Page 93 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“She doesn’t deserve—”
“Yes, she does.” His glare is piercing.
The moment he appeared before us, I searched for any signs of a wound, but he appears normal. Healthy, if angry, but what else is new with him, really.
Still, I can’t help but feel guilty. He was hurt because of me, after all. He didn’t deserve that.
No matter how much of a dick he is.
“Kane—”
“She put you in danger,” he interrupts. He steps forward, the sun glaring down at him. He looks very out of place, standing in this hot oasis clad in nothing more than a suit and nice dress shoes. “Anyone who puts you in danger suffers.”
Aw, fuck.
He’s such a dick. An asshole. A bastardo. Why does he have to go and say things like that to make my heart flutter when I know how much we hate each other?
Fuuuuck, now my vagina’s all tingly again.
“She helped me when I needed it.”
Kane growls, and his eyes flash with a mix of fire and darkness. “She put you in jeopardy. She had no idea where that portal could have led you. You could have ended up in the bottom of the fucking ocean.”
“But I didn’t!”
We’re nearly pressed together now, our chests rising and falling harshly. So close, and yet it’s not close enough.
I can feel all eyes on us. Of demons, of Lorenzo. They’re watching us like we’re a telenovela they can’t get enough of.
“Kane,” I lower my voice. “Please.”
“Why?” he demands, equally quiet. “Why do you want her free?”
I swallow. “Because… I like her. Because…” Because she helped me without question. I’m not sure if she had malicious intent, but a part of me wants to see her again. To give her the chance to explain to me why she did what she did. If she really did it without expecting anything in return.
Or maybe…
This is why she did it. She wanted to help me and knew she would be punished for it, and now it’s my turn to do her a favor. The favor of freedom.
“Because she’s my friend.”
He stares at me for a long time before he sighs with exasperation. “Fine,” he finally concedes. “But if she steps a single fucking wing out of line again—”
“To The Pit she goes?” I crack a smile which he doesn’t return.
Instead, he gives me a long, lingering look before he disappears.
I turn to Lorenzo. “That went well, didn’t it?”
He smirks. “Of course. Usually anyone who challenges Kane ends up skewered to a wall. I think my brother likes you.”
I snort.
It doesn’t take long for Kane to reappear, not alone this time.
The she-demon falls unceremoniously into the sand, coughing and bloody. Her wings are scraps and flabby where the stakes were pierced through them, like holes in a fucking kite.
“Joder, Kane.” I want to rush and help her up, but the swishing of her tail and the vicious way her gaze turns up to mine holds me back. “You tenderized her.”
