Page 44 of Forty

“I don’t know you.”

She rolls her eyes. “This again? Okay. Fine. Youusedto know me. Would I have been good at companion care? Or would I, like, forget something, and then they’d die, and it’d be my fault?”

This isn’t an idle question. I take a close look at her face. Her guard’s down. The brat, the wild child, the manic pixie dream girl is gone. It’s just her now. Nevaeh. Big brown eyes. Pouty pink lips. Dusting of pale freckles across her nose and cheeks. The hint of a yellowing bruise under her left eye.

She’s not wearing makeup. And she’s squirming now. Eyeing the door. My muscles tense. She’s not leaving this room.

“Yeah. You would’ve been good at that. You never forgot important shit.”

It’s true. Her lunch, her purse, her keys, her phone, her birth control pill. She was hopeless. But she never forgot anyone’s birthday. Anyone’s name. When there were kids were around the clubhouse, she’d be the first to notice if a little one was headed for trouble.

And she had this weird superpower of being able to find anything that someone else lost. It’s like she could see everything except the thing she was supposed to be looking at.

She’s worrying at her lower lip. I used to smooth it with my thumb when she did that. “I’ve got a list. Shirlene gave it to me. I’m not gonna forget anything.”

“Nevaeh.” I exhale. “You can’t stay in Petty’s Mill.” Especially not with the Renelli organization looking for her. And now she’s somehow found herself in the Rebel Raider’s crosshairs.

She juts up her chin, a flash of pain darkening her eyes. My gut tightens. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Why is Dominic Renelli after you?”

Her face blanches pure white, and she jumps to her feet. “Fuck. Did you tell him where I am?”

“He’s not touching you.” It’s out of my mouth before I realize I’ve said it, but I check my gut, and I mean it. There’s no future between us, but there’s past, and since she’s here, for now, she belongs to me. I know it’s insane, but it is the way it is.

“He’s Dominic-fucking-Renelli. I need to get out of here.” She starts for the door, and I’m up in an instant, blocking the way.

“Move.” She shoves at me uselessly.

“Why does he want you? Were you fucking him?” My stomach turns. “You steal from him?”

“I fondled his dick when I was going for some calamari, and then I got into it with my boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—Carlo—who Iwasfucking—he’s Renelli’s money guy, and then I ran into his fist, and he almost killed me, and there were kind of witnesses at the end. Shit. I need to check on Don and Greg. And by the way, Ididsteal his man purse, and I’m not sorry.”

What? “Who I was fucking” rings in my ears, and I can feel the vein in my forehead throb.

She starts pacing the room. “I’m in over my head here. I need to get out of town.”

Didn’t I tell her that a minute ago? It’s a little ego bruising. She has no fear of me or my brothers, but some old-timey Italian mob boss from Pyle has her sweating and wild-eyed?

“Sit back down. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Youliterallyjust said I can’t stay in Petty’s Mill.”

“What did you do to Dominic Renelli? Talkstraight.” I raise my voice. Ineverraise my voice.

“I accidentally stroked his cock while trying to retrieve a piece of calamari. A circle bit, not a squiddy bit.” Her face is flushing, and she’s getting louder, too. “And my boyfriend, Carlo the asshole, thought I was aiming to land a bigger fish, and so we fought, and he tried to choke me out, but this guy Don and his husband broke it up before Carlo could kill me, shit in my mouth, and dump me in the river.”

“Just the simple truth, Nevaeh!”

“It isuselesstalking to you. You don’tlisten,” she shrieks, and reaches into her back pocket, fishing out her phone.

Oh, hell no.

I’m on her in a second, and somehow the phone tumbles to the floor, and she swoops for it. Then, she falls to her knees, and I’m driving my fingers into her thick hair, jerking her head back, and she freezes, eyes huge.

We’re both out of breath and still as statues.

Her gaze dips down. Her eyes widen impossibly larger when she sees the bulge of my cock fighting to get out of my jeans. And then her hands are scrabbling at my belt, but her fingers slip, so I push them away, and she tugs her shorts and panties down, jamming her fingers into her pussy while I shove my cock into her mouth.

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