Page 55 of Reaper

She loops her arm with Melissa’s, and I get up and follow after them, as they walk up the spiral staircase leading to the VIP room. I take two steps at a time, because having her out of my line-of-sightbothers me more than I can handle. The second I walk in, two things happen. The tingling in my neck returns, and Abruzzo looks at me like he’s going to kill me. He wishes. I know he isn’t armed, because only my family is allowed to have weapons here. Everyone is searched. They don’t like it, but if they want to come in, there’s not a choice.

“Reaper,” he growls, attracting the attention of both women. Melissa gazes at me with wide eyes, causing me to chuckle. She knows she’s in trouble, because after years of dating mafia men exclusively, she knows this isn’t a good situation, with men from two opposing families, ready to face-off. She’s what Kage refers to as a mafia whore. She fucks men involved in organized crime, because she wants to tie one down. Melissa doesn’t give a fuck about them. It’s all about both money and power. The two things that drive our families. Without both of those things, there would be no mafia.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

BELLA

I watch the two men closely. If he tries to hurt Nico, I’ll lose it and kill him myself. No one will take him from me, I will not allow it.

Melissa grabs my arm. “We have to get out of here.”

The room is large, with a massive booth to the left of the door, and a bar to the right, with two bartenders that are watching Nico closely. I’ll have to ask him about the three stripper poles at the back later, but now is definitely not the time.

Nico watches Abruzzo with a look I’ve seen before. It’s the one he had in the kitchen that terrified me, but this time it’s not aimed at me. His eyes are black as coal, his stance wide and threatening, and I can almost see the tingling in his neck he told me about, and when his murderous tendencies aren’t aimed at me, it’s hot.Really fucking hot.

He points in the direction of the bar.

“Get out.”

His staff do not need to be told twice. I’m assuming they’ve been through a similar situation before. They quickly leave and close the door behind them. Melissa decides she’s had enough, and runs toward the door the staff left through, and I go after her, and drag her head back and slam it into the door. The thud is loud, as is her wail, as she falls to the floor.

I glance at Nico, and he grins at me and mouths, ‘good girl’.

Abruzzo takes advantage of his attention being on me, and pulls back and cocks Nico in the jaw. The man known to the world as Reaper wraps both hands around his throat, and squeezes with crushing force.

“Wrong move, asshole.”

Melissa sits on the floor, holding her hand to her bloody head, while she trembles from obvious fear. I’m close enough that she knows running is pointless. I will catch her.

It becomes clear how much stronger Nico is than me, because the man slumps to the ground within minutes. The second I witness him being safe, I push Melissa so that she’s laying down, and climb on top of her, placing my hands around her throat.

Nico groans in the background, but this isn’t enough for me. This is how he likes to kill, but I want blood, which has never happened before.

“Nico?”

“Yes, baby,” he says as he steps beside me.

“Do you always do it this way? Don’t you think her blood would be so beautiful?”

She whimpers as I squeeze her throat. Her eyes are wide, and the loveliest shade of green. I watch the pure terror in her expression, and Nico is right, it’s fucking beautiful. Tears stream down her face and, while I know I should feel bad, I don’t. Instead, every sense feels heightened. My hearing is crisp, my sight is sharper than ever before, and the feeling of her trembling body in my hands does things to me I don’t recognize. It’s different with him here. Or is it because she’s a woman? I’m not sure, but it’s powerful.

Nico holds a knife out for me.

“It’ll make a mess.”

He nods slowly. “Yes, living dead girl, it will. We have people to clean up such messes here now. Do whatever feels right. Let the darkness in. Let it consume you, guide you.”

I take it from him, happy that he even trusts me with a blade after what happened. When I take my hand from her throat, she tries to scramble free, but screams loudly when I stab her in the chest, then the stomach, and finally I tilt her head back, and drag the blade across her throat. The blood pours from her neck. There’s also blood coming from her other wounds, but not like this. Her green eyesquickly go from vibrant to dull, appearing glazed, cloudy, and it’s beautiful.Nico was right. About everything.

Climbing off her, I turn to him and brush my hair out of my face with my free hand. He stares at the knife in my other hand and chuckles softly.

“I’m going to need you to put the blade on top of the bar, living dead girl.”

“You don’t trust me?” I ask because that feels like a gut punch, although I should understand, given what happened before.

He smirks at me before it turns to a grin.

“I trust you, Bella, but I don’t think you understand what you did to me. I’m going to fuck you so hard, your head is going to spin, so please put the knife down, so I don’t have to worry about hurting you.”

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