Page 109 of Devil Mine

His jaw shifts side to side, his gaze assessing for long moments. Then he nods once, sharply.

I watch in real time as his gaze shutters. He straightens and cool menace washes over his entire body. He looks like a completely different person, distant and indifferent as he stares down at me, and I realize that the man from earlier who took so much delight in giving me pleasure is gone. Standing before me instead is the ruthless cartel boss. The ease with which he shifts between the two is hair raising, but he’s doing what I asked. I’m the one who wanted to see this.

Thiago shoves the door open and strides in easily, the other men following after him with their guns drawn, leaving me alone in the hallway. I step out of my stilettos, bending to carry them in one hand by the heel. The idea of standing in that room in them makes me feel vulnerable and I need all the armor I can get right now. With a breath, I steel my shoulders and follow after Thiago.

The room is large and empty. The only thing inside it is one chair on which sits one man. Or at least, what remains of one man. He’s tied by thick lengths of rope, his head drooped forward, and he’s entirely covered in blood. There’s so much of it, my brain can’t compute where it could all possibly be coming from. Behind him, stand Marco and a man I know is named Fabian. The barbaric expression on his face terrifies me, as does the large cleaver dripping with blood that hangs from his hand.

“Leone.”

Thiago’s voice slices through the silence with the kind of authority most men only dream of having. I’m frozen to the spot, barely five feet inside the room and unable to make my body move any further. I’m completely out of my element here and my muscles shake with unease.

Augusto Leone doesn’t react for so long that I start to think he must already be dead. That would certainly explain the amount of blood. Then, so slowly I miss it at first, he starts to lift his head. He reveals his face little by little and I bite back a gasp. Joker lines have been carved into either side of his mouth, pulling it into a terrifying makeshift rictus.

Leone keeps lifting his head until his eyes are fully visible. But they don’t go to Thiago, who’s standing in front of him, and they don’t go to Arturo, who’s just off to the side, gun drawn but hanging by his side, or to Marco and Fabian who hover right over him.

They come straight to me, where I’m still hesitating by the door.

And any pity I may have started to feel evaporates in an instant because his pupils blacken sadistically and his eyes rake lewdly down my body with the promise of the kind of violence women don’t survive shining in them.

Fear grabs me by the throat and chokes me.

The eye contact ends after less than a second when Thiago shifts to the side and places his body in front of mine, completely blocking me from Leone’s view.

“Don’t look at her,” he says dispassionately. “Look at me.”

???

Chapter Forty-Three

Thiago

Idon’t make many mistakes.

They’re an anomaly if they happen and so rare that in a scientific analysis of my game play, they’d be considered statistically insignificant.

But it takes me less than five seconds to realize I made a mistake bringing Tess here.

“Who’s the girl?” Leone rasps interestedly.

They’re the first words he’s spoken in days and they’re about to be his last. It takes burying my hands in my trouser pockets to hide just how tightly my fists clench in response to his suicidal question.

“You can speak,” I say, ignoring him as I fight to regain control over my focus. “And here I thought Marco might have cut out your tongue and forgotten to tell me about it.”

Bringing Tess here after I just fucked her for the first time was a bad idea. I’m beyond compromised. I’m edgy, shaky, and uneasy, like a lifetime smoker who’s on hour forty-eight of nicotine withdrawal and about to lose it. Protectiveness contorts my insides. I can’t let the fucker see it. All I can think about is the fact that she’s within ten feet of a man who wouldn’t hesitate to cut her to pieces if he thought it would hurt me in any way. I should have set up a camera and remote feed and shown her that way.

I don’t let myself look at her or acknowledge her in any way. His eyes flicker interestedly when I move to stand between them.

Fuck.

“Tell me why theFamigliawent after Adriana,” I demand. “What did you gain from having her killed?”

Leone should understand better than anyone my need for revenge. His son, Rocco, was found murdered in an alley a month ago, his killers still in the wind. We should be united by a common goal, but it’s too late for that now.

He ignores me, his gaze meeting mine when he repeats his question, intelligent eyes watching to pick my reaction apart.

“Who’s the girl?”

The muscle in my jaw ticks dangerously in response.

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