Page 3 of Brutal Devil
“No,” I repeat, succinct and final.
And then despite everything I’ve been taught, despite my inner instinct to stay alive, despite common sense and reason and everything that tells me never to turn my back on the enemy, I spin around and make my exit, my low-key, heeled sandals slapping on the floor as I go.
Because fuck them all. That’s why.
Chapter 2
PRIEST
She’s not fucking walking away.
Is she? Christ, she is. She’s fucking leaving, like she has a say. Like this is Sunday dinner and she doesn’t like the lasagna.
The goddamn balls on this woman.
To my left, Saint is ready to draw his gun. To my right, Scorpion already has his out of his holster. Part of me wants to let her reap her rewards for the show she’s just put on. But the other part of me knows better than to let my hotheaded brothers tear a strip off Tomasso Revello’s only daughter.
Because we need her.
Or, more accurately,Ineed her, even if I don’t want to.
And she’s hightailing her hot little ass out of here.
“I’ll handle it,” I tell my brothers before I stalk after her.
She’s across the empty dance floor and out the door before I reach her in the hall.
“Hey,” I bark out.
She ignores me, but my legs are longer than hers, and I’m not playing games. I eat up the distance between us, maneuvering her so that she’s caged between me and the wall, my palms flattened on either side of her face.
She stares up at me, knives in her big brown eyes. Not a hint of fear. Her long, dark hair is piled carelessly on top of her head in a messy topknot I want to grab and hold while she sucks my cock. She’s not wearing any makeup except for some gloss on her full, fuckable lips. When I dip my head down to hers, I catch a hint of it—vanilla sugar. She shouldn’t make my dick hard. And yet, she does.
I lean closer, so close that my lips almost brush hers. “Where do you think you’re going, Revello? We weren’t finished talking with you just yet.”
“I don’t talk with murderers and psychos,” she snaps, holding her own.
She’s not scared of me.
It’s a mistake I’ll use against her.
Putting all my weight into my left hand, I lift my right, grabbing a fistful of her silky topknot and jerking her head back enough to get her attention, not to hurt her. I’ve never physically harmed a woman, but this one needs to know her boundaries.
“You really should show me more respect,bella.”
Her jaw tenses. “I told you not to call me that.”
I pull on her hair a little bit more, exposing her throat. “I get to call you whatever the fuck I want.”
All that soft vulnerability calls to me. I want to sink my teeth into her. To taste her flesh. To bring her to her knees.
She’s still not afraid. She wants to fight me. I can sense it. And I want her to. I want her to scrap with me. To hit me. To rake those unpolished nails of hers down my back. To see how far she can push me before I break.
“Let me go,” she seethes.
“Not until I’m good and ready.” I lean into her, trapping her with my body.
I’m trying to intimidate her, yes. Trying to scare some sense into her, because my brothers are like a pack of ruthless hyenaswaiting to attack their prey, and for some reason, I don’t want to watch them tear her apart.
