Page 60 of Pretty Dark Vows

I still don’t know what he’s talking about or why the hell he thinks I care, but then it suddenly hits me, and I can’t help but laugh.

That’s right. Kiki’s stage name is Sugar, and Rob was fucking her in the alley behind Club M the other night when I left. Jesus, it feels like a lifetime ago. Before Chloe was taken. So much shit has happened since then, so many things that matter more to me than he ever did, that it might as well have happened to someone else.

If he actually believes I wasted a second of thought on who he was sticking his dick into, he really is delusional. I’ve already forgotten about it and never cared in the first place.

I huff a breath, not even acknowledging his words. “Get out of my way.”

“Hear me out first, baby,” he says cajolingly. He moves toward me as he speaks, angling his body a little to try to back me up against the wall.“I’ve been wanting to get back together ever since I made the mistake of breaking up with you.” Heat flashes in his eyes, and he gives me a look that I’m pretty sure is supposed to be seductive. “You’re a much better fuck than Kiki is. You’re better than all the girls there. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve missed you. I missed your sweet pussy…”

He reaches for me as he speaks, his fingers brushing my collarbone just below the spot where Logan gripped my throat yesterday, and something inside me snaps.

I slap his hand to the side, pushing away from the wall and shoving hard at his chest. I may have to put up with the Reapers manhandling me, and I’ve already resigned myself to the three of them doing whatever they want, but it will be a cold day in hell before I put up with any more ofRob’sshit.

“Get. The fuck. Away from me,” I snap as he stumbles backward, helping him along with another hard shove that has his back hitting the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

He rubs his chest, looking affronted. “What the hell, Riley? I’m just trying to make things right with you,” he whines.

“Yeah? Well, you failed at that the minute you treated me like your personal whore,” I shoot back, my voice cold. “We’reover. We will always be over. It’s a permanent condition. I’m the one who broke up with you, remember? And I haven’t regretted it for a fucking second.”

He shakes his head. “No, that’s not how it—”

“And do you know why I broke up with you?” I go on, talking right over him as my anger builds. “Because you have a pencil dick, Rob. It’s small. It’s limp. And you don’t know how to use it. I broke up with you because I wasn’t satisfied, and I doubt anyone else you’ve stuck it in has been either. And mostly, I broke up with you because I don’t have time for someone who wastes his time hanging around a strip club pretending to be a big shot, which means I don’t have time foryou.”

His face has been getting progressively redder, and now he scowls. “Jesus. You don’t have to be such a—”

My hand curls into a fist, and he snaps his mouth closed before he makes the mistake of finishing that sentence. I don’t know what it is he saw on my face, but I’m genuinely surprised that he’s smart enough not to piss me off even more by saying what I think he was about to.

But he’s notthatsmart, so I make sure to spell it out for him.

“Fuck off and don’t ever talk to me again,” I say, stepping back as he stares at me with a look of wounded shock on his face. “Not if you want to keep that tiny dick attached to your body.”

With that, I turn on my heel to head back to my table—but my footsteps stutter as my eyes lock with Dante’s. He must have gotten tired of waiting on me, because he’s standing at the end of the hallway, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and something glinting in his green eyes as he watches me.

I can’t quite read his expression… but there’s a tiny upturn at the corners of his mouth, as if he can’t help but be amused by what he just saw. And as I make my way toward him, I could swear I even see something likepridein his face.

“Ready, princess?” he asks once I reach him, without commenting on what just went down with Rob.

“Sure,” I say, reminding myself that it’s stupid to read anything into the way he was looking at me. Just as stupid as it is to feel settled, almost secure and safe, when he rests his large hand against my back as he guides me out of the diner.

There’s nothing safe about Dante. About any of the Reapers.

And I don’t know why a part of me likes that.

18

RILEY

Low voices are comingfrom the living room when we get back to the house, but this time, instead of steering me away so I don’t listen in, Dante leads me right toward them.

“Come on,” he says. “Madd should be done with his meeting with Payton and Isaac by now.”

He’s right. The girl who seemed to hate me so much and the other Reaper who came to report to Maddoc are both gone, and the only people in the living room now are Logan and Maddoc. Logan looks up as we enter, his eyes as flat and cold as always. Our gazes lock, and for just a second, something shifts in his expression—a barely-there tightening of his jaw that’s impossible to read.

My footsteps slow, and I’m sure my face is a lot more expressive than his is, despite the fact that I’m trying to maintain my best poker face. This is the first time I’ve seen him since last night, and my pulse skyrockets at the memory of his large, strong hand wrapped around my throat.

Then Logan looks away from me, breaking the loaded eye-contact between us as he shifts his attention back to Maddoc.

“McKenna would be a fool to risk it,” he says in that chilling, passionless way he has.

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