Aldo chuckled. “Did you really think you could have sent theBogeyman to cover up your tracks?”
TheBogeyman?
“Ruin, you canunhand him.”
He let Dante go, but he stood close.
“What is that fucking slut doing here? She’s a thief, Boss. She steals from us. I tried to have her killed and the money brought back to you.”
Aldo chuckledas he reached behind him and grabbed the booklet she had given him. “You mean this?” He picked up the book and flicked through it. “This is a rather pricey toll, Dante. I seem to recall you telling me that business was slow. So very slow, and yet I’m holding a book here with all the details to suggest this was rather lucrative.”
“It’s all lies!” Dante spat. “I sent Ruin to kill her!”
Ruin was the Bogeyman? Not the man who’d gone to kill her.
“Enough!” Aldo spat the words out and she couldn’t help but jump at the sound. It was scary.
She stepped away from both of them.
“You were sent to kill her?” Aldo asked.
“He wanted me to, but I refused. I knew she was hiding something, I just didn’t know what.”
She was going to be sick.This was a nightmare. All she wanted to do was cry. It had been lies, all of it. Every single part of it had been lies. She had given him her virginity, a part of herself she would never get back. The pain hit her hard and fast. She didn’t know if she could handle anything else. Tears filled her eyes but she refused to allow them to fall. This was no time to show weakness. These men could kill her.
“Ruin, I want you to takeCallie home.” She turned to Aldo. “This is my gift to you, young woman. You’ll be free to live your life, but be warned. I will be watching and I will know if you even think of going to the cops. Understood?”
She nodded her head.
“Go.”
There was no way he was going to tell her twice.
She rushed past Ruin, refusing to even meet his eyes. There was no way shewould go near him. The Bogeyman. Sent to kill her. He hadn’t been trying to join the knitting group, or attempting to join because he found her attractive. He’d been looking for an easy way to kill her. Anger ran down her spine. She left the office and felt Ruin very close beside her, but she refused to look at him.
There was an elevator or a door leading to the stairs.She wasn’t getting on an elevator with him. Callie went to the door and shoved it open. She got down the first flight of stairs, but all of a sudden, Ruin grabbed her arm and shoved her back until she hit the wall. It wasn’t hard.
“What the hell happened to your face?”
“My face. You want to talk about my face when the true problem is the fact you were sent to kill me?” she asked.
“I was never going to kill you.”
“Does it even matter?” she asked. “You lied. You freaking lied to me. Was it some kind of game? Did you get off on it?”
Shedidn’t even know why she was talking about this. She had to get away from him and fast. She needed air. Callie tried to push past him but Ruin was far bigger and stronger than her.
“He sent someone else, didn’t he?” Ruin asked.
Shegritted her teeth. “Yes. One of Aldo’s men was already coming to my home to collect me so I could tell him the information I had. I was lucky it ended when it did.”
Ruin’s fist connected with the wall. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I don’t want to hear it. You lied to me.”
“For your own protection.”
She shook her head. “Let me go.”