Page 81 of Brutal Heir

My body melts against him, all tension forgotten as his mouth coaxes mine open, his tongue brushing against my own in a rhythm that makes my toes curl and my thoughts scatter like ash in the wind.

But too soon, my thoughts begin to spiral and reality crashes back in. My past. My duty. The fine line I’ve already obliterated.

I pull away, chest heaving, forehead still resting against his. “We shouldn’t,” I whisper again, this time more to myself than to him.

His eyes are heavy with need, confusion, and most of all longing. But he doesn’t argue. Doesn’t pull me back. He just nods once. And the absence of protest says everything.

We can’t do this.

Despite how much I want to.

“… the body of Chip Armstrong…” The reporter’s voice cuts through the emotion-fueled haze, and I shove Alessandro to the side, jolting straight up. I reach for the remote and raise thevolume, ice coursing through my veins as a monster’s familiar face fills the screen.

Brutal murder.

Hacked to pieces.

Remains found in the Hudson River.

I don’t realize I’ve stopped breathing until the room tilts sideways.

“Holy shite,” I hiss out.

CHAPTER 32

THREE ESSENTIAL PIECES

Rory

Alessandro is impossibly still beside me, every muscle in his body carved from stone as he stares at the flat screen on the wall. Swinging my head to meet his gaze, his expression is completely unreadable—if I didn’t know the man so well. Beneath that frosty mask is barely contained fury. His jaw ticks, his hands clenched into fists, knuckles white. His wrath is raw, palpable and seconds from detonating.

And suddenly, I know.

I don’t need to ask because the answer is stamped across his face.

Just like that, three essential pieces fall into place, and icy cold realization slams into me.

Alessandro brutally murdered the man who hurt me.

All the mob rumors surrounding the Geminis are a hundred percent true.

I’m falling for the heir to Manhattan’s most ruthless crime syndicate.

The first two discoveries should frighten me, but instead, it’s the last one that has me terrified.

“Rory… Are you okay?” The deep timbre grounds me from the downward spiral.