Page 117 of Chaos Kills

I shrug. “He didn’t want to meet.”

“That’s bullshit.”

Bruh…no one around here suffered short-term memory loss.

“You’re not on his good-boy list,” I profess evenly. “Especially since you showed Torin a fake video of my so-called murder of Judah.”

“Nothing fake about it, babe.”

I’m not doing this.

“You think I’m tryin’ to hurt you, sweetheart?” Matteo inquires almost empathically. “I’m not.”

“Youhave.”

His body lifts dismissively. “Childish indiscretions.”

“I’m talking about Judah.” Matteo blankly stares at me then, giving nothing away as to what his ideas were behind that stunt. That well thought out stunt. “What did you think was going to happen afterward? I’m almost thinking you hoped someone would kill me.”

He scoffs. “That’s not true. I wouldn’t give them something they couldn’t handle. They needed their world rocked a little bit.”

“By you passing the blame on me?”

Matteo cocks his head to the side. “The blame?”

Oh, this motherfucker.

A mirthless chuckle rumbles from my chest, and it reeks of violence and Matteo’s blood on my hands.

He’s another one.

Another problem. Another asshole who believes he can do whatever he wants without consequences.

A dickhead whose faint scars I still wear.

“Mi reina, the last thing I want is for them to fuck with you. However, in hindsight, I’ll make this all up to you.”

“You put a bounty on my head. That’s not making shit up to me.”

Matteo’s face contorts, and I’ve already reached the limit of his playful, casual side because I’m not playing into his bullshit. “I already told you those boys would tear you apart.”

“They already did. Thanks to your help.”

Matteo pins his eyes on me.

Clearly, he doesn’t believe it because he keeps staring at me like I’m about to out myself.

But that’s not a full-blown lie.

Torin Wildes did that all by himself. Meanwhile, I did it to the man I’m rescuing.

“What do you want for the Stanton boy?” I inquire as my phone buzzes in my back pocket.

Travis pulled through.

Casually, I pluck it from my jeans, as if trying to catch the time, and I find an unknown number across it.

I hit answer, then power down my home screen without putting it to my ear. “If I hurry, I can still make it back in time for another set of races. Breeze Bar is, thankfully, not too far away.”

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