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The Deal With The Devil 48
Stefan"You know, once upon a time, your mother, father, and I were very close.""Ancient history." I did know that. My father had gone to school with Moriarty when his parents had moved to Italy. He'd met my mother two years after that, and the three of them were once friends. For a short time at least."Still." He shrugged a shoulder."Wait a minute." I chuckled and looked around the room. I had a feeling the two leather armchairs the men sat on had been moved from the front of his desk so he would keep us standing. "Mind if I sit?" I asked, picking up a smaller, hardback wooden chair and carrying it toward his desk before he could reply. Stephen remained standing. "So, is that what all this is about?" I asked. "Is it what it's always been about?"His eyes narrowed just a little. I would have missed it if I wasn't paying attention. Stephen wasn't the only one who could read people."My mother?" I continued."Stefan," Stephen's low voice warned from beside me.Moriarty picked up a pe
The Deal With The Devil 49
StefanRage throbbed inside me, burning hot, pumping my blood with adrenaline. With a roar more animal than human, I tore free from the men who held me and lunged across the desk to fall on top of Moriarty, knocking his chair over, sending him to the floor. I wrapped my hands around his throat and squeezed, his fat flesh too thick to snap his neck. His eyes bulged, his face reddened as he struggled to breathe, but before I could kill him, I was dragged off and tossed against the far wall, a fist landing in my gut, then another, then another until I hunched over, gripping my middle. Someone kicked my legs out from under me, and I dropped to the floor. A shoe closed over my throat and held me down when Moriarty came to stand over me, kicking me hard in the kidneys.When I looked up, I saw how disheveled he looked, his tie askew, his shirt and suit splattered with what I assumed to be my blood. I laughed as one of his men kicked me again and again until I couldn't see straight."Get him
The Deal With The Devil 50
VeronicaThree weeks went by, and in that time, Stefan healed. I gave Stephen my sister's note and watched him when he took it. I don't know if I made up the fact that his eyes seemed to sadden a little when he looked down at her neat little script.Stephen returned to the seminary but came for dinner each night. Neither of them would tell me what happened that day, and Stefan grew more and more distant than ever. We hadn't made love once, not even as he'd healed. And he'd even told me it was more comfortable for him to sleep on his own and sent me to my room.It was the end of the second week when I overheard Maria sending Eric to fetch Stefan from the chapel for dinner."I can go," I said. "I've been sitting around all day anyway." I knew for sure now that he was avoiding me, so I headed toward the chapel. It was early evening, but the moon was bright. By now, I had a pretty good sense of the lay of the land. I saw a light on in the chapel, and although I wasn't trying to approach i
The Deal With The Devil 51
VeronicaI pulled his belt apart and undid the top button of his jeans.His hands covered mine, but he didn't stop me."That's what you want?"He leaned down, his face an inch from mine."You want a good, hard fuck? You miss my cock inside you?"He spun me around, bending me forward and slapping my hands hard on the altar."Keep them there. Don't fucking move."I gasped as he undid my shorts and tore them and my panties down and off, then shoved my tank top up and pushed my bra beneath my breast, so that when he bent me all the way over, the cold stone of the altar made me shudder."Ra—"But before I could even speak his name, he was inside me. He leaned over me and thrust in hard."You want to be fucked?"His breath was hot against the side of my face."You want my cock in your pussy? You want me to make you come?"I let out a groan as he thrust."Like a whore? Here? Before your God? Here, bent over his holy altar?"It should have felt wrong. I thought it would. This sacred place, us
The Deal With The Devil 52
StefanShe thought she loved me.Moriarty's rage was real. His hatred for me, it was because I was my father's son. He didn't care about the money he felt he was owed. That didn't matter. What he wanted was the decimation of my family. Because that was the only way he could have his revenge. Revenge against my mother for not having chosen him. Revenge against my father for being the one she had loved. The one she had chosen.He wanted the house, the land, to destroy it.I knew now he would stop at nothing. My life, it was forfeit. But hers? I couldn't let him destroy her because of me.I watched Veronica's sweet face, her trusting, innocent, hopeful eyes. She believed she loved me. The thing was, the moment she'd said it, I'd known it too. I'd loved her for a long time now.And that was exactly why I had to let her go.I hardened my face and stood.She remained kneeling at my feet."There's just one problem, Veronica. I don't love you." How my voice carried the power it did, I had no
The Deal With The Devil 53
VeronicaI don't know how long I sat in the chapel like that, but by the time I got back to the house, a single light was left on over the stove and Stefan's car was gone. Charlie was the only one waiting for me. The moment I opened the door, he nudged his little nose around the corner, and I bent to pick him up and hug him to me.What had happened in the last three weeks? Had it been in those weeks that Stefan had come to the realization he didn't want this? Didn't want me? Or was this the truth all along? Was I just blind?I really thought he'd cared about me.No, more than that.I thought he loved me.A sudden chill made me shudder, and I carried Charlie up to my bedroom.When Stefan had stood like he had, with me kneeling at his feet, when he'd looked at me, I'd seen something so strange in his eyes. So at odds with what he was saying. At least for one single and very fleeting moment.Once inside my room, I set Charlie down. He circled my legs twice then looked up at me with his b
The Deal With The Devil 54
StefanIt was close to midnight by the time I got home. My attorney had worked overtime, getting the paperwork for the sale of the house in order. I'd been ready to sign, but we'd hit a snag. A document the buyer had to provide, and he hadn't. I guessed the holdup was the fact that it was the weekend, and Italians didn't like working weekends. I'd hoped to get everything signed and finished today. The less I had to think about it, the better. And the faster I could do what I'd told Veronica I'd do—let go of the past.And once I'd signed, I couldn't change my mind.Selling the house was my last resort. I hated to do it. Stephen hated me having to do it. But there was no other way. Moriarty wasn't fucking around. I couldn't take a chance he'd hurt my family over this. It wasn't worth it.As I walked past her room, I tried hard not to think about her at the chapel. Not to see her face when she'd knelt at my feet, looking up at me when I told her I didn't love her. I just needed to rememb
The Deal With The Devil 55
StefanIt felt like a trapdoor had opened up underneath me. I stood there holding the phone to my ear, trying to make sense of what she'd just said.The buyer had a representative, and all the paperwork was being done over wires and faxes—as old-fashioned as the latter sounded. The buyer had been missing one legal document that was necessary for the sale to be acknowledged by Italian law. That holdup was the only reason I hadn't signed over the property today.I'd tried to find information on the buyer, so had my lawyer, but everything pointed to a company in southern Germany. It hadn't occurred to me once that would be a front. The offer had been above the value of the land. Why in hell would Marcus Kingston want to buy this house? This dead land?"Are you still there?" Robyn asked."I need to find your sister. Robyn, does your grandfather know you know?""No. I overheard something he said, and I snuck into his study when he went out for dinner. I just knew something wasn't right.""
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