Page 67 of Brutal Devil

Saint’s expression is filled with pity. “Alliances by marriage are common in our world. It would have happened sooner or later for you.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen for me.” I shake my head, confused. “Why did you tell me all this?”

And why didn’t Priest? I don’t know if it would have made a difference. If I would have seen him in a different light. He’s still the gangster who held a gun to my head at our first meeting. But he’s also the man who washed the blood off me like I wasa child. The man who sleeps beside me and holds me when the nightmares come.

“I told you because I know my brother won’t,” Saint says quietly, jerking me from my thoughts. “He didn’t want this any more than you did, but now he’s putting himself on the line to keep you safe.”

“By kidnapping me and locking me away against my will?”

I can’t keep the bitterness from my voice. Regardless of how I ended up where I am and who was responsible, I’m still here and I don’t want to be.

“Where do you think he is tonight?” Saint asks.

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.”

Saint’s blue eyes—so like his brother’s—are on me, intense and serious. “He’s meeting with the Animal.”

I hiss in a breath. No wonder Priest didn’t tell me where he was going or why. I was right to worry about him. Amedeo is dangerous. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that he was likely the man behind my father’s murder.

“Give Priest a chance, Luna,” Saint adds into the silence. “Who knows? The two of you might end up happy one day.”

“Yeah, or we might end up dead.” My stomach curdles at the thought of something happening to Priest tonight while he meets with my cousin.

“Sooner or later, we all do.” Saint shrugs. “May as well make the most of the time you have.”

It’s the careless world view of a gangster who has seen and participated in more violence than most people can even fathom. But he’s also proving my point.

“Forgive me if I don’t want to spend my time as the wife of a gangster trapped in an underground bunker,” I retort.

“You won’t be down here forever, Luna. This is temporary, and it’s to keep you safe.” His phone lights up again, and he reads a new message before tapping out a response and thentucking his phone away. “So, back to streaming. What should we watch next?”

Priest

It’s still raining by the time I slip back inside the G-Wagon. The lightning is electric, illuminating the sky above the buildings that preside over us like urban giants. My feet are wet from having splashed through puddles in the parking lot.

“Drive,” I bite out.

Rocco doesn’t waste a second. He’s on the gas, and we’re on the road, heading on a circuitous route back to the casino in case we’re being tailed.

“You okay?” Scorpion asks, his voice sharper than a knife. “What the fuck happened in there?”

“I’m fine.” I slick rain from my hair. “Nothing went down.”

He’s grim. “That was a fuck of a long talk for nothing going down. I was about ready to storm the place and burn it to the ground.”

“The Revellos had a lot on their minds.” I shrug out of my suit jacket. It’s fucking soaked and seeping through to my shirt, and I hate the sensation of wet fabric against my skin.

Unless it’s from climbing into the shower with Luna.

Now isn’t the time to think about my wife, I remind myself for at least the hundredth time today. I’m fucking obsessed with her. Even through the tense meeting between myself, Squeaky, the Animal, and a few other Revello capos, my mind kept darting back to her, like a favorite song stuck on repeat.

“What I really want to know is if there’s going to be a war,” Scorpion says, losing patience with me.

I don’t blame him. I’m distracted, and it has nothing to do with the whiskey I halfheartedly nursed for the entirety of the meeting.

“There’s not going to be a war for now,” I say cautiously, replaying everything that happened in the Diamond Club.

“For now?”