Page 53 of Devil Mine

“Some would question your focus.”

I prowl towards him, my movements as lithe and dangerous as a panther’s. I stand a mere foot away from him, towering over him.

“What?”

My tone dares him to repeat what he just said.

“You’re preoccupied–”

I grab him by the collar and jerk him violently towards me. He drops his gaze when he’s inches from my face, the only sane decision he’s made since stepping into this room.

“Neverquestion my dedication to the family,” I snarl quietly, baring my teeth. “You won’t live long enough to feel your death if you do.”

“I’m not and I wouldn’t,” Turo answers, angrily holding my gaze now. “My job is to keep you alive and to keep you safe. To keep you in power. I’m not questioning your dedication to the family, but rather how vulnerable your distracted state leaves you. How vulnerable it leaves the rest of us who follow you. You can’t deny that you’re not one hundred percent focused on the cartel.”

I shove him back.

“Leave,” I order, not wanting to hear this.

“How long?” he asks, refusing to be dismissed. “How long are you going to be away from London?”

Pain lances through my jaw from how tightly I’m clenching it. “However long it takes,” I grit out.

It’s only because Arturo is like a second father to me that he hasn’t gotten a bullet in the head for his insubordination.

“You’re risking it all for her and she doesn’t even realize it. She’s not worth it.”

Never mind.

I whip my gun out and have it pressed against his forehead in the next breath. “Watch it,” I hiss.

He laughs humorlessly, unphased by the metal digging into his skin. “I’m yourconsejerofor a reason, Thiago. It’s my job to give you advice, even when I know you’ll put a bullet in my head for hearing it. You don’t have unlimited time to waste here.” He shakes his head. “You’re so blinded by your obsession, you can’t even see it. You would never have let a woman interfere in running the business the way you are now. All I’m asking is that you understand what you’re risking by staying here. If word gets out that you’re gone, the Armenians, the Italians, hell, the fuckingEnglishwill come for us, weakened as we are by your absence. They’ll smell blood in the water and they’ll attack. With everything that’s been going on, you know they’re looking for any opportunity to take us down right now.”

He’s speaking to me like I’m still the untrained teenager I was before he helped turn me into a ruthless killer, but that kid is long dead. I know exactly what’s at stake if I extend my trip. I know exactly how much I’m risking for a woman who’d rather run from her life than face being in mine.

What he doesn’t understand – what, frankly,Idon’t even understand – is that I am willing to put it all on the line.

This obsession has burrowed its way deep into my system, spreading roots that have grown until they’ve tentacled around every part of me. There’s no excising it, there’s only feeding it.

And that means chasing after her until I find her.

“What option do I have?”

“Let her go, Thiago. Find someone else.”

If only it was that easy. Fuck knows, I would if I could.

I lower my gun and holster it, my face as uncompromising as ever when I look at him.

“I can’t.”

It’s the truth.

My only hope is believing that it’s the chase keeping me interested. That once she’s locked away in my home, she’ll fade to the fringes of my mind, getting progressively less and less invasive until she takes no place at all.

But until then, I have no recourse.

He nods, lips falling into a flat line. He understands there will be no convincing me away from this path. “Then we better find her quickly.”

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