Page 58 of Dangerous as Sin

Savini takes a few steps toward me. My entire body tenses.

“You don’t know who you’re fucking with, fawn.” His stare is deadly. “You need to tell Axel, or I’m going to.” He clenches his jaw. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here and now.”

I swallow harshly. “Why don’t you?”

He balls his hand into a fist. “Because I understand what it’s like to want revenge. But what you don’t get is that revenge is a poison that will seep into your soul, eating you alive from the inside. And the moment you act on it, you can never come back from that.” Savini exhales and loosens his grip. “I don’t want that for you. Save yourself before it’s too late.”

I say the thing I’ve wanted to say to him from the moment I set my sights on him. “You killed my brother.”

“I did what had to be done. Your brother was not a good person, fawn.”

“Stop fucking calling me that,” I blurt out. “And stop lying. You’re just trying to justify being a murderer.”

“If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. Why don’t you talk to one of his victims?”

I steady my raging heartbeat. Is he about to give me a lead? Or a false story only to validate his own?

"Claire Cooper, she goes by Jones now, but I hear she and Johnny are in town. They visit Bram's religiously. If you want the truth, go talk to her. But I warn you, that place is heavily trafficked by people you don't want to cross."

“How do I know you’re not just feeding me a line of bullshit?”

Savini shrugs. “You don’t, but it would be a lot easier just to kill you before you stick your nose in the wrong person’s business. Consider this my parting gift to you.”

The finality of his last statement slices through me without warning.

“Bram’s…that’s the diner near where Jared was killed?”

“Mmhm.”

“And this Johnny, his name sounds familiar. Is he the same guy who was shot over there?”

Savini nods.

“I thought he was dead.”

“You’re not the only one.” Savini stalks toward me, stopping only inches from my body. “What we had was fun.” He skims his finger along the cut on my neck. “But you and I both know what happens when you throw gasoline on a fire.” His gaze dips down to my lips before he walks away and pauses at my door. “Tell Axel.” And then he’s gone.

I stand there, in the silence and allow my mind to run rampant.

Claire. Johnny. Jared.

Savini knows the truth. Axel is caught in the crossfire.

I’m left with the burning question—can I trust Lorenzo Savini?

I have the ride-share driver drop me off a couple blocks from my destination in hopes that the fresh air on the rest of my journey will help clear my head and come up with a game plan.

Savini said Claire visits Bram’s religiously, but that doesn’t mean she’s there now. What will I even say to her if she is?

Hey, did my brother sexually assault you? Do you know of any of his other victims that would be willing to talk to me about their traumatic experience? What right do I even have to bring up something so terribly if these girls really are his victims?

Until I truly know, Jared will remain a victim in my mind. And if he really is an abuser, he doesn’t deserve an ounce of my pity.

After everything he and I went through, there’s no way he would treat someone the same way our father did. Unless…he became the man we hated. I would have known, would have seen the signs, wouldn’t I? His own sister should have noticed the red flags if he was what Savini claims he is. But Jared and I outgrew our closeness once we got old enough to sneak out of the house and escape the torment of our dad. We went our separate ways, fleeing the abuse however we could. And once we became adults, that distance manifested even more. FaceTime calls to catch up morphed into texts left on read.

So, when I heard the news that he had been killed, it hit me like a freight train. Grief, guilt, anger—it filled me all at once. Had I been there, maybe I could have saved him. If I insisted that we stayed in touch more, maybe I could have prevented him from going down a path of crime that resulted in his death. I could have done more. I should have done more.

I open the door to the diner, the bell chiming on my way in. The scent of freshly baked goods hits me immediately.

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