Devil (The Marchesi Family 3)

“I made a bargain with him.”

“Does this bargain have anything to do with the fact that the detective in charge of the Milano case killed himself and left evidence he was on the take?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

Marco’s glare told me he was not in the mood for games. “Lucien’s clear now? That was Daniels’s part of the bargain?”

“I discovered a new alibi. Daniels interviewed the man and decided Lucien couldn’t be the killer.”

“And now Daniels knows Lucien’s alibi is phony. You think he won’t hold that over you.”

“He’s already told his lieutenant he believes it. If he goes back and says he lied, he’ll lose his badge. Trust me. He’s not going to risk that.”

Marco frowned. “Trust. That’s exactly the problem here. You trusted a fucking cop.”

“We trust cops all the time. How do you think we get out of all the things we do?”

Marco huffed. “Those are people your family put in place. You don’t know this man.”

I actually knew him too well. I’d seen him come apart in my hands. I knew what he craved, what he needed to get off. “That’s not true.”

Marco’s eyes widened. “Jesus, you fucked him, didn’t you?”

“So what if I did? I might as well enjoy myself when I’m working.”

“You’ve compromised everything, Devil.”

I hadn’t though, had I? I believed Daniels when he told me he wasn’t going to use anything from this case against me or my family. Of course, I also believed he would go after me in the future.

“Our bargain was only about this case. He owes me nothing now, and I don’t owe him either. It’s over, and you’re never going to bring it up again.”

“Fuck. Lucien has no idea what you did, does he?”

“No. You’re the only one who knows.”

“Damn, you didn’t even tell Angelo?”

“He and Lucien don’t need to fucking worry about this. Lucien isn’t going to be charged. That’s all this was about.”

“Devil, you really fucking stepped in it this time. Daniels is going to resent you for making him lie for you. Don’t you get it? He actually believes in all that justice shit.”

“I’m not sure he does anymore.”

Marco shook his head. “This is going to bite you in the ass one day. You know that, right?”

“That’s my problem. If you ever mention it, you’ll be the one who pays.”

He scowled. “You owe me.”

“Fair enough. When you need a favor, call me, but don’t say a fucking word about this to Lucien, Angelo, or anyone else.”

Marco nodded. “You have my word. I won’t say a thing, but don’t come crying to me when you regret what you’ve done.”

I walked away without another word.

9

Devil

It had been six months since I’d seen Joseph Daniels, but not a single day had passed when I hadn’t thought about him at some point. Every time I fucked anyone—male or female—I remembered the way he’d moved under me. Nothing I did, no matter how kinky, no matter how enthusiastic my partner was, came close to being as good as sex had been with him.

I jerked off over and over to memories of fucking him, ramming my cock down his throat as I sucked him off, and jerking him off with my gun to his head. Every nasty thing we’d done was guaranteed to get me off in record time.

I resented the fuck out of him for staying in my head like he had, and I hated him for knowing about the one time I’d ever killed unintentionally. He didn’t know the real story, no one but Angelo, Lucien, and their father did. He didn’t know what Alex, the boy I’d killed, had taken from me or that I thought he was going to kill Angelo. Would Joe even care that I had a reason for what I’d done? He probably would, but I wasn’t going to tell him. It wasn’t any of his business.

It had taken me years to stop seeing Alex’s face in my dreams and reliving the horror when I realized he was going to die. I’d locked those memories up tight, but now they were back, haunting my dreams again.

Every time I saw Alex in my mind, I wanted to smash Joe’s fucking face in.

For weeks after Joe cleared Lucien’s name, I considered hunting him down and eliminating him. I hated knowing someone was out there holding that incident over my head. Joe was a liability, and I knew how to deal with liabilities.

But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Every time I thought about killing him, I remembered the sigh that had escaped him as he’d relaxed into the mattress as he gave himself to me and the look on his face when he realized I really did understand exactly what he needed. Joe and I had connected in a way I never had with anybody else. The way I felt about him fucking scared me. There was no way I could harm him, no matter how much I should.