Page 71 of Madness & Mercy
“I’ll stay,” I grind out.
He exhales slowly. Like that was what he needed to hear all along.
“Good boy.”
My stomach knots. Not with anger. Not exactly.
I look away, blood still crusted on my ribs, the throbbing in my arm starting to spike now that the adrenaline’s wearing off. “Don’t push your luck.”
“I’m not,” he says coolly, walking over to the small bar cart by the wall. “Just making sure we understand each other.”
He pours a finger of whiskey into a glass. Doesn’t ask if I want one.
Brings it over anyway.
I take it. Because fuck him, I need it.
Because my shoulder’s screaming and I’d rather deal with the pain than the way he keeps looking at me.
Like Ibelongto him.
I down half the glass in one gulp. It burns all the way down, and still doesn’t hurt as much as this… whatever the hell this is.
Nico watches me over the rim of his own glass.
“You’re lucky I was there,” he says, his tone deceptively casual.
I laugh once, dry and bitter. “Yeah. I’ll add that to the list of shit I owe you for.”
He smirks. “The list’s getting long.”
“So’s my patience.”
He steps closer again. “Then you better behave.”
“You keep saying that,” I mutter, finishing the last sip. “Still waiting for a reason to.”
He takes the glass from my hand and sets it aside, then leans in until our foreheads nearly touch.
“I just saved your life,piccolino,” he whispers. “Don’t make me regret it.”
I don’t move.
I don’t speak.
I just breathe, shallow and ragged, waiting to see what he’ll do next. Waiting to see whatI’lldo.
Because whatever this thing is between us, it’s bleeding now.
Open.
Wounded.
And still very much alive.
PART II– MADNESS
CHAPTER 11 – THE BULLET
