Page 124 of The Mafia Assassin's Redemption-

And he’s the best bad man I know.

“You don’t remember, right? You followed me…” But his finger moves on the trigger, just the tiniest little bit. “You followed me because you called them in. And you didn’t want me shot.”

“I loved you. I still love you, Torin.” But her voice is laced with viciousness, and I don’t hear love in her tormented tone at all.

“You fucking called in monsters and pretended to taunt them with Molotov cocktails and gunfire. But you got caught. Fuck… no wonder Donal didn’t wait around and took off.” He stares right at her and nods. “The Serbs came looking, didn’t they? They were after you.”

“I needed money, and that family was shit. All I had to do was take them out, earn the money, kill the Serbs. Easy.” Her hand trembles with the gun on me a moment longer, then she swings it at him. And it takes me a moment to realize she means my family.

I want to rip her face off.

But all I can do is stand here.

“I didn’t…youshould have come for me,” Siobhan growls. “Not the Serbs. Not the Raos.”

His gaze rakes over her. “You look like you did well for yourself without me.”

“I got into shit, and when I remembered everything, I was already stuck owing and working for them.”

I’m not sure who she means, but I don’t even know if it matters. What matters is she’s here and had years to plan and plot and grow her twisted hate and resentment toward him. “Prisons don’t always have bars, Torin. There are other types. Some that shine bright with pretty things. But when I could, I managed to escape mine and come looking for you. And here you fucking are.”

“Here I fucking am,” he says.

“I was going to surprise you, Tor, but then you married her.” She tosses me a dark look. “A fucking blood marriage. Had to look thatshiteup, too.”

“Shiv,” he says gently. “I didn’t know any of this. And I’m sorry, but we can talk. Okay? We’ll put the guns down and we’ll talk.”

“It’s too late for that.” Her gun shakes even more. She’s so far from the smooth, sophisticated woman I met in St. Jane’s that my heart hurts a little for her. “I remember how you looked at me, Torin. You don’t look at me that way now. You look atherlike that.”

“No,” he says. “I looked at you the way I always did, and Harry, I look at her as I see her.”

It’s not an answer, or maybe it is, but she snarls, and it’s clear the answer’s not one she likes.

Then realization hits me like a crushing wave. He just told her I’m special. Whether he meant to or not, I can see in her face that’s what she believes he said.

I want to tell her I’m sorry, I didn’t mean forhim to do that, but it strikes me that maybe she’s lost her mind a little, lost hold of some reality, because he doesn’t look at me like the love of his life as she claimed he did her.

I’m a burden, a thing, something he wants to rid himself of.

Torin wants me to run away because he’s as obsessed as me, but that’s not love, at least not for him. It will never be love, and I know that now.

“Harry, why don’t you go get some whiskey?” he asks me, his eyes never leaving Shiv.

It’s a tone I haven’t heard before, like he’s tiptoeing on eggshells that cover landmines, and if one shell breaks… kaboom.

I frown. “But?—”

“Or whatever you have.” He still doesn’t take his gaze off Siobhan.

I take a step back.

Siobhan’s hand relaxes and the gun stops shaking. Now centered on me. “No, stay here. I’m fine. I don’t want a drink.”

Now Torin takes a small step, closer to me, and the gun swings back at him. “Christ, Shiv. It’s been ten fucking years. Tell you what? Lower your gun, leave now without hurting Harry, and you’ll be good; you’ll have a future.”

“She can’t be allowed to live,” Siobhan says through clenched teeth. “You know that.”

“I know if you try to hurt or kill her, you’ll stop breathing. But right now, I’m giving you a choice. You can walk away and never cross my path again. You can live a good life. Have a life.”