CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

BELLA

He comes with a grunt so sexy I wish I could record it, and hear it over and over again. Rolling over onto his back, he pulls me into his arms.

“What have you been up to for the last month and a half, living dead girl?”

I roll my eyes at him, because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t just know about some, he knows about them all.

“How long have you been watching me?”

Running his hand up the outside of my thigh, he admits, “Since the day I got out of the hospital. Three weeks. I watched you kill five men. I was ready to intervene if they got the upper-hand, but they never did. You moved gracefully, with the confidence of a skilled assassin, yet still appeared dainty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful.”

I slide my hand along the weird eyeball tattoo on his shoulder as he stares at me.

“Why didn’t you show yourself to me, Nico? I felt like I was dying.”

He kisses me on the forehead.

“Honestly, you needed more time. And I wanted to see how long it would go on for.”

Narrowing his gaze at me, he growls, “I will be deleting that app from your phone. You’re lucky I stayed away long enough to get over you showing yourself in lingerie on that site. I nearly lost my mind, until I saw that you were only killing them.”

I giggle softly.

“Only? Nico, there’s something wrong with us.”

With a groan, he tugs my bottom lip with his teeth .

“I need to get you home so I can fuck you again, but there’s the matter of your dead guy. If my brother finds another dead body here, I’m going to hear more bitching than I can possibly tolerate.”

We both get up, and I grab my panties and slide them on under my dress, while he tucks himself into his pants, and I smile when he shoves his t-shirt into his back pocket, instead of putting it back on. Nico with a bare chest is a feast for the eyes.

He catches me staring at him and asks, “What?”

My face heats as I admit, for the first time, that he’s attractive.

“I was thinking that I’m glad you didn’t cut my eyes out, because not seeing your gorgeous body would be a tragedy.”

He feigns shock.

“That’s all you want me for? My body? I feel so used.”

Chuckling, he walks over to me and takes my hand in his.

“Come on, we need shovels to bury this asshole. By the way, baby, you can use my body anytime you want to.”

“Shovels?” I ask as he takes me toward a gray building, and he chuckles.

“That’s right, living dead girl. Like myself, you’re going to have to dispose of your own bodies. If we went fishing, I’d expect you to not be a girl about it, and put the worm on the hook. If you kill someone on your own, you’ll finish the job, which is getting rid of the body. Lucky for you, I’ve done most of the work for you, so it’ll be easy.”

We walk into the building that looks like an expensive shed. He grabs two shovels from a hanging rack and hands me one.

“Don’t the mafia have people that do this? For their job?”

We walk back outside, and I follow him around to the other side of the building.

“Yes, baby, but remember, I don’t work for my family, so I’m on my own. Honestly, before you, I never knew what to do with the bodies, and it caused problems. When you began dropping men like flies, I realized what better place than a graveyard. ”

He nods to the dirt in front of me.

“Start digging up the loose dirt and don’t fall in, please don’t fucking fall in. I’m going to go get your friend.”

I roll my eyes and do as he told me to. It doesn’t take long to see that he has already dug this grave, and the dirt was simply covering up a sheet of plywood over the grave. I set the shovel on the ground and wait.

Nico comes back, carrying Christian over his shoulder, and complains, “This fucker is heavier than he looks.”

I remove the plywood as Nico approaches me, and drops him into the hole, and I jump back from the loud thud.

“How deep is that?”

With a grin, he says, “Six feet, baby. There’s another six ready to go, and depending on the size of the body, I can fit at least four in each. I wasn’t sure when you would take some time off from your new hobby.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glare at him.

“Are you judging me, Nico Bonetti?”

He shakes his head no.

“Not a chance, living dead girl. I fucking love it. And,” he pauses with a groan, “I can’t wait to see it again.”

He takes my hand and walks me to my car.

“Give me your phone.”

Opening my car, I fish it out of my purse and hand it to him.

“What are you doing?”

Staring at me with amusement, he grins at me.

“Two things. Deleting your account from that fucking app. And typing my address into your GPS. I’ll be following you. There’s a good chance I’ll never take my eyes off you again.”

Rolling my eyes at him, I say, “That’s not realistic, Nico. I have to go home in the morning, so I can get ready for work.”

“No,” he says with a stern expression.

“Nico, be reasonable. I have bills to pay. ”

He shakes his head. “No. The answer is fucking no, Bella. You’re mine, and that means you’re with me, not at some fucking coffee shop, serving assholes that don’t deserve your time. You will not have bills. Everything you need will be yours.”

“Nico, no.”

Stepping forward, he pushes me until my back hits the closed door of my car, and slides his hand from my abdomen all the way to my throat, and stares at me with a pained expression.

“I will give you anything you want, baby, but not this. Being away from you was excruciating, and I won’t live through that again. This is non-negotiable. Understood?”

Nodding slowly, I say, “On one condition. Well, two.”

He stares into my eyes, waiting for me to elaborate, so I do.

“No chains and no spiders, Nico. I can’t live like that.”

Sliding his hand from my throat to my face, he cups my cheek, and I nearly crumble from his tenderness.

“No chains and no spiders.”

I swing my arms around his neck and pull him down to me. Pressing my face into his neck, I inhale his scent and kiss his skin softly.

“Thank you.”

He groans into my hair.

“We need to go because you’re driving me fucking crazy. I’m thirty seconds away from fucking you on top of your car.”

I giggle and bite his neck.

“Let’s go home, and you can fuck me however you want to.”

When Nico smiles at me, it’s sexy, dangerous, and for some reason, feels like it’s only for me and makes my heart pound.

“I want to kiss you, but I’m not going to because we’ll never leave if I do, so be a good girl and get in your fucking car. I’ll be right behind you.”

He hands me my phone, and steps away from me and walks over to his black Range Rover, and I get into my car with a heavy sigh .

Nico is alive.

Life doesn’t always give second chances, and I’m not wasting this one.