Page 128 of Vicious Little Games

“Want to come and watch?”

He immediately gets to his feet and steps in front of me. “Watch you flirt with some unsuspecting man and then lure him to his death? Hell, yes, I want to watch. And then I want us to both come.”

“That ship has sailed,” I remind him. “No more fucking. And we should take two SUVs, you know, one for you and one for me and the unsuspecting man?”

Shaking his head, he says, “Hold on. Back up. You keep saying no more fucking, but then you got on your knees and let me fuck your mouth, so I’m sure you can see why I’m so damn confused.”

Placing both of my palms on his chest, I look him in the eye and plead with him. “Let me have this. Please.”

“Let you have it?” he repeats with a frown.

“The Salvato legacy is mine. You know how badly I want it. How much I need it. Please?” If I’m going to con Cole out of being a billionaire mobster businessman, I figured I should at least say please a few times.

“Fine,” he says without even two seconds of hesitation. “You can have it.”

“Really?” I ask, surprised he’s willing to give up that easily after all the work he’s put into our competition. There must be some strings attached to his forfeit. Probably tons of strings.

“My father offered me a job. I won’t take it, but I’ll have plenty of options,” he explains. “So, I’ll throw in the towel, if…”

“Here we go.” I heave a sigh and cross my arms over my chest, preparing myself.

“I’ll tell Dante you should be his heir if you’ll let me tell him that you’re coming with me to New York for the next year—”

“Cole, I can’t,” I interrupt.

“Because we want to be together,” he finishes, making it one hell of a string.

Fuck.

“Why won’t you just give up and walk away?” I ask him softly, seriously.

“Isn’t it obvious? You don’t walk away from the person you want to spend every day for the rest of your life with, Cassie. So, you know what? I don’t care if you keep trying to push me away. I can handle that and whatever else you throw at me, including all your crazy as shit moods. I’m not scared of you, even if you can kick my ass. I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.”

I shake my head while blinking the tears away. “Your life with me would be way too short.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he exclaims. “I can take care of myself. It’s a dangerous lifestyle, yes, but you’re worth the risk. We can rule this city together better than Dante ever did.”

“No, we can’t,” I tell him before I brush past him and walk out the door.

Cole

That woman is so damn infuriating.

Just when I think she’s finally going to cave and admit she loves me too, she says shit to make me think it was all an act. That she slept with me and shit to wrap me nice and tight around her finger while waiting for the perfect time to beg me to drop out of our little competition and let her win.

If that’s what it will take to be with her, I would gladly do it. I just worry that once I forfeit, she’ll laugh in my face, then tell me it was all a lie.

Cass has abandonment issues, I’m well aware of that. It’s why she acts like a bitch and pushes people away. Her issues and my own don’t play well together.

I have trust issues. Always have. The only person I’ve ever been able to count on is my mom, and it turns out she has lied to me my entire life. We moved so often when I was growing up that I never had any close friends until high school. Then, after graduation, we all went to different colleges and grew apart.

At Lennox, I’m not like all the rich kids and don’t have anything in common with them, so there’s no one there I can count on either to be there for me if I needed them.

I want to trust Cass, and to prove to her that I won’t up and leave her or mysteriously disappear like her mom and sister. But fuck, she doesn’t make it easy.

I grow even more pissed off at the crazy redhead when I make it outside to the casino parking lot and find that her and her guards have left without me.

Texting her, I tell her, Be careful. The Russians may have poisoned you once before. No telling what they might try next.

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