Page 79 of A Beautiful Crime

Not after what I have done to Elio.

Not after killing the girl my mamma adored.

I allowed The City of Death in my veins.

Became corrupted just like papa and Luca.

God forgive me, I’ve tasted the barest hints of sin in the name of a man and I crave for more.

I hate that I do.

I hate that I want him just as much as I despise him.

And yet I’ve never felt more alive. My body has never responded to anyone like it has with him.

And in my black beating heart I know it never will with anyone else.

Him and I are tethered to one another.

Heaven and Hell couldn’t separate us.

I know this. I do.

But I fight it at every turn.

I resist him at every whim.

I deny us again and again because damn him, he’s right.

I am afraid of the darkness I possess.

I’m terrified of the person I’ll become.

One who dances with the devil and not only enjoys it, but falls in love with him with every step.

CHAPTER 15

Constantine

“You weren’t at the deal last night,” Tao Haung, the leader of The Triad, and my newest business partner for the gun trade, says with dissatisfaction.

“An important matter arose.” I keep my tone cool and even. My eyes daring him to question me.

He leans back in the cushy restaurant chair. Our table overlooks the Harbor. A Harbor that had just transported over ten million dollars worth of gun and ammunition without none knowing the wiser.

Haung smirks at me. A hint of mischievousness lighting up his dark eyes. “Does this important matter have a name being Carina Fiore?”

My blood instantly boils as violence enters my bloodstream from the mention of her name on someone else’s lips.

I cock my head to the side, remaining impassive when I feel anything but. “Who do you think you are to question me, Tao?”

His smirk remains firmly in place. He’s a cocky son of a bitch. And he has every right to be. The amount of success he has at his young age is to be admired. Twenty-eight years old and swimming with the great white sharks without fear.

But no matter how successful Tao is, he will never be more powerful than me.

He shrugs a shoulder. “Gossip spreads amongst us men, too, Constantine. You know this,” he reminds me as if we have a history of being great friends. Never mind the fact I’ve just met him in the flesh today. “You danced with her at your own gala.”

I raise a cool brow, taking a swallow of my brandy. “And?”

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