Page 146 of Assassin's Obsession

Except for the dead body.

"So, that's your stepfather?" I mumble against Angelo's chest.

"My mother's husband. Yes."

"Did you kill him?" I'm trying to figure out what has Angelo so reticent about touching me right now.

Yes, he's holding me, but there's an unfamiliar tension in his body, like he's holding part of himself back from me.

"No. That was Severu's right as both the godfather and the person Barone was conspiring to murder."

"Sounds like he deserved what he got."

"He deserved death for taking you," Angelo grinds out. "I killed the men who kidnapped you. "

"Were there a lot of them?" I ask.

"Sixteen men earned their death participating in your kidnapping and the conspiracy to murder our godfather." Angelo takes a deep breath and lets it out in a gust. "I killed six of them, including the man who guarded your room and the man who made my mother feel safe by guarding hers."

"You don’t want her feeling safe?"

"She doesn’t deserve to after making you afraid. I'll make sure she doesn't ever feel completely safe again for the rest of her miserable life."

"And will that be a very long life?" Maybe he's upset because she has to die.

Angelo shrugs.

"But you're not planning to kill her?" I press. "Miceli said she's going back to Sicily soon."

"Tomorrow. She has a job to do."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Administer her father's final dose of poison."

"She agreed to do that?" I ask, shocked. "Isn't that signing her own death warrant?"

"She's unaware of what she's about to do."

I lean back so I can see Angelo's gorgeous face, only to remember he's still wearing the mask.

He goes to take it off, but I stay his hand. "Will you wear it for me again? It's really kind of sexy. I thought it was a huge turn on at the club. You would've gotten lucky that night if you hadn't been so sure I was drugged."

"I thought you didn't know it was me. I couldn't believe you would take another man to the backroom, and you being drugged was the only explanation I could think of."

"Well, you were right about that, at least. I would never have taken another man back there. I would never have entered the VIP area for another man either. But Angelo, I always know it's you." I lift my hand to help him remove the mask. "Even when you're wearing this."

Together, we pull it off of him.

Hair plastered with sweat to his forehead and temples and his mouth is set in a firm line, he's as much Death as he is with the mask on.

But his eyes are filled with emotion. For me.

I touch his cheek. "Explain about your mom poisoning your grandfather."

"My uncle, Don Caruso, sent a New York cheesecake from his favorite bakery to my grandfather once a month."

"Okay…" Not sure where he's going with this, but I don't interrupt.

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