Page 26 of Beauty, a Hate Story the End

“But that’s her brother,” Levi said. His eyes widened and for once his stoic countenance broke. He looked around the room, arms out as if someone would jump out and say it was all a joke. “She wouldn’t kill her brother.” Anteros nearly laughed at his naiveté.

“What are you thinking?” Little O asked when he’d been silent for some time.

“We need to test the poison,” he said. Anteros knew if it was the same poison used to try to kill him, it all but proved Lucia’s involvement.

“You really think Lucia would kill her own brother?” Levi asked, tone oddly frightened.

Anteros sat forward, elbows on the desk, and locked his bluegreen eyes with Levi’s nervous hazel ones. “Don’t ever underestimate the cunning of a Pavoni.” Levi looked distraught at the revelation, throat swelling with an obvious gulp. In the same instant, the phone in his desk buzzed. Anteros wound his fingers behind his neck nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair.

“Let me know what you find.” Anteros ended the meeting for a second and final time, hoping to get them out before anyone questioned the vibrating in his desk. Little O, Pretty Boy, and Levi piled out, but Crazy A lingered at the door.

“I’m getting closer to the slave,” Crazy A said. “She’s kept on the second floor. Her room is the last one, shoved into a corner. There are cameras, but I don’t really give a shit if someone sees me killing her.” Anteros nodded, keeping himself level. Anyone else wouldn’t pick up on something so light as a jaw tick or a throat swallow, but Crazy A saw everything. He would notice that just the idea of Frankie dead had him tense.

; So he had to be loose.

His phone buzzed again and Crazy A zeroed in on the desk. “You need to get that?”

Anteros returned his glare. “What the fuck do you think? How are you going to get to her?”

Crazy A thumbed his lip. “Workin’ on it. Shouldn’t be too long though.” Anteros suppressed his exhale. When Crazy A figured out how to get to Frankie, that’s when the game changed. Like chess, this game couldn’t be won by planning. You had to watch your opponent and then make your move.

Anteros nodded. “Good work.” Thick, spiny silence fell. Crazy A stood off the wall, eyes still on Anteros, and then left the room with a slight nod. The phone vibrated once more, but Anteros stared at the empty spot the Wolf had left, memories rushing through him.

Unlike Beast or the other Wolves, Crazy A was from good Italian stock. He was born Alcide Scarsi, but that didn’t mean he would have stayed a Scarsi forever. Like all De Luca men before him, he had to come from somewhere, and every Scarsi in his family had become a De Luca by marriage. Like all the Wolves, Anteros had blackmailed Alcide in the beginning. He’d had an affair, and Anteros had capitalized on that. The only difference was Alcide hadn’t stopped the affair when they’d agreed to work together.

“If this comes out, it will ruin everything. End it.”

“You knew this about me. You already knew,” Alcide responded. “You wouldn’t have worked with me if you weren’t okay with it.”

“I don’t give a shit who you want to fuck,” Anteros said. “I give a shit when it fucks with business. End it.”

Anteros exhaled at the memory, still locked on the empty wall. A normal person would have shown some sort of emotion after ending an affair, but Anteros and his Wolves weren’t normal.

He hadn’t thought to question it.

He should have. Maybe if he had, he and Crazy A wouldn’t have ended up here.

The phone buzzed in his desk again and this time Anteros slid open the drawer. Three more pictures, all just brief glimpses, teases—a hand over a breast, her legs spread open with her palm covering her pussy, the side of her showing the beautiful S curve of her body. The second the last photo came through, he was dialing her number.

She picked up on the first ring.

“Meet me,” Anteros growled before Frankie could say anything.

“I’m busy,” she replied but just as she finished, he got another message: a picture of her legs spread so wide it hollowed the muscles of her groin. There were no fingers inside her and, fuck, seeing her open like that just made him want to fill her. He undid his fly, pulled out his cock, and started stroking himself.

“Then I wonder why you answered,” he ground out.

“Maybe I’m also bored,” she said, but her words were breathy.

Anteros laughed darkly. “The longer you make me wait, the worse it will be.” The distance was fucking brutal. When she’d sent a picture of a man kissing her neck, he’d just had to sit and take it, couldn’t punish her, couldn’t fuck her until she screamed.

“What will you do?” She sounded breathless, needy.

“Take my time…punish you. You remember what it was like.” She made a high whimpering sound and he threw his head against the wall, letting the pain clear his thoughts.

“I miss it,” she said on an exhale. A grin twisted his cheek and he gripped his dick, pumping.