Page 14 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

“Like what?”

She met his gaze, and he did not wish to recognize any of the feelings swirling in there. So he did not.

Then her gaze dropped to her hand. She pulled the ring he’d given her off and pushed it across the table toward him.

He stopped her forward movement with his hand over hers. “Let us not be hasty,” he murmured. “Why don’t we return home and—”

“Do you think I would marry you now?” she asked. “You must be delusional. Your best option at this juncture is to convince me not to tell Lorenzo everything I know, and so far you are failing in that.”

Temper poked, Teo smiled and leaned back in his booth. He left her hand and his ring right there at the center of the table as he looked down at her with as much disdain as he could muster. “Ah, yes, run home to Daddy, is it?”

Everything in her expression sharpened—anger, disgust, hate. He welcomed them all. Better than hurts and vulnerabilities that poked at things he dared not look directly at.

“You are an adult, Saverina,” he said, keeping all the scathing in his tone. “Behave as one. Think this through. Dante has hurt your family. Now, I can get my revenge on him alone, for just myself. I have no issues doing such. But won’t it be better, more satisfying, if we work together to destroy him? Once and for all.”

He thought she might look shamed or hurt, but she leaned back in the booth as he did. His ring—which likely cost more than everything in this bar—sat on the sticky table between them.

She raised a regal eyebrow, crossed her arms over her chest. He should have known she would not be so easy to mold. “You have me confused with someone else, Teo.” Then she slid out of the booth as if she owned this entire low-end bar and sauntered out of the establishment, with more than a few eyes watching the sway of her hips as she left.

CHAPTER SIX

SAVERINA BLINKED BACK tears as best she could. The evening outside the bar was cool and dark, and she wanted nothing more than to make it to the car and sob all the way home.

Everything was a lie. She’d known this for days now, but something about having to deal with Teo, something about it being not quite the betrayal she had thought it was, made all her defenses crumble.

But she heard footsteps behind her, and she would be damned if she would cry in front of this scheming, lying, horrible bastard. She sucked in a breath and blew it out hard, then turned to face him. She shook her hair back, looked up into his dark flashing eyes.

His expression was one she’d never seen before—except that night he’d come home angry. The night they’d...

She could not think about all the ways she’d let this man into her heart.

“I am not through with you, Saverina,” he growled.

“What a shame for you.” She jerked her car door open, unsurprised when he grabbed it and blocked her entrance. She didn’t rage—though she wanted to. She met his fire with ice. “I’m not sure it would be a good look if I called the police, Teo. A harassment charge would certainly complicate your plans, I would think. Or is this a bit like father like son?”

It landed like a blow, as she’d hoped, and half feared would not. He was so smooth, so totally in charge, even when she’d clearly uncovered a secret he hadn’t wanted uncovered. But that comment hit where it hurt. It flashed in his eyes, in the way his mouth went slack for just a moment.

She curled her hands into fists and assured herself it was satisfaction she felt at the arrested look on his face.

Quickly smoothed away.

“I could turn this on you, bedda. I could make things equally as uncomfortable for Parisi as I do for Marino.”

A threat? She wanted to laugh. “And I could destroy you, and your sad little plan for revenge,” she returned, unable to hold on to her ice. She seethed.

For a moment, they only stared at each other in the dim, unflattering parking lot light.

“I see we are at an impasse,” he finally said. Cool and in control, which made her want to rage. But she held on to the tiny thread of composure she had left.

“Why don’t we talk this through somewhere less public and more comfortable?” he said, as if this were a reasonable suggestion. As if they were in a boardroom. As if he was her boss.

“Follow me back to—”

“I will never step foot in your apartment again.” Maybe it was showing her hand too much, but she knew he had the upper hand if they went back to his place. She wanted to believe herself immune, but if she went back to where they’d created far too many memories together, she was afraid she’d soften—to him, to his plan, to the chemistry between them.

She refused. But she couldn’t ignore the fact his plan of destroying Dante Marino was...intriguing. Especially if it helped Parisi. Especially if Lorenzo never knew. She should likely send Teo off right now, but if there was a chance she could cut Dante Marino off at the knees... “If you simply must continue this fool’s errand, then you can meet me at my house.”

“Your brother’s house.”

---