Page 104 of Where the Wicked Reign

“You fucking bitch!”

She smirked. “I’m sure it seems that way to you. But what I really am isjustice.”

Goddammit, yes.Right up my fucking alley—literally, in fact.

“I can do this anytime. I can drain the rest of your account. I considered beating you into a coma to get you off her back, but this is where it really hurts for you, isn’t it? The money. That’s what drives you. And it will be what you fall by if you so much as set foot back in this fucking city again, let alone contact her in any way. To be clear, Iwillknow. You see, I’m always watching. Watching and waiting in the shadows. The monster you never see coming. Push me, test me, bother her again, and I will ruin you.” She leaned down and wrenched his head up by his hair. “Are. We. Clear?”

There was true fear in his eyes as he looked up at her. She was correct, she’d hit right down to the bedrock with him.

“Y-yes.”

“You’ll leave tonight. You have two hours to drive across the city border. You don’t and I’ve made it clear what I’ll do. And I have no mercy when it comes to abusive shits like you, so I won’t even hesitate.”

As she released his hair roughly and stepped back, I saw her wince and falter a little in her step.

Before he could notice the same, I strode into the fray and yanked him up to his feet with my brute strength. “Get gone,” I snarled before tossing him away.

He stumbled and just managed to catch his balance, before limping away, holding his fucked-up shoulder.

Once he was out of sight and I was certain he was gone, I turned my full attention to Caterina and walked to her, gesturing at her right side. “Let me see.”

I saw her tense and her usual reaction that the three of us had noticed from her to automatically assure us that everything was fine seemed right there.

But then she sighed and actually went the better way and gave a nod. “Okay.”

She sank against the wall and opened her blazer, revealing just the bralette beneath.

I swallowed hard at the sight of all that silky skin and just the thin barrier of lace containing her breasts. Her amazing breasts that Nico had calledstunning, that I’d seen for the first time during the scene atNocturne. There was a major difference between witnessing it on video and being up close now. With my perspective, opinion, and approach to her having shifted too, it certainly put a lot of things in a whole new light.

And, as such, with all of that working to fuck with me, it took a whole lot more effort than should have been needed to focus on the task at hand.

Shifting my weight and crouching down so I could peer closer, I studied the site of her wound.

“This is looking good. The edges of the wound are softening, the stitches fading, starting to dissolve. It’s healing well. You just put some strain on it with those bursts of violence.”

“Controlled and planned violence, not bursts,” she corrected me.

I looked up at her, my lips lifting at her take on it. “Seems we have the control freak thing in common, hmm?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She gestured at the way Lowrey had headed. “You didn’t need to do that. I had it handled.” I was about to rebut, until she laid her hand on my shoulder and added, “Butit was appreciated. Thank you.”

“Any time.” I rose back to my full height, and she started doing up her blazer, and my attention was abnormally drawn to her fingers working the golden buttons. I cleared my throat. “Least I could do, really, with you saving my life.”

“You don’t owe me, so don’t take it there. I’m just glad it served to tone down the hostility between us.”

“You mean the hostility solely coming off me?”

“I was trying to be diplomatic.”

“No need. Just call it like it is with me. I was being a shit.”

“It was coming from a place of protection for your brotherhood. I get it and I don’t hold it against you. How could I? What the three of you have is special and extremely rare, like I said. It absolutely needs to be protected at all costs.”

She wasn’t just saying all the right words to somebody like me, knowing how much the brotherhood meant to me, I could see without a sliver of a doubt that she meant them too.

“Now you’re included under that banner of protection.”

She smiled. “So I noticed over the last several days.”

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