Page 23 of Reaper

“We don’t get to decide who lives and dies. You are not God, Nico.”

He barks out a laugh.

“Do you know what he would’ve done to you? Do you have any fucking clue?”

I cross my arms over my chest and shake my head again.

“Of course I don’t know, because I never met that man in my life.”

He narrows his gaze at me, before his face registers a pained expression.

“He would’ve started by raping you.”

I roll my eyes at his stupidity.

“Well, that would be nothing new, would it?”

Nico places his thumb and forefinger on my chin, and lifts my head gently so my gaze is on his eyes, and a chill runs through my body. I’m unsure if it’s because of the way he’s staring at me, or the cool breeze blowing through my hair.

“I know you think that’s what I did to you, Bella. It’s not. Everything I’ve done to you would have been a walk in the park. He would have been brutal with you. And then he would have sliced you from head to toe. I would have found parts of your body scattered across my beach. He would have taken your eyes to punish me, but everything else would’ve been here. I know you think I’m wretched, but I promise you there are worse.”

I can’t help the gasp that escapes from my throat, because he paints a terrifying picture. Would that man have really hacked me up and spread my body parts on the beach?

“Who is he? Was he?” I correct myself.

“Vincent Abruzzo. I killed his baby brother, the golden child of their family. The Abruzzos are rivals. They’ve lost a lot of control over the past few years and have become desperate. The men in my family are not what you’d consider good men, Bella. The Abruzzos don’t simply kill like I do for the thrill of it. They torture. What I am capable of doing to you pales in comparison.”

I swallow hard, because someone worse than Reaper is hard to imagine, but his words come across as sincere and genuine. I believe him.

“Was there a reason you killed him?”

I already know Reaper kills to kill, but with him being from a rival family, I wonder if there’s more to it, because it seems like you might be more careful with who you kill, if he comes from such a powerful bloodline.

He shrugs with a smirk on his lips.

“He took my parking spot.”

“You’re insane, unhinged, and completely reckless.”

Reaper chuckles like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“Now you sound like my brother.”

Narrowing his gaze at me, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone as he instructs me, “I have to call my brother. Don’t move. I will chase you. To the ends of the goddamn earth.”

“Bones,” he says, “Vincent Abruzzo is dead.”

Of course, I can only hear his side of the conversation, but it doesn’t take me long to gather that his brother isn’t happy.

“Did you expect me to allow him to kill me instead? Would that be the easier outcome for you, Bones?”

Bones?

I file that away for later, because now is clearly not the time.

“Yeah, well, he took my fucking parking spot. That’s disrespectful, Luca.”

His jaw clenches, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen Nico really mad.

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