His answer was pulling out his second gun and loading the chamber.
I’ll take that as a yes.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kay
Did anyone else remember when I got kidnapped a few months ago and did something dumb and agitated my kidnapper?
This blonde was back on her bullshit.
Ray Romano, the man who had been the source of my family’s pain and nightmares for years, was sitting in front of me, the big, bad devil.
He didn’t look scary. I’d seen better. Better in the form of blue eyes and tattoos.
Romano looked at me with his head tilted to the side. From what Haley and Gwen told me, this man was usually well put together. Today, not so much.
His salt and pepper hair was in disarray, his beard charred, and he wasn’t wearing a suit. Gwen told me the devil always wore a suit and some form of blood red fabric. That was his signature look, apparently.
He was also injured. The explosion Col caused did a number on the man in front of me. The devil wasn’t immortal after all. His right arm was wrapped from top to bottom in medical bandages.
Ray Romano had come so close to burning in hell and still avoided the Grim Reaper.
What an asshole.
It was comical to me he was in jeans and a ratty t-shirt. His eyes were dark and alert, but the bags underneath them stood out more. He looked…homeless, if I was being honest. Then again, technically, he was homeless.
My man reduced his precious mansion and his island to ash.
“You are pretty, but I don’t understand why he would go through all the trouble of keeping you from me,” he said slowly. The man was trying to intimidate me by making me feel insecure, as if I wasn’t worthy of the trouble.
If I wasn’t bound to this chair, I might pull a Gwen and do something really drastic.
Like slap the shit out of him.
We were still in St. Louis, in the heart of it—or under it, I should say. The underground tunnels of Busch Stadium were smaller than I remembered. Dad used to take Jer and I down here as kids. He had a part-time job here and when Mama was still working, he would take us here after school. One day, I wandered off just a little too far and ended up in these tunnels. Jer and Ty found me, and we decided to keep coming back.
We never told Dad.
Not that he cared. He was too busy running drugs for the Matthews family behind Sullie’s back.
This room was small, surrounded by bland concrete walls. There was an old TV in the corner on the table, with a coffee maker on top and three chairs, all of which were occupied.
“Do you have the decency and respect to answer me?” he drawled, his Italian accent seeming thicker than before.
“Did your mother not love you when you were a kid or something? Is that why you treat women the way you do?” I asked sweetly.
The smug look melted from his face. He sat forward slowly, resting his elbows on his knees. “You will talk to me with respect, young lady,” he ordered.
I raised a brow and let my eyes trail down the length of him. Maybe, before the dinner, the one where Gwen launched her dagger at him—man, I wish I could have seen that— he was scary, but I saw right through him. He was desperately trying to cling to the power that once oozed from him, but it was running dry.
“Listen buddy, I’m not a medical professional, but you should probably have those burns looked at.”
A slow, wicked smile spread across his face. “Maybe I should tie you down and let my men have their way with you.”
Ignoring the chill that ran down my spine, I pressed on. “What way is that? Because your boy over there is still icing his balls from when he tried to grab me earlier.” I tipped my head toward the man in the corner with an ice packet on his crotch. I told him not to touch me, and what did he do? He fucking touched me.
“Maybe I’ll have my way with you,” the fallen king growled, standing up. What was it with men and standing over women? That shit didn’t intimidate us.
