Page 168 of Devil Mine

Tess stiffens, her body mirroring mine, and then she turns her face slowly up towards him. Even from where I’m standing, I can see her eyes glowering at him, skewering him alive.

A deathly unease washes over my body as his words permeate. Swift disbelief hits me next.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

He laughs callously. Unfeelingly.

“You were so focused on the Italians, you never stopped to wonder if the threat could be closer to home. I was lucky, it distracted you.” He pops open the magazine of his gun and starts removing bullets. “You weren’t wrong, itwasthem. But it was me as well. When you were given the greenlight to expand the cartel, I knew that was my chance to undercut you. So I came to London and I met with Rocco Leone and his guards. They brought their Armenian lapdog with them, Dadurian. We were discussing a deal wherein I’d guarantee the cartel would be brought here, that I would siphon money and confidential information to them for a couple of years and in return, when the time was right, they’d help me lead the insurrection against you and put me in your place.”

A red haze throttles my vision and takes over my motor control. I feel minutes away from losing it entirely, but the puzzle is finally coming together.

“How does Adriana come into play?”

One by one the bullets come out until there’s only one remaining in the magazine. He rolls it close with a decided snap. A stab of apprehensiveness penetrates my spine.

I ask questions to keep him talking so he doesn’t point his gun back at Tess.

“She overheard us. Call it bad luck, call it fate, I don’t know what it was, but that night she happened to be atFirenzeand she saw me. She followed me and listened in on our conversation. She confronted me and said she was going to tell you everything. We had to get rid of her.”

The final piece of the puzzle slots in and I finally realize how blind I’ve been. He’s the one who tortured the so-called ‘confession’ out of Dadurian. He’s the one who miraculously kidnapped Augusto Leone when no one else could. The only way he could have done that is if Leone trusted him enough to let his guard partially down around him. He’d played us all.

I should have seen it.

“Why didn’t Augusto rat you out when he realized he was going to die?”

“He knew. He wasn’t at that meeting Adriana overheard, but he sent Rocco in his place. And when Rocco was killed, well, it was easy to threaten Augusto with the life of his only remaining son if he said anything. So he provoked you into killing him.”

“Are you the one who killed Rocco?”

It’s the one Italian death I’m not responsible for. I’ve wondered since learning of his death who could have been behind it. Who could have motive. I’m sure there’s no shortage of options; the man made sadists look like harmless kindergarteners.

Marco frowns, the first emotion other than sheer arrogance and glee that crosses his face since he started his monologue. “No, I have no idea who killed him.”

Bizarrely, I believe him.

“Was Matteo involved?”

How wrong had I been? Had my gut instincts betrayed me so much that I’d let another viper into the nest?

“No, he knew nothing about it. He was only a second son, he didn’t need to be involved.”

I breathe the smallest sigh of relief.

It dies a quick death when Marco points the gun at Tess’s head once more. A cruel, emotionless smile contorts his mouth.

Her eyes flutter close.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I shout.

He turns his head slowly towards me. “You’ve heard of Russian Roulette?”

I hear a sob roll up Tess’s throat. It finds no outlet. A tear rolls down her face and over the tape covering her mouth.

I reach a desperate hand out towards him. Sweat trickles down my back. Short, terrified breaths rip from my lungs.

“Stop. You don’t need to do this. You don’t need to kill her too, I already know.”

“Too?” he questions.

---