Page 46 of SINS & Riley
I shake my head, smiling. If the queen could see it now, she’d claw her way out of the grave.
My mother, too.
I shake my head. Not wanting Riley? That’s like telling my lungs to go without air. And my cock doesn’t exactly have an off switch.
Inside my skull, the chant pounds like a war drum—stick to the plan. Stick to the plan.
Because the plan is all I’ve got.
The only way this mess of a life even begins to carve out a path back to my father.
The problem?
The plan never accounted for Riley Mullvain.
“Well,” I mutter into the empty glass, “considering the plan was to never touch her, genius—what now?”
“What?” Dominic’s eyes narrow, sharp with suspicion.
“Nothing,” I say. Shit. I forgot he was still in the room.
How much have I had to drink?
He studies me for a long beat. “I can work on Emilio.”
And why not? Dominic’s a world-class enforcer. Torture should be in his wheelhouse.
But then I see his hand. The dried blood crusting at his knuckles. And something in me tightens. In his world, you maim or you don’t. You kill, or you don’t.
But torturing a man to the edge of death and suspending him there—relishing that precise twist of the knife—takes a special kind of twisted, sick fuck.
That’s not Dominic’s world.
That’s mine.
One deranged motherfucker, at your service.
A sliver of conscience and you hesitate. Misstep. One wrong knot was all it took. Emilio had Dominic’s knife.
I caught him a breath before Emilio sliced his throat. And it took every ounce of self control not to kill Emilio on the spot.
Because if Dominic dies, I’m the one explaining to his grandmother and his kids why he’s gone.
And that’s not happening.
Dominic’s with me because there’s safety under the shadow of Zver. He knows it. And Riley will learn it soon.
He blows out a breath. “I won’t fail you again.”
My eyes narrow. Rarely does Dominic piss me off. But right now he’s smashing my last good nerve with a sledgehammer.
“Remind me, what’s your job?” I ask.
A hard breath. “To protect Riley.”
I jab a finger at his loyal face. “And despite her best efforts, is she still breathing?”
He nods once.
