “It’s too dangerous for you to go in alone.”

“She’s not wrong,” Lilah says slowly. “We drove by the ballet academy. It’s ashes. As far as the Zappia family is concerned, Lucy Vaughn is dead.”

“And I want to keep it that way,” I growl.

“I can draw him out,” Lucy argues.

“No.”

“Dante, she’s the best card you have,” Elijah says.

The training in my head battles the hard pull of my heart. Every mission requires risk. Every risk brings a greater reward or a soul-crushing penalty. I can’t stomach the thought of experiencing the latter. Not with her.

“And besides…” Lucy says, her eyes hard with determination. “Little bastard owes me a poker game.”

I look at her with surging pride, once again torn between strangling her to death or fucking her until she’s numb.

* * *

“No pain at all?”

Lucy shakes her head at Elijah. “Not much,” she answers. “I mean, I can’t go too hard for very long, of course. It throbs a bit right here…” She raises her leg to prop her foot up on the sofa and Elijah slides in to take a better look.

I stare at the two of them from across the living room. Lucy with her pink cheeks and Elijah with his wide, medically-fascinated eyes. I find myself wishing for him to overrule her and drop some terrible bomb of bad news.

Sorry, Lucy. Your leg is about to fall off. No more training. No more plots for vengeance. You’re never going back to Chicago. You’ll have to stay here forever and—

“She’s strong.”

Lilah’s voice pulls me out of it.

“I know,” I say.

“I didn’t.” She leans beside me in the doorway. “I thought for sure she’d still be limping around here.”

“If I’d had my way, she would have been.”

Lilah grins. “That’s my big brother right there. Always trying to stay in control.”

“Can you blame me?”

“No,” she answers, “but I find it strange that even after all this time, you still believe you can be.”

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