Page 5 of A Taste Of Darkness

At least in more recent years.

Sterlie shook her head. “Is Arlo here, do you know that?”

“Arlo?” When did she get involved with him? But more importantly, why would he get involved with her?

My cousin was known for a lot of things, but none of them were cheating on his wife. Though to be fair, he’d barely seen her in seven years, so who even knew?

As far as I was aware, Arlo never even thought about divorcing Dahlia. It was frowned upon in our family anyway, or rather the kind of family we were part of. He adored his wife, though, even if he only saw her for a week about once every other month.

“D’Angelo, yes. Is he here?” she said.

“I knew you meant him; I was just surprised as I didn’t think Arlo was your type.”

Sterlie’s eyes widened with horror for no longer than a second before she shook it off. “God, no. I’d rather put a bullet through my head than get involved with anyone Kai considers his accomplice or friend or whatever they are.”

“Understandably.” I took a quick look toward the table Arlo always sat at, and when I found it empty, my eyes were back on Sterlie immediately. “He’s not here, but perhaps I can help?”

She sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Unless you want to offer me your guest room to sleep in, I don’t think you can help much. Actually, I’m not even sure Arlo would’ve been able to help me. God, I’m just… wow, so out of it tonight. There were like, I don’t know, five guys who tried to rob me. Well, tried is an understatement, one literally held a gun to my head while the others?—”

“What?!” I stopped myself from moving before my hands could lay on her shoulders. “Spin back there, cuore mio. Someone robbed you?” A tear ran down her face as she nodded softly. “And they held a gun to your head?”

“Yup.” Her voice broke, a sob left her glossy lips.

Tears I could handle, but a sob… oh, I was about to do things I swore I’d never do again. I wasn’t Kai, I didn’t kill for fun anymore, but I sure would for Sterlie, even if she’d never know.

Despite the fact that half of the people present were currently watching us with curiosity, I told Sterlie that I was going to touch her before I reached for her hand and interlaced it with mine. Then I practically pulled her toward the elevators so I could get her some place to stay, whyever she needed one.

I was sure she had a house, or at least an apartment, which made me wonder why she wanted to stay with D’Angelo… unless, of course, they were an item, but again, that seemed unlikely as Arlo was married with a kid and all.

“I don’t want to go back there, Milo,” Sterlie said when the elevator doors opened and revealed the lobby.

It was surprisingly quiet tonight. On normal days, Tartarus’ lobby was occupied by a group of older men who refused to sit with the younger crowd. I didn’t care as long as they paid their monthly membership fee and treated my staff nicely.

She clung to my arm, nails digging deeper into my skin with every step we took.

“Oh, my God!” Sterlie gasped, stopped in her tracks, and looked at me with wide eyes. “I left Soup in the boutique!”

“So?”

“Soup is my dog.”

She had a dog? I didn’t know. “Since when?” I knew a lot of things about Sterlie, but only because Flora told me so much about her. As it turned out, there were still things I didn’t know, like the fact that she had a dog named Soup.

“Two years. I needed a friend since my sister had to get married. But that’s not important now, Milo!” Sterlie pulled on my arm, now determined to go back to her boutique and no longer afraid. Or perhaps she was still afraid, but the desire to rescue her precious dog was bigger.

It didn’t matter why she suddenly got enough courage to pull me after her. I’d save that dog for her, if that was the last thing I did.

“It’s a cute name,” I said. “Soup.”

“Don’t make fun of her name. She’s cute, trust me. I rescued her, did I mention that? Two of her legs are paralyzed, so she has this adorable little doggy wheelchair. It’s pink, I had it custom-made. Well, okay, technically all of the dog wheelchairs are custom-made as they fit them to the dogs individually. Did you know that? It’s kind of cool that they do th?—”

She shrieked when I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. As much as I would’ve loved to listen to her talk about a dog wheelchair, I was more determined to get to her boutique and find that dog. Then find those fuckers who dared to scare Sterlie.

“Sir,” Cleve greeted; I didn’t reply.

“Milo, let me down!” Sterlie slapped a hand to my lower back and wiggled her legs as if that were to help her. “I have two healthy feet, I can walk myself.”

“You’re shaken up, cuore mio. It’s better if I carry you.” I looked back at my bouncer by the entrance doors and sent him a mad glare. If he thought Sterlie and I were engaged, then he should feel my wrath for letting her wait five whole minutes before he believed her.