Page 43 of As Angels Sin

“Well then, bride-to-be.” With his hand tangled in her hair, Tomas yanks Fiametta down. The force knocks her off balance and she sinks to her knees. The hand that he used to grope her moments ago, slips over his zip and he lowers it in front of her face. “Let me remind you of a wife’s duties.”

“Stop!” She shouts, crying out for help to anyone who may be brave enough to get in the way of the Napoli’s new don.

It will be me.

I push on the window again. It makes little sound as it cracks, and even less as it swings open. I lift myself higher.

Tomas shoves his hand into the open fly and starts wrestling with his sorry excuse for a dick. He struggles feverishly to break it out of his underwear.

Fucking loser.

“Don’t do this,” Fiametta’s turned to begging. If I had a heart to break, this would probably do it. “Please, stop. Let me go.”

I can’t look at her. I want to, and I want her to see me too. I want her to know that I wasn’t lying when I said I’m only one step behind her. She will never face anything alone while I’m around. She doesn’t have to be scared.

But I need to keep focused on him. One mistake, one slip, one moment of weakness, and I’ll face an untimely end. A bullet tothe head, the heart or both and all because I took my eyes off the prize.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Mark’s voice erupts at the door, before I can slip inside.

Perfect timing.

I was about to launch myself inside like a fucking nuke. In my blind fury, I didn’t even realize I’d grabbed my ankle gun out of its holster. I tuck it away now, and watch my oldest friend reprimand the Napoli dog.

“What are you doing here?” Tomas snarls.

Mark snaps an arm forward and it wraps around Tomas’s throat. He lifts him up, squeezing tight, until the Tomas turns redder than a tomato.

Don’t you fucking do it. You took one of my kills. Don’t you dare take another.

“Fiametta, I presume.” Mark says, offering her his free hand to help her up. She takes it and stands, while Tomas kicks his feet and slaps at Mark’s wrist.

“Apologies for Tomas. He’s gone a little loopy since the incident.”

Without once looking at her exposed body, Mark lowers her shirt and as it falls back into place, so does Tomas, who drops to the ground. He gasps in big lungfuls of air, and stares up wide-eyed at the towering giant who could have killed him, if he’d wanted to.

“Come, Tomas. We have a lot to talk about.” Mark walks away as if nothing happened.

Tomas follows with his limp tail between his legs.

That’s it. Tomorrow, he dies.

I can’t tell if the thought is mine or my shadow’s.

Chapter Twenty

FIAMETTA

“What are you doing here? I told you to wait outside.” The sound of my heart pounding in my ears intensifies when I see Simone standing outside my door. After another attack from Tomas, and then watching the life get crushed out of him, I knew I had to get out of there. I won’t survive if I stay any longer.

Despite knowing how big a risk it was, I asked Simone for help. We came up with a plan, at the funeral, and she gave me the nod that it was set and ready on the phone before it all kicked off.

What I didn’t expect, and definitely didn’t want, was for her to come inside the hall of horrors that Father’s home has become since his death. Danger lurks around every corner. It's full ofvicious men with wicked intentions who would feast on a pretty thing like Simone.

“I was worried something had happened and you needed me,” she says, as I clutch her upper arm and drag her into my bedroom.

“It’s dangerous, Si-Si. This isn’t a joke anymore. People are dying and I’ve got a bad feeling that many more are going to,” I’m whispering now. Trying to make the least amount of noise, so that she can hear me but no one else can.

“Everything was open, and no one was around,” she follows suit, even going so far as to hunch forward as if we’re about to sneak off like cartoon bank robbers. “I just walked in without anyone seeing me.”

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