Page 174 of Hexed
“Don’t youdaresay those words to me,” he snarls.
The first real crack in my chest happens now. It aches like I’m bleeding out, a pulsing, throbbing monster that’s roaringinside my body and demolishing everything in its path, and it’s so overwhelming, I wonder if it’s possible to actually die of a broken heart. If the pain will be too much and I’ll just collapse and wither into nothing.
I deserve it, if so.
“I can’t even stand to touch you.” He drops his hand from my mouth, but he doesn’t back away.
“I had never met him before,” I force out. “But Joey?—”
“Giuseppe,” he corrects.
“Giuseppe…he worked with my uncle, like he told you. They were planning to expand. And then I guess something went wrong? I don’t know the details. Uncle T just told me what to do, and I did it. The same way I always did.”
He huffs out a broken laugh. “And that makes it okay?”
I throw my hands up, desperation filling my bones and leaking out through my pores because I can tell I’m losing him. The way I knew I would.
These past weeks of finally feeling like I mattered, like I was someone’s choice and I…well, I guess I never chose him. Not really anyway. Not enough.
“What did you want me to say? What’s the appropriate way to tell someone you care about that you murdered their brother?”
That pressure’s back now, building in my throat and behind my eyes, and then suddenly, a sob breaks from my mouth, and it catches me so off guard, my hands fly up to cover the noise.
Enzo gets in my face, his nose almost brushing mine.
It’s the first time I don’t feel the attraction between us, because it’s stifled—muted—transformed into this ugly, vile thing that digs its teeth into breaking organs and shatters them until they’re jagged and bleeding.
“How did you do it?” he asks.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
His hand flies into the wall next to me, punching it so hard, a crack forms. My heart jumps into my throat, but I don’t flinch, because I know that no matter how angry he gets, he wouldn’t hurt me. Not like this. Not with punches and kicks.
He might kill me for what I’ve done, but I don’t fear it.
“Your brother liked his escorts,” I admit.
Enzo’s face pales even further than normal, and he stumbles back a step. “Did you sleep with my brother?”
“What?” My brows furrow, a dawning horror sweeping over me. “God, no. I just posed as one to get into his room. I drugged his drink and did what the contract said to do.”
This gives him pause. “You were toldhowto kill him?”
I shrug, forcing the words out but unable to meet his eyes because there’s this giant ball of tension forming in my chest, and if I look at him right now, it feels like it will explode. “Yeah, sometimes Uncle T has stipulations on how it goes down. Does that not happen in your world?”
I risk a peek at his face, and he swallows, lifting his chin. “It does.”
My brows draw in, my mind piecing together a puzzle. “You don’t think your father…”
He shakes his head, looking at me with disgust, and that look,that’swhat I was trying to avoid. Enzo’s the first person to stare at me like I’m the only thing he can see, like I’m the most important person in the universe and he’d choose me a thousand times over.
Now he just looks cold, and his hatred pours over me like ice water.
But I’ll wait to let it consume me until I’m alone because I’ve already done enough damage. The least I can do is not fall apart right in front of him.
“You should have told me.” His voice cracks. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?”
“If I had told you back in South Carolina, I would have been betraying my uncle. Myfamily.”
