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Just then, before I could kiss her properly, the way she was silently begging to be kissed, the door opened beside us. From the corner of my eye, I saw a group of four women stroll in, and stop in their tracks when they saw us. I had Charlotte trapped against the wall with my hips, my cock a pin of desire holding her in place. My hands cupped her face, my lips brushing against hers.
“Mr. De Sanctis!” I recognized the voice of one of the organizers, aghast at having walked in on such an intimate moment.
I straightened up, releasing my grip on Charlotte. She bolted, hurrying away like her ass was on fire as I turned a professionally aloof smile on the women.
By the time I left the restroom, Charlotte was halfway across the dance floor. She glanced back at me, her face flushed.
Giada passed her, raising an eyebrow at me as she approached. “Playing with your food, Ren? Watching you with her, I can’t decide if you’re going to kill her or marry her. That’s not like you.”
“What can I say? She’s different.”
Giada smiled. She pulled her phone from her clutch and nodded as she swiped it open. “She sure is different.”
She handed me her phone, and I took a moment to process the image. Detectives Whitely and Vane, the two motherfuckers who’d been on my tail for months, sitting at a small table in a cramped kitchen. The photo had been taken with a long lens, clearly from a neighboring apartment window. Despite that, the cops were easy to make out, as was the woman standing opposite them, dressed in only a towel.
Charlotte Burke.
“Bitch has a death wish,” Giada laughed.
I handed back the cell phone.What a little minx.That she could seem so innocent and beguiling, standing there with her sweet, lying lips wrapped around my fingers, and also be going to the cops behind my back? My blood surged through me, excitement pouring through my veins. A worthy partner to clash with, after so long. If this were chess, one of my favorite games, Charlotte had just put herself, and her queen, her sister, in check. I wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of that fact.
“Shall we go and get her? I’ve got a new crossbow I’ve been looking forward to playing with.” Giada’s catlike smirk was red like blood. “Maybe she just needs a reminder of the consequences of being a dumb bitch.”
I nodded. “A reminder she’ll get. Keep your crossbow for hunting down the Castillos. You know, your job.”
I watched Charlotte moving around tables, casting nervous glances our way. My reminder wouldn’t be tonight, while my fingerprints were still imprinted on her tongue. Tomorrow, I’d show her I couldn’t just get to her in the dark, or in my territory. She needed to know that I could get to her wherever, and whenever I wanted. This was my city, and no one here would protect her from me. Her wrathful and vengeful god.
Something to look forward to, after so long.
* * *
Charlotte workedat Camden Community Hospital in downtown AC. At this time of day, early afternoon, the place was already packed. There was a chaotic buzz in the air akin to the atmosphere after a fight. Maybe that’s what doctors and nurses did all day; fight off death, prolong the inevitable for another day. It was a shitty, underfunded hospital and it showed, with its stained walls, blurry windows, and general air of postapocalyptic chaos.
My men entered the building before me and asked for Charlotte at the front desk. The wide-eyed receptionist watched us warily as she checked her system.
“Student nurse Burke here is working in the ER right now,” she said, chewing her lip nervously, maybe rethinking the wisdom of telling men like us where to find Charlotte, but also not wanting to challenge us.
I turned toward the ER and started along the hall, my men flanking me. There was so much white in the damn place it was blinding. I was a creature of darkness, and my dark home in Casa Nera didn’t hurt my eyes like this hallway did. Blaring fluorescent lights and white tiles. Even the staff who passed were in white. It was like some parody of Heaven, and me and my men were black-clad demons.
In the ER, I spied Charlotte immediately. She walked between curtained cubicles efficiently, her face beautiful and serene despite the chaos around her.
“Bring her to me,” I said to Elio, my shadow. He nodded and moved away.
Ten minutes later,I sat behind a curtain, my mind going over the idea of the Burkes talking to the cops, playing with a knife as I waited. I guessed it was the younger, more idealistic one, Lucy, and not practical Charlotte. Not that the cops could do anything to me. I had enough leverage on the chief of police to get away with anything I wanted in this city. Still, it was a transgression that couldn’t go unpunished.
The curtain drew back with a sharp snap, and Charlotte stepped into the area. She gripped a clipboard with a paper sheet attached like it was a shield that could protect her from me. As soon as our eyes connected, she flinched so hard, she dropped it.
“What are you doing here—” she started and nearly leapt forward as Elio’s silent shadow crowded in on her, forcing her further behind the curtain.
He pushed her firmly into the curtained room, so close that if I reached out, I could have gripped her thigh. The thought wasn’t unappealing. Then Elio backed up and ducked out of the space, pulling the curtain closed behind us.
“Why are you here?” Charlotte repeated, her voice just above a whisper.
Her words were strong, but her eyes glittered in fear. They dropped to the knife in my hands. It was a little trick I’d mastered young, twirling a slim blade easily between my fingers. I liked knives; I’d been comfortable with them since I’d learnedparanzacorta, the Sicilian art of knife fighting, when I’d only been a boy.
Charlotte’s gaze fixed on the knife, and she paled, seeming to swallow her words of protest at my presence.
“We need to talk, Miss Burke.”
