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I’ve never wanted to hold and kiss a woman so deeply before in my life. She is the complete antithesis of every woman I’ve touched. My demons growl with hunger, but I lock them down and tighten their chains. My darkness can never touch her. Death, destruction and the blood. None of it will ever come close to her.
“Never seek this place out again. I won’t forgive your trespassing a second time.” I turn my hand over and rub the blood of my enemies over her cheek. For a fraction of a second I see the terror of my action reflect back at me through the prettiest eyes. Good. She needs to understand I always follow through on my promises. “Consider that a little gift for you to remember me by, beauty. Now go. Speak of this place to anyone and Raven will find you. You won’t get a second chance. You hear me?”
I watch her delicate throat work down a knot. Her chest rises and falls with her heavy breathing. I can’t imagine anyone speaking to her as harshly as I’ve done. In another lifetime, maybe her softness could have been mine. But in this one, my black interior kills flowers made of such sweetness.
“I asked if you understand me.” I speak low, hard and push my will into every syllable. I’m not into hurting women, but I can make her fear me enough that she follows my orders. She has to understand to never come back. Anger seeps into the scowl on my face. My lips flatline before peeling back into a sickening grin. “Answer me,” I snarl.
Her long inhale audibly rattles against her insides, but her words are strong when she says, “The only thing I understand is that you have a communication problem, De Las Rosa. Have you considered asking people to do as you ask? Maybe add in a “please” and a “thank you” every once in a while?”
She knows my name. Amusement flashes through me, and I fight to keep it off my expression. And she’s schooling me on how to be a proper kingpin. I don’t believe what I’m hearing. Everyone I’ve had in front of me is either pissing their pants or begging. Not reprimanding me for lacking people skills.
My laugh is humorless.
Unlike other women, her attention doesn’t fall to my scars as she lashes out. She doesn’t shrink back and look at me in horror. She does, however, keep looking toward my guns. And then she does something that throws me off balance. I’ve never witnessed a woman grow bolder in the face of danger. Instead of crying or shaking to the core, she straightens the length of her spine and raises her chin defiantly. She shifts from sweet and innocent into someone who is ready to draw blood.
“And you. Raven is it? Get your hands off me.” A tiny fist flies and the crack of her punch landing against Raven’s jaw has us all pausing. Raven drops his hands from her arms. “I understand sometimes a hard touch is needed. You don’t have permission to touch me. You earned that crack.”
She has a lot of fight in her, but the fear driving her is what has my attention. She masks it well, but my demons can smell it all the same. It’s sweet to the senses and drives my need to taste her on my tongue up a couple of notches. I wonder. Would she come to me easily or would I have to work to see what she hides under all that cotton?
A blur of motion along my peripheral has me reacting out of instinct.
“You stupid—” I catch Raven around the wrist before he can lay a hand across the innocent woman’s face. He has a big ego and getting nailed in the face in front of a lot of people bruised it.he’s a work in progress. Last year he would have pulled his guns.
I’m tired of cracking skulls and making men bleed tonight so I do nothing but look my second-in-command in the eye and let him know the depth of my seriousness without raising my voice. “Touch her before I give permission, and I’ll put a bullet in your head.” I see no need to waste time with a “please” and a “thank you”.
I release my hold on him. Raven stumbles back, wiping at a dribble of blood running down his chin from the hit he took. He looks at me like I’ve lost my head. To be fair, I have.
“Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” He steps out of reach but stays close enough in case I need him. He’s a good right hand, but lacks finesse.
“Bella, baby girl. Listen to me. Go…go home. Dammit. Just go. These men don’t wanna hear you teach them how to be kind.”
A roughed up Kincaid turns his bloody face to me.
“Bella, baby girl. Listen to me. Go…go home. Dammit. Just go. These men don’t wanna hear you teach them how to be kind.”
A roughed up Kincaid turns his bloody face to me.
“Boss, please forgive her. I never taught her to fear a man. I shoulda, dammit. Please don’t hurt her.”
Bella. I file her name away. I reach out and tip her chin up. “What is this man to you?”
Her hands ball into fists at her sides, but she doesn’t act on the surge of anger I see come to life behind her lashes. “My father. You need to let him go. Please. Just let us walk out of here. He did nothing that you can’t overlook. Right?”
Hope replaces all the anger simmering just under the surface. It shines in her eyes in a way that takes me by the balls and squeezes.
Too bad I have to crush it with the truth.
“Sorry, beauty. That isn’t how our world works. He betrayed my trust. The rose on the back of his hand is for life no matter what part of the world he lives in. He knows this. He gave a blood oath. Blood in. Blood out. It’s the price he agreed on twenty years ago.”
The weight of my words settle over her and not for the first time tonight I wish I was anyone else but the bastard that I am.
Red flushes into her cheeks. The tip of her tongue slips across her bottom lip. I drop my hand and turn to leave. I’m done here. Before I do something in front of this sweet soul’s eyes she will never recover from, I need to leave. I look to my second-in-command. “Raven. Gather Kincaid and take him to Genesis.”
“Wait.” Soft hands wrap around my bare forearm. I left my jacket in the car and lost my tie around sundown. I rolled my sleeves up on the way here preparing for the fight I knew would come. I didn’t foresee this though. Her hands on me quells the darkness dwelling inside me in ways I never thought possible. What would her lips do to me? Would she give me a taste if I asked nicely?
“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t drain him where he kneels,” I ask, but nothing prepares me for the answer I get in return.
