Page 68 of Forbidden Want

“You want power,” she said, her voice quiet. “You like exerting power… But you’re powerless. You’re powerless now. How does it feel?”

“If you’re gonna kill me, just do it.”

“You giving my lady orders?” Connel asked and lunged down, driving the blade into their prisoner’s thigh, wringing a howl of pain from strained lungs.

His sobs of pain didn’t reach her or rouse compassion. Connel’s fist tensed around the handle.

“Leave it,” she said before he could pull it out. As asked, he let go of the blade and backed off. “I’ll fucking show her…” The memory sent a shudder through her, but she suppressed it to walk closer. “You said, ‘where’s the fucker now…’ and ‘I’ll fucking show her,’ didn’t you?” So many details were foggy, but the crisp menace of his excitement was crystal clear. Crouching down just in front of him, her heart pounded, but she wasn’t afraid. “Look at him…” He didn’t move. “Look at Ire and tell him you challenged his authority.” Her voice was so calm, right until his lack of a response infuriated her. Grabbing the handle, she twisted it hard. “Look at him!”

She screamed over Pietro’s wail of agony. But she got his attention because he raised his head enough to find her gaze.

“Don’t fucking look at her!” Connel shouted, marching over to grab Pietro’s hair and force his head higher. “You look at me!” One swift punch followed another. “Obey her fucking orders!”

She got up in a twist to walk away and took a second before turning back to the men. “You thought you could follow him? That scum like you had the right to touch what was his? How in the hell could you possibly believe you’d ever be able to take from him?” Moving again, she went around behind them and kept on going in a stroll. “Challenge him now… Sneer at him the way you sneered at me… You want to taunt someone, taunt him.”

“I didn’t know,” Pietro wept. “I didn’t. Ire, I swear to you!”

Connel wrenched the knife from his victim’s thigh but offered no reprieve and immediately plunged it into his shoulder. Another howl of pain. Connel’s eyes rose over Pietro to find hers.

Was he worried about her being scared? Horrified? She should be. Some part of her would be. But this was perverse therapy. Taking her power back from one of the men who stole hers, it renewed her somehow.

“I don’t want to touch him,” she said.

“You don’t have to,” Connel said, straightening up. “Whatever you want, Macushla.”

In that moment, there was only one thing she wanted.

Avoiding the blood pooling on the floor beneath the chair, she went around to be met by Connel.

“Conn…” she breathed.

On a low growling laugh, he hooked an arm around her, yanking her against him. “That fucking voice.”

“He wanted to touch me,” she said, pushing her palm up his chest. “Think we should untie him and let him try again?”

The pride that lit his eye was almost amused. “Please gimme that order, baby.”

She smiled.“Maybe I should order you to fuck me instead. Let him watch how a real man pleasures his woman,” she said and accepted his mouth when he swooped down to kiss her.

She wasn’t sore. Wasn’t in any pain. He held her close, pressing himself to her, his arousal imprinting itself on her stomach.

His mouth trailed to her ear. “Whatever you want. Anything.”

Bowing back, leaning on his supporting arm, she was drugged on them. “Does he deserve to know us like that?”

“He doesn’t deserve to breathe.”

“And he won’t,” she said. “He wanted power over your woman in your territory.”

“He has to die.”

Feathering her fingers down his cheek, she touched his lips with a fingertip. “To protect what’s yours.”

“You don’t have to… I’ll work for you,” Pietro pleaded, but they were lost in each other. “I’ll do whatever you want, McDade. I’ll tell you stuff. I know stuff. Silvio… he wants to buy them out. To get in under you. He’ll do it. He won’t lose, won’t admit he’s losing his grip. Even his kid doesn’t respect him.”

On the night they’d met, she’d sailed in the green of Connel’s intrepid gaze. He’d caught the man who hurt her, restrained him, and given her carte blanche. It was a valuable trust that opened her eyes to the man he was within.

There was more. She got it. His life was filled with conspiracy and betrayal. She hadn’t betrayed him, even when her life was at stake. At the time, in the alley, she hadn’t considered what signal that would send to him. Now she got it. Beyond humility, there was a bare gratitude shining down on her that revealed how he valued her. Did he mean it? Maybe not. It was intense. Always intense. In that room, they were tying their fates together. He could ruin her; she could ruin him. Leverage. That neither of them would ever use. The innate connection held them to each other, bonded them. What he’d done for her… he’d never know how cathartic it was to hurt the man who hurt her.

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