Page 83 of The Wicked

He settled back down, shaking his head. He didn’t smile, but he didn’t look annoyed either.

I shifted my position, wondering why the hell the thought ofthatactually happening didn’t sound so bad. I mentally shook off the images my brain supplied, and the sudden awareness of the heat his coat supplied to my body.

“Where’s your sense of humor?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t give anything away. “If Street were here, they’d get the joke.”

He didn’t say anything to that.

I rested my hand on my cheek, watching him with interest.

“Do you have friends, Elio?”

I don’t know why I asked that… but I continued because where’s the fun in silence?

“I mean, aside from Casmiro… like outside your whole syndicate circle… do you have a group of friends from, like, college? Oh, and you said you were in the army for a year? Did you have friends there?”

His brows drew down as if he were thinking, and then he locked eyes with me briefly before speaking. “Friends are another level of weakness. When you have friends, you’re open to betrayal, inessential drama—”

“Less loneliness,” I cut in. “I could totally be your friend if you stop trying to kill me.” And then I backed up. “Why are you trying to kill me?”

“Many reasons.”

“Okay, I turn you on, next?”

“That is not part of—” He sighed. “You stole from me,” he said.

“See, that’s where it gets confusing. I wasn’t the only one who stole from you, yet you singled me out. I don’t see you trying to drown my friends, and we’ve registered the fact that Devil joined Street of his own free will.”

“You still manipulate him, and you will eventually end up hurting him when he finds out you’re not who you say you are.”

“Devil and I aren’t in a relationship. He’s my best friend, and I know little about him, just like he knows little about me; it’s mutual.”

“Well, there’s the fact that you seem to be too skilled for Street. You’ve only caused me headaches since we met, and you have managed to disobey direct orders, undermine me in front of my people, and act like you have once obtained the same role as me.”

He wasn’t wrong. “That’s my personality. You want to kill me because of my personality?”

“No.”

“Then…”

“You talk too much. You make me talk too much.”

“Talking is good, but that’s not reason enough to kill me.”

“I just don’t like you… your presence… it’s—for reasons best known to me, I’d prefer you dead. Let’s leave it at that.”

I tsked, shaking my head.

“Why doyouwant me dead?” he asked.

I shrugged. “You shot me, left a scar on me. Nobody does that and lives. Because of Devil, I’m lenient. Getting your name on my shit list would only take one action. I hope, for both our sakes, your name never gets on it.”

“There it is, that tone. It’s why I want you dead.”

I laughed, eying him before relaxing back on the tree. “Get used to it,Dad.It’s not going anywhere.”

He didn’t respond, and I no longer tried to fill in the silence. I closed my eyes, replaying the whole conversation in my head.

Elio’s personality confused me, and I could feel my obsession to fix things tingle, but I reined it in. Despite all he had revealed, he was still The Wicked. He still shot me and tried to drown me. He couldn’t be trusted.