Page 124 of Handsome Devil
“I can’t believe he agreed.” George, our senior accountant, squeezed my shoulder. “Now I can finally have some personal time off for my hip replacement and physiotherapy.”
“I hadn’t realized you had him so wrapped around your little finger.” Mariam gnawed on her lower lip thoughtfully, arms folded. “That was…impressive.”
“For real.” Trisha pouted. “I thought Tate’s love language was glaring. He didn’t seem like the type to…you know, do nice things. Even for his wife.”
“And the way he fired Rebecca.” Mariam fanned herself. “You’ve got yourself a keeper.”
When I met Tate at the elevators, he didn’t tear his gaze from the climbing numbers on the digital screen, back to ignoring my existence.
“A few weeks ago, you forced me to fire people for a living,” I said quietly. “Now you’re letting me start a union. Why the change of heart?”
“First of all, I have no heart. That hasn’t changed.” He looked down, putting on his leather gloves. “Second, I found something to replace my hobby of pissing you off.”
“And what’s that?”
“Making you come on my tongue,” he answered conversationally, ignoring our bodyguards.
Enzo whistled low, slanting his head. Filippo elbowed him on a chuckle.
“The two don’t go hand in hand. I had to pick one,” Tate continued. “I chose the pussy.”
“No, you chose to disappear for five bloody days.”
“I had my reasons.”
“Right. Business in Europe, and…? Why were you in the Hamptons?”
He gave me a wry look. “You know very well why I was there and why you couldn’t come.”
He killed the third and last man.
He avenged his father.
And it made me feel…good for him, somehow. I hoped he’d found his closure.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To meet the Callaghans.” He swiped invisible lint from his suit. “And the Ferrantes, of course.”
“Ceasefire?” I asked hopefully.
The doors slid open. We stepped inside, our bodyguards following suit.
A dangerous grin played on his face. “Ensnarement, my dear.”
“Why are you bringing me to the lion’s den?” Gia broke the silence in the back seat of my Range Rover while Iven cruised the streets of Brooklyn.
“If you stayed at work, the Callaghans would know I wasn’t nearby and make a move.”
“This shit needs to stop. I’m scared,” she admitted, reaching to fumble with her bracelet before remembering it wasn’t there anymore.
“You’ve no reason to be. Tiernan knows what I’ll do to his sister if he so much as glances at you the wrong way.”
“You’d hurt a woman to get back at someone?” She turned to me, stunned.
“Hey, you were the ones who were hell-bent on being treated equally,” I deadpanned.
The truth was I could’ve executed Nash Moore in two, three, even five weeks, when there wasn’t so much heat between the Irish and me. But I needed an excuse to get away from her.
