Page 74 of Spider Demon's Kiss

“Who? Your uncle?”

“Fuck my uncle. The man Sato gave you to.”

“He’s dead.”

I struggled to catch my breath.

“Then take me to the next one.”

“He’s dead too. They’re all dead.”

“You killed them? You should have.”

“I don’t remember doing it. I don’t remember killing any of them.”

“What do you mean you don’t remember?”

“They died of heart attacks. All of them. I’m poison.”

The pain in Kuroi’s voice pulled me back.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m the poison that killed them. Anyone who sleeps with me dies. You’re going to die.”

“How am I gonna die?”

“I don’t know,” he said melting into regret.

I took Kuroi’s hand.

“Listen to me, Kuroi. You’re not gonna hurt me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. You aren’t poison. You’re everything I’ve dreamed of. I’ll do everything to protect you and you’ll do everything to protect me.”

“What if I can’t protect you from myself?”

“I don’t want you to protect me from who you are. I want everything you have. I want it all. You can’t scare me away. I’m here and I’m your husband. And the way I know I’ll be around forever is because I know you’ll make sure of it. You can count on me having your back and I know I can count on you having mine.”

Kuroi didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. I knew what I had said was true and there was nothing he could say to convince me otherwise.

But as much as I had calmed down, I was still enraged. Sato was going to die for what he had done to Kuroi. I was going to rip his head from his neck with my bare hands. I would do the same to anyone who stood in my way. But first,

“Where’s my uncle?”

“That’s the door there,” he said pointing to the fence and warehouse door.

“Show me,” I told him before we got out of the car, and he led the way.

Opening the warehouse’s door, it was completely empty except for one thing. At the very center of it was a chair. On it was a man I didn’t recognize. Hearing the door open, his head popped up and groaned. Not only was he tied to the chair and gagged, he was blindfolded.

I looked at Kuroi who met my eyes blankly. I gestured for him to get a glass of water. He thought for a second and then exited the building. Before I reached the chair, Kuroi was back with a cup. Falling into my wake, I approached the chair and stared down at the man.

Although I had never seen him before, he looked like a Ricci. He looked more like Lorenzo than either Matteo or me. But the family resemblance was clear.

Feeling me in front of him, his muffled groans turned into garbled speech.

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