Page 101 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

Dante’s words come back to me, and no matter how I try to twist them, or banish them, they stay bright and center and clear.

Gio nods, gives me a look that signals the all clear, and opens the door. We climb in.

I lean back on the leather seat, thinking and waiting.

I don’t have to wait long.

Heaven stabs the partition separating us from Gio and turns to me. “Is there something going on I don’t know about?”

I close my eyes a moment. Conor will have heard the news. Declan, too. It’s only a matter of time before the entire underworld is on fire with this whole thing. But it’s only me and the Mulligans who know the devastating meaning of it. And if I don’t tell Heaven, someone else will. Might as well be me.

Her loving husband.

Fuck.

“Yes.”

She doesn’t say a word, even though I can tell she wants to rage, and I almost smile. But really, there’s nothing humorous in this situation at all.

“I know this isn’t real, and I might have bought into it a little too much.” She pauses. “For the show of the wedding. But we’ve changed, we’re closer. We have…an understanding. At least I thought we did.”

“Heaven…” Fuck. How did things get complicated in this way? Emotions are messy, and I keep away from them. But this redhead with fire-green eyes seems to have made a part of me forget that.

I need to tell her the truth, or as close to it as I can. Because I’m sending her the fuck away. It’s the only thing I can do. And if I have any chance of doing that without drugging her—which I will if I have to—then the truth, the latest Dominguez event, anyway, is the only way that might happen.

“Dominguez knows for sure it was Conor who killed Santos Rojas.”

She frowns, shifting on the leather seat, the white beaded gown and train surrounding her. It gives her an airy, magical look. And that red hair with the rose lips…she’s enough to cause even my black heart to miss a beat or three. “We knew that would happen.”

I glance out the window, trying not to shift or seem overly concerned. “I know. But this is bad.”

“That’s what I’m here for and you know it. Right? Dad and Conor were talking, so I figured that’s what was up. Is that why you iced me out at the wedding?”

I shoot her a look. “It was for your own good.”

Her nostrils flare. “If you don’t start talking, I’ll get Gio to give me his gun and I’ll shoot you.”

“He’d never do it.”

She narrows her eyes, and they spark angry green fire. “He will. He likes me.”

Actually, he might. He’s scared of me, but he does like her, and I suspect he’s a little more afraid of a temperamental redhead than of me. With me, he knows what he’s going to get.

I sigh. I have to play this very, very carefully.

Not just with her, but everyone.

Everything.

“Heaven, I didn’t ice you out.” I stop and sit up and go to take her hand but she snatches it away. “I needed to think, because this is big.”

She goes still. “What do you mean? I thought… Start talking, Matteo.”

“Conor didn’t kill just him,” I say. “He shot two people. The second one just died and it’s spreading now, the story. Everyone in the underworld will step away from the culprit. From Conor.”

She leans into me and grabs my thigh. “You better talk, Matteo. Who did he kill?”

“Dominguez’s daughter.”

---