Page 117 of Dreadful

“You’re a little fucked up, huh?”

Cazzo.

Somehow, I completely forgot about Orazio, and I whip around to face him. He and Sever look like brothers, but Raze is broader and maybe an inch taller than his cousin. Some might even say he’s more attractive, but he does nothing for me. Right now, my mind short-circuits at the sight of him. This man betrayed Sev.

“Traitor!” I grab a random razor off of a barber’s booth and throw myself at him. Something zooms across the room at the corner of my eye before two strong arms capture me from behind.

“Vipera, it’s okay,” Sever murmurs soothingly in my ear, but I’m not having it.

“Let me go, Sev!”

“Damn, she really is a viper, isn’t she?” Raze grins, infuriating me more.

“Severino, let me go! He betrayed you! He kept you from attacking the judge,andhe let you get hurt!”

“Ouch, so the truth bombs are flying, huh?” Raze grimaces and rubs his chest.

Sever squeezes tighter but chuckles at his cousin, confusing me and taking some of the wind out of my sails.

“See what you did, Orazio? This is what you get for going along with Claudio’s bullshit without telling me. I should let her after you.”

Raze’s eyes widen, and his hands raise apologetically. “If she did that to Judge Blunt, no thanks. I’m out.”

“Believe me, Tallie deserved every drop of blood she spilled.” He kisses my temple and tightens one arm around my waist while he snatches the razor out of my hand with the other. “I’ll take that.”

“But Sever—”

“He’s on my side, Tallie. My cousins had to hold me back to stay in Claudio’s good graces. And honestly to keep me alive. If I’d killed the judge, I wouldn’t have served as Claudio’s ‘guard dog’ anymore, and he would’ve happily killed me.”

“But your ankle,” I insist and point at his leg, still propped up on the knee walker. I’m glad he has it, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him have to use the mobility device the entire time I’ve spied on him. “And you werestabbed.”

Raze sucks breath through his teeth, “Yeah, that fucking sucked. I owe you…I don’t know what, but I owe you. Or you owe me because it could’ve been worse? Whatever, we’ll get square on that somehow.”

Sev huffs, “On second thought, maybe all your apologies through texts shouldn’t be enough. Maybe I should let her go wild.”

Raze’s grin falls suddenly, and his medium olive skin tone blanches as he backs up to the door. “Sev, man—”

“See, Tallie? Look at how afraid he is. Ofyou. You’re formidable,vipera.”

I’mformidable. My chest flutters at the thought. This giant of a man is literally scared that I’ll slice him open. It feels good to have that power, and something about it settles my anger, and I fight Sever’s hold less and less as he continues to talk.

“He’s always been on my team, and he always will be. Not only did we grow up together, but his side of the familyhatesClaudio. Lots of people do. We have more people in my corner than Claudio has in his stolen kingdom. Raze helped convince the judge to come here, knowing what we were going to do, and now he’s here to help us clean up.”

“You’re going to help us?”

He shrugs. “It’s my barbershop after all. I can’t let my customers come into blood and gore for a shave. It’s bad for business.”

I’m still scowling despite their reassurances and Raze’s cheeky smile, but I quit pushing against Sever’s hold, and he loosens his grip on me. When I’m free, though, I rush at Raze before Sever can stop me and stab my pointer finger into the man’s chest.

“If you ever betray Sever, I will kill you.Hai capito? That’s a promise.” His eyes widen, but I’m not done, and I jab him again. “And you shouldn’t sneak up on a woman like that. One of us is bound to kill you one day.”

“I have no doubt that you could.” Raze’s brows rise for emphasis at the corpse behind me. “I’ve only seen carnage like that from my cousin. Nothing a little Luciano bleach can’t fix, though.”

“We’ll bring the body down for processing if you clean up here,” Sever offers. My stomach lurches, but I try to keep my face from showing my disgust at the thought of touching the judge’s corpse as Sever continues. “I left the bib in the back room. It might need tossing because it definitely wouldn’t pass the luminol test.”

Raze glances from Sever to me before explaining, “That’s the one CSI uses to test if blood has been spilled.”

“Please, I know what the luminol test is.”