14. Isabella
14
ISABELLA
M y heart is in my throat as I watch Teo throw Luis to the ground and step back through the gate.
The whole thing might have lasted less than a minute, but it was as if the entire world had slowed to force me to absorb every detail…
Teo had been shot. And it was my fault.
“If I die, my death can be on your hands.”
The bastard.
He knew what he was doing when he said that. He had been testing me the exact same way I was testing him. Because goddammit he’s hurt, and I did nothing, and I…
“Oh good, you actually do listen.” His voice snaps me out of the spiral.
Slumped against the doorframe, Teo still manages to look devastatingly attractive. Perhaps it’s the combination of bike leathers and dark hair that falls lazily to his shoulders, but those eyes seem all the more piercing, all the more endless.
It takes me a second to remember that he’s injured.
“Are you okay?” I gush as I run forward and begin to pry his jacket from his uninjured shoulder. “Let me see, I can stop the bleeding.”
“ Belle.”
I ignore him, finally freeing his good arm and oh-so-carefully peeling the jacket away from his chest.
Only to find the Kevlar underneath.
My knuckles rap against it with a familiar dull sound and I freeze, looking up at him.
So close. I can practically feel those dangerously long eyelashes fluttering against my cheek.
He grins at me. “Were you worried about me?”
I smack his chest, regretting it instantly, before launching myself backward. “You bastard.”
“I’m sorry. Did you want to tend to my wounds and make me feel better?”
I glare at him as he removes the rest of his jacket. Sure enough, the shoulder padding of his tactical vest is torn up, no doubt covering the bullet lodged there.
But alarmingly, he doesn’t stop there. Teo simply holds my glare as he strips off the vest. My gaze snags on the strip of skin that’s revealed when his T-shirt rides up. Silky, smooth, and utterly delectable.
“See something you like?”
My eyes snap to his.
He has paused, hands gripping the bottom of his shirt as if to pull it over his head.
“I…er…” I swallow hard.
“Ice pack is in the freezer.” He nods toward the kitchen door.
I don’t need to be told twice. I scramble backward into the room, desperately trying to get a hold of myself.
The whole point of coming out tonight was to test a theory, yet all I’ve managed to do so far is let myself get kidnapped again and drool over the man who’s supposed to be my mortal enemy.
He still came after you, didn’t he?
The thought makes me pause as my hand rests on the refrigerator door. That has to mean something, right? He took on twelve men just to keep me safe.
I pull open the door and snag the ice pack. It’s almost comical how many medical supplies he has in his fridge, but I don’t dwell on it. Leon’s apartment is the exact same.
By the time I return to the hallway, Teo is no longer there. The door to the living room he “trapped” me in earlier is open, though, so I make my way over.
“You know you could probably start your own pharmacy with a fridge like that…”
My voice trails off at the sight of him draped over the couch. He is entirely shirtless, revealing an expanse of tight muscles as he clutches an entire bottle of whiskey in his good hand.
His eyes are closed, his expression pained. It doesn’t take long for me to figure out why.
His entire shoulder has turned an agitated shade of red. The closer to the epicenter of the gunshot, the darker it is. I’d wager the whole thing will be black by morning.
I step forward with the ice pack and kneel before the couch. Wrapping a towel around his arm, I reach to press the frozen surface to his skin.
He hisses on impact, eyes flashing wide in alarm.
“Don’t be such a baby,” I chastise him.
“Shall I shoot you next? See how well you fair?”
I press the ice pack down harder.
He hisses again, and I almost laugh at the way his nose scrunches up in discomfort. It’s cute.
How can a man who electrocuted half a dozen men be this cute?
“Sorry, I thought you wanted someone to tend to your wounds,” I say instead.
He groans slightly. “Here was me hoping that you might offer to kiss it better.”
The rebuttal dies in my throat when his eyes catch mine once more.
I’m suddenly aware of how close we are. Of how I could move my free hand up and touch his bare chest if I wanted to. Of how he could throw his arm over my shoulder and draw me in if he wanted to.
And I'd be utterly helpless to it, kneeling on the floor beside this man who has threatened to kill me multiple times.
I’d welcome his embrace, the feeling of his hard muscles beneath my fingers. I’d stop thinking altogether if he put his mouth on mine.
As if reading my mind, his eyes drop to my lips.
“Teo…”
But the tension is cut the second the lights begin to flash across his face. Red and blue.
Finally, the authorities have arrived to investigate the mess outside.
Teo closes his eyes for a beat. When he opens them again, there’s nothing of the lust that once shone there.
“You need to leave. Now.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “You’re letting me go?”
“The Guild will be here soon, and you can’t be here when they arrive. It will cause too many complications.”
“But, I thought you…this was…”
“ Belle, ” he snaps. “You have about a minute to escape out the back door. Wait by the fence until the gates open, and I’ll open the back passage for you.”
