Page 33 of Brutal Devil
He stalks over to Rocco, and the two of them confer quietly. I can’t hear what they’re saying. Maybe they’re plotting to kill me. Trying to figure out a good place to dump my body. Idiot that I am, I’m still dazed from those kisses. From the way Priest sets me on fire, the way my body reacts to his. No ex has ever made me feel the slightest hint of what he does.
It’s wrong and it’s terrifying.
I don’t even know who I am right now, dressed up in a designer gown and heels that cost more than everything I own and about to marry a mobster. A mobster who worked his way up the ladder by mercilessly killing all his father’s enemies.
Slowly, I push away from the wall, wondering if I can take advantage of Priest’s and Rocco’s distractedness. But Priest’s head swivels back to me instantly.
“Don’t even think about it,” he bites out. “You’ve caused enough trouble for one day.”
“I’m a lot of trouble. You should probably take that into consideration.”
He chuckles, the sound like velvet and whiskey, and then gives me a slow, wolfish smile. “I like trouble.”
Nothing works against this man. I’ve fought him every step of the way. And I’m still standing here in the basement of the church where we’re about to be married, wearing the wedding dress and shoes he picked out. Never mind that they’re gorgeous. Never mind that they fit perfectly.
“Maybe I’m the kind of trouble you can’t afford,” I tell him boldly. “I’m not some quiet Mafia wife who does what she’s told and looks the other way.”
I don’t know why I’m even saying this. I have no intention of being Priest Andriani’s wife. Even if he forces me into a ceremony today, even if I sign my name on the license, I’m going to get out of this hell. One way or another. I’m not giving up my life.
He strokes his jaw, looking at me thoughtfully, and I try not to notice how beautifully stubbled the sharp angle is, try to keep the unwanted attraction I feel for him—as magnetic as it is electric—at bay.
“Don’t worry,topolina,” he says with the smug look of a man who knows he’s hot as fuck and isn’t afraid to flaunt it. “I keep my women in line.”
His women.
I think about taking off one of my shoes and throwing it at him, the same way I did with his camera.
But I clench my jaw instead. “Keep them in line all you want. Just know I won’t be one of them.”
“Not to interrupt, boss,” Rocco says then, “but Amedeo’s through security. We good to go?”
For a minute, I forgot Rocco was here. It was as if Priest and I were the only two people in the world, locked in a battle of wills and want.
Amedeo.
My cousin Amedeo.
The one I vaguely remember from my childhood, who used to give Leo and me cherry cordials at Christmas whenever there was a Revello family gathering. They were disgusting, but I ate them because I wanted male approval and God knows I didn’t get it from my father. And now, Amedeo is trying tokillmyfather, plotting to become the new don. If what Priest says is true, Amedeo will kill me too.
Priest is still looking at me, his eyes practically burning into me, like he can see inside to a place I want to keep hidden from the world. “I’ll leave that up to Luna.”
I lick my lips, and it’s a mistake, because I taste him. Whiskey and sex and everything I shouldn’t want.
“What do you mean, you’ll leave it up to me?”
“Easy way or hard way?” A muscle in his jaw ticks. “The easy way is you marry me in front of everyone waiting upstairs. The hard way is you keep fighting me, and I’m going to have to take out your cousin and all his men. Who knows who’ll get caught in the crossfire? It’s going to be messy. The choice is yours.”
He’s playing games with me again. Sick games. Acting like I have a say in this nightmare when we both know I don’t. It’s either do what he wants or people die.Idie.
“Easy way,” I bite out.
But he hasn’t won. Because the war between us is just beginning, and I have no intention of letting him emerge the victor.
I’ll destroy him and every last one of the Andrianis before I’m done, and I’ll do it in my brother’s name.
Chapter 10
PRIEST
