Page 10 of Where the Wicked Reign

She’d gotten off on the depravity that I’d subjected her to.

She’d been a fucking vision, unleashing her true fucked-up nature all over me, connecting with the same in me in a way I’d never seen coming. A way I’d never thought possible, honestly.

And so, that night, I’d marked her.

Mmm.

I stubbed out my smoke and pocketed my lighter as I watched her disappear inside.

It wouldn’t be long now.

She was primed.

Almost ready for me.

And then I’d finally stake my claim.

Patience was certainly a virtue, one I possessed in spades, something that had proven invaluable to me as Capo.

I turned to go now that she’d headed inside, only to pull up short at the sound of crunching footsteps coming from the tree line.

Instinctively, my fingers brushed the butt of my Sig Sauer at my hip beneath my leather jacket, only for me to drop my hand as Milo came into view, his mammoth form emerging through the trees.

His lips lifted as he looked between me andLuster.“Still stalking the little princess, I see.”

“Merely ensuring my gift was well-received.”

He came closer, stopping in front of me and shaking his head in disapproval, as he did whenever I struck against Caterina. “Three years and you still haven’t grown tired of it.”

“I’m nothing if not persistent.”

His eyebrows rose as a security guard emerged from the entrance doors carrying a whole lot of flowers, the open doors giving him a partial view of the rest of mygiftwithin. “Another so-called strike, hmm?”

“So-called?”

“Come on, brother, you’re more the type to ransack her penthouse apartment, set one of her businesses on fire, extort her clients and patrons, raid her lounges, send bullets flying through the nightclub, frame her for drug dealing inside said club.Notwhat you’ve been doing with sticking a bloodied knife in her apartment door, slashing her tires and damaging her paint job, sending her a teddy bear smeared in blood, then the severed finger thing.”

“The severed finger thing served two purposes. The fool it belonged to tried to steal from us.”

“Nico, my point is, this is your twisted version of flirting.”

“Foreplay, actually.”

“Who’s playing withraging flamesnow?”

I rolled my eyes. I knew me recounting every detail of what had happened in theIl Fornobathroom would come back to bite me. I’d just been so shocked and taken with it that the words had come spilling forth before I could stop them. I was known for controlling information and carefully disseminating it, only what absolutely needed to be known at specific times and to specific people. But that had proven to be the exception. Just likeshewas proving to be in many ways.

“Everything is under control.”

“You taking a real liking to someone isn’t exactly a run-of-the-mill thing.”

I scoffed. “Taking a liking to someone?”

“Well, for you, it comes out in much more fucked-up ways. Like obsessive fixation, stalking, and these messed-up games you’ve been playing with her for the last three years.”

Enough of this. “Did you track me here for a reason?”

“I didn’t have to do much tracking. I know when you give me the slip, it’s so you can engage in your stalking activities with Caterina.”

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