Page 120 of Brutal Knight

"Take it out slowly," Rook had his gun back up again, pointed towards me. Towardsus.

Anger coiled through me. "Don't fucking point that gun at her."

"I'm not. I'm pointing it at you."

"You could accidentally hurt her."

"I'm an excellent shot."

"And you can't guarantee that she would move to protect me?"

"You know I would," she bit out.

"Fuck," he cursed, giving her an angry look as he put it back in his holder.

Balancing Tatiana in my lap, I slowly pulled out the notebook: the price of my betrayal.

Rook's eyes narrowed in on it, his chest moving in and out as his breathing picked up. "That's it?"

I nodded. "The notebook the old mafia boss kept hidden."

"And you stole that from Bourbon and Coulter? Or did they give it to you?"

"I took it, yes."

"Stole it?" He was staring so intently on the small notebook, he'd forgotten about the halfway eaten banana split balanced in his lap.

"Yes." I answered, admitting to my betrayal. "What is it?"

Rook's gaze snapped away from it, as if breaking from a spell. "You don't know?"

I shook my head. "You need a code to decipher it." I frowned. "But that doesn't mean I'm not betraying them any less."

"And they don't know you took it?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. But I'm sure they'll find out."

A devilish grin crept up Rook's face. "I'll make sure they do."

He reached for it but I held it away from him, and his face grew stark.

"I only want to clarify," I said, "what this means."

"Tatiana's contract for the notebook."

"You have a deal."

"I don't believe this is happening." Tatiana exhaled.

Ignoring her, Rook cocked his head to the side. "It doesn't mean that I won't kill you."

I know," my grin grew bigger. Rook looked confused, but he didn't know the ace I had up my sleeve.

"Rook," Tatiana seethed. "You can't just pass me over like that."

He gave her a look filled with both sadness and anger. "Stand up," he said. "Stand up right now and walk away and out of this room. If you can do that, I'll release you from your contract. You'll walk away a free woman."

"You know I won't do that."

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