“I checked, after Marta.”
“Well, I actually have.”
A chill stabbed through my spine as I squinted at her. “What?”
“I spiked your cigarettes like I did with Marta’s tea.”
Cold sweat formed on my forehead. “But my tests came clean.”
“You quit for four days, remember?” She shrugged. “And I stopped when we returned from Italy.”
That was new information I didn’t expect. “Why?”
“Let’s say I…had a change of heart.”
“A change of heart? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When Mario…thought you were his dad, and when you lost yours, and what you did for me as Cosimo…” She rolled her eyes, waving a hand in frustration. “You know, impulsive, reckless and extremely stupid won over my mind. Again.”
I blinked. Was she saying what I thought she was saying? Or was that another one of her distraction games to get me off guard so she could backstab me with ease?
“Anyway, I thought I could go through with the deal and get the divorce and leave this shit behind. At least,” she sighed, her lips twitching, “Mario would have an uncle he could go to when he needed a father figure.”
The sincerity in her voice, that vulnerability of hers that made me wanna explode, tugged at me, fogging my head. She’d just confessed she’d been slowly killing me, and all I felt was the need to take her in my arms and shelter her. I knew how hard it’d been for her when she was a kid. Her father was a junkie lowlife who got her mother hooked on the needle and left. If it wasn’t for Alfarez, she would have been dead in a crack house like her dad years ago.
“But after what just happened between us, I won. You were getting no divorce. You weren’t going anywhere,” I said.
“Yeah. Yeah that. I didn’t know I… That’s why I’m holding a knife now, I guess.”
I nodded, grunting, holding on to the edges of my tie. “Did I tell you that everybody who set foot in The Chopping Block but me ended up dead?”
“You mentioned it. I think I’m gonna change that tonight.”
I smirked. “Let’s see what you got, dolcezza.”
She lunged at me, aiming low. My thigh? Or was she going straight to the balls? I dodged the stab easily, swinging in the opposite direction, sliding the tie off my neck. Just before she moved her arm toward my body again, I threw the tie around her throat. Jumping right behind her, I strangled her with it.
“What did I tell you about choosing your battles? When you confront a man double your size, you need a much better plan and a weapon you can actually use,” I said.
She choked audibly, arms flailing, knife stabbing at the space between us. I tried to dodge the blade, but she planted it in my calf.
Cursing, ignoring the pain, I tightened the tie around her throat. Her hand clung to the fabric, trying to take it off, the other wouldn’t quit stabbing the air. The knife found my leg again.
I growled more curses as my grip loosened a bit with the searing pain. I had to take the knife out of her hand. I hit her head against the sink, careful not to smash it. There was no way I was going to finish her that fast.
She rasped in pain, but she wouldn’t pass out or let go of my knife. I kicked it out of her hand with my knee. The blade tinkled as it hit the ground. I unwrapped the tie from her neck and ran to get my knife back.
A wild cough took over her, but she wouldn’t stop moving. She charged again and headbutted me in the chest.
“Stop it!” I twisted her arm, but she stretched the other to reach the knife.
“I’m not gonna die in here. You are.” She stomped on my foot with her heel, spearing it.
Her arm slipped away as I growled, and she grabbed hold of my knife again. I should’ve never gone easy with that bitch. “You know what? I’m done. You have one shot. Finish the fucking job or I will finish you.”
Her lip curled in a snarl, her hair wild, my own knife in her fist. She was naked, wearing only heels, blood and my cum stained her body, and she never looked sexier. Killing her was a shame, but if she fucked this up one more time, I had no choice.
Suddenly, her lips pursed and her shoulders slumped. “What if I don’t want to?”
