Page 112 of Devious Madness

“No.” He steps inside and closes the door, leaning back against it with one foot propped up on it.

He’s dressed in a pair of jeans that hug his thighs in a manner that makes me want to lie across them. And the black button-down with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone only make my mouth water even more.

This is ridiculous. I need to remember he rejected me. I said I loved him, and he walked out.

“How do you feel?” He questions, his gaze settling on the bruise.

Like someone used a pair of dull, rusty scissors to cut my heart into a million pieces.

“Much better. It looks bad, but it doesn’t hurt anymore.” I graze the mark with my fingertips.

“You saw the phone?”

“I did. Thank you.” I shift my weight from one foot to the other.

How does this work now? We weren’t really a couple; I told him so too many times to count. So, we’re not really broken up, but we’re less than we were.

He hooks his thumbs into his jeans, exposing his knuckles. They’re scraped and bruised and swollen.

“Rurik.” I grab hold of them, pulling them up so I can get a better look. “What happened?”

He searches my features. “You’re worried about my knuckles?”

“I’m worried about what you did to get them to look like this.”

“I had to deal with something.”

“You mean someone?” I drop his hands and take a step back. “Mario or Marco?”

His expression darkens, but it’s not for me.

“Mario and his brothers won’t ever bother you again.”

I know what that means.

“You killed them.”

“Do you want to know how?”

I tilt my head. “No, not really. Does that mean there’s another mafia family that hates me?”

“No.” He pushes off the door. “TheGallo family wasn’t truly a syndicate. They were allowed to run their gambling rings so long as they paid tributes where they were due. Sebastian kept them from the business, but he let them run games now and then. He had a feeling they were skimming; that’s what was on that iPad. I don’t know for certain, but I think he wanted to see proof before he acted against his sons. They killed him to take over, but they hadn’t been skimming just from him. They’d been stealing from other families.”

“Did you tell the other families?”

“They already knew, they just didn’t know who was involved. From the conversations I’ve had, it seems Sebastain wanted the information so he could make things right with them after he dealt with his sons.”

“So that was them that shot you?”

He nods. “The two younger brothers were handed over to the families that wanted to deal with them personally.” He tells me, gauging my reaction. “I killed Mario myself.”

I blink at the brutal honesty of it.

“Why are you telling me all this?” I ask softly.

With steady steps, he stalks to me. Feeling every bit his prey, I retreat until I’m butted up against the wall and he has me caged.

He presses his hands against the wall on either side of my head, leaning in until there’s no space between us.

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