Page 114 of Lovely Venom
“When you move in with me.” He pulls my chin to face him like he’s checking to see if I twitch.
Inside I am.
“Um, no. Actually. I’m selling them.”
Connor brings my chin around to meet his eyes. “Why?”
“I need the money.” I see the collection through his eyes suddenly.
“You don’t need anything.” He hugs me. “You have me.”
“And do your brothers’ wives lounge around all day getting taken care of?” I challenge.
“No. But this situation is different.”
I’m too exhausted to argue. “I haven’t gotten back to the buyer because I’ve been a little distracted,” I say to push past the anxiety.
“Where did you sell them?” Connor crosses his arms,eyes narrowing.
I narrow mine right back. “Online marketplace.”
I doubt he has a social media account. He’s one step away from being a caveman.
LUGGING MY CARRY-ONbag, Connor walks me out of my building. Sharp pains pinch my chest from not knowing when I’ll be back.
Before we go home to his place, Connor takes a detour after making a few calls.
Heading toward SOHO, I ask, “Should your family be celebrating with a Sunday dinner if an important boss was killed?”
“It’s not a celebration. It’s a continuation of normalcy. No matter what, we’re never too busy for the wives, the kids, or our mother. And now girlfriends.” He shifts in his seat. “Although, you’re the first girlfriend. Ava and Lennox were already wives when we started doing this again.”
Ignoring that last part, I say, “Kids, huh?”
“My sister, Griffin, and Ewan, my oldest brother, have kids.” At a light, he turns to me. “My da never hid what he did. Never lied about who he was. Sure, he didn’t go into any court-admissible details. But no matter what, I never felt like he wasn’t our da first.”
My heart squeezes. “That’s really sweet, Connor. And you all worked for the O’Rourkes in Astoria before this?”
“You’ve got a lot of questions, Venom.” His hot and cold is something I’ll have to get used to until he fully trusts me.
Trust no onemust be a universal mafia code.
“You can trust me, Connor. I did a lot of stupid thingswhile on the bureau and maybe after, too.”
“Agreeing to kill me was a very stupid thing to do.”
“I didn’t know you,” I say with a playful shrug. “Didn’t know it was you until after I agreed.”
“And when you realized it was me, did you have a brain aneurysm and forget how good I fuck?”
Scoffing, I say, “That wouldn’t have stopped me.”
“You’re kidding yourself, Venom.”
Hmmm. Maybe I am. Here I am, on my target’s arm.
And in a few days, I’ll be meeting his mother.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
