Page 88 of Sinful Lies

The others trailed behind, too lazy for the hunt.

It’d be just me, Greg, and Harper. My father bailed without a word.

Now it was just the two of us, the room thick with cigar smoke and barely contained hate.

“She was a good fuck,” Greg finally said, like it meant nothing. “Got too clingy, though. You’d think a woman her age would act her damn years. Still, you killing her? That shit’s been bugging me.”

There it fucking was.

I took a slow drag, letting the smoke burn in my lungs before exhaling toward him. “Ah, my bad.”

Why stop there?

“If it can make you feel worse,” I said, leaning forward just enough, “she was crying for you right before I put a bullet here.” I tapped my forehead.

He scoffed. “Poor girl.”

But the way his jaw tightened? That crack in his mask? I saw it.

He wasn’t as unaffected as he wanted me to believe.

It almost made me smile.

Almost.

I leaned back, letting the cigar burn between my fingers.

“Should’ve kept her in line. Might’ve saved her life.”

He leaned forward just a fraction, eyes narrowing. “And what’s gonna save yours?”

I let my smirk deepen. “Nothing, Greg. Just like nothing’s fucking saving yours.”

I extinguished the cigar with a deliberate twist, the embers fizzling out like the last shreds of mercy I’d ever had.

Rising, I towered over him, fists clenched tight—like I was holding back something far worse.

I didn’t spare him a glance as I walked out, but the words still burned my throat.

I’d tear him apart, piece by fucking piece.

And when I was done, he’d beg for death to take him—because it would be the only mercy left.

Chapter

Twenty-Two

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”

? André Malraux

Jade

I sighed, feeling like I’d just completed a marathon in heels. My feet were screaming, my back drenched from hours of parade-walking through luxury stores with velvet ropes at the entrances.

We’d tried on enough outfits to open a boutique, and my arms were about to fall off from hauling all the bags.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a new wardrobe, but Monica Lazzio?