Page 71 of The Silencer

I eye him as I pick the kneecap up with a tissue and stare at it. Wonder whose this is. “This is the first time I’ve really thought of you as a mob boss’s son.”

“Really, why?” he asks as he sets a vase of flowers on my desk.

“You’d like being gifted a body part.”

“I mean, it’s a very nice thought.”

I shake my head, laughter bubbling out of me. “God, Angel.”

“What?” he giggles as he flops down on the bed and grins at me. “I’d love for some hot guy to give me a body part. Even someone as crazy as Bane.”

“He is a little…different.”

“And hot.”

I roll my eyes and then run a hand through my hair. “Not as hot as your dad.”

“Ew, don’t tell me anything, Tatum. I really don’t want to hear it.”

“I promise not to traumatize you.”

He nods and then scoots closer to me. “I just want him to be happy. He hasn’t been in so long.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, but I see the way he looks at you. I think…” Angel bites back his words, and I nudge him.

“You can’t lead with that and not finish your thought.”

“I just think you can make him really happy. If you’re up for it. He’s not an easy man.”

I peer up at him, and he nuzzles into my neck.

“And I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here, so I need you to take care of him, okay?”

“What?” I ask, and he sighs.

“After what happened today, I think I’ll be packing up and moving.”

I sit up quickly. “What the fuck, Angel? Why?”

“It’s dangerous now and my dad wants to protect me. He can do that by creating a business alliance with the Russian mob.”

“You’re not a business transaction!”

“I know, but it has to happen.”

My face is red, and I twist on the bed to face my friend.

“It really doesn’t.”

He clasps my cheeks in his hands and rubs his nose against mine.

“I’ll be fine. I promise.”

I don’t like this. Not at all.

I wait until the evening when Angel is asleep and roll out of bed, moving toward Anthony’s room on my tiptoes.

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