Page 68 of Devious Lies

Something clicks, and suddenly, I know this guy. Not him, per se. But I know what he is.

I can smell it on him.

Joe Palmero is a cop. Or he was.

“You know who I am?” I ask quietly.

The older man looks me in the eye, and he nods.

“How did you find Maria?” I say.

“Looked through Celia’s wallet. She collapsed in the garden, and I brought her here. Been trying to call Maria for two days. Was she with you?”

I raise an eyebrow. It’s nice he’s protective of her.

But I’m not confirming or denying shit to him. It is none of his damn business.

“Look, I get it. I was on the job a long time. Emiliano Lopez wasn’t a good man. He loved his wife and daughter, though. I will give him that. But he worked for a fucking monster. I just wanna know, you gonna protect her?”

I consider his words carefully.

Of course, I am going to protect her.

Maria is mine. That isn’t a question.

But I need to know more, and I’m not sure how far to push her just yet.

A woman like her doesn’t fall in my lap every day. She certainly doesn’t tell me she’s in love with me.

I’m already fucking obsessed with her.

But now, well, now it’s no contest. I will burn this whole fucking city to the ground if some soon to be dead prick doesn’t get the message that Baby Girl, and yeah that is what I am going to call her until she tells me which is her real fucking name or until I decide what to call her, is mine.

When I say burn it tot he ground, I fucking mean it.

Metaphorically or literally.

I’ll destroy it all. It makes no difference to me.

Nico is the king of the Vipers, and my blood brother. He is the most unhinged fucker I know. I’m not the king.

But I am the Council. And he’s not the only one of us who can get shit done.

I might look like I don’t do violence, but I’m no stranger to it.

No, I don’t talk a lot. I don’t like to waste words. But that doesn’t mean a fucking thing.

I’ve got my own methods and means.

So, when I say I will fucking burn this city to the ground, I mean I will rain destruction down on any motherfucker who terrorizes my woman.

I protect what’s mine.

And that woman is irrefutably mine.

“She’ll be safe. Her mother, too,” I tell good ol’ neighbor Joe.

He exhales audibly. But I’m not done with him yet.

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