Page 70 of Falling for the Enemy

"Ari, I didn't come to the States to kill you." Her brows furrow. Before she can ask for an explanation, though, I give her one. "I came here to kill Stefano." My jaw ticks. "Just as I killed his brother."

Her entire body tenses, the heaviness of the words I just spoke hanging in the surrounding air as if they are bolts of lightning seeking a target to strike.

"You killed Angelo?"

"Si, baby, I did."

"Why?"

My nostrils flare, the memory of Angelo's demands and the threats he made rushing back in two seconds flat. "Because the hijo de puta tried to force me to aid him and Stefano in killing you by using Carmen's life as leverage." Each word I speak comes out deeper than the last. "It was the last mistake he ever made."

At my response, I expect explosive anger to possess her, the last thing she needs when suffering from a concussion.

Even if it is a mild one.

To my surprise, she remains calm.

Instead of raging and hopping off the table, the first step in her going after Stefano, a task she's undoubtedly already plotting, the little witch smiles.

My heart nearly stalls at the sight.

"Did you make him suffer?" She leans forward, eyes glinting with morbid curiosity. "Because if you didn't make him scream—"

"Oh, he screamed." Dropping the forceps to the table, I slip a finger beneath her chin and lift it. "For hours, all he felt was pain."

Angelo had suffered, yet it wasn't enough.

It never would've been.

"But before I granted him mercy, I forced the pendejo to sign over everything he owned to one of the cartel's shell companies."

A stack of pre-dated contracts quickly drawn up by my attorney. That's all it had taken to steal everything from La Famiglia’s Consigliere before I permanently stopped his heart.

Stefano could always try to challenge me in court, but he never will. Not when such a move would call attention to business dealings he wishes to remain hidden in the dark.

"It still wasn't enough though,” I tell her, speaking my thoughts aloud. “And it won't be until every last mafioso is dead, gone, and rotting in whatever hole my men bury them in, a place they can't hurt Carmen from."

Ari looks impressed, the proud smile she wears one I never want to see fall.

Releasing the top of my pants, she slides her hand up my stomach and to my chest, where she rests it atop my pounding heart. "Where does that leave me then?" Her fingers massage my skin, her heat warming my flesh. Just as it did when I held her in my arms. "Am I just another—"

"It leaves you to stand by my side," I interrupt, unable to keep the words at bay any longer and immediately nixing whatever fucked-up thought is running through her skull. "The place you were always meant to be, even if neither of us knew it right away."

Her eyes close again.

"And if I say nyet?"

"I'm not giving you a choice."

Icy blue irises pierce my brown ones.

I expect her to argue with my statement. Maybe even yell and command her lieutenant to rush in and shoot me, a task he'd undoubtedly enjoy. But taking me by surprise once more, she does neither.

"Da, I'll stand by your side. But Alejandro"—her hand circles my neck, nails digging into my throat—"if you betray me, it won't just be your heart I shred." Pulling me to her, she kisses my jaw, her blood-stained lips lingering before pulling back. "It'll be your soul as well."

I’d be a fool to doubt her.

"I won't betray you. Not when I know what you're capable of.” I remove her hands from my neck and kiss the back of her knuckles. “Such as leaving a man tied up, his cock hard and soaked with your wetness, while you commit arson one-hundred feet away, setting his property on fire."

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