Page 100 of Cruel Devil

“It’s covered in slobber.”

“Throw the damn ball.”

My eyes dart away from the slimy, saliva coated football to Bella’s bright eyes and drooling maw. I slowly lean down to pick up the ball, and she starts trotting in place, her massive paws pummeling the ground as she gets more and more excited.

Ew. This ball is so slimy.

I launch the football as far as I can, which is only a few yards. Bella tears after it, leaping up to snatch it out of the air.

Savage dusts his hands on his jeans as he walks over to us. He gives me a once-over and then lifts his chin at Sam. “Take Charlie back to his crate then go see if my uncle needs you for anything.”

“Sergio’s here?” I blurt out.

Sam’s already walking away, Bella and I assume Charlie chasing after him. He slaps Bella’s rump and then points back our way. Charlie stays at his side as the two of them make for the shed.

Her black ears flop against her massive head as she runs back to us, dropping the football in front of my feet and doing her little dance as she waits for me to throw it again.

I manage to toss it a little further this time.

“You lied to me,” Savage says, watching Bella race after the football as if he can’t even stand looking at me.

My jaw clenches.

How the fuck? There’s no way he can know…not unless Andy told him.

“I don’t know what you’re?—“

He turns on me so suddenly, my hands curl into fists as I subconsciously prepare to defend myself. “He laughed.”

“I’m going to need a little more context?—“

I know he’s mad, because he keeps fucking interrupting me. And I don’t want to piss him off even more, so I eat that shit like I’m starving.

“My uncle. When I told him Sullivan ordered a hit on him.”

I frown at Savage. “Did you not know he has an ego the size of a fucking blimp? Of course he finds it funny that someone like me?—”

“No, Nyx. He laughed because he knew Sullivan would never have him killed.”

“I’m not lying,” I mutter through clenched teeth.

Savage says nothing, his eyes as cold and dangerous as black ice.

My throat is closing in panic at the thought of telling Savage what happened.

But I don’t have a choice.

I need him to trust me.

He just keeps watching me. More than a foot of air between us. That’s when I realize something’s different. He hasn’t touched me. Hasn’t called me Angel. Hasn’t looked at my mouth like he wants to kiss me. Or my throat like he wants to choke me.

Cool. Detached. Like he pissed over the fire we kept burning between us to extinguish it.

Bella comes back with the football, but she doesn’t drop it this time. She keeps it in her salivating jowls as she stares up, glancing from me to Savage, then back again.

Damn, this mutt knows how to read a room better than her dad.

“But it doesn’t matter what I say to you, does it?” I murmur. “You’ve already made up your mind.”

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