The confusion is enough for me to stay rooted to the spot.
“Keeping you here will start a war I’m in no shape to fight today,” he yells at me. “So, for God’s sake, leave before I stick a bullet between your eyes myself.”
A cool kind of certainty washes over me. “You won’t kill me.”
Click.
He calls my bluff.
The silencer is pressing into my forehead before I can make another sound.
I force myself to stay calm, although a part of me rages for being stupid enough not to check he was unarmed before I kneeled down.
“Go,” he demands.
The blue and red lights flash over his face, distorting his expression. He’s menacing, beautiful, dangerous, divine.
I want to call his bluff right back. I want to wait to see if I can prove my theory, but then someone begins to bang on the front door.
BANG, BANG, BANG.
“BOSS? OPEN UP.”
“Go.” He presses the gun harder into my forehead.
So I do. Scrambling away, I get to my feet and flee as fast as I can.
True to his word, the back door leads to the edge of the property. Scanning the back hedge, I try to find some kind of hinge or hidden escape. But it’s not until I hear the creak of the metal gate swinging open that a small passage reveals itself.
I slip in, moving quickly through the gate, and take off at speed down the road behind it. I’m not sure how long I walk before I see a taxi, but my dazed mind finally catches up to me as we journey back over the Brooklyn Bridge.
It wasn’t so long ago that Teo and I were riding over it, and yet it feels like a million things have happened since then.
The sun has already begun to rise on the horizon by the time we reach my apartment complex, and I waste no time falling into bed. I fully expect the exhaustion of the day to completely coax me to sleep.
But nothing has gone my way today, so why should this be any different?
I try to press my eyes closed in desperation, but to no avail. My alarm will be going off soon, bleating me awake at six so that I can head over to the gym.
But can I even show my face there anymore after Teo sent that guy down the stairs head-first?
There are others. Ones that he might not know about if I wanted to shake him off me for a little while.
The thought alone is entirely exhausting. Thinking about ways to evade Teo Vitale is a slippery slope that will undoubtedly lead me somewhere I’m too afraid to tread.
Instead, I pull out my phone, desperate for some kind of mind-numbing distraction.
“Wait, what?” I gasp at the first picture that fills up my screen when I open my social media feed.
My best friend, Ellie, beams back at me. Or, I suppose, ex-best friend, considering she stopped messaging after one too many missed lunch dates. In this line of work, it’s hard to explain why I suddenly need to disappear at the drop of a hat.
Interrogating a drug lord who was trying to shift his merchandise in the back lot of my family’s casino business was hardly an excuse I could give. And whatever games Ellie thought I was playing were clearly enough for my invites to get lost in the mail.
I stare at the pure joy on her face and the beautiful wedding dress she has on with a mixture of both envy and defeat.
She got married without me.
Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt so much if it wasn’t the early hours of the morning. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so horrendously alone if the last man I had slept with hadn’t just put a gun to my head and threatened to pull the trigger.
But that familiar ache blossoms in my chest regardless. That all-encompassing sense of dread threatens to consume my entire future, walking with me through every unlovable moment, and laughing at me through every rejection.
Tears prickle in the corner of my eyes, so I throw my phone away from me. Desperate for the feeling to pass, I lie flat on my back and stare at the ceiling.
What was it my mother always said? “Love is a weakness that is meant to be exploited.”
I should be grateful that I never have to worry about anyone beyond my family. It’s the way it’s supposed to be.
But I can’t shake the feeling that this bed would feel so much more comfortable if there was someone lying next to me.
I squeeze my eyes shut. It’s almost too easy to imagine: the gentle slide of the balcony door that lets in a cool breeze, the sound of footsteps creeping along my bedroom floor, the weight on the mattress that would compress the springs as he slid in next to me.
“Belle,” he would whisper in my ear.
A steady hand would hold my head just so, positioning my mouth mere inches from his.
My hand drops down, pulling my underwear out of the way so that I can draw lazy circles around my clit.
Maybe he’d bring a knife with him. Maybe he would punctuate his sordid kisses with a little nick on my arm or my chest. Maybe a mark right over the bruise he placed on my heart.
He would tip my head to the side and drag his tongue up the length of my neck across the scab that he had left there. Then, he would kiss it hungrily as if he could remove the evidence.
My fingers dip further down, revealing my sodden core.
Mmm…I could fuck myself to the memory of those endless midnight eyes burning across my skin. Better yet, that animalistic rage as he slammed into me over the bathroom sink.
Or maybe in the closet at the casino, a few short hours ago.
Completely and utterly intoxicating.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP
My alarm jolts me up into a sitting position, shame coloring my cheeks as I try to wipe away the evidence of my treacherous thoughts.
I’m so unbelievably screwed.