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I think on it. He’s right. Salvatore’s always been an insufferable prick. Arrogant as hell. It’s why we bumped heads so much way back when.
“I allowed him into my organization,” Lucius goes on. Hate fills his croaky voice. “I let him make it tocapo. I didn’t step in when Rhino made him manager at Nirvana. And look how he repays me.”
“He’s off playing house,” I add. “With that special lady friend of his. I just saw ’em over at Rose Hill. Looking at the fucking sunset, if you can believe it.”
“Yes. Delphine Adams. His weakness. I have plans for her. Do you see how I play? How I stay levels ahead?”
A cruel smirk starts at the corner of my mouth. “What were you thinking?”
“You are my insurance policy. If you should agree.”
“As in…?”
“In the rare event things do not go as planned,” he explains, sliding over an empty glass and the bottle of cognac toward me. “I will be crushing myscarafaggioof a son. I will torture and maim him before I kill him. I will turn his beautiful girlfriend into a cheap whore. So that he knows what real suffering is like. The suffering I’ve been through.”
“The suffering I’ve been through,” I repeat him as it dawns on me. As it hits me just how good he’s had it. Meanwhile, I’ve lurked in shadows of squalor.
“That’s right,” Lucius says with a nod. “But should things not go as I want them to… that’s where you come in. You will carry out the last step of my plan. In the unlikely event, he wins, he takesmeout, I want you to takehimout.”
“I can do that. I can handle him. He thinks he’s tough shit. But he’s got no idea.”
Lucius grins at me. It’s an evil grin, revealing as much hate as his voice did. “That’s what I like to hear. He won’t ever see it coming.”
1
salvatore
a year and a half later…
“Hold still.”
“Iamholding still.”
“I don’t want to cut you.”
“Probably for the best you don’t,” I answer, teasing her with half a grin.
Delphine tries to ignore me, pressing on like I’m not driving her crazy. We’re standing in the bathroom. The mirror shows us the amusing reflection of what we’re up to—me in nothing but my boxer briefs, a beard’s worth of shaving cream smeared across my neck and jaw.
Delphine reaches up with a careful hand and drags the razor along my throat. I watch her shave another quarter inch of beard from my neck and then flinch the second she pulls away. As her eyes widen with horror, I release a deep laugh. The fake out becomes apparent, and she shoves at my chest.
“Don’t play around like that!”
“Why not? It’s entertaining making you mad.”
“Why did I marry you again?”
“Because you can’t get enough of me. C’mere,” I say, dragging her mouth to mine. Some shaving cream gets on her chin by the time we’re drawing apart. Using my thumb, I wipe it away with another laugh, then do the same to myself with a towel.
She grumbles. “Last time I help you shave.”
“But it’s appreciated, Phi. How ever do I show my gratitude?”
I’m unashamed about revealing my true motivations. My arm hooks around her hip and I grope her bra-encased breast with my other. She knew exactly what she was doing prancing into the bathroom wearing that lacy bra and the delicate little patch of fabric she calls her panties.
I had been minding my own business, shaving before an important meeting. If anything,I’minnocent. A man lured into a trap by a sexy, scantily clad woman impossible to resist.
Delphinetriesto hold me off. She utters my name in a lecturing tone and puts a hand up to my hard-muscled pectoral as if about to push me off.
