Page 83 of Explosive Union

I roll my eyes as I turn to face him. “You’ve never had a cock in your mouth, have you?”

His eyes narrow. Unlike his brothers, Dario doesn’t like authority, and he’s not entirely sure what to make of me yet.

“He can’t breathe right now, which is why when a woman gags, you pull out. So, unless someone pulls his penis from his mouth, he’ll suffocate on it,” I inform him. “Rocco, you need to teach your brother the basics,” I comment, appalled that a person in this life doesn’t know what will happen when you choke someone.

Rocco, however, isn’t in the mood to joke. His eyes are dark and there’s a gleam in them. I know he’s finally seen what I can do. He knows the lengths I’ll go to to protect myself and my men.

“The sooner that bastard dies,Mia cara, the sooner I get you home.”

Alrighty then. I lift onto my tiptoes and press a kiss against his lips. “Soon,” I whisper to him.

His hands slide around my waist, and I feel safe and content. “Baby, you were amazing.” The sincerity in his voice makes my throat lodge with emotion.

God, I love this man.

I actually love him.

Fuck.

CHAPTER22

ROCCO

She’s been quiet since we left the bar. It’s currently up in flames thanks to Dario and Killian. Those two seemed a little too eager to make it burn. That bastard, Greaves, deserved everything he received today and a whole lot more. A fuck of a lot more. But Jade got the justice she’d been searching for.

“Where are we going,Mia cara?” I ask when she takes the left turn instead of the right that would take us toward our home.

“I have a pit stop to make,” she says, her voice soft and brimming with emotion.

“Okay,” I say slowly. “And that would be?”

She sighs, her hands tightening on the steering wheel. “When I was inside, I had two cellmates, Shona and Marcy.” She sits up straighter, her gaze firmly on the road ahead of us. “Marcy was—" She pauses as if to find the right word. “Delicate. She was so fragile. Even though she was the oldest of the three of us, she was the most vulnerable, and they used that against her.” She swallows hard as her grip gets tighter, her knuckles turning white. “They moved her from our cell, and she was put into one on her own. Every night she would cry. Her sobs were worse than any nightmare. Until one night, they just stopped.”

“What happened, baby?”

“She killed herself, slit her wrists and died in a pool of her own blood. Those bastards deserve everything they got,” she hisses. “She ended her life because she couldn’t take their abuse any longer.”

I rest my hand on her thigh, and she grips my fingers as though they’re her lifeline. “What happened to Shona,Mia cara?” I dread to think. She’s not mentioned these women to me at all. I can only assume the worst.

“Shona was an addict when she went into prison. It took a long time for her to become clean, but she was. Even after those bastards and what they did to her. That all changed when she left. Nightmares are a fucker. They creep up on you when you’re most vulnerable. For Shona, they were unbearable, and she did the only thing she could. She went back to her vice, but she overdosed. She’s suffered long term brain injuries. The past ten years probably won’t ever come back to her.”

I interlock our fingers, and she doesn’t push me away. Instead, she clings tighter. “That’s good, right?”

She gives me a small smile. “It would be, except she’s forgotten that she has children.”

Christ.

“So, yeah, it’s not that great,” she whispers as she releases my hand and turns right, into the graveyard. “I won’t be long,” she tells me as she parks the car in the parking lot.

I nod. “Take your time.”

I watch as she climbs out of the car and walks toward the graves. I pull out my cell and call Elio. I need to make sure everything went okay with the bar.

“It’s done,” he says in lieu of a greeting. “Whatever the fuck they used worked well. That fucker came down like a ton of bricks and is burning to a crisp as we speak.”

“Good. And that other thing?”

“Still raging like an inferno. It’s structurally unsafe for anyone to enter. So, they’re trying to get the fire under control, and right now, it’s already spread to three other houses. It’s not going to stop anytime soon.”