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"I'm sure you've figured out now that I'm not a good man, Juliet."
I nod.
"I run one of the largest crime syndicates in the country," he says quietly.
"What exactly does that mean?" I ask.
"I'm a gangster, Juliet," he says.
I suspected as much but his admission is still a big deal. The newspapers are always filled with stories about the crime families sweeping across New York City. Tales of their exploits are filled with murder, booze, drugs, and fear.
"Do you sell drugs and booze?" I ask timidly.
"Yes."
"Guns?"
He nods.
Murder and all things related to that hover between us. We both have done that.
"I don't want to do those things," I begin, and watch as Landon's eyes sharpen with the hard glint of anger.
"But I want you to tell me everything," I hurry on. "I want to be your partner, your shoulder that you lean on, the person you give your burdens to."
His eyes widen, and I watch mesmerized as his pupils expand in what I can tell is lust, based on the large body part that I currently can feel growing beneath me.
"You want all of that?" he says, his voice a little gruffer than normal. "Do you realize what you're saying?"
"I want everything," I whisper, before crashing my lips into his.
Melting against his hard body, I dig my fingers into his hair. He holds my face with both hands, so I can't move away. He takes out the stress of his last few weeks on me with lashes of his tongue. I match his need. He takes it, takes me until I can't breathe, but he doesn't let me go, continuing to punish my lips with his.
We're both breathing heavily when we resurface for air.
"I had to kill a man I thought was my brother last night," he says quietly, looking off into the distance at something behind me. "He was stealing from me. It's why I've been gone so much lately. I've been trying to find out what was happening to my shipments. Parts of every single one had been missing lately."
I softly stroke his hair, trying to be comforting as he finally shares with me what's been going on. He leans into my hand, and I give a sigh of relief at the gesture.
"When some other of my guys came to me with their suspicions that it was him, I couldn't believe it. We grew up together. He's always been my right-hand man. I finally decided to set a trap, setting up a shipment that I only told him about unbeknownst to him. When several crates of guns disappeared, I couldn't deny the truth. I confronted him about it and he denied it at first. When he saw that I couldn't be persuaded otherwise, he sank to his knees, begging me for forgiveness."
Landon's eyes are wide and vacant as he relives the events he is telling me about.
"He cried like a little child. Telling me that he had gotten in deep with a gambling debt and hadn't wanted to trouble me with it. He said he was going to pay me back."
Landon's eyes focus on mine, a dark and determined gleam rising in them.
"I pulled out my gun, and while looking right at him so he could see my intention, I shot him right between the eyes."
There's a silence as we stare at each other. I know that this is a test. And though I have no doubt that his story is true, I also know that whatever reaction I have to this macabre tale, one that involves him killing a man in cold blood that he had called his brother, will determine the outcome of our relationship indefinitely.
Landon reaches up a hand to stroke the side of my face. He pauses right before touching me, appraising me to see if I'm going to flinch away.
I don't move, a defiant look on my face.
"Are you going to run away now, fair Juliet?" he says snidely. "Are you alright with the fact that you're in league with a monster?"
Something is wrong with me because instead of feeling the disgust and fear that I should be feeling, I feel hunger.
