Page 170 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

The girl, Jaelyn, narrows her clear eyes to slits. “Have you? Because they’re still standing here!”

The dots are connecting fast and furious and I don’t like the fucking picture at all!

I narrow my eyes at Jaelyn. “So the other night was just a little reconnaissance, huh? Well played. You’ll find out really fast how this game ends now.”

Torres rolls his eyes and looks back at me. “My sister is very loyal. Almost to a fault.”

“That’s the thing about family,” I seethe. “They always have your back. No matter what, no matter where, no matter who. And I think you know exactly who I’m referring to when I sayfamily, don’t you?”

“Is that supposed to scare me, Villani?” Torres asks. “Because it only makes me want to bring you down harder.”

“It’s not supposed to scare you,” I say. “It’s just supposed to wake you up to reality. That is,ifyou survive long enough to wake up.”

Torres walks out from behind the desk, about three inches taller than me when we’re standing toe to toe. But I don’t cower.

Ever.

This is our fucking town, and if he won’t give up his piece of the pie nicely, I’ll just have to use other methods to show him how painful a rejected offer can really be.

Forhim.

“If you think that dragging me down here so you can swing your dick around was a smart move, you’re wrong,” I growl. “I came here prepared to make a deal, a deal you led me to believe could happen for the right price.”

“Don’t blame me because you couldn’t read between the lines,” he seethes right back. “Italians, Russians…who the fuck else do you have in your little power circle? Not that it matters. I’ve battled with enough scumbags to know one thing. You find their weakness and expose it, like a nerve. Then they back down because they don’t want anyone to know that there’s a kink in their armor and that their armor is actually made of fucking paper.”

Blood rushes between my ears as his venomous tone slices into the air between us. My gun is burning a hole in my pants right now. I wanna grab it and fire a shot right between his fucking beady ass eyes.

“See, that’s the difference between us and the scumbags you’ve dealt with. We don’t have any weaknesses. Just a whole lot of strength in the form of cash. Taking over your places would have saved us the trouble of building new, but because you decided to fuck us over, that’s exactly what we’ll do. Build bigger and better. And we’re gonna squeeze the fucking life out of you, sucking every penny out of your little pussy palaces.” I force a hateful smile. “And when we’re done…whenyou’redone…I’m gonna watch you run from this town with that dick in your hand because there won’t be anyone left to swing it at.” I glare at him, pushing my chest against him. “I will crush you and take everything you have. Then I’ll really go to work on you. and if you’re wondering, that’s not a threat. It’s a fucking promise!”

“You know what you can do with your fucking promises? You can shove them right up your?—”

“Jae!” Torres says in a stern voice as his sister starts to lay into me. “Enough.”

“Well, are you just going to let him talk to you like that?” Jaelyn shrieks, her hands on her hips. I can’t stop my eyes from sliding to my left where she’s standing, all five feet of her, in that borderline obscene black dress. She’s got a lot of rage packed into that tight little body, and I have plenty of thoughts about how to drain it from her.

Torres looks at me, a smirk on his smug face. Fucking A, I wanna bust up that jaw of his. Shatter it. Demolish it, even!

“I am the host here, right? It’s not polite to rough anyone up in my place.” He leans close to me. “So I’m gonna give you a chance to tuck your own dick between your legs, turn around, and get the hell out of here. I hope your little crew takes the news better than you. When I send a message, no response is ever necessary. They’re gonna realize soon enough who I am and what I can do.” He pauses with a snicker. “Maybe they should have sent in their A Team this time. Maybe I’d have been a little more open to the ‘offer’ if it was delivered by a different messenger.”

Anger percolates deep in my chest, a slow, rumbling explosion about to erupt out of me. Streaks of red flash before my eyes, and before I can stop it, I launch my fist, firing a shot to the side of his nose. He stumbles, barely, and I wish I could say that the sight of his blood makes me feel better about being duped.

It doesn’t.

And even if I could pound the shit out of his face, it still wouldn’t be enough. He cut deep with his words, and now I have to turn around and take this shit show back to my family….my family who already had zero faith I could pull this off. I’d convinced them I could make the deal, to prove I could run the expansion project, to rub Matteo’s nose in my conquest. I was supposed to lay claim to this goldmine, dammit!

Instead, I walked into a setup where Torres disrespected me, tore me down, and now, has the fucking balls to laugh at me.

I grit my teeth, my pulse thrumming as I pull out my gun and point it directly at his face. Bruno and Enrico pull out their guns, one on Torres, one on Jaelyn.

“Do you really think it’s a smart idea to pull out your weapons? You do know you have to get out of here, right? And my guys have eyes on everything?” Torres taunts, sweeping a hand under his nose to catch the drizzle of blood.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jaelyn’s eyes flash just as she swings her arm around, knocking Enrico’s gun to the ground.

A loud crack explodes into the air, and I throw myself against her, pushing her to the floor as everyone else in the room ducks and weaves to escape the stray bullet that fired from Enrico’s gun.

I stare down at Jaelyn, into her hate-filled eyes, feeling her heart race against my chest. She reaches up and grips my throat tight, cutting off my air as her legs squeeze against the sides of my torso. “Who needs guns?” she hisses through clenched teeth.

I pry her hands away from my neck, slamming her hands to the floor above her head. “So you like it rough, huh?” I growl. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

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