Page 98 of Filthy Little Games

“Repeatedly.”

“Wow. How did I not know this?” I face forward again.

“Because you’re too busy, sitting around and thinking the worst about people instead of actually getting the details. Dre is a good soldier. He wants to keep you alive, make you proud, and fuck Stella Rovina’s brains out.”

“He never told me.” Is that why he was so pissed at me forkilling Izaiah? He’s afraid it’ll fuck him over with Stella if she finds out?

“Do you go around telling everyone about the women who reject you?”

“If I did, it would be a long list. Zara was the first in a long time to let me touch her. Even if I was just a gratitude fuck.”

“A what fuck?”

“Zara was happy and excited after I got her daughter back, so fucking me last night was her way of thanking me. It was our first time, only time...”

“You don’t think your wife is hot for you?”

“Zara is used to doing men she doesn’t really want to get what she needs.”

“I’m gonna have to call bullshit.”

“You can call whatever you fucking want,” I tell him while staring out the window. Now, I’m seeing the entire city in black and white like Zara’s photos. It’s all…colorless without her.

“Zara reminds me of the heart-eyed emoji whenever I see her looking at you. She’s head over heels in love with you. But is she wrong to have held off because you forced her to marry you and threatened to kill her? Now, you’re shipping her off to who the hell knows where, right? Why start something you can’t finish?”

“I tried not to give in, but last night…I couldn’t refuse her.”

“For the first time, right?”

“Yes.”

“And? How was it?”

“I’m not giving you details and shit,” I warn him. “But it was...better than I imagined it would be. The best I’ve ever had.”

“So that’s why you’re so pissy today. Last night you got the best fuck of your life, and today you’re arranging for her to leave, talking crazy shit about Dre having it out for you.”

“My head hasn’t been right since the raid,” I confess.

“No shit, boss. Everyone knows that. It rattled us all to loseCarmine and Jasper and not have anyone to take our grief out on. At least, none that we knew of…”

“I don’t know who I can trust anymore, and it’s driving me insane.” It’s not like I’ve ever been all that trusting, but at least we’ve had peace for the past decade, only a few minor scuffles with the other families. The raid was an assassination attempt to replace me at the head of the table. I know it, and it wasn’t just Izaiah behind it…

“Honestly, boss, I think it could be anyone.”

I turn around to glare at him, and he quickly adds, “Anyone in one of the other families. That shit didn’t come from ours. Emilio was probably in on it with Izaiah. I could see Bertelli, Marino, or Sanna coming for you like that.”

“It wasn’t Bertelli,” I declare.

“Why do you say that? Weston craves power. He built an empire on having the ability to murder anyone, anytime, to keep everyone scared of him.”

“He’s too old, and he’s not going to let his shithead son, Bowen, lead all the families. He’s smarter than that. And Serafina isn’t his biological daughter. She doesn’t have any Italian in her blood either. He knows she would never be accepted at the top of the food chain, not to mention she’s a woman, and Italians are sexist assholes. If it’d been Weston, he wouldn’t have missed taking me out.”

“Okay, those are good points. It wasn’t the Bertellis. Who else have you eliminated?”

“The Marinos, obviously. Do you think I would ask Gideon for this huge of a favor if I thought he wanted me dead?”

“Why can’t it be the Marinos?”

---