For one heartbeat, I watch as a bead of blood forms on her earlobe. Without thinking, I dip down to lick it up.
“Teo. NOW.”
I pull away and begin to run, leaving her frozen in shock.
I’m only half hoping that she might follow.
12
ISABELLA
The cavalry arrived only seconds after Teo left. By all accounts, he shouldn’t have made it out of the casino.
But as I staggered back into the foyer, head still spinning from his threat—and how close he’d come with that knife—I watched with my own eyes as he leaped into the back of a moving vehicle and sped off into the night.
I felt hollow as he left, something within me protesting his absence with childish recklessness. At the same time, the greater part of me remained absolutely disgusted with myself.
Whatever is happening between Teo Vitale and me feels like an open wound, one that festers more and more after every devastating encounter.
But none of it felt as bad as when my phone started ringing.
“Leon,” I say dully, already bracing myself.
“What the FUCK is going on?”
“We were negotiating.”
It wasn’t a lie,per se.Hadn’t we discussed things over poker?
It had been so very very foolish of me to challenge him at cards. The casino might have been in my family for generations, but the interlude where it been stolen by the Vitale family had somehow slipped my mind.
Of course, he was good at poker. He likely grew up wandering the very floor we had played on.
It was my own foolish arrogance that allowed me to underestimate him. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“I think I’m about done with thisnegotiating,Issy,” Leon snaps down the line. “It’s clearly not going anywhere, and if that fucker thinks he can get you alone again?—”
“I just need more time,” I argue back. “He’s slipping. I can just feel it.”
Can I? Or can I just remember the way he licked my ear? Crazy for crazy.
“I won’t risk your life like this anymore,” he barks.
I pinch the top of my nose. “That’s not your decision to make.”
“I don’t care what Mammasays, I won’t let you.”
“It’s notherdecision!” I shout back. “Leon, we need this to work. We need him to back down.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed. He’s insane.”
“He won’t hurt me,” I reply with a sureness that I don’t entirely know I feel.
Teo Vitale isn’t like any man I’ve ever encountered or tried to control before. He sees through me, straight to who I am and what I’m trying to do. But he lets me do what I want anyway, as long as I let him do the same.
It’s like the most dangerous game of chicken, pushing the other to see how far they’ll go before they put a knife to your throat.
“You have one more week.”
