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Blood.
Death.
Rage.
It’s all roaring in my ears, rushing in my veins.
This man is not a threat to me, but I grab the back of his head and slam his face into the bar anyway, because what kind of sick fuck buys women. A river of crimson runs over his mouth and down his chin as he screams and reaches for his now-crooked nose. I take his other hand and place it on the wooden bar top, then stab my knife through his flesh.
Renee rushes into the dining area when he screams. Her eyes go wide and her hand flies to her mouth.
“He’s not going anywhere unless you want him to.” I grab a bottle of rum and pour it all over the bar. Then, I hand her a box of matches. Hopefully, she’s smart enough to see that before I left my loft this morning I wrote the address to La Casa Segura, the safehouse in the Ninth ward, on the back.
The man tries to pry his hand free, screaming as tears pour from his eyes. “I’ll show you where they are.” He looks at Renee. “He’ll fucking kill you if you do this.” Spit flies from his mouth. “You know he will.”
He’s talking about Morano. And he’s probably right. Sylvester would have killed this woman.
I look at the bald guy and smirk. “He’ll have to find her first.”
* * *
When I get home, Makenna is curled up on the couch, watching tv and eating graham crackers. Her feet are tucked under her perfect little ass, her hair left down, and she’s wearing one of my t-shirts—no pants. Jesus, it gets my dick hard. Swollen. Thick. Throbbing with the ache to fuck her.
She cranes her head around and bites her lip when she sees me.
Christ.
“I need five minutes.” I groan because that feels like an eternity. But I won’t touch her with another man’s blood on my hands.
I unbutton my shirt, untucking it as I walk toward the bathroom. I stop when something on the television catches my attention.
A man’s voice mentions something about a fire at a well-known local restaurant.
“Crazy, huh?” she says, breaking a cracker at the seam, then taking a bite.
The camera moves from a crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk to an image of a building in flames, a building I just walked away from less than thirty minutes ago. The newscaster goes on about how the place was an icon for the city and how the owner was trapped inside.
I stare at the flames. “Yeah. Pretty fucking crazy.” I don’t recognize my own voice. It’s cold. Robotic.
She did it.
Renee set the whole goddamn place on fire. I may have handed her the match, but it was Morano who broke her. That’s what men like him do to women. They break them.
He almost had Makenna.He was so close. If Jaxon hadn’t shown up when he did, God knows what he’d have had his men do to her. This is a war and he won’t stop until he wins. Because he doesn’t want to just break women. He wants to break me, too.
“Callisto?” She stands up and narrows her eyes. “Are you okay?” She sets the bag of crackers on the coffee table, studying my face. Her voice is quiet. “Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say.”
She darts across the room, reaching me in a split second. “No.” She shakes her head, tears welling in her gorgeous blue eyes. “You donotget to do this.” She shoves at my chest. The first tear falls. “You promised no more secrets. You fucking promised!”
I wrap my arms around her tiny frame, locking her in place against my chest. I take a minute to breathe her in. She tries to pull away, but I hold her tighter. Her tears are warm against my skin. As much as it kills me to show her who I truly am, knowing my silence is ripping her to shreds kills me even more. I felt the joy in her smile when I agreed to let her in. I know how happy it made her, because it made me just as happy.
Fuck.
I take her chin between my fingers and tip her head up. “Sshhh. Don’t waste those on me.” I swipe the liquid pain from her cheek. “Give me five minutes. And I promise we’ll talk.”
She nods and sniffs her tears away. I gently kiss her forehead, then walk into the bathroom to cleanse my soul in hot water and watch the evidence of my sins disappear into the drain.
