Page 134 of Rosetti Family New York
“Don’t worry,” Rafe says, dark and cold. “I’ll handle it.”
Sal shakes his head. “No. I want him to take care of it himself.”
My chest is tight. I tell myself I need to hear it from her mouth. I need to see the look in her eyes. I need to be sure.
“I’ll bring her up,” I say. “It’ll be done.”
The storm pounds as I leave the study.
I head down, past the front hall. The marble floors echo with each step. I am stone, and if I crack, I will never be able to hold together the pieces.
She gave them up. The chemist. The lab. The drugs. Besiana gave them up.
The private gym is at the bottom. My heart is somewhere lower, somewhere deeper, where even I can’t find it. I feel the ghost of her touch on my chest. Her lips on mine.
I need to know the truth, even if it kills me. But I won’t believe it until I hear it from her lips.
My hand is on the door. It’s cold, like the rest of this place.
When I walk in, Besiana is a blur of black and white against the far wall. She’s running on the treadmill, fast and graceful, dark hair pulled back in a sleek tail, her face a picture of concentration. She has no idea what’s coming. My chest tightens. How could I have been so wrong about her?
“We need to talk.” My voice is loud, bouncing off the empty walls.
She slows the treadmill and lets it run under her feet as she holds onto the bars.
“What’s wrong?”
Everything. I can’t say it.
I turn around and slam my fist into the nearest punching bag. I hit it again. And again. Not for training. Not for release.
To stop myself from thinking.
She lied.
Besiana. My wife. My fire and my undoing.
She fed them information. Dushku’s men. The raid on the warehouse. The loss of ixaphorine. My chemist dead. And I thought—fuck, I thought—I was keeping her safe.
Another punch. The chain creaks. My knuckles burn through the wraps.
"You found out," she says quietly.
My jaw tightens. I land one more hit, hard enough to rattle the ceiling. Then I still the bag with one hand.
"Tell me what I don’t know already," I say.
She doesn’t answer.
I turn. Her eyes sharpen. They’re like chips of pale jade.
“Did you give Adrian the location of the lab?” I ask.
She steps off the treadmill, almost stumbles. It’s the first time I’ve seen her less than perfect.
“I—”
I cut her off. “We know you had a tracker. We found it. Rafe says you hid it in your fur coat.”
