Page 68 of Stolen Sin

I give him a hard look. “Careful.”

He barks another laugh and slaps me on the back. “Don’t worry. That girl only has eyes for you. Have you noticed? The way she looks at you like you’re the moon and she’s the stars? It’s enough to make this old, jaded fucking bastard start to believe in true love again.” He sighs, hamming it up and elbows Emily. “What do you think? Should I put my weight behind Simon?”

“All of it,” she says very seriously.

He grunts in reply and his smile fades. “No blood,” he says, speaking very quietly now, almost right into my ear. “If we do this, there can’t be blood. The second we start shooting our own people is the second I walk away. Do you hear me?”

“I can’t promise that,” I say, meeting his gaze. “But we want the same thing. I need to do this clean. I just don’t know how my dad’s going to react.”

He sighs and nods. “Your old man is a fighter. He’s a scrappy motherfucker. Even if he’s ready for retirement, he’s still formidable.”

I can’t even argue with that.

We hammer out some more details and Emily keeps on buttering him up, and by the time we leave, I have a promise of support from Vito. It’s not solid and I don’t trust him, but it’s a very good start.

Back in the truck, Emily leans her head on my shoulder. She groans as she presses a hand to her belly. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much steak before in my life.”

“He loved you,” I tell her and kiss her forehead. “You were pretty impressive in there.”

“I was trying to charm him. Now I’m a little drunk and full of meat.”

“You were amazing,” I say softly and tilt her chin toward me. “I loved you too, you know.”

Her eyes go wide just a fraction. My heart hammers in my chest, but I’ve never been more sure of something before. I don’t know how she’s going to respond, but I need to tell her now while I can, because I’m not sure what’s going to happen from here. Something might happen and I could die without ever being able to say how I feel, and I don’t want that.

“You… loved me?” She asks, eyes very wide.

“Come on, you’re not surprised. I’m falling hard for you, Emily Bianco. It fucked me up, it’s ruining me every day, and I need it like water. I need you, baby, and I love you.”

She brightens like dragging up a pair of old blinds. She practically glows as she throws herself at me, apparently no longer worried about the steak. Her mouth buries mine and I kiss her back, holding her tight, growling into the kiss. When we break apart, she’s panting. “Same,” she says.

I laugh, because damn it, that’s fucked up and funny. “Same is not an appropriate response when someone confesses like that.”

“I mean, I love you too, you big dumb idiot. Why do you think I’m wolfing down a whole cow in the middle of the morning?” She kisses me again, and she laughs, which makes me laugh, and it’s almost like we’re not in a terrible, desperate situation.

I almost miss the car when it passes a second time. I would’ve if it weren’t for the driver. He slows and stares as he rolls along, and the second I glance over at him, he quickly steps on the gas and hurries away. That reaction has my alarm bells screaming. It’s a nondescript car, the sort of black sedan that’s all over the city, but I swear that’s the second time I saw it since we left the restaurant.

Which means we’re being followed.

Chapter 42

Emily

We check into a high-end boutique hotel after driving around the city for what feels like hours. Simon’s paranoid and I’m on edge, but he seems confident when he checks in under a fake name and pays in all cash. The girl working the front desk doesn’t bat an eye.

“I don’t know how they found me,” he says once we’re in the room. He’s pacing back and forth and looks like he’s going to have a heart attack. “I’ve been careful. There’s no way they found the apartment, but somehow they followed us to Vito’s place.”

“Could they have been staking him out?” I ask, sitting down on the bed. He’s still pacing back and forth, but he grunts and looks thoughtful.

“That’s possible,” he says after a few minutes. “Whoever that was could’ve been looking out for Vito, but he stumbled onto us instead. Bad luck happens sometimes.”

I get up and go to him. He seems hesitant, but I pull him into my arms. I kiss him hard and let my tongue tell him what I’m thinking about right now, because I’ve been dying to do this all day, and he needs to calm down. I move him over to the bed, push him down onto the edge, and drop to my knees.

His eyes fill with lust. I love that heavy-lidded stare like he’s barely controlling himself as I unbutton his jeans and yank them off.

“Baby, there are men trying to kill us,” he says as I stroke him up and down, feeling a fire in my belly.

“Then why are you so hard, huh?” I bite his lip and gently pull him from his briefs. His tip’s so wet with precum and he’s rock hard. I love the way he groans as I stroke him faster. “Let me take care of you.”

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