Yes, she was still my slut despite her past lies and the ones to come. There was something about her that begged me not to let her go just yet. To own her even if there was no forever. The way she blushed drove me insane. The way she moaned. Her virgin taste. The face she made when she was shattering apart for me and no one else. The sounds she hummed between her screams of my name.
“Answer her, Ravenna,” I demanded. “Who calls you on the burner?”
Ravenna backed away, gulping.
“Get those Goddamn cuffs off me, Nicky.”
Nicky blinked and shook her head, glancing at Ravenna. “Just answer him,” she said, urgency in her voice.
“It’s… It’s just a patient.”
A lie. “What’s their name?”
She pushed her glasses up to where her brows hooked. “I can’t tell you that.”
“What’shisfucking name?”
“Violating patient’s confidentiality is betrayal. I can’t—”
I pulled at the chain, trying to stand. “Uncuff me, Nicky!”
Ravenna lifted her hands, gesturing for me to stop in panic. “Leo, please. Don’t move. You’ll rip your stitches.”
I ignored her, groaning as I used the wall for support, pulling myself up. Then I twisted my already broken digits and slid my wrist out of the metal, without a single groan. Time to teach them both a lesson.
I am Leo Bellomo. The villain. The monster. The psycho. My father’s son.
Ravenna, despite her fear, gazed at me with admiration. A little girl that had just met a superhero. Nicky, on the other hand, peered at me with her never ending rage. I didn’t blame her. I might have led her to believe she had the upper hand here. She thought she had it all under control, cuffing me, believing I wouldn’t be able to move, feeling safe…ish. Now, she wasn’t, and she’d blame me for it, thinking I’d manipulated her. Another thing we had in common, another quality I admired about her, was that she detested manipulation.
One day she’d understand I was nothing like her husband or my father, and I’d meant her no harm. But she needed to know who really ran this show.I’m Capo. My law. My orders.
“For fuck’s sake, just say their name,” Nicky said.
“Safin,” Ravenna whispered. “Viktor Safin.”
Nicky rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, Bratva?”
“Yes,” I answered for Ravenna, pain shooting through me and piling around my leg. I dragged it, nonetheless, testing my speed. It barely gave me four steps before I was drenched in sweat. Cazzo.
Ravenna ran toward me, her arms wide open to help me. Overcompensating for her lies or genuinely concerned? Either way, I let her help me sit on the bed. Let her feel safe for now.
“You know him?” Nicky asked, suspicion dripping off her voice.
I knew whom he was married to as well. But that was a piece of information I’d hold for later. Ravenna was mine to squeeze, not Nicky’s. “He’s a sleaze bag piece of shit. Not in our turf…or yours.”
She easily bought my lie. I’d laced it with enough truths, and she hadn’t been married to Domenico long enough to know turfs or connections.
“Let’s eat first, Nicky,” I said. “Then you give me that phone.”
“You eat. I’m not that hungry.”
“But you’re so pale. You need your strength as much as I do. You never know what might happen.”
Her gaze dropped to the bags, and her chin trembled. “How the fuck am I supposed to eat after I…”
I keep forgetting that fucking conscience. “What’s done is done, Nicky. You gotta keep going to survive.”
“So what? I just put him behind me like you did with Gloria and go find the next one?” She switched her gaze toward Ravenna. “And the next?”
