Page 43 of Pretty Little Lies

I’dpayto watch that shit.

“What do you want, Matteo?” I solicit, attempting to keep my voice as hard as my heart is for him. He was my biggest mistake and my worst nightmare.

“You need protection.”

“From you?”

My ex huffs out a scoff and runs his fingers down the side of his cheek, right over the scar Levi left behind. “Last time I checked, you weren’t a dumbass bitch, so let’s cut the bullshit. I’m offering a position at my side when I get the Titan seat from Wharf Bay. I’m going up against Cairo Black, and I’m gonna win. I’m ready now.”

Is this dude for fucking real?

I blink at him, attempting to keep the smartass comments to a minimum. That means less talking and more my getting away from him.

“Well?” His expression hardens at my lack of giving a fuck, so I give him what he’s looking for, a haughty scoff of disbelief.

“Matteo, it’s good to aim high…but you’re reachin’ a littletoohigh.”

His lips drawl back in a snarl. “Says fucking who? The fucker who just dumped you?”

“That motherfucker was and will always be a better man than you, so let’s cut thebullshit,like you said.I highly doubt you sought me out to offer up some fairytale dream of us getting backtogether. Did you use up all the Shoreline Peaks pussy, or are you bored?”

“You hard of remembering? I let you go. Levi didn’t force my hand on that venture.”

I’m lookin’ at the scar, bruh.

“The answer’s no.”

Matteo rolls his eyes, as if I’m being hella dramatic. “You were with me from the very beginning. Before, when I was a nobody.”You’re still a nobody.“It’s only right you reap the rewards of what I’m about to obtain. And, contrary to what you believe, I loved?—”

“Nah.” A mirthless chuckle escapes my throat, because now that Levi is allegedly out of the way, my ex saw a perfect opportunity to drop in and obtain what no girl in Shoreline Peaks probably dares apply for. And that’s to be this asshole’s woman. “Don’t begin lying to me now and start spewing shit you think I want to hear. You loving me is literally thelastthing I’d want to experience today and you’re not capable of the emotion.”

His dark eyes slit, and I can see the wheels screeching to a halt in his head. I’m not the same girl he fucked up.

Not totally anyway.

He’s going to have to put in more work to try andwinme over when that’s a dead-end road anyway.

“You’re open season now,” he starts, his tone drenched impassively, reminding me that I should be flattered as hell. “Every piece of shit is going to want to use you to gain information that you learned from Levi. And they’ll do it whether they spread your legs wide or torture it out of you. I can offer you security. Those Forsaken fucks are going to make a move and it’s only a matter of time before?—”

“You need to keep up, De Leon. Because that’s already happened.” Matteo suddenly spins around like a startled animalat the sound of the male voice that just pierced through his heartfelt monologue.

And, in his wake, rigidly stands my sworn enemy with metallic eyes of gold zeroed in on the dickwad flanking my side.

“Why are you standing so close to my girl?” Torin hedges, as if it’s the question of the century that he’s trying to figure out. “Move.”

Matteo, being Matteo, doesn’t.

No one tells him what to do. Especially in public. He’ll stand off with Baby Wildes until he’s physically moved or killed right where he’s standing.

Meanwhile, I study the tight muscles underneath Pretty Boy’s gray, striped shirt, waiting for them to flex or tense, but they remain relaxed and unbothered.

Am I the only one who remembers how psycho Matteo is?

“What brings you to this neck of the woods, Wildes?” Matteo counters back. “Because I think you have the wrong girl…again.”

Torin motions me to his side with two fingers and, like a frantic victim, I’m quick to follow his silent order.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Matteo growls out as I flee away from him. “We were having a talk.”

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