“You kill for a living. I don’t think it gets much worse.”
Growl nodded. “Perhaps. But I won’t let alcohol dull my senses.”
I emptied the rest of the wine. “That’s exactly why I drink.”
“Don’t. It was wrong to give you the wine. It doesn’t make things better. It only makes you believe that it does.”
I was starting to feel shaky and dizzy. “Maybe that’s enough. If things can’t get better, than at least I can pretend they will.”
Growl sighed. “I will tell Falcone and Cosimo that we’re leaving. You will stay where you are while I’m gone.”
I leaned against the wall. I didn’t feel like going anywhere. The room was spinning and I was starting to feel hot. With another look at me, Growl headed off to where Cosimo was talking to Falcone. The crowd parted for him. And he towered over them, strong and tall and proud, despite their whispers.
I wished I could be like that. But I cared about what people said. It hurt to see them judging and pitying me. I closed my eyes against their scrutiny and soon lost all sense of time.
A touch on my shoulder roused me from my stupor. My eyelids felt heavy as I opened them. Growl scowled down at me and I shied back by the anger on his face. “Never close your eyes around your enemies. You won’t survive like that.”
I smiled tiredly. “As if you ever take your eyes off me. Nobody can hurt me when you’re around. If someone ends up killing me, then that’s probably you.”
Growl didn’t deny it. He wrapped his fingers around my upper arm and steered me toward the door. I followed him in a trance-like state. When we got outside, the fresh air helped me regain my senses and I gulped down the oxygen eagerly.
But I still wasn’t in the best state of mind and it took me a while to notice a man leaning against a car and smoking a cigarette. I didn’t know him but Growl seemed to from the way his fingers on my arm tightened in warning.
“Nice catch,” the man called.
Growl ignored him and tried to pull me past him. But the man pushed away from the car, threw the cigarette down on the ground and smashed it with his shoe. He smirked. “How do you fit your big cock into that small lady mouth of her?” He sounded drunk, and I swore to myself never to drink as much as tonight again.
Growl suddenly tore away from me and I stumbled but caught my balance in the last second, bracing myself again another car. I gasped then whirled around when I heard a muffled scream. Growl had grabbed the man by the neck and threw him down on the ground. He kicked him in the ribs twice then leaned down and punched him in the face. The man moaned and blood spewed out of his nose and mouth. “Don’t,” Growl rasped in a voice that sent cold chills down my back. “Don’t ever talk like that again or I’ll gut you and strangle you with your fucking bowels.”
The man coughed.
“Understood?” Growl asked, shaking the man roughly.
“Yeah,” gasped the man in a blood-soaked voice.
Growl wiped his hands on the man’s suit before he straightened up and sent one of the bellboys a warning look. Then he returned to me with a calm expression. No sign of his previous fury was visible.
“Why did you do that?” I asked as he led me toward his car, which was parked on the side of the road near the entrance gates.
Growl helped me into the driver’s seat. “Because you’re mine and I won’t let anyone talk shit about you.”
“In the house, at the party, they were all talking about me.”
Growl looked back toward the brightly lit house and for a moment I worried he’d storm back and beat up a few more guests, but then he looked at me. “They were clever enough not to say anything when I could hear them, and most only feel sorry for you. They say bad things about me, not you.”
The way he stood there, with a few droplets of blood on his white shirt and cold determination on his striking face, he looked like my avenging angel. Who could be better to seek revenge than Growl? He knew how to hurt people, how to destroy them. Could I convince him to help my sister and mother? Even if he never let me go, perhaps he’d at least help them get away from Las Vegas and start anew. He was conflicted, I could tell. Could I make him go against Falcone after all? His amber eyes bored into mine, and a flicker of hope rose in me. I wouldn’t give up. He was my only chance.Growl
Growl had been suspicious from the start. Why would Falcone invite them? Now he knew. It was to humiliate Cara, and by doing so, him. Growl had never cared about what people said, what Falcone said. He’d lived his life, tried to survive, never wanted or needed much.