Page 105 of Seeking Vengeance

A whimper tightens my throat.

I’m not the person I used to be either.

“Start a new life with me, Layla,” he whispers my wishes into existence. My dreams. My hopes. “Be with me for who I am now. Not where I came from.”

“Where you came from just had us ducking for cover.” I turn to face him, finally able to ignore all the parts of me that want to disappear into the shelter of his arms. “You haven’t moved on, Matthew. That life is still a part of you.”

“No. I walked away from their—”

“How can you say that when Lorenzo was asking you to take over right in front of me? He was begging you to come back.”

His jaw ticks with tension. “I’m next in line because his sons declined the offer. He’s growing desperate. But I’ll never go back.”

“It seems to me that you’re going back every time you meet with him.”

“I’ve been out for years,” he enunciates with slow adamance. “Bishop and I—”

“Yes, tell me about Bishop.” I’ve never trusted that asshole. “If you wanted distance from your old life, why keep him with you?”

For a moment he’s silent, perhaps biding his time.

“Matthew?” I raise a brow and snatch my dress from the floor, huddling it against my chest.

“He’s with me out of misguided obligation. He thinks he owes me for getting him out.”

“And how did you do that?”

“I did whatever I had to. I wasn’t leaving without him.”

His words say nothing, but I understand regardless. I know the sins. The darkness. The bloodshed.

The duties of underworld men aren’t unfamiliar to me. I’m aware of the atrocities my brother inflicts on our enemies. Hunter, Decker, and Luca, too. And all the underlings that follow.

I was raised to believe an eye for an eye is for the nine-to-five crowd.

My family is different. If someone betrays the Torian name, the cost is high and lifelong. Not merely an eye, but the breaking of one’s spirit. The shredding of their soul.

I don’t want to see Matthew like that. I can’t picture blood on his hands and hate in his heart.

I wrap my arms around my waist, unable to deny it any longer. “You’ve killed people.”

His jaw ticks again. “I can admit I’m not without sin. Can you?”

“Excuse me?”

“What were you planning on doing with the Costas, Layla? Why were you carrying poison?”

“This isn’t about me. We’re—”

“Why not?” He cocks a brow. “We’re one and the same. You might not want to tell me who you are, but the fact you haven’t run a million times already says we’re from similar worlds. We understand each other. We can make this work.”

“Our similarities are what I’m trying to get away from.”

“Me too.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Me fucking too.”

I hate this side of him. The frustration and suffering. It awakens a weakness in me I never knew existed.

“I wish we were different people.” I drag my dress back over my head. “I wish for so many things, Matthew. A lot of them involving you. But—”

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