Page 23 of That Mafioso Magic
“As much as I don’t want to think I failed, I can’t ignore that he might have been. There were two other children there whom I couldn’t save. I need to be able to save this little girl.”
Sage cocked his eyebrow. “I’m beginning to see why you have the mark of the angel on you.”
“Meaning?”
“A virtuous spirit,” Sage said.
“And your dragon?”
Sage smirked. “I’m shades of gray.”
He was something, that was for sure. “So, have you ever killed anyone?” I asked, just going for the jugular. I mean, if we were connected through the book, I couldn’t approach Sage with kid gloves on.
He sat back then, crossing one leg over the other, looking every bit the mafia boss I knew him to be. His suit was to die for and most likely costed more than my car. His watch, I knew was at least ten grand, an elegant number that made his wrist look sexy. I had to admit, a man in a well-tailored suit did push my buttons. Everything about him… Jesus… I couldn’t help it, I found him to be incredibly irresistible. Why was I drawn to Sage’s darkness? Why did I find it so alluring?
He was watching me now, head slightly cocked as if contemplating answering my question. “Well, have you killed anyone?” I asked again, letting him know I wasn’t going to back down.
He smirked. “Do you really want to know or are you just playing at being that curious. Because I will tell you.”
I huffed. “Oh, trust me, a part of me is thinking that ignorance is bliss, but then… forewarned is forearmed.”
“Or what you don’t know can’t kill you?” Shi said.
“Until it does because of some shit you didn’t know,” Xavier chimed in.
Sage smirked, then raised his hand, stopping whatever Shi looked like she wanted to say. She closed her mouth and nodded. “I see where this is going. Can the two of you let Adrian and I work this out? If Adrian really wants to know, I have no problem telling him the truth. In fact, I want to.”
Well, he put that nicely back into my lap. Did I really want to know? I did. “Yes, I… I think it’s important that I know.”
“Very well, then.” Sage said with a curt nod. “I have. People who have tried to do me harm or have betrayed me. Sometimes, it’s by my own hands, sometimes one of my soldiers does the dirty work. I am not only a mob boss, but I am also a lion king. I’ve had to defend my pride and territory from other shifters or male lions who have tried to take my place. Killing is a part of both of our natures. As humans, you kill for a number of reasons. As shifters, we do too. I don’t let people run games on me, Adrian. And let there be no pretenses, when I find out who’s been trying to kill me, I will end them. It won’t be pretty, because an example will need to be made not to fuck with me for anyone else curious to take me on.”
I swallowed, because it helped me buy some time to find the right words to respond to Sage’s brutal honesty. The man before me, the man who I’d shameless fucked on my desk the night before, just admitted to being a murderer. As much as I thought about distancing myself from him, it would seem the universe would have us bonded through magic. Try as I might, I still felt that I was getting in over my head. But there was no turning back now.
Sage cocked an eyebrow. “Was that the answer you were expecting?”
I cleared my throat. “Not sure, really, but thank you for your honesty and bluntness.”
“So, now that you know something about me I don’t tell just everyone, same question for you. Have you ever killed anyone, or your partner over there?” Sage asked, nodding his head in Xavier’s direction.
“I have,” Xavier said. “But only in the service of my country.”
Sage snorted. “How noble.”
“Yeah, it is,” Xavier snapped.
Sage turned toward Xavier, giving my partner his full attention, and I wasn’t so sure this meeting wasn’t about to turn sour. “I take it you don’t like me?”
“I don’t like whatever it is that’s going on between you and Adrian. I’d rather we not be entangled with a mob boss, a cold-blood gangster,” Xavier stated, arms crossed over his chest.
Sage smiled, a soft chuckle coming from him. “Well, fortunately for me, I don’t give a shit what you like or think.”
“Okay, we aren’t going to do this,” I said, interrupting what I could tell was about to be a war of words I didn’t want to see become a war of physical proportions. I knew Xavier would lose against a lion shifter. Shifters in general were extremely powerful. Punching a hole in a human’s chest was an easy feat for them. I didn’t need my best friend and whatever the hell Sage was to me to be at each other’s throats. “Xavier, do you think you can go to the house and investigate on your own?”
“I can, but without your magic, I may miss something,” he said.
“Well, we’ve got to multitask. Whoever is trying to kill Sage won’t wait for us to finish that investigation to start on his. Also, Mr. Tamir is a paying customer,” I said.
“Speaking of him being a paying customer, how much we gonna charge him?” Xavier asked.
