Page 84 of Deviants

When she bounced up on her knees, my eyes immediately dropped to the slight bump protruding from her stomach that I already had plans to make permanent.

She smashed her nose against the glass, meshing it down like a little kid.

“You like it?” I laughed again. I did that shit more times than I ever had in my life.

“Rome, I fucking love it! I love you!” She launched herself at me—something she’d been doing a lot more fucking lately—which as a man I could never complain about because it always ended with my dick down her throat or inside her. And sometimes, it just felt good to be loved by her.

“How long have you had this?” She lifted David’s preserved head onto her lap.

It’d taken me for fucking ever to find someone to do it. He was already a nice charcoal color and deformed; I figured if he rotted, anyone at least I could say the motherfucker was once on my mantle.

Burning him alive was cathartic.

I would’ve given her Dhal, too, but she didn’t make the ride home in the back of my jeep.

Reaching back under the bed, I pulled out the second box.

Without asking—because, like I’d already told her, what we had went deeper than marriage—I pulled her hand onto my lap and slid the square ruby on her finger.

She stared at it for what felt like hours when one tear finally slid down her cheek. I beat her to it, swiping it off with my thumb and then sucking on it.

“Fucking asshole, making me cry,” she mumbled and wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my neck.

“I love the fuck out of you, baby.” I kissed her temple.

I meant that shit. This crazy fucking woman was everything to me.

She was hellfire and holly water.

The savage queen to my deviant king.

I would do anything to keep her by my side, even if meant always keeping her in the dark, because if she had any idea what I was really up to and all the things I’d twisted around or never told her, we’d go to motherfucking war.

And I would win, because I always fucking win.

EPILOGUE-C

I sat on the balcony with Bryce.

He was a constant companion of mine these days. The man didn’t say much, but he was still somehow good company.

My ring glinted in the setting sun. I traced over it, still not believing he’d actually slipped it on. I never thought I’d have a black wedding.

Rubbing the back of my neck, my thoughts went from everything from Grimm leaving the next morning and finding the only thing I’d ever had close to a best friend, to whatever the hell Romero was up to these days.

I worried he was working with Noah because of some fucked up brotherly bond. Noah, who was still helping him grow stronger every day by wiping out straggling delegates or sending him leads on resources. Romero never responded, at least not that I knew of.

I still had so many questions. I still felt so much hate inside me and I couldn’t find it inside myself to forgive those who had wronged us.

It was time to move forward. I would grow from this. I had to. There was someone else who would need me soon.

The sliding glass door opened andwe stared at one another, his all knowing gaze locking with my passive one. In that moment, I thought how unfair it was for one man to be so damn gorgeous. The devil came disguised as everything I’d ever wanted, a beautiful mirage meant to lure the darkest sinner.

Romero was my plus one, my other half. He was my reflection in a mirror full of cracks and missing pieces.

His darkness was mortally terrifying to most, yes, but to me it was a hidden heaven. His actions were repugnant and unforgiveable.

He was kingpin to a society of savages that revered him as the devil, but I loved his psychotic ass with every part of my being.

We found our dark paradise

And this was the end of our story…for now.