Page 83 of Made to Sin

I slid a warning underneath my words. If he was as intelligent as he thought he was, he would never do it again. If not, he would face the end of my Glock and learn the hard way.

“I apologize,” he caustically spat.

The fucker wasn’t sorry, but it was reassuring to know he was afraid enough to fake an apology for it.

I spun the pen again. “Saying it means nothing to me.”

He pursed his lips, the angry wrinkles between his eyebrows coming back. Someone may have taught him how to become a Made Man, but nobody bothered with respect.

“What I meant to say is that now that you have Katarina, let’s call it fair,” he restated.

I scoffed in disbelief that he thought he could pull one over me. The Camellos were rotten cheats, and while I wasn’t the most moral man, there were some boundaries you didn’t cross. One of them was trying to cheat on a deal you couldn’t risk a war for.

“Last I heard, you kicked her out of Camello Property. She wasn’t and still isn’t yours to give away. Find a better offer, or get out of my face.”

He glowered and turned a reddish shade at my dismissal but didn’t leave.

I lightly tapped my feet to an invisible rhythm, each beat ofmy black soles rang through the quiet room like theticksof a clock. The key to business was to make the other party feel under pressure. By imitating a timer, I had put him on the spot.

He sucked in a quiet breath that I didn’t miss. That and the sweat beading on his forehead told me I was successfully doing my job.

“Okay, okay. For what my cousin promised last time, the route between us is yours.”

We wrapped up the deal, signed the papers, and he left my office thinking he won. For someone dressed like the new prophet, Sergio was terrible at reading the situation. The Camello bloodline must have been foolishly passed on.

A devious smile wore on my face as the devil on my shoulder came back. In the end, I’d stolen everything from Marco like I had wanted months prior. I took his life, his business, and his wife.

Tori was right, I wasn’t my father.

I was worse.

I poured myself a whiskey and toasted it to the dead man who made me this way.

Happy Death Anniversary, Salvatore.

THEBEDWASCOLDONthe other side when I woke up. A part of me wanted to believe Luciano woke up early for work, but another part couldn’t help but think he regretted asking me to stay.

God, having a crush was more tiring than it was worth. I reached the peak of it yesterday night, and it was time to move on.

In spite of how intrigued I was to pick his brain and snoop around his room, it felt like a violation being in there alone. Partly because I was scared of what I would find if I started snooping. A person didn’t get the reputation that he had by doing nothing. The image of potentially finding skeletons in his closet sent a creeping shudder down my spine.

With a sigh and my muscles aching, I got up to leave.

I didn’t expect Maria to stand in front of the door with a big grin on her face. Although it was almost noon, it was technically morning for me, and nobody should be this cheery in the morning.

Holding a hand to my rapidly beating chest, I took a step back. “Jeez, Maria! You scared me.”

Her smile stretched from ear to ear. “WasSenhorBeneveti better than your little toys?”

This was the subject she wanted to talk about first thing when I woke up? An outsider who heard her talk with nocontext would undoubtedly think she was a gossipy young adult, not a woman in her mid-sixties.

I rolled my eyes at her nosiness. “You were the one that chastised me for thinking about sex with Luciano the last time we were talking about this subject. What changed?”

She didn’t falter at my dead tone, replying with an undying brightness. “You were married then, and I work forSenhorBeneveti now. Do what you want.”

She tilted her chin up in the most snobby manner at my judgemental expression. I didn’t have to ask who paid her more, it was obvious. What a switch-up she was.

I changed the subject, taking advantage of her distraction to avoid the original question. “What’s for breakfast?”

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