She nodded.
Yes.
Please.
Stay with me.
Bad things happen when I’m left alone in the dark.
One day, when I find my words, I’ll tell you about them.
He sat down, his eyes never leaving hers.
His stare warmed her skin. An extra blanket to shield her from the world.
They had no idea what this all meant. How their lives would coil around one another in a serpentine spiral of toxic obsession and desire that would throw the entire underworld off its axis.
All they knew was she was alone, and so was he, and together, the world seemed slightly less cold.
She closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
He didn’t leave until the sun rose and chased away the darkness.
Protecting her from her own demons as much as from himself.
Chapter Three
Achilles
One weekafter the baptism
My doorbell rang.
Again.
And again.
And a-mother-fucking-gain.
I pinched my cigarette between my thumb and middle finger, removing it from my lips as I examined the disemboweled body at my feet.
Oops.
I wasn’t supposed to kill Tierney’s hookups. Just rough them up a little. What could I say? I was only human. Mistakes happened from time to time.
Or in the case of Tierney’s hookups,allthe time. I currently stood at 100 percent murder rate when it came to the men she screwed. No, wait,fuck. Why was I so hard on myself? Make that 99 percent. I didn’t kill that one shitbag, Angelo Bandini. Not for lack of desire on my part, but…still counts.
He was the son of the Chicago Outfit’s boss. Offing him would likely spiral into an underground war. And while thatsounded like a good ol’ time, I had the Camorra’s interests to think of.
Ididrelieve him of a few fingers. You know, to make sure he could never touch her again.
She didn’t have many hookups to begin with. The bodyguards I put on her wouldn’t allow her to stray. But every now and then, she managed to slip under the radar, shake off the men I’d assigned to her. I always found them—the assholes who touched my woman.
And when I did, I dealt with them accordingly.
A pang of disappointment pinched my chest. I’d been doing so good. I hadn’t killed off-duty in months. Not to mention hung someone by their entrails.
The doorbell rang for the millionth time. I sighed.
