Page 54 of Beautiful Obsessions
His eyes cut to me.Not annoyed or amused, but dangerous.
“Careful.”
I smiled.
“Or what?”
He took a step toward me.The heels didn’t slow him down.
If anything, it made it worse—the contrast between what he wore and the monster he was.
“That mouth of yours,” he said, voice low, controlled, like it took a lot to hold himself back, “is going to get you into trouble.”
My pulse hit harder against my ribs.I didn’t give him the satisfaction of stepping back.
“Funny,” I murmured.“I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
Something flickered in his expression then.Something that had nothing to do with the dress and everything to do with the fact that we were about to walk into a room and carry out a massacre.
Izzy groaned behind us.
“Oh my God, can you twonot?”she complained, dragging a brush through the wig like she was trying to physically separate the tension in the room.“We’re about to commit murder, not film a romance.”
“We’re not—” I started.
“We’re not,” Archie said at the same time.
Izzy looked between us.Then laughed under her breath.
“Right,” she muttered.“Sure you’re not.”
I broke eye contact first.Only because if I didn’t, I wasn’t entirely sure what would happen next.
And now we had even bigger problems to ponder.
I glanced over at Gianni across the room.He looked ridiculous.There was no other word for it.
He wore a blonde wig and a pink blouse.His nails were painted a shade that could be seen from space.And yet—somehow—he still managed to look like a man you wouldn’t want to cross in a dark alley.
“Tone,” Archie whispered close to my ear.His breath felt like a caress against my skin.“If you ever speak of this again, I will personally end you.”
I winked at him before I replied.
“You’d miss me too much.”
“Not even a little.”
Atlas stepped into the room then.His disguise was the most convincing—subtle, polished, almost believable if you didn’t know what you were looking at.But there was something in his eyes that no amount of makeup could soften.
Violence.Refined.Controlled.Waiting.
The room shifted around him, the way it always did.
No one spoke for a second—because Atlas had that effect.He didn’t demand silence.Hetookit.
“Time,” he said simply.
Izzy straightened, all traces of humour gone as she gave Archie one last adjustment, smoothing the line of his shoulder like she was preparing him for a casual day out.
