Page 30 of Toxic Love

“Yeah, but that’s easy for him to say. He literallydoespick his battles, and he only picks the ones he knows he’s ninety-five percent or higher likely to win in court.”

She grins. “And is dressing to shock or piss Dante off tonight the battle you want to pick?”

“Yyyes?”

She chuckles, pushing an errant lock of red hair behind her ear. “Well, it’s your call.”

I purse my lips.

Goddammit. She has a point.

If I walk in there tonight dressed to piss off Dante, who did imply via text yesterday to dress to impress, it’s going to put him on edge and keep his attention on me, waiting for me to do something else to stir shit up. And that’s not ideal, giventhat my plans for the evening include slippingawayfrom this stupid party and snooping around Dante’s house for any clues or connections between Venom and the men with the rings.

Shit.

“Okay, okay,” I concede. “Fine. Maybe I could be persuaded to elevate the look a little.”

“May I suggest something that isn’t black?”

I sigh heavily. “Maybe. But I’m still painting my nails black and doing the little skulls thing.”

Iammarrying the devil, after all.

8

TEMPEST

“You look nice, Tempest.”

From the back seat, I look into the rearview mirror, meeting Gabriel’s eyes.

“Thanks. You sound surprised.”

His lips curl slightly at the corners. “If I were a betting man, I’d have put money on you showing up tonight in a gorilla costume or like you were going to a death metal show.”

“Shit, am I that predictable?”

He chuckles. “I’m just saying, you look nice.”

I glance down at the shimmery silver, sleeveless, ankle-length dress with the tastefully teasing neckline, plunging back, and the slit up the side to mid-thigh.

Not-really-a-spoiler: it’s Taylor’s, not mine. After she offered to help me find an appropriate outfit for this debacle, we both realized exactly how muchinappropriate shit was in my wardrobe. The strappy silver heels are also hers, for the samereason. But I will admit, even if I feel like I’m cosplaying a European princess in this ridiculous thing, itdoesgo with the tuxedos my brothers are wearing a bit better than that Joy Division t-shirt.

We’re long past the point where I press them on ways to get me out of this situation, or where they ask me for the millionth time what the fuck I was thinking. Instead, we sit in silence as we drive through the night to Dante’s Hamptons estate where I snuck my signature onto that blood marker two weeks ago.

Alistair clears his throat, his eyes flicking from the road ahead to my mine in the rearview mirror.

“Why were you at Mount Sinai earlier today?”

My spine stiffens, my heart dropping for a second. Dr. Han’s office is at Mount Sinai. I will myself to keep cool as I frown at him in the mirror.

“Were you spying on me?”

He rolls his eyes. “Obviously not. Katerina’s grandmother has her dialysis sessions there. Katerina took the morning off today to be with her, and when she came in later, she mentioned she saw you in the lobby of the nephrology center.”

Katerina is Alistair’s secretary, a sweet, quiet young thing who somehow works happily under my brother’s iron-fisted rule. I did know she had a grandmother going through dialysis for Lupus-related kidney issues.

…I just never realized grandma was getting dialysis in the samedepartmentof the samebuildingwhere I go to see Dr. Han.

---