Page 107 of Brutal Devil
Clearly, my wife is still as furious with me this evening as she was when I left.
I wander back out to the bar that overlooks the skyline and pour myself a double. While I wait, I shoot off a few texts to my brothers, letting them know about the call from Amedeo.
I’m on my third drink by the time she deigns to join me, her skin flushed from the warmth of the shower and her dark hair damp. She’s wearing a long green dress that clings to her tits and hips, and her nipples are hard. My cock twitches to attention, even if my rational mind understands the chances of me persuading Luna to let me fuck her are about as good as my chances of winning the damn lottery.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey.” Her tone is chilly. “You were gone all day.”
“Things came up.”
“You told me you’d be gone an hour or two,” she points out, crossing her arms over her chest and robbing me of one of my favorite views.
I shrug a shoulder. “Additional things came up.”
Her honey-brown gaze narrows on the glass as I tilt it to my lips. “You changed.”
I glance down at what remains of my suit, surprised she could tell the difference. “My other suit got dirty. Hazard of the job.”
She bites her lower lip, then looks away. “I thought maybe something happened to you.”
I wasn’t expecting an admission like that from her, especially not after last night and this morning.
A grin kicks up the corner of my mouth. “You worried about me,amore mio?”
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “No moretopolina?”
“You’ve never been a little mouse. I only called you that to get under your skin.”
Her gaze jerks back to me. “Whymy love? Is that to get under my skin too? I know you don’t love me.”
“I wasn’t born to love. I was born to make money and to kill any enemy who gets in my way.”
It’s stark truth. I’m a gangster. I was born into this life, and the only way I’ll leave it is when I die. Unlike Luna, I don’t see our world as a prison sentence. I don’t want to escape. Here, in the underworld, in the darkness and the shadows, in a penthouse high above the restless city, is where I thrive.
“Is that what you were doing while you were gone today?” she asks quietly. “Killing?”
I think of Carlo, no remorse in me. What happened needed to happen.
“Do you really want to know, baby? Remember, what you don’t know can’t be used against you.”
“Why’d you do it?”
I stare at her. “You sure you want to know?”
She nods. “Tell me.”
“Scorpion found out who was behind my cousin Antonio and his soldiers. We had a score to settle.”
“Oh God.” She presses a hand over her mouth, struggling for composure before removing it and continuing. “You found the man who killed your cousin and cut out his tongue?”
“And we discovered who ordered it.”
“Who?”
I hold her stare, letting her see the brutality within me, what I’ve witnessed today, what I’ve done. “Amedeo the Animal.”
Her eyes close for a moment, dark lashes fanning over her cheeks, as she processes the news. When they open, they’re glittering with unshed tears. “What about my father? Did you find out anything about who killed him?”
