My gaze drops to his lips. So damn tempting.
“Then why do you look at me like you want to fuck me?” His voice low, taunting. “Like it’s taking every ounce of hatred just to keep yourself from jumping me whenever I get close?”
My stomach clenches. My pulse betrays me.
“Y-you ... you’re just seeing what you want to see,” I snap, but my voice wavers.
The corner of his mouth turns up, slow and knowing. “I want to fuck you.”
“No!” My breath comes too fast. “You want to ruin me.”
His smirk deepens.
“Topina,” he croons, his voice a velvet warning.
I grit my teeth. “You want me off the force? You want to replace me with someone you can control. That’s what this is about.” My chest rises and falls too quickly, but I force myself to hold his stare. “Control. That’s all that matters to you. It matters so much, I bet you’rewilling to kill anyone who gets in your way.”
His eyes darken. “Maybe I am.” His voice dips, but there’s no hesitation. No apology. Just quiet certainty.
“Perhaps I’m prepared to do terrible things to protect my own.” He leans in, every movement deliberate, predatory. “To serve the city in a way you can’t. To hold on to the control people refuse to admit is necessary.”
“Don’t turn this around, asshole.” I shove him back and stand. “You’re nothing but a common criminal searching for a way to validate yourself.”
We glower at one another. Tension thrums between us.
Angelo sneers down at me, dark amusement flickering in his eyes. “So self-righteous. So sure your way is the only way. Luisa, ask yourself this—what can the police do to criminals without finding bodies? If the victims don’t come forward because they’re already in trouble with the law?”
I open my mouth. “Well-”
“Nothing.” His voice sharpens. “Because those people don’t come to you.”
He steps closer, his presence suffocating. “Think about who they come to. Think about what they’re willing to give me if I put a bullet in the man who violated their child and send them proof.”
His breath is steady, his tone too even.
“Think about how good I must be at what I do considering the criminals you’ve never even heard of never touch anything but the bottom of the Chicago River. And I’m still this fucking attractive,” he growls.
Angelo towers over me, his gaze searing through me. My body betrays me with a shiver, but it’s not fear—it’s fury, frustration, something I don’t want to name. I don’t believe a word he’s saying.
He doesn’t help people out of the goodness of his heart. He gets something out of it. The thrill. Money. Power.
He’s not a good guy. He’s not allowed to be.
“You’re a criminal. I’m an officer. That’s all this will ever be, Angelo,” I warn as my pulse pounds.
He smirks, slow and dangerous. “Say whatever you want, Luisa.”
He takes a step closer. I don’t move.
“I have a hundred percent satisfaction rate. I’ve gotten more justice than yoursystem ever will.” His voice lowers. “So tonight, when you’re trying to convince yourself I’m a monster, think about the number of people I’ve helped—compared to the bullshit system that considers ‘guilty’ an opinion,” he snarls.
His words hit like a punch.
I clench my jaw. Neither of us moves.
FIVE
Angelo
