“Right, so she told you that when? While she was sucking your cock?”
A part of me registers the regret in Teo’s eyes the second the words leave his mouth. But it’s vastly overshadowed by the roar of anger that threatens to consume me.
I dig my fingernails into my palms to steady my breathing.
“You are my brother in everything but blood,” I growl out. “But if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds, I will kill you.”
But Teo only holds my glare with his unnervingly dark eyes. “You are blinded to the truth, Rocco. I’m not going to stop because you wouldn’t let me do something this stupid, either.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“How’s that?” Teo huffs a laugh. “I know you better than anyone. I’ve seen firsthand how you built the Guild up from nothing, how you fought against your father for five years and emerged victorious. This isn’t what you want. The job always comes first.”
The job always comes first.
A truth I have lived by my entire life. It’s the foundation of everything I have ever done, everything I have become, the song that wakes me up every morning and sends me to sleep every night.
Only…
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Miss Cassandra!”
Only Cassandra Bellini has sung another song—one with a pull far stronger than my call to the Guild.
The realization hits me like a ton of fucking bricks.
I’m helpless as I watch Cas take the stage. That tiny black dress and leather jacket are all the more enticing now that I know what they look like on my bedroom floor.
“How are you all doing tonight?” She smiles out to the crowd, that quiet confidence emanating from her very soul.
Only I know she’s not quiet. She’s boisterous and loud and challenges me at every turn. She’s smart, too smart, and far too witty for her own good. I have to work to keep up with her sometimes, but she never lets me lag behind.
“Could we lower the lights a little bit? I want to see who came all the way out here to see little old me,” she continues as her spotlight dims around her. “Oh, hi!” she laughs.
And the room laughs with her.
And it’s insane that I’m jealous of that laugh. That something else managed to make her smile like that. Her laugh is like a drugto me, and drawing one out of her is the sweetest thing I could ever achieve.
Yet when she begins to sing, the jealousy melts away. It’s just pure pride that lingers.
I’m proud of the woman before me for taking on every hardship and coming out the other end. For even being able to get up on that stage—despite the fact her abusive boyfriend put her there to begin with.
I’m proud to call her mine and that she, in turn, did not run at the very thought.
“Teo,” I finally gasp out.
“Boss?”
“I love her.”
“Fuck.”
SHHHHHHHHH.
The power cuts out with an ominous, draining noise, and theCandelabrais flooded in darkness.
I’m on my feet in an instant.
“Get to the generator,” I hiss to Teo at my side as I blindly check over my pistol and immediately begin to climb onto the stage.
