Page 212 of Chaos Kills

“But I didn’t put that last bullet in him, did I?”

He lifts his shoulders dismissively. “I don’t recall that shit.”

He must think I’m recording him because, normally, Matteo is proud of his, what he’d call, accomplishments.

He wouldn’t deny them.

“Remember when you said us working together would be beneficial? Don’t make me an enemy.”

“I did say that.”

“Then recall who andwhatI am.”

“All you have is Wallace. And I’ve been fighting with him for years.”

“And The Landings’s seat. I am Emilio Wildes’s daughter after all. So, do you want me to enforce Daddy’s soldiers or do you wanna play nice?”

He loses the space between us, purposely bumping his chest into mine to intimidate. It works. I’ve fought Matteo off before and never won. “You threatenin’ me now,puta?”

“Promising, foreshadowing…whatever you want to call it.”

“Think so?” He ashes his cancer stick to the side and sets his focus on me as if he’s gonna act and make me retract what I just said.

He knows it won’t stop the reality.

Even when Matteo raises a gun from somewhere on him and begins waving it around in my peripheral, I’m still the daughter of the most powerful man around here. And if Matteo kills me, he’s dead by the end of the week. “How about now? Maybe I’ll just finish off what Judah planned to do all those years ago.”

“Your funeral,” I mutter, barely able to get the words out because my stomach is strangling them to death, and sweat begins to form at the back of my neck.

“Now,” he coos with a shitty smirk. “Why would I want to do that?”

The gun disappears, but I’m still on edge. I don’t know what Levi expected me to do here. He said to distract him, but I knew I was walking into a losing battle.

I came here for one thing and one thing only, and it’s done.

Matteo isn’t going to hand me over shit and I’m wasting my time and energy here.

“You’re so fuckin’ confident that your daddy’s name is gonna save you?” I blink and pull Matteo back into my focus. “You need to reevaluate, Bay. If you don’t believe I’ll put a bullet in you, then fuck you silly like I used to.” He leans closer, hovering his lips over mine and setting off a flood of goosebumps along my skin. “You know I used to drive you crazy, girl. You have the gall to come over here and not expect to suffer some of the consequences? Especially since you were out savin’ those motherfuckers the other night. What did you think was going to happen?”

“I’m not about to get hit for more murders on those boys. Do you think I’m fuckin’ stupid?”

“Yes,” he immediately answers. “You are. All this talk and no results.”

“Shit takes time.”

“And you’re slow moving. You think I’m gonna think my girl forgave me for all those years ago and you’re going to side up with me?” He slowly rocks his head back and forth. “I may mention it, Bay, but I’m not banking on it.”

“And how do you expect me to trust you?”

“You don’t,” he replies matter-of-factly. “That’s the fucked-up thing about us, isn’t it? I hurt you, you went home and cried about it. You broke up with me, and now you keep running.”

“You see me runnin’ from you?”

“You’re not because Wallace is present. You didn’t think I missed him, did you,mi reina?”

Fuck.

“Why do you keep calling me that?” I clip back, trying to home in on calm, but all I can think about is that Matteo has already set out a few of his dudes to go after Levi. “You just said?—”

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