Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Evander,” Camille says and her hand is on my arm. “Evander, please. There are people around.”
I blink rapidly, blood rushing through my ears, and come back to myself. Rage threatens to push me into something I’ll regret. Slowly, I lower the weapon as Conti scuttles backwards and climbs to his feet, bleeding from a split lip.
Pedestrians walk past, some staring curiously. An old lady with a little white dog, a young couple in jeans and denim jackets, a couple of guys that look like they’re on the way to the gym.
Nobody’s staring, not yet, but they will the second I pull the trigger, and the city’s hot enough already without a murder charge on my hands.
“You just fucked up, Kazan,” Conti snarls. “Things were bad between our families, but this is going to turn our little conflict into a full-on fucking firestorm. I am going to murder your people one at a time until they turn on you and cut your throat. I promise when you’re in the ground, I’ll take my wife back, and I’ll piss on your grave.”
I look from Conti to Camille and back again, doing the calculus in my mind.
If I kill him like I want to, things will be bad. There are too many witnesses, but more than that, it’ll set off a chain of events that I don’t know I can control. I’m at war with his family, but so far, the violence has been kept to a minimum. Both organizations want to avoid the wholesale slaughter that accompanies an all-out conflict.
Putting a bullet in Conti’s head will light the match and set everything in motion.
And I don’t know if I can keep my family together.
“Last warning,” I say as I back down the stoop and shove the gun away. “If you come near her, I will pull the trigger next time.”
Conti laughs as he glares at me. “You should’ve done it, Kazan,” he says with a sneer. “You think you’re avoiding an all-out war, but I’m going to make sure my family comes for you.”
My head’s spinning.
Decisions and ideas mix and click together as a plan forms in the back of my skull.
It’s crazy, and it’s going to make my life even worse, but isn’t that what Camille does? She takes all my problems and makes them balloon out of control until I’m on the edge of breaking apart.
But what Lycus said earlier needles at me, and what Conti’s saying now jabs into my guts, and I know there’s only one way I can keep on protecting Camille now that I know the truth about her.
Nobody in my family would ever let me sacrifice good Greek lives for some random Italian girl.
Unless she was important.
I show Conti a wicked smile. “Here’s the thing, you pathetic little man. Your wife left you. She left you because you’re an abusive, weak little loser. She left you for someone better. Someone that can satisfy her in ways you and your tiny little dick could only ever dream about.”
His mouth drops open and he releases a snarl. “You motherfucking—”
“She is mine now, Conti. Camille is my woman. She left you for me, and if you ever come near her again, I will whisper your name to all of my soldiers and make sure you end up dead in the lake. Do not think about my woman ever again. Do not come near her or my family. Pain waits for you if you cross that line.”
His face turns red. “You bitch,” he snarls. “You fucking bitch!”
I turn and walk away. Camille’s staring at me with undisguised shock as I drag her back to the truck, get her buckled in, and drive off. The tires peel out, and Conti’s still standing on the sidewalk, screaming obscenities.
We don’t speak for a few minutes. I put distance between us and her former husband, seething the whole time. I feel backed into this situation, and now I said something I can’t take back.
Which means I’m committed to this course of action.
Once I feel like it’s safe, I pull over and look at her.
She stares at me with an open mouth. “Why did you say that?” she whispers and shakes her head like she’s getting control of herself. “Holy shit, Evander, I didn’t leave him for you! Why the hell would you say that?”
“Here is the deal,” I say softly. “You will come live with me starting right now. The story I just told to your ex-husband? That is the story we will tell everyone. You left him for me. You left him because we are in love, and we are going to get married. That is the only way you will survive what’s to come. Do you understand?”
She blinks rapidly, her jaw working, and I don’t know what she’s thinking or what she wants, but some part of me yearns for this, for a relationship with a woman that makes me feel fucking alive and good for once in my life.