Page 52 of My Cruel Salvation

Alex nodded. She was right. He just didn’t want to do it. Hell, he’d stall forever if he could. “I can’t believe he’s got Manny working for him.” He was marking time now, trying to put off the inevitable. “He shouldn’t have even been at the complex. Aurelia didn’t want him to stay.”

“Since when does what a woman wants matter? And Aurelia’s dead, remember?”

He heard the vitriol in her voice and tilted his head. “Is Joseph still bothering you?” He saw the blush rise on her cheeks, but she shook her head. “No. Not anymore. He stays away.”

He didn’t believe her. “You’re not still hanging around him, are you? He’s too old for you, and he hurts you.”

“I’m not hanging around him,” she snapped. “And stop changing the subject.”

He scowled. She was right. He was stalling.

“You have to leave as soon as it’s done, you know.”

“I know,” he said.

“It’ll be too dangerous to stay. You’re going to have to just go without saying goodbye. I know you like her, but you need to just run. Very far and very fast.”

“I said, I know.” He snapped the words out, then regretted it when she flinched.

“I can go with you if you want,” she offered, almost in a whisper.

“No. I’ll do it alone.”

She studied him, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll meet you at the safe house in Costa Mesa. And then we can go back to Nevada together.”

“All right.”

He drew in a breath as the future spread out in front of him, dark and dangerous.

He’d do the hit because he had no choice. He knew perfectly well that if he didn’t do what his father asked, then The Wolf would punish him.

Not by hurting him—not physically anyway—but by taking away something that mattered to him. And although Alex had never told The Wolf about Ellie, he knew well damn well that Daniel Lopez made it his business to know everything.

Of course he knew. And if Alex didn’t follow his commands, she would be dead within the week.

Fuck.

And that was why Alex Lopez found a spot about two hundred yards away where he could settle in until he could take the shot. He had his duffle bag beside him. He had his rifle and his ammo, but he’d only need one bullet. The Wolf had made sure of that.

He waited, the sun hot on his neck, the traffic moving below him. He waited until he saw the target—not Peter, the target—and he tracked him in the sight until the man paused, standing still just long enough for Alex to do his job.

He thought of his father.

He thought of El.

He pulled the trigger.

And as he watched Peter fall from the single hole in his head, he hated himself. And the only thing that made it bearable was his certainty that even though Alex was about to be gone from Ellie’s life forever, at least he’d saved her life by taking Peter’s.

Chapter Twenty-One

The present…

Considering I barely have the skillset to throw together coffee and donuts at my apartment, I have no idea how Tamra managed to pull off a reception with cocktails and dessert in less than seventy-two hours. Granted, the guest list is limited, and Tamra has people working under her to help, but I am still duly impressed.

Because the event is taking place with such short notice, the interior hasn’t been done up to the nines like it had been at the gala I’d attended almost immediately after learning that Devlin Saint was in fact Alex Leto.

That night, I’d been on edge, still teetering from the revelation and angry at Devlin for leaving me all those years ago.