Page 87 of Exodus

He gives me a weak chuckle. “I believe that.” He clears his throat and eyes the suitcase behind me.

“I’ll never forgive him,” I say, the ache intensifying.

“I’ll leave that up to you.”

“Will you?” I ask.

He sighs. “He’s my brother, hell, in a way, he’s been like a father, too. I don’t know, Cee. It’s been a fucked-up couple of days.” He scrubs his face. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

“Not without answers, first—”

His phone goes off, and he lifts a finger to me before he reads the text and his eyes fly to mine. “Fuck.”

The look on his face has me paling. “What is it?”

He jerks his chin to quiet me before he races out of my bedroom.

I move to follow him and freeze when Dominic speaks up from the top of the stairs.

“What brings you here, Matteo? It’s a little late for company.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

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W

hat brings you here, Matteo? It’s a little late for company.”

I race to the threshold of my room and look over Dominic’s shoulder. Running through my thoughts, I search and search, dread coursing through me when I recall my conversation with Sean at my first Meetup.

“That’s Matteo and Andre, The Spanish Lullaby.”

“Why are they called The Spanish Lullaby?”

“Use your imagination.”

Matteo’s eyes meet mine over his shoulder, and his lips lift in a sick grin as he answers Dominic. “Business.”

Dominic stands ramrod straight, his back to me, violence in his posture, and protectiveness in his voice as I duck away from Matteo’s lethal gaze.

“Aren’t you playing on the wrong side of the fence?” Dominic asks.

“Money doesn’t care.”

“You need to turn the fuck around, and don’t ever let me catch you out of Florida again. It won’t end well.”

“You tapping that?” Matteo asks, batting away Dom’s threat. “I was thinking of sampling.” I’m sure Dominic’s eyes scream murder when Matteo speaks up again, clearly amused. “Pussy’s that good, huh?”

Matteo has to be pushing around three hundred pounds, a lot of it muscle, his hair as greasy as his clothes, his thick nostrils flaring as he eyes me with a look that turns my stomach as his knife comes into view. A hunting knife at least nine inches long. Panic zings through me as I turn and scan my room for anything I can use and come up empty. I step out onto the landing behind Dominic as he speaks up.

“Cecelia, baby, get back into your room, now.”

The door across the hall opens and Tobias appears, a similar gun in hand as the one Dominic discarded when he steps out, his eyes sweeping me with relief before he glances down at Dominic.

“What’s good, brother?”

“Got this handled,” Dominic replies, his voice lethal. “Speaking of brothers, Matteo. Where is yours tonight?”

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