Page 96 of Shadow Of Sin

He’s fucking done.

“The restaurant is off-limits,” I hiss into his ear. “Tell Dmitri this is the last warning anyone gets.”

I step back. He grabs his ribs, stumbles sideways, and takes off down the alley without looking back.

I pick up the knife, fold it up, and pocket it.

I turn around.

Eva stands in the doorway of Rosario’s, her hand gripping the frame. Her mouth is open.

“Inside,” I say. “Now.”

She doesn’t argue. She backs through the door, and I follow her in. Sal works behind the bar, oblivious to the almost knife fight that just took place outside his restaurant.

Eva grabs my hand and drags me into the hallway by the restrooms.

“What the hell was that?” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.

“A problem.”

“A problem you solved in six seconds flat.”

“His stance was sloppy. And he showed me the knife when his jacket fell open. Fucking amateur.”

“Wolfe.” She stares at me. “You just put a man through a wall.”

“Into.”

“I swear to God, if you correct my prepositions right now⁠—”

I shrug. “His form was bad. He wasn’t a contender.”

“Not a contend—” She scrapes her hands down her face. “Who the hell taught you to do that?”

“My brothers. All of us were trained. My Uncle Patrick started with Ronan. Ronan passed it down.”

“You. The guy with the glasses and the Cheerios. You can do that.”

“My father wanted soldiers. Every Molloy son learned how to fight. I trained the same way my brothers did until I was seventeen. Then I told my dad I was done with it.” I look at my knuckles. They’re red again. “I chose the computer screen over the mat. He didn’t accept that. It was one of the things he tried to beat out of me.”

“Beat out of you,” she repeats. The color drips from her face.

“I never forgot my training. I just stopped using it.”

“Until today.”

“Until someone got between me and the place where you were.”

She stares at me. Then she grabs the front of my shirt, pulls me down, and kisses me.

“That’s terrifying,” she says, clutching my jacket as she presses herself into me. “In the best possible way.”

After a few seconds, she lets go, smooths her hair, and walks back into the restaurant like absolutely nothing happened.

Six seconds. That’s all it took. And I would have done worse if he’d gotten past me. I would have done things my brothers taught me never to do outside of a controlled space.

For her. Without a thought. Without hesitation. Without caring what it cost me.