Page 93 of Sin & Sapphire

The vulnerability in her gaze undid me.

“Everything, princess.”

She nodded, then pressed her face against my shirt, an unsubtle attempt to hide the tears that streamed down her face. Silent for a long moment, I stroked my fingers up and down her arm, wishing I knew how to comfort her.

“Who’s taking care of the families of the men who were killed?” she asked.

Angelo stopped his pacing.

“Presumably, the organization—” he said.

Ana pushed away from me and sat up, wrapping her robe tightly around her, and lifted her chin. “What do you mean,presumably?”

Angelo stared at her. I stared at her. My business was quasi-criminal, but we didn’t operate like the fucking Cosa Nostra. Angelo did. Angelo should have fucking known.

“It’s been four days!” she cried out. “Who is meeting with the families of all the people that Tchérnov killed when he burned down my fucking home?” Her voice ended on a ragged shout, but she didn’t cringe. “Who is paying for the funerals and giving the widows funds to feed their kids?”

To my shame, she was right.

“Angel,” Angelo began.

“Don’tangelme,” Ana sneered. “You fucking idiots. You’re here trying to hold an empire together and you can’t even do the basic shit that keeps its citizens loyal.”

She stood up, her eyes sparkling with anger. “You assholes. You kidnapped me, you fucking locked me away, and then you didn’t bother taking care of the people who suffered for it.”

Angelo whipped around and grabbed her chin, towering over her, and emphasizing her small size compared to him. “Don’t push me, toy. We took you in to keep you safe. Anytime you want us to hand you over to Boris or any of the other assholes who’d marry you in a heartbeat for your inheritance, you let me know.”

Ana slapped him.

He grabbed her wrist, Angelo full of menace, Ana’s chest heaving with righteous fury that slowly turned to trembling fear.

Did she not realize that he would rather tear out his own heart than hurt her?

“Fuck you, Angelo,” she whispered, despite the fear that made her hunch her shoulders, as if ready to ward off a blow. “Those men and women raised me. And they’re dead. And everything I own in the world is fuckinggone.”

Angelo remained silent, his face blank, and his grey eyes revealing nothing.

“Sir,” she said, bowing her head as a tear slipped down her cheek.

Oh, what agoodfucking girl, even as she was losing her mind with grief and worry and anxiety. Maybe she was more ready than I thought.

“Sir, please let me help you fix this. It’s myfamily.”

Angelo rubbed his cheek where she’d clocked him and stared her down, waiting.

She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his legs, and triumph speared through me. She was learning.

I held my breath, waiting to see how my lover would respond.

He tangled his fingers in her hair as she kissed his thighs and murmured, “Please, sir,” over and over again.

When he looked at me with an eyebrow raised, I nodded. It was time, and to my displeasure, she was right. Ana was a resource we’d been ignoring because we were too focused on training her to be our fuck toy. Her training wouldn’t stop, but we could take advantage of her skills and her knowledge while we did it.

Ana backed away from Angelo and lowered her face to the floor, stopping only when Angelo’s fingers tightened in her hair.

He dragged her back up to kneeling, forcing her to meet his eyes.

“All right, angel. What do you need?”

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