“He knew I was there. At one point, he glanced up at me and smirked.”
“That motherfucker.”
God, his voice is hard and frightening. If that’s thelast sound his victims hear before he kills them, they might die of fright before the bullet hits.
“He spread a rumor that another family kidnapped her and tortured her. Even had her body dumped somewhere and everything.”
“How is it possible that you came from all of that, yet you’re the sweetest, most amazing human on the planet?”
I bark out a laugh at that and finish stirring in the last of the cheese.
“I think you’re biased.”
“I’m not,” he says. “I’ve seen so many shitty people in my life that there’s no way I could count them. You’re sogood, Eloise. You’re kind and gentle.”
“Because I’ve been on the receiving end of the opposite of that all my life, and I won’t ever do that to someone.”
I dish us both up some dinner even though it’s almost morning and pass him a bowl.
“But, Rome, Icanbe ruthless. I’m capable of hardness. I can feel it inside me sometimes. Like tonight. I hope the man who hurt Scarlett is one of the two you killed today because he doesn’t deserve to breathe.”
“He’s no longer breathing,” he confirms, watching me with those intense blue eyes. “Now, get over here, firefly.”
I circle the island, and he pulls me to him, right between his legs, and holds his loaded fork up to my mouth.
I take the bite. “Mmm. That’s actually really good.”
Shoving some into his own mouth, he nods. “Excellent.”
“Better than the box?”
He laughs and kisses my forehead. “Much better than the box.”
Forty
ROME
Eloise whimpers next to me, waking me up. She’s already in my arms, curled up against my side, but her beautiful face is puckered in a frown as if she’s in pain or dreaming about something awful.
“It’s okay, baby,” I whisper and kiss her forehead softly, not wanting to wake her but needing to soothe her.
I check the time and drag my hand down my face. We’ve only been asleep for about four hours. We both worked last night, and I need to get down to my office now. I shouldn’t have come up to bed at all, but I wanted to be close to her.
I needed her.
In the past week since Scarlett was whipped, Eloise and I have grown even closer while settling into a routine. It’s completely unexpected. We work, we fuck, we talk, and we sleep. Not always in that order. I’m not a chattyman, and I don’t confide in people. But with my firefly, the words just come. I don’t shy away from her questions.
I trust her.
That puts me on edge, yet is also something I want to lean into. I know she comes from a piece of shit. Mateo and Julian are still wary, worried that she could be spying on my operation for her father.
But there’s no way in hell.
Eloise settles into a sweet sleep once more, and I press my lips to her head before I ease out from under her and get dressed, then leave the penthouse and make my way down to my main office.
The building is mostly empty at this time of day. The cleaning crew is taking care of making sure everything is sanitized and ready for tonight. Employees won’t start rolling in until around eight this evening.
But I asked Loveland to meet me at noon. I don’t give a fuck if she’s been to bed yet.
