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Brice is trembling as she sits back in her seat. She glares at me like she wants to pull my gun and shoot me in the throat. I smile back at her as my anger slowly fades away, replaced by a sudden calculating quiet. Panagos must be desperate if he’s ambushing me outside of an Arc establishment. He doesn’t want to get any of my friends involved in this little scuffle, not if he’s even halfway smart, but what Spiros said back there is bothering me.
Has-been. Does he really think the Scavo family is weak? It was probably bluster, but I’m keenly aware that some of my moves lately could be interpreted as weakness. I’ve been moving more toward the light side of things and putting to rest some of our more wicked activities, but that isn’t because blood and violence makes me squeamish, but more because it’s not good for business. I like money more than I like killing.
Only it’s bothering me that the Greeks were ballsy enough to approach me in the street like that, and a little unnerving that they were able to track me down so easily.
“Are you okay?” I ask, looking at Brice.
She sucks in a deep breath and nods once. “I’m fine. Shaken, is all.”
“I’ll have to bring in more security. We won’t be able to leave the house without backup nearby until this is settled.”
“Right. Of course.” She looks away, staring out the window.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re what’s wrong.” Her jaw works. “What am I supposed to do here, Carmine? I feel like the trap is tightening around me. I’m stuck in the house with you and I can’t even leave to go to dinner without some gangster accosting me in the street.”
“You blame me for that, too?” I ask her quietly. “I’m the reason that gangster was only talking.”
“You think I don’t know that?” She glares at me, all righteous fury. I move closer to her, heart racing. “Don’t. I don’t want you to touch me right now.”
I don’t put my hands on her. Instead, I lean in and rest my palms on either side of the seat, shifting my weight so I’m on my knees in front of her.
She’s stiff all over. Terrified of touching me. Maybe terrified of how badly she wants me to rip her knees open. But I obey her wishes and don’t touch her, only stare at the long strip of thigh visible through the slit and the hint of cleavage at her chest and the way her lips part slightly to show the tiny gap between her front teeth and her tongue pressing against it. Just a hint of pink between white. I want to bite those lips and chew them until they fucking bleed.
“Understand something,” I say, staring into her eyes. She doesn’t want to look back, but she can’t help herself, the filthy girl. “Whatever your father did to the Panagos family, I won’t let them hurt you.”
“Right, you couldn’t risk the merchandise. You worked too hard to secure it.”
“You want me to say shit like that, don’t you? It’d be a lot easier if you thought I saw you as some fuck doll. Some little plaything. Is that what you want? Is that what makes you wet? I bet you’ve never been objectified once in your pretty little life.”
“Oh, go to hell,” she whispers fiercely. “You think I’ve never been hit on? Never been harassed? I’m a woman, for god’s sake, ofcourseI’ve been harassed.”
“And yet here you are, breathing hard, staring at me like you want me to spread your knees wide and lick your pussy from top to bottom. No, this isn’t about protecting an investment, filthy girl. It’s about protecting what Iwant.”
“There you go talking about wanting me again when we already established we can barely stand each other.”
“How many more times are you going to make me show you that the world isn’t all simple black and white? We’re down here in the mucky, dirty gray, my darling.”
“You might be, but I won’t be forced to your level.”
I crack a half-smile and stay there on my knees in front of her for a moment longer before pulling away. She lets out a breath like the tension’s sliding out of her in a wave.
“That’s the thing, filthy girl,” I say quietly as I look out the window. “You’ve always been at my level, you just don’t realize it yet.”
She says nothing. Not that I expected her to. It’s not easy to come to grips with the ugly truth of your world, but here she is, being forced to see it for all its flaws and rot.
Chapter12
Brice
Ican’t stop thinking about that Greek gangster after dinner.
For a little while, I was actually having a nice time. Carmine was asking questions about my friends and their businesses, and I liked being able to give him information he needed. I was the expert for once, and he wasn’t being a total prick.
Until the limo ride back home.
God, that man is incapable of kindness. He has to rub my face in what my father did every chance he gets. He seems to think that just because Daddy did something terrible, that means I’m also tainted, and my whole family is tainted, and we’re somehow the same, but we’re not the same. Carmine runs a mafia family. He kills people and sells drugs. Daddy made a mistake, but that doesn’t make us criminals, not in the way that Carmine is.
