Page 22 of Condemned By Betrayal
“Were you born there?”
“Yes.”
He sounds native.
“Do you know my father or brother?” He looks at me. I turn my head toward him. “You didn’t ask about my family this morning.”
“I know them. Your brother is an investor in our startup.”
“Do you know their connection with the underworld?”
“Our startup only has use in the underworld.”
I look ahead. “So you’re from their world. That means you could be an enemy,” I toss out, light, almost joking.
“Not yours,” he murmurs, the words almost lost. But the silence carries them to me.
“My family?”
“I have no loyalty to your family.”
“My brother is your investor,” I point out.
“That means business, not loyalty.”
I glance at his face. “Who are you loyal to?”
His gaze locks onto mine. “To people I would willingly die for.”
“Do you have someone like that? A boss, a don, whatever you people call it?”
He doesn’t answer. I think I’m poking my nose too deep into his business. But I have to be sure he won’t harm my family. The thought sounds like a stupid joke, my family doesn’t need me worrying about them; they’re more than capable of protecting themselves. As long as I keep myself out of harm’s way, that’s more than enough help to them. And from what I can see, the Blackwood brothers aren’t a problem for me. I’m doing business with them, and that’s it, minus him being a copy of Salvario with a different face.
We walk out of the alley onto a livelier roadside that curves around a cluster of houses and leads us toward the side of our homes.
I don’t ask him anything else, so we keep walking in silence. He doesn’t speak, but every now and then I feel his eyes on me. And the crazy part of my mind—the part illogically convinced he’s Salvario, even knowing he’s from an entirely different country—takes it as if Salvario is watching me. The effect on my body is like being set near a furnace after being buried in ice. It’sso warm, so comforting, I want to curl beside that furnace and forget the ice I was freezing in.
Hunter’s house comes first, and Bruno tenses. I kneel down and hug his neck. He lets out a whimper, looking at Hunter.
I kiss his face. “You can meet him again tomorrow.”
He gives me his sad puppy face. Hunter bends down and pats his head. Rosie leans in too, asking for the same. I rub both their backs.
I look up at him. “You can go in. I’ll settle them.”
He nods, slowly straightening up, and after staring at me for a whole minute as though he wants to memorize me, he slides open his gate and disappears inside, leaving the impact of that unwavering gray gaze etched into my pounding heart.
He isn’t Salvario.I repeat the mantra in my head, but it’s useless. No one has ever watched me the way Salvario did, like I’m the only thing worth seeing, and looking away costs too much. How do I make myself believe that the only other man who looks at me the exact same way—with the same body, the same eyes, the same voice—isn’t Salvario? What if he changed his face and is lying to me for God knows what reason?
If he had behaved like this after meeting me a few times, I could have accepted it, but from the very first moment, he’s been this way.
Bruno nudges his nose against my chin, pulling me out of the storm in my head. I kiss his head, then Rosie’s, and rise to my feet.
Hunter
“Chris was asking for you,” Logan says from the living room as soon as I enter the house. “I told him you’d gone out for a walk.”
I settle onto the couch across from him. “Why did he call?”
