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Thinking about how close I came to losing Eli at the ranch hardens my resolve that he will not be the one protecting me in this relationship.
I’m completely fucked up. But luckily, my Golden Boy wants me just the way I am.
My Golden Boy. My Eli. Mine, mine, mine.
I rise up, pressing my body against his, my fingers clawing at his clothing. No more waiting. No more desperate longing. I need—
Ow.
Fuck. Ow.
I yelp in pain, clutching my abdomen. Eli leaps back, scrambling off the sofa so fast you’d think I’d become a Deadite.
Okay, maybe I’m not quite ready to claim him yet. I grit my teeth and ride through the pain. I need a bit longer to heal.
Eli’s breathing is ragged. I can see his cock straining against his jeans. His mouth turns down at the corners. “Don’t let me get carried away again. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Pain is love,” I croak out.
“Pain is also just pain.” Eli kneels beside me and turns my hand in his, his fingers trailing over my wrist and across my palm. I close my fingers around his and squeeze as a fresh spasm of fire encircles me. “What was that scar on Brutus’ hand?”
“You noticed that?”
“Yeah. It looks like one of the symbols I saw at your cousin’s club.”
“It’s a brand – a more official version of what I did to Alec. It’s called the sacer – the mark of an accursed man. It’s a punishment given to those who betray the family. Only an Imperator can give a sacer, and it’s hardly ever given. The person who wears the brand can be killed without consequence. Even the police will look the other way if they see the mark on a murder victim. My father gave it to Brutus for breaking his oath and going behind his back to start trading skin in Emerald Beach. Brutus made a deal with Nero to source girls to staff one of Nero’s private clubs – girls sold into the sex trade. My family used to do this all the time, before my father rescued my mother from that life and declared human trafficking off-limits. My father couldn’t touch Nero – Imperators don’t interfere with other families and their business – but he couldn’t have Brutus continue to undermine him.”
“You were there when this happened?”
I nod. “Daddy had me hide in his office while they gave Brutus the mark. It was a few months before Brutus killed my parents. He’d been undermining Daddy for months, but I think the sacer drove him over the edge to his final betrayal.”
“If he’s had that on his hand all this time, how come someone hasn’t killed him?”
“I think he had a lot of support in the family because he brought prostitution and human trafficking in Emerald Beach back under August control. Those are lucrative enterprises that were making other people rich. Now they make the Augusts and our soldiers rich, and working with Nero gave Brutus another layer of protection.” My mood darkens. “It’s why he did what he did to my father, to make sure his enemies know not to cross him.”
“What exactly did Brutus do to your dad?”
I already told Noah, and it took nearly everything from me to get the words out. Talking about the night my parents were killed meant facing… the other stuff. The locked box of memories that still bobs in the ocean of my mind. I know I need to tell Eli everything. Secrets have already kept us apart for too long, but I can’t bear opening that box right now. Instead of refusing, I reach up and pull him to me again, capturing his lips. My stomach flares with pain, but I can handle it. It’s worth the pain for the pleasure of his kiss.
I’ll tell Eli everything soon. Gabriel, too. When I’m not so… fragile.
“A-hem.”
I’m faintly aware of someone faux-coughing to get our attention. Fuck it. I’ve waited too long to have Eli in my arms. I’m not giving him up until I’m good and ready. Without breaking the kiss, I raise my hand and flash whoever it is the middle finger.
But Eli is far too much of a gentleman to tell our guest to fuck off. He rocks back and turns to glance at the doorway where George waits, clutching a stack of papers and wearing an expression that says she’d rather be anywhere else.
“Sorry, George.” I grin. Her mouth twists into a smile, but there’s none of her usual mirth behind it. I don’t blame her – she’s been through a lot in the last couple of weeks. First, that masked kid threatens her at her house, then I kill him and she has to clean his blood from her kitchen cabinets. Next, she discovers I’m not who she thought I was, and then she’s told that I got shot and she has to perform an unsanitary autopsy on a guy I killed and watch me burn him on a pyre.
It’s a lot for one girl to handle. It says everything about George that she hasn’t run away. Instead, she’s staying with us here in Malloy Manor indefinitely. She’s been holed up in Howard’s office since we returned from the ranch, scouring the internet for answers about Mackenzie Malloy.
If anyone can figure out why Mackenzie was holding Brutus captive at the ranch, it’s George.
“Far be it for me to interrupt,” George dumps the stack of papers on the coffee table and perches on the very edge of a chair. “I might be on to something about the Malloys.”
“A lead?”
George has been researching the disappearance of the Malloys for weeks with Eli without turning up much of interest. When I saw them together in the library and at Antony’s club, I assumed they were finding incriminating evidence to turn me over to the police. But on the drive back from the ranch Eli explained the whole thing – he believes someone from the past is after Mackenzie, and since the whole world believes I’m Mackenzie, he was trying to figure out who it was so he could stop them.
