Page 41 of Devil's Deal

Was I scared? I didn’t think so. I was too shocked, stunned that Bosley was calling me his boy. Stunned at the magnitude of his rage. Stunned it was over. And it was over, wasn’t it? Bosley was freaking out and going ballistic on a dead man. Blood coated the floor and splattered with every kick and stomp of Bosley’s large foot.

“Romeo!” Dante barked sharply.

Bosley barely paused, but I saw it. Dante had gotten through to him by screaming that name. Not his name. At least not the name I knew him by.

“Romeo?” I asked softly.

And that was enough. He heard me. He abandoned Huey and flew to my side, dropping on his knees in front of me, between my legs. He raised his hands to cup my face, then looked at the knife he’d wielded like a badass like he’d never seen it before, and let it clatter to the floor next to us. His fingers skimmed carefully over the wound on my head.

“Cory, my sweet quirky boy. I’m so sorry it took me so long to find you. I’m so sorry he hurt you.” Then he leaned his face into my chest, and his body shook against mine.

Chapter

Sixteen

BOSLEY

“Romeo, huh?”Cory asked, stroking his fingers through my hair.

Huffing, I leaned back so I could see his precious face, angry all over again, witnessing where he’d taken a knock to the head and the blood around that area. “You just watched me murder a man, and that’s all you have to say.”

“He was going to kill me.”

His eyes glistened with tears, and I lifted trembling hands and cupped his cheeks. “I know, baby boy. But we got here in time. Try not to think about it.”

He glanced to the side of me, and I turned my head, too. Dante side-stepped, blocking the majority of the devastation I’d inflicted on Huey from Cory’s gaze. He couldn’t block it all, though.

Cory brought his water-filled eyes back to meet mine. “Thank you.”

I’d been so worried about this beautiful man finding out what I did for a living, and now he’d seen the worst of it in the worst possible way. I never lost my shit like that. I never freaked out. But I’d also never had a boy worm his way into my heart like Cory had. “Do you hate me now?”

“For saving me?” Cory shook his head. “But I might get a little pissy if you don’t get this rope off me.” He lifted his wrists up for me to see the bindings holding them together.

I went for my pocket to grab my sweet girl, then realized I dropped her on the ground. What the hell was Cory doing to me? I never treated her with such disrespect. Leaning down, I picked up my knife and quickly sliced through his restraints.

He caught the hand holding the karambit in his and studied it, turning it in different angles. “You’re pretty good with this thing, aren’t you?”

“She’s been my best friend since I was thirteen years old.”

Cory’s eyes widened. “Oh, Bosley.” It was uncomfortable, knowing that he recognized that my life hadn’t been an easy one. Then he broke the mood, glaring at me. “Seriously, what’s with Romeo?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “It’s my name?” I said it more like a question than an answer.

He shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“The question is,” Dante said from behind me. “What are we doing with this body?”

I sighed. Leaving Cory to rub at the imprints on his wrist, I stood up and turned to Dante. “You’re going to clean it up.”

He huffed. “I was afraid you were going to say that. How the hell am I supposed to get it out of the hotel?”

“I might be able to help you there,” a new voice said as Everest stepped into the room.

“I thought I told you to go back to work,” I said.

He chuckled, a raspy sound, broken with age. “Son, I know you didn’t think we wouldn’t follow you.”

Dante’s head whipped in his direction. “What do you mean by we?”

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