Page 67 of Hunted Vengeance

“You’ve been through enough. Don’t add that to your soul.”

Chapter Thirty

MERRICK

Colette falls asleep,but only after I eat her, then fuck her into exhaustion. I should be tired, too, but I’m not. My mind will not stop spinning. Every scenario that could possibly happen is playing on a loop inside of my mind.

Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I grab a pair of pants, my gun, and my phone before I leave the room. I’ll probably never be without my gun again. Call me paranoid, but I don’t care. My gun is going to stay at my side from today until probably the day I die at this point.

Slipping out of the bedroom, I walk into the living room and then the kitchen. I flip on the light and jump when I hear a throat clear to my left. I look over to see Marcello sitting at the table.

“I could have fucking shot you,” I bark.

He snorts, then dips his chin to the center of the table where his hand is resting on his gun. “You wouldn’t have made it.”

I almost laugh, but I have a feeling this fuck wants—or wanted—my woman, so I don’t. Plus, he’s Bellucci’s man, and anyone who works for him is no doubt shady as fuck.

“My boss is my boss, and I will be loyal to him until my last breath,” he states. Well, at least I know where he stands. “That being said, while I am here, my job is to protect Colette and to bring him Malcolm Ravet alive.”

“There it is,” I say.

He arches a brow, but I can’t help but chuckle at his expression. “He’s afraid I’ll kill Ravet before he gets what he wants from him. Bellucci should be scared because if given the chance, I will not only kill Ravet, I will make him suffer.”

Marcello smirks. “Bellucci knows that, which is why I’m here.”

“Are you going to kill me when this is done?”

Marcello shakes his head once, then thrums his fingers on the table. “I don’t have orders to do that,” he says. “But even if I did…”

He closes his eyes, then opens them, and I see something behind them, something that I can’t quite make out.

“Even if you did?” I ask.

“Colette doesn’t deserve a lot of the shit that has happened. You make her happy.”

“You love her?” I ask.

He shakes his head slowly from side to side.

“I don’t. Sure, I wanted to fuck her because the fuss that surrounded that woman has been beyond imaginable. And the fact that she’s the boss’s daughter makes her untouchable. Everyone wants the untouchable. But when I started guarding her alone, when I saw everything, I realized that she was nothing more than a lost soul. And that need turned into something else.”

“Something else?” I ask.

“Sadness, pity, protectiveness. I don’t know what it is because I‘ve never felt it before, but I do know it’s not love.”

I’m fascinated by this whole thing. I wonder if he feels for Colette the way I do for Lucille. More sisterly and protective than anything else. I don’t ask him. It doesn’t matter, and honest to fuck, I don’t really care. After this is finished, he will be somewhere else, and both Ravet and Adriano will be dead.

“I get it,” I mutter.

And I do.

But I also can’t help but wonder if Marcello is going to take over the Bellucci Mafia empire when this is done, or will someone else claw their way to the top? Because someone will succeed over Adriano.

There is always someone waiting in the wings for the leader to fall, and this organization is no different from the next.

Except Securus, of course.

We are all equal partners in our business. Everything is split evenly and will always stay that way. We are brothers. Equal in every fucking way possible. And we will always be that way in writing and in person—in life.

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