Page 18 of Vow of Sin

She’s a tall woman, even in her black pumps, but she is still no match for my height. When it comes to me, she is small and she is vulnerable, but her attitude and massive fucking ego won’t allow her stubborn brain to grasp that concept. Grasp the fact that I could truly ruin her if I wanted to. And sometimes, I really do, Especially after that kiss. Now I want to ruin her in all of the delicious, dark ways that my mind can conjure up.

“Shouldn’t have kissed me or shouldn’t have invited that bald asshole that had no reason being here? No no, don’t get defensive, kitten. If I were you, I’d answer wisely.” I hiss as she glares at me, that burning fire now back into her smoldering gray gaze.

She lifts her lips in a snarl, her pert nose scrunched as a deep, red flush colors her small cheeks. If she wasn’t such a brat all of the time, I may actually find her anger sort of cute.

“I fucking hate you.” She spits out, her wrists twisting in my grasp as I snort at her.

“Didn’t seem like that a minute ago when you were grinding your wet pussy on my suit pants.” I say, that deep flush turning crimson now, my cock nearly weeping with need to be let out, to be inside of her.

“I didn’t invite him here, Nico. I don’t even know who the fuck he is. I certainly didn’t know about the seven year old love child that you lied to me about. To be quite honest, if anyone in this room has some explaining to do, it’s you. Isn’t it?” she seethes, her eyes narrowed to slits as she glares at me.

I want to lash back at her. Frankly, I’d like to bend her over my knee and slap her delectable ass repeatedly until it turns as red as the lipstick that’s smeared around her mouth, but there isn’t time for that. Right now as I stare into her angry eyes, I know that she’s telling the truth. She didn’t invite Lorenzo here. So, that means I have some digging to do. He’s obviously here for a reason and that reason is clearly to stake claim over this business. And he’s wanting to stake claim because he knows Luis is the biological father to Frankie De Luca, the boy I’ve continuously tried to hide for my best friend’s sake. The boy that was created and born during the first few years of marriage to the same woman I have pinned against the wall right now, the woman who’s glaring at me and demanding answers.

Goddammit, Lu. If you were here right now, I’d kill you myself.

“Answer me, you son of a bitch!” Scarlett roars, her gray eyes now filled with tears as she stares at me, all broken, lost, and entirely vulnerable.

Fuck sake, I cannot handle this right now.

I let go of her wrists and back away from her place on the wall, her chest heaving as she blinks back her tears and stares me down. She looks so small right now, even though she’s trying her best to stuff down her anger. Even when her husband died, I haven’t seen her like this. That grief was new and terrifying in it’s own right, however this…this is different. This is grief mixed with betrayal and as heartless as I may sound, this isn’t my concern right now. I have bigger fish to fry and quite frankly, the fish I have in mind is a foot shorter than me with a receding hairline and a massive fucking god complex.

“He was with her while we were married, wasn’t he? He knew about the boy and he tried to keep him hidden, while he was fucking me at home…while he was married to me?” she whispers, her voice broken and shattered, like glass all over the floor around us.

I don’t know why I feel the green monster inside of me poke out when she mentions fucking her dead husband, my own goddamn best friend. I have no right to even look at her with desire, yet here I am, even more pissed that he got to take her virginity. That he fucked around on this beautiful, frustrating woman with the literal enemy. In fact, I blame this little green monster inside of me for the next words that leave my lips.

“Yes. All of that is true. And if you want me to be even more honest, if you want to hurt even fucking more, he would’ve kept seeing her if she didn’t die giving birth to his son that he didn’t want to have.” I hiss, the words much harsher than I intended for them to be, but once again, that’s the green monster talking.

She covers her mouth with the back of her hand, her red hair shifting as she shakes her head in disbelief and turns her slender back to me, the sounds of her soft cries filling the room as I stand there like a fucking idiot. I don’t move, I don’t even breathe. I just stand like a statue and watch this woman fall apart in front of me, a bit of guilt trying to enter it’s way into my heart because I help contribute to this pain she’s feeling. I’m the bastard that kept up her cheating husbands lies, but I did it for him. I did it for our family.

Time passes and her tears subside. She takes a deep breath and looks up to the ceiling, her fists balled at her sides as she turns and stares at me with an unreadable gaze. She may be frustrating as hell, but this woman is a master at composure. Then again, with the man she was married to, she almost has to be.

“Why was he here? That man.” she asks, one of her hands moving to wipe the corners of her mouth that are still smudged with her lipstick, lipstick that I would have no problem licking off-

“That’s what I want to find out.” I say, straightening my jacket before I smooth back my hair, her eyes following the movement with a bit of fire in her gaze.

“You can do whatever digging you want, but we both know why he was here, don’t we, Nico?” she asks, a scoff leaving her lips as her heels click against the floor, the space closing between as she walks to me.

“If I had to make an educated guess, you and Luis both were obviously bad at covering up the truth. He knows Frankie is his son. And he knows with that fact alone, he can take all of this with one quick DNA swab. Isn’t that right?” she hisses, looking me up and down as I glare at her, that burning rage mixed with desire filling me once more.

How is it humanly possible to want to scream and fuck someone at the same time?

“Take your time, I don’t need an answer. We have it already. What I need you to do is stay the fuck out of my way while I sort some of this out. Get as much intel on Lorenzo as possible. I don’t care if you have to use some of our own contraband in order to stay awake for the next few weeks tracking that bastard, but get it done.” she commands, turning away from me and walking to the door.

When she rips it open, I try not to stare at her ass as it shakes. My palms are already itching to have her wrists against them once more. This woman is a test to every ounce of my being and as much as I want to punish her for the way she is speaking to me, she is right. Lorenzo needs to be tracked and he needs to be kept away. We need to figure something out before the De Luca’s come storming in and take everything that we’ve all risked our lives for.

“The heads of the family cannot know of this, so keep your mouth shut, Scarlett.” I growl and she throws me an empty, sinister smile.

“No shit, Sherlock. I may have been dumb enough to fall for both you and my dead husband’s lies, but I’m not a complete idiot.” she says and I fall silent.

“An entire lifetime of cleaning up his messes and still in his absence, you continue to do so.” she scoffs, shaking her head before she tilts it at me.

“Aren’t you tired, Nico?” she asks quietly, but I don’t answer. I just remain silent and stare at the broken woman before me that tries to pull herself together as she walks out of the room.

“God knows I am.” she says before she slams the door behind her, leaving me with a still, but angry silence.

And as I stand there with my fists clenched and my jaw clamped down, I realize that for the first time in my thirty-nine years of living, I am beyond angry with my best friend. With the man that I am still cleaning up after even though he’s fucking dead.

ChapterEleven