Page 130 of Madness & Mercy

My jaw tightens.

“…Please,”I add, quieter this time.

And that’s when I hear it. The softclickof the door unlatching.

Then he enters, immaculate and calm like he’s walking into a board meeting, not a room where I’m strung up, desperate, and humiliated.

He closes the door behind him with a softclick,then checks his Rolex as if I’m just a minor inconvenience on his schedule.

“What is it,cagnolino?” he murmurs, his tone icy. “I’m a very busy man.”

My teeth sink into the inside of my cheek, hard enough to draw blood. It coats my tongue, metallic and hot.

“What’s it gonna take?” I rasp. “To make this right. For you to forgive me. I’ll doanything.”

His mouth twitches into something that’s not a smile.

“I let you in, Julian,” he says, circling me slowly. “Into my home. My operation. I gave youeverything.”

He stops behind me. I feel his voice on my skin, low and lethal.

“And you repay me withbetrayal.”

The air turns razor sharp. I want to bolt. I want to lie. But I can’t do either.

“I didn’t have a choice,” I whisper.

Nico walks around to face me. He tilts my chin up with two fingers.

“Tell me what he offered you that I didn’t.”

My mouth is desert dry.

“Please,” I start. “You have to believe me. Yes, I was hired to kill you—”

His gaze darkens.

“—but it changed.Everythingchanged. I didn’t give him anything real. I lied tohimto protectyou.I gave him scraps. Just enough to keep him off my back, not enough to hurt you. I swear.”

He watches me with no reaction. Doesn’t even blink.

“You think that earns youmercy?”he mutters.

His voice could strip paint off a wall. He grabs the back of the chair andslamsit forward an inch, just enough to make me jolt.

“You lived under my roof. Ate at my table. Let me touch you.Beggedfor me.”

He leans in, his breath hot against my ear.

“And the whole time, you were feeding a fucking viper scraps off my plate.”

The chair rocks back onto all four legs again. I flinch. He watches.

“You should be dead.”

“I know,” I breathe. “I know I should be.”

His fingers brush my jaw, ghosting over the column of my throat.