Page 128 of The Beautiful Dead

Two.

His cock pressed against me, the thick, swollen head teasing, taunting—denying.

The air reeked of copper and death, a heady perfume that sent adrenaline racing through my veins. My fingers curled against the workbench, nails carving half-moons into the splintered wood as a vicious snarl curled my lips.

“Stop teasing and fuck me.”

One.

Domino chuckled, low and sinful, the sound thrumming straight down my spine. My eyes snapped open just in time to catch the slow, deliberate drag of his blade across his wrist.

A violent tremor shuddered through me as his blood dripped hot and thick, trailing down my taint, pooling at the tip of his cock.

His gaze burned into mine, dark and feral. “Gonna fuck more than just my cum into you.” His voice was a wrecked rasp, his pupils blown wide. “I’m—” His words dissolved into a snarled growl as his hips snapped forward, spearing me open in one brutal thrust.

Pain and euphoria collided, white-hot and merciless, and I screamed, head snapping back, body bowing, breaking, surrendering.

His.

Always his.

In heaven, hell, and purgatory, until the world ended, I was his.

“Where are we going?”I asked as Domino tightened the helmet strap beneath my chin, his fingers precise and deliberate. His obsession with the damn thing made my eyes roll, and he caught the movement immediately.

A snort crackled through the helmet’s speaker. “Don’t be a brat.”

The Ninja rumbled to life beneath us, the deep vibration rolling through my bones as I slipped my arms around his waist.

“We’re going to get answers.” His voice was a low growl over the helmet’s intercom. “Then we’re going to end this.”

The weight of his words coiled in my gut, sharp and electric.

“Federico won’t go down without a fight,” he continued, voice edged with dark amusement. “And with most of his circle rotting in the ground, he’s running scared.”

I exhaled a laugh, my grip tightening around him. “I can’t wait to watch you break him.”

Domino didn’t respond, but I felt the shift in his body—the tension snapping taut like a wire ready to strangle. He wanted this. Needed this. His demons were already clawing their way to the surface, demanding carnage, and I was more than willing to help him tear Federico apart.

We pulled out of the underground garage, the sun glinting off the mirrored skyscrapers lining the center of Marlow Heights. The city gleamed like polished steel, a deceptive beauty masking the rot underneath.

A city on the edge of war.

The helmet’s speaker crackled as Domino spoke again. “A cornered animal is the most dangerous.”

His words lingered, a warning wrapped in cold certainty, but I welcomed the danger. Let Federico bare his teeth—I wanted to see his fear when he realized there was no escape, that he was about to meet his end.

“It’ll take us a couple of hours to get to the location Ghost sent me,” Domino said as we wove through traffic like a blade slicing through flesh.

“You trust him?”

Tension flickered through his frame, a barely-there hesitation, but I felt it like it was my own.

Since that morning in the apartment, Ghost had been walking on a knife’s edge. His access had been revoked, his loyalty questioned, but he’d kept working, kept proving himself. I’d spent hours trying to unravel the connection between Catalina, Salvatore, and Federico, only to hit a brick wall of erased records and dead ends.

That wasn’t possible in this day and age—unless someone wanted it to be.

The old families operated like they were still in Capone’s era, their power woven into the cracks of the city itself. The air in Marlow Heights had shifted, thick with impending bloodshed. People felt it, even if they didn’t understand it—the way they glanced over their shoulders, the way shadows stretched too long.

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