Page 64 of King of Temptation

Anthony is bright red, a vein popping out of his temple as he shoves Kim to the side and charges toward me.

But she’s way smarter and far more athletic than him and she swings around, hooking him behind the knee with her ankle. It sends him crashing forward as his hands fly in the air and the gun goes off.

It echoes down the hall, the screams of the crowd filling the place, but I’m not worrying about that. The bullet whizzes above my head, entering the ceiling.

I toss Melissa to the side and hurl myself at Anthony. He hits the ground hard, his hands splaying out in front of him to catch his weight. Stopping short, I give his hand with the gun a hard fucking stomp. I hear the bones crack and break.

Satisfaction courses through me. Bending down, I yank the gun from his hand, pointing it at his head.

I’ve still got my boot on his hand. “In my office,” I bark at Kim. “Lock it.”

She does as I say without question.

Melissa is leaning against the wall, her face pale, but I’m not dealing with her yet. “I lean down close to Anthony, putting more pressure on his hand as he cries out. “The last time you fired a shot in this club, the police weren’t called. We didn’t quite have the sway then that we have now.”

I know what I’m going to do. I’d just resigned myself to not going to prison but in this moment…it’s the best way to pick off a major player in the Carcetti operation.

“Fuck you,” Anthony spits out a cry. “For what?”

“You can’t go around firing guns in clubs, you asshole.” But we’ve got video footage of him murdering a man here two years ago and that, along with what he just tried to do to Kim, should be enough history to put Little Anthony Carcetti away for a long time.

The only problem? I’ve been withholding evidence. And that’s going to blow back on me. It sends a sharp pain shooting down my chest. That has always been the plan, for me to take the fall. But now…things are different.

Melissa starts to slide away, I catch her out of the corner of my eye, and I point a finger at her. “Don’t you fucking move.”

“Mr. Kincaid,” she says on a sob. “I didn’t think?—”

“You’ll never work in this town again,” I grit out. “You won’t even be hired as a cocktail waitress. You can marry him, but he is going to be in prison for the rest of his life.”

“Fuck you?—”

I press harder on his broken hand, and he cries out as the sound of sirens fill the air.

“You don’t think we got rid of the evidence two years ago, do you? What debt did you think Mason was calling in?” I grab Anthony by the hair, lifting his head. “Yes, you owe us money. But that’s not the real danger we pose to you, is it? Did you think that you could threaten Kim and make that evidence disappear? You fucked up.”

I curl my lip, dropping his head again. I was going to kill him but as I lift my boot, I can see his hand is a mangled mess. He’s never firing a gun again. It’s enough. I’m a new man after all.

The club has cleared out. Temptation will need some time to recover, but we’ll do what we did last time Anthony Carcetti shot it up, and do a big reopen.

Honestly, Temptation is the least of my concerns. For all I know, I won’t even be here to see it. Kim is going to hate me for taking the fall, for leaving her now. But I’ll try to make her understand. This is the best way to keep her and the baby safe. The Carcetti scum needs to be taken off the streets.

It’s going to be a long night, but at least Kim is safe. And once I get her tucked in my bed, we need to have a real talk about the future.

She might not want me after all this, but I whatever she chooses, I will provide for her and for the baby.

If I’d had any doubts, Anthony Carcetti made my job crystal clear. I never thought I’d say this, but I might actually have to thank him for that.

Nah.

But it’s time Kim understands what I see for our future.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Kim

The rest of the evening passes like a nightmare.

The police arrive first, and Carcetti isn’t the only one in cuffs.

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