Page 30 of Dangerous Games

“You think this is funny?”

“No.” Maybe a little bit.

“Do you understand the problem you caused is now a million times worse because not only has she seen you with a cut-off hand but also a dead fucking body?” Matteo asks, his tone reaching a dangerous level that would make a normal man piss his pants. “Where do I go from here? If she were a man, I would have to have her taken out. I’m not in the business of hurting women, Gio. I don’t like being put in this position.”

“She’s not going to talk,” I tell him, amusement gone. If he lays a hand on her head, he’s going to find out how crazy I really can be.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because she promised.”

“Oh, she promised?” Matteo mocks. “Did she promise to suck your dick too?”

“Not yet.” I smirk, earning me a smack on the head. My drink sloshes over the edge of the glass. “Hey!”

“This is the last straw, Gio. Now I’m having to clean your mess up, like usual. You’re lucky no one else saw you in the alley. What the fuck happened?”

“That guy was hanging around. I didn’t like it, so I took care of him.”

“Hanging around the pizzeria?” Matteo asks, looking no less angry about the situation.

I shake my head. “Bronwyn’s.”

Matteo studies me. “You’re serious?”

“Yup. When I confronted him about it, he got defensive and tried to pull a gun on me. I got there first and finished what he tried to start.”

Matteo’s shoulders lower slightly as some of the anger leaves his body. “You’re okay?”

“I’m good. She didn’t see me kill him either. She came up on me as I was dragging his body over to the dumpster.”

“That’s better,” Matteo releases an exasperated sigh. “Still not great, but it’s better. That still doesn’t explain why you felt the need to enter her apartment. You should have called me, and I would have handled it.”

“How do you know I went into her place?” I haven’t had the chance to tell anyone shit, and if he checked the cameras, he would have seen how the entire thing unfolded, and I wouldn’t be here having to explain my damn self like I’m on trial.

“Enzo was in the office when he saw you on camera. He let it slip that you let yourself into her place,” Matteo says, giving me a look that says don’t even try to lie to me about it.

What a fucking snitch.

And after everything I’ve covered for him so Matteo wouldn’t get pissed.

“While you made yourself cozy in her place, did you ask her if she knew the guy?” Matteo asks as he takes a seat on my couch after pouring himself a drink.

My jaw clenches at his tone, but I know when to pick my battles with him. “She said she didn’t know him, but he had followed her around earlier in the day. It spooked her.”

Matteo’s brows rise. “How does she know he was following her? Ravenna Heights is a busy city. He could have just been a customer at her work.”

I shake my head. “She stopped by The Drip before work for a coffee, and he sat down at her table uninvited. Knew her name and everything.”

“What the fuck? And she’s sure she’s never met him?”

“She swears she’s never seen him in her life.” I shrug. “I don’t know much more than that.”

“And you found him waiting in the alley?”

“Yeah,” I half-lie. I caught him in the alley when I was checking the cameras at her place, but he doesn’t need to know that. “He was waiting under the stairs like a fucking creep.”

Matteo’s expression darkens. “He would have surprised the hell out of her and done who knows what with her. How did he know where she lived?”