She pushes at my chest with her tiny hands —or tries to anyway, considering I don’t move an inch. “Says the one who walked out on me.”

“Won’t happen again.”

“How do I know that?”

“Get your ass in the car and I’ll prove it in creative ways.”

She swallows, her throat working with the up and down of the movement and then, slowly, too slowly, her thick lashes flutter against her eyes and she nods.

“Good girl.”

I feel the change in her body before I see it. Her entire being softens at my words, and her body temperature rises.

“Are you turned on, my pet?”

“What? No!” Too loud, too defensive.

I release her jaw and snake my hand down her stomach. “Maybe I should find out myself.”

She pushes away from me and half-jogs toward my car. A soft chuckle leaves my lips as I follow her.

As soon as we hit the road, my little Petal’s curious gaze rakes over me. I pretend I don’t notice, keeping my entire focus on the road, but I can feel her eyes surrounding me like smoke, trying to weed me out.

Petal isn’t the curious type. I’ve seen how she always keeps out of any drama or connection and tries to go through her day just so she can go back to the fat, lazy cats.

Unless there’s a cat in the equation, my little Petal always keeps out of any interaction.

The fact that she’s interested in me should be bothersome, but a smirk tilts my lips anyway.

This has turned a lot more interesting than I originally planned.

“Why are you smiling?” she asks.

Smirking, but semantics. “I just thought of something.”

“What?”

“You under me as I fuck you until you pass out, Pet.”

The sound of her gulp fills the car along with something else; her arousal. I can feel it without even inhaling deep.

“Is that all you think about when it comes to me?” she asks.

“Of course not. I also keep thinking about the ways I’ll fill your every hole with my cum.”

“Point made.” Her voice drops, she’s trying to sound upset, but she can’t control the tremor at the end.

She wants this as much as me, she just doesn’t want to admit it.

We’ll change that with time.

“Dinah says hi.” She pushes her hair back and subtly changes the subject. “She kind of likes you. Like a little.”

I raise an eyebrow, glancing at her. “Kind of? A little?”

“Fine, a lot. You’re such an arrogant asshole, do you know that?”

“I love the sound of compliments from those lips, Pet.”

“Whatever. What have you done to my friend that she’s so under your spell?”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“Well, I’m asking you.”

“I was just being my charming self.”

“Yeah, right.” She fingers the strap of her bag. “Would you have been interested in me if Dinah didn’t introduce us?”

Hmm. She’s being self-conscious, which doesn’t suit her. Sure, I can make her feel better, but that will put my position in jeopardy.

I pretend to think about it. “Probably not.”

“That was... too direct.”

“Do you want me to lie to you?”

“Of course not.” She stares through the window at the lit-up buildings blurring past us.

“But I would’ve eventually found you,” I say, for no reason than to wipe that pout off her face.

My little Petal looks her best when she’s weak and at my mercy, but I realize with a tinge of annoyance that I dislike seeing her hurt.

Not by me, and not by anyone else.

She slowly turns around and manages to hide some of the hope shining in her eyes. “What does that mean?”

“It means, finding you was a fact, not an option.”

“You’re so weird, Jasper.”

“Weird how?”

“Sometimes, I feel like you care, and others, it’s just like you’re stone cold. Which one is real?”

The stone-cold part, or rather the calculative, no-nonsense one. I didn’t even know I had the other part until my little Petal barged into my life and refused to leave.

When I say nothing, she continues, “And I find myself curious about you. Why don’t you tell me anything about yourself?”

“I thought Dinah told you how old I am and where I work.”

“That’s not what I’m interested in. How did you grow up? What’s your favorite color? Book? Movie? Band?”

“I grew up alone and I have no favorites in anything.”

“Everyone does.”

“What are yours?”

Her favorite color is blue and she likes a lot of fantasy authors. Her favorite movie is this creepy French horror shit and she listens to the same The Verve song every day.

I remain silent as she recite them anyway, because well, that’s what’s considered normal. I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate me enumerating them for her.

Or maybe she would.

Once finished, she faces me. “Is there anything you like to do aside from work?”

You. But I don’t say that, it’s still too soon to unleash the extent of my madness on her. “Jogging.”

“What else?”

Killing, carving up traitors’ faces. But then again, she doesn’t need to know that.

“Nothing.” I take the turn toward her apartment. “Tell me about you. How did you grow up?”

“From one foster home to the other.” She says the words with strange calm as if she doesn’t feel them. Interesting. It’s almost as if she numbed herself to that part of her life.

“How about your parents?”

A sheen of sadness covers her features. “They died when I was young... an accident.”

I glance at her then focus back on the road. She hesitated at the end, which means she was either lying or lacked the confidence to say the words.

Interesting.

Maybe her family history has something to do with why she keeps drawing me in.

I tuck away that information for later as we stop in front of her building.

I feel the presence before I catch a glimpse of the car parked right in front of my building.

Fuck. I should’ve known Lucio would show his face at my house sooner or later. I never tell him where I live, but he finds me anyway —more proof that the city is under his command. There’s no rat Lucio Costa can’t find on his turf.

He stands in front of the car with Marco, their gazes are focused on my building as if contemplating if they should go inside or burn the thing to weed me out.

I turn to tell my little Petal to stay in the car, but she’s already out.

Fuck.

The last thing I want is for her to meet Lucio. It wouldn’t have mattered if it were any other woman, but with her, it does.

The moment Marco’s eyes fall on her, I itch to fetch my knife and jam it straight into his fucking neck.

My little Petal is oblivious to the attention she’s getting from Lucio’s second in command as she strides to her building.

When noticing I’m not following behind, she stops and turns around. Her gaze doesn’t linger on me though. The moment she sees Lucio, her entire body turns rigid like a board.