Page 54 of Revenge & Ruin

“Belle,” he snaps. “You have about a minute to escape out the back door. Wait by the fence until the gates open, and I’ll open the back passage for you.”

The confusion is enough for me to stay rooted to the spot.

“Keeping you here will start a war I’m in no shape to fight today,” he yells at me. “So, for God’s sake, leave before I stick a bullet between your eyes myself.”

A cool kind of certainty washes over me. “You won’t kill me.”

Click.

He calls my bluff.

The silencer is pressing into my forehead before I can make another sound.

I force myself to stay calm, although a part of me rages for being stupid enough not to check he was unarmed before I kneeled down.

“Go,” he demands.

The blue and red lights flash over his face, distorting his expression. He’s menacing, beautiful, dangerous, divine.

I want to call his bluff right back. I want to wait to see if I can prove my theory, but then someone begins to bang on the front door.

BANG, BANG, BANG.

“BOSS? OPEN UP.”

“Go.” He presses the gun harder into my forehead.

So I do. Scrambling away, I get to my feet and flee as fast as I can.

True to his word, the back door leads to the edge of the property. Scanning the back hedge, I try to find some kind of hinge or hidden escape. But it’s not until I hear the creak of the metal gate swinging open that a small passage reveals itself.

I slip in, moving quickly through the gate, and take off at speed down the road behind it. I’m not sure how long I walk before I see a taxi, but my dazed mind finally catches up to me as we journey back over the Brooklyn Bridge.

It wasn’t so long ago that Teo and I were riding over it, and yet it feels like a million things have happened since then.

The sun has already begun to rise on the horizon by the time we reach my apartment complex, and I waste no time falling into bed. I fully expect the exhaustion of the day to completely coax me to sleep.

But nothing has gone my way today, so why should this be any different?

I try to press my eyes closed in desperation, but to no avail. My alarm will be going off soon, bleating me awake at six so that I can head over to the gym.

But can I even show my face there anymore after Teo sent that guy down the stairs head-first?

There are others. Ones that he might not know about if I wanted to shake him off me for a little while.

The thought alone is entirely exhausting. Thinking about ways to evade Teo Vitale is a slippery slope that will undoubtedly lead me somewhere I’m too afraid to tread.

Instead, I pull out my phone, desperate for some kind of mind-numbing distraction.

“Wait, what?” I gasp at the first picture that fills up my screen when I open my social media feed.

My best friend, Ellie, beams back at me. Or, I suppose, ex-best friend, considering she stopped messaging after one too many missed lunch dates. In this line of work, it’s hard to explain why I suddenly need to disappear at the drop of a hat.

Interrogating a drug lord who was trying to shift his merchandise in the back lot of my family’s casino business was hardly an excuse I could give. And whatever games Ellie thought I was playing were clearly enough for my invites to get lost in the mail.

I stare at the pure joy on her face and the beautiful wedding dress she has on with a mixture of both envy and defeat.

She got married without me.

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