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Until I see a reason to trust her or anyone else, I’ll just continue sharpening my knife.
Nimona said Rey would never let someone dangerous close to Val, but that’s only because he wants to be the one who cuts my girl down; I will not offer him absolution.
The sound of a grindstone sliding across the edge of my blade echoes in my mind.
TWENTY-ONE
* * *
‘DEVIL EYES’ ZODIVK
“Mat!”I bark as I slam the front door to his apartment, “Where the fuck are you?”
I hear a girl moan in the back room before a scream and the sound of skin slapping skin. I barge down the short hallway, lifting my leg and kicking the door in. It bounces off the wall as the girl bent over Mateo’s mattress drops unconscious, a belt around her neck and her hands tied behind her back. She’s still breathing so I pay very little attention to her as I rush forward, ignoring Mateo’s dick still rock hard and glistening with the girl’s juices. I grab his neck and punch him in the mouth before hooking my heel around his ankle and push him back. My surprise interruption and attack left Mateo too open and way too easy to take down.
His back lands with a hard thud against the top of his desk, knocking a glass off and shattering on the floor as I punch him hard in the ribs.
He grunts and coughs, wheezing behind my squeezing hand.
“Don’t you ever fucking come near Valeria again, Mateo. I don’t give a fuck if you’re my best friend, I will kill you if you touch her without my permission. Do you understand me?”
My voice is gruff and low, my anger barley contained as I picture all the sick and twisted things Mateo is capable of, shit that makes even my skin crawl, and I’m one fucked up individual.
The girl on Mateo’s bed -which could have so easily been Valeria- groans and rolls to the side, her breasts bleeding from shallow knife cuts.
Oh fuck.
I look back down at Mat who gives me a bloody smile while showing me the knife in his hand, dangling it between his fingertips. Suddenly his face goes hard, the smile twisting into a grimace before he moves. I jump back in time to dodge the blade that would have sunk into my shoulder. I grab his wrist and yank him down as I kick my knee up to land solidly against his sternum. He falls groaning, his hand up telling me he’s done before snapping his arm forward and letting the knife sail from his fingers. It lands perfectly in the drywall behind me.
I arch a brow at him before shaking my head and helping him up.
Mateo Del Toro is a fucked-up man, getting his kicks out of punishing girls who look like the twisted nanny he had as child, but he’s my best friend.
Yeah, we have our fallouts, but they never last long, he’s my brother in most ways, my best friend in others, but no matter what, I’ve got his back and he has mine. He just needs an ass kicking sometimes.
He drops in a seat and tucks himself away in his briefs as I move over to the bound girl. I untie her hands and release the leather around her neck. Once she stands, I scoop up her clothes and shove them into her waiting hands.
“You know the rules.” I tell her as I push her toward the door, “Keep your mouth shut and get the fuck out of here.”
She casts her eyes toward Mateo which pisses me off. There’s nothing more annoying than my words not being heeded.
“Now!”I snap, making her jump with a whimper before scurrying away, putting her clothes on as she rushes toward the front door.
Once she’s gone and we’re alone, I turn back toward my best friend.
“I meant what I said, Mat. Valeria is off limits to you and your twisted version of cat and mouse.”
Mateo lights a joint and takes a deep drag, his unique eyes locked on me as he exhales a plum of pungent smoke.
“You love my version.” His eyes crinkle at the edges, daring me to deny that statement, but I honestly can’t. Like I said, I’m sick and I motherfucking embrace it.
But I wasn’t lying when I told Noah that I’m worse than my moral-less friend. After all, if the clinically sane helps and guides the clinically insane commit atrocities just for his own ambitions, he must be worse.
When I continue to stare, Mateo rolls his eyes and shrugs as if to say,whatever, bitch, you know I’m right.
His eyes were obviously the first thing I noticed about him, but they weren’t what drew me to him. It was his soul’s deep darkness that called to my own the same way a siren called to the sailors in the old tales. Alas, it’s his charming yet unpredictable character along with his eyes and bad guy persona that lures the girls in. Which is why I have to really lay it on thick that Valeria is untouchable, not because I’m protecting her fucking innocence—if there’s any of that left in her—but because she’s mine to break and ruin.
Mine and mine alone, no one else’s and least of all my psychotic best friend.
