“Just eliminating the possibility.”
“You listen here, boy.” He almost spits the word in my face, and I can smell the telltale scent of liquor on his breath. “The Guild is my legacy, you hear me? You think me capable of selling information to the fucking Cartel?”
My face remains entirely neutral. “I believe you capable of sowing ruin whenever you put your mind to it.”
This time, he does go to strike me.
Only, I’m not a boy anymore.
Wham.
No sooner does his hands grasp my collar than I pivot and slam him into the ground.
“I am done here,” I say as I see myself out.
From the floor, Giuliano wheezes after me. “You’re a disgrace.”
“I get that from you.”
There’s no remorse in my words, only my cool demeanor disguising the rapidly beating heart of a child.
Teo and Martino still wait by the car, whispering to each other in low voices.
“Time to go,” I announce.
Teo gives me a once over, clearly noting the childish panic behind my schooled expression. But he doesn’t comment.
“You think he’s in on it?” Teo asks instead as he opens the car door for me.
I glance up at the glass skyscraper one last time. “If he is, he’s enraged enough to make his next move as soon as possible.”
14
CASSANDRA
Ialmost don’t believe my eyes when I find Rocco sitting on the couch in the brownstone lounge.
After a week of nothing but closed doors, I was beginning to think the Mafia don was a figment of my imagination.
Surely I had only dreamed of our night together. I’ve never encountered a man who knew how to eat me out so masterfully. Every touch a tease, every movement of his tongue, a calculated step toward the greatest climax of my life.
Disappearing afterward had been one thing, but being ignored in the days that followed had been torture. I felt like an idiot, looking up from my book at the smallest sound, pestering Donatella about his dinner plans.
It took an embarrassing amount of time for the truth to sink in: my obsession was entirely one-sided.
Now, he sits there with his whiskey, staring out of the window and looking more miserable than anyone I’ve ever seen. A vicious part of me tells me I should leave him alone to let him stew in his own displeasure.
But my feet have a mind of their own.
He looks up at my approach, dazed as if I’d jerked him away from whatever he was thinking about.
It’s unfair how breathtaking he is. His dark hair falls over his gray eyes with such effortless style that my heart already begins to throb in my chest.
I’m remembering the way he looked up at me through those bangs as his tongue plunged inside of me.
“Cassandra. I didn’t realize you were still awake.”
I glance at the clock. It is well past midnight, but my body is still struggling to adjust to a normal schedule.
