Page 185 of The Contract

Because grief is just love when it has nowhere to go.

And it’s fucking overflowing.

“And the pharmacy,” I add, slipping it in like an afterthought.

He tilts his head, frowning. “You were there yesterday. Are you sick?”

“No, Dominic” I say, without hesitation. “Just a stomach bug.”

Epilogue 2: Zver

STILL TWO MONTHS LATER

“Dante’s death was inevitable,” I explain to Roman.

Stone faced and sweating, he doesn’t budge.

“Meh.” I shrug. “A little anti-climactic if you ask me. Everyone’s deaths are inevitable. Right?”

I slap him in the shoulder where I just twisted the last screw into bone. He wails against the ball gag.

It took nearly the super pack of them from Lowe’s to find out exactly what I wanted to know. Plus I had to make him vanish and make it look like some bullshit fallout from Andre D’Angelo.

Pay attention. Genius in progress.

A knock sounds at the door. Which is fine. I’m out of screws and after a week of this sweatbox, I could use a break. “Enter.”

Dominic eyes the scene, then me. He’s carrying a tray with water and cookies. Which I will shove into my mouth like marshmallows.

After I wash off the blood, of course.

He frowns, eying me. “You’re still in the mask?”

I shrug. “Big reveal and all.”

With understanding, he nods. “Want me to take over?” he asks, cautious like I might snap.

Can’t say as I blame him.

Between keeping Zapretnaya far enough away to not detonate the whole goddamn operation, keeping her safe, and keeping a muzzle on my cock while she struts around flipping off every camera I own—half the time naked?—

Yeah. I’m barely fucking hanging on.

But with Roman handled and the next phase in full swing, I’ll make good on my promise.

To break her.

So. Fucking. Slow.

“No, thanks,” I answer, cracking my knuckles. “I’m good.”

Then I backhand Roman with the force of an executioner’s swing. He jolts awake.

Chokes on a sob—guttural, gagged, and so fucking pathetic it’s music to my ears.

A muffled please tears from his chest like it’s been hiding there for far too long.

Dominic hands me the water.

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