Page 66 of The Beast Who Begged Me

“I don’t know. It’s really tiny. Too small to read without magnification. I only noticed it when I put the ring on. Maybe it’s just the family motto. Or…”

“Tomorrow,” I mumble. “Whatever it is…tomorrow.”

He snuggles into me. “The ouroboros is an endless cycle. I guess it can wait eight hours.”

“You’re being too damn poetic for this time of night,” I grunt in reply.

“Sometimes I think about pulling that tail out of its mouth,” he says. “Letting it feed on my enemies instead.”

I like that idea. It makes me smile—until I remember.

I’m one of his enemies, too.

CHAPTER 22

DAMIANO

I don’t have time to look at the ring the next day, because I leave before dawn. I need to get the townhouse cleared. I tell Dave Brennan his crews are done, and none of them look all that disappointed about it. They made themselves a hell of a bonus, but they worked like dogs for it.

I can’t have them still crawling around the house with Caligula here; it’s a security risk. So I’ll finish up the rest of the renovations myself. It’s all cosmetic now, anyway. The build is complete.

Just after nine, Vito pulls up in one of the new town cars I bought last week. I’m waiting for them, nervous and jittery, on the stoop of the townhouse.

I want Caligula to love it.

I want all of them to love it, love it as much as I do. I’ve been working alongside the restoration crews every day, working like a goddamn demon to get this place ready. Every second I wasn’t with Caligula or making sure the Clemenzas were doing what the fuck they were supposed to be doing, I’ve been here.

It’s not where I want it, not yet. But my God, it’s close.

And now I want to see their faces. I want to see Rosa when she walks into her new kitchen. Vito when he sees the garage. Sammy when he finds his rooms. And Caligula—most of all, Caligula.

I know it won’t pay for anything I’ve done to him. But maybe it’s at least one clean drop in that ocean of blood?

The outside has been restored along with the inside. The old stone has been scrubbed clean, every window is whole and gleaming with reinforced glass, and there are green hedges at the front, and flower boxes with winter blooms, their tough little faces trying to find the sun.

I wanted it to look welcoming.

Vito helps Rosa out of the front seat, and she gasps as she looks up at the facade. Sammy has already bounded out, pulling close the new coat his boyfriend bought for him. Not on my dime—the Benedetti kid actually bought it himself for Sammy, and now Sammy won’t wear anything but.

Caligula gets out last, and only after I’ve come down to stand over him. That’s the deal. He’s first in, last out. And now he stands by the car and looks up at his old home, face utterly still.

And then he turns his head to look at me. “Flower boxes, Dami?”

He’s teasing me.

It’s the best thing I’ve heard in days.

“You got beef with flowers, now?” I want to drag him inside by the arm and find out whether I got the insides right, too, but I restrain myself to words. “Come on,” I say. “You’re a fucking target, remember?”

Inside, the foyer has new stone underfoot, pale and veined with gold. The chandelier has been cleaned and rewired so that every crystal bounces light around like it should, and along the walls are some of the things from the basement, cleaned and restored, standing where they were always meant to stand. I gave the decorating crew all the reference photos. Made them put everything back where it was supposed to be.

Not everything survived the fire, but most of it did. And now its true owner is here, too.

The collection is complete.

I look over at Caligula, who is staring with furrowed brows at the floor. “It’s not exactly the same,” I hear myself saying with an edge of defensiveness. “I made a few alterations. But I tried to keep any changes in the spirit of the original.”

Caligula is still looking at the marble floor and I don’t know if he heard me. But Rosa is moving instinctively toward the back, looking for the kitchen. I follow, because I want to take in her reaction.