“What the hell were you doing in the closet?” Alec asks, apparently unprepared to see him.
Adrian rolls his eyes. “Picking out shoes. Why the fuck do you think I’m here?”
Dante nearly smiles, looking down in private amusement. “Aw, you mean my big brother doesn’t trust me? How hurtful.”
Now Mateo stands, miraculously recovered from the beatdown. I back myself up against the wall and stare at him, eyes wide. His gaze remains trained on me as he reaches out an open hand for the gun. I give it to him, but I’m so fucking confused. My mind puts together the pieces, but I can’t quite believe it.
There’s no way he’s been playing me, right?
No way.
“I’m going to bed,” Alec states. “Sorry about all this, Mia.”
With that, Alec abandons us all to our dysfunction.
Mia’s gaze jumps to Dante, still mind-boggled.
“I’m not sorry,” he tells her. “I wasn’t even lying. I would’ve definitely sold you.” Turning to Mateo, he adds, “I’ll be by tomorrow for my bonus envelope.”
Dante heads for the door, but I call out, “Wait… Why?”
Dante shrugs. “What do you mean, why? My brother takes the long way when the short way works just fine, but he’s the boss, isn’t he?”
“I just… tried to kill you,” I say, a bit numbly.
“You thought I was a disloyal fuck who turned on the head of the family. I’d have done the same thing.” With that, Dante departs, as well.
“Oh, my God.” Mia buries her face in her hands. “It was all fake. You did it again.”
Mateo sits on the bed beside her and pulls her into his arms. He kisses the top of her head and she turns, wrapping her body around him and sobbing into his shoulder.
After watching for a minute, Rafe shoves his hands in his pockets and asks Adrian, “So… is now a good time to collect that $50?”
Adrian cuts Rafe a hard glare, but nonetheless extracts his wallet. “I’m with Alec; I think you interfered.”
I throw my hands up in the air. “Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on? This was all some kind of bet?”
“Nah, the wager was an add-on,” Rafe states. “Beside the point, really. Just making things interesting.”
Mateo’s voice is the one who finally answers. “It was a loyalty test. Not the kind I’ve ever put you through before, but Mia’s been there. They’re not much fun, but the information I glean from them is pretty much incomparable.”
“A loyalty test?” I echo, in disbelief. “So, if I would’ve shot you…?”
Mateo merely raises his eyebrows, like that question is too stupid to dignify with an answer.
Holy shit.
“You’re insane,” I tell him, eyes wide, head shaking. I try to collect my wits, but the reality I’ve been living has just been ripped out from under me and I’m having a hard time finding my footing. “Insane.”
He shrugs. His tone lacks any trace of remorse. “I had to see what you’d do.”
I didn’t even know what I would do until I did it! If not for my fear of Mia’s brain-eating, man-controlling siren powers, I may have actually….
My gaze drifts to Mia. The intimidating, potentially vengeful, brimming with rage Mia is gone now, replaced with Mateo’s soft Mia. She obviously wasn’t in on any of this either, so she should be spitting mad at him. She should want to kill him for real, for putting at least her through all of this. Me, okay, he was planning to kill me anyway, but why do it to her?
A horrible wariness passes through me. I feel like I’m walking across the crooked floor of a funhouse and I can’t trust anything.
Meanwhile, Mia sucks in a shaky breath, then grabs Mateo’s face and pulls him in for a kiss.
She’s so fucking crazy.
Rafe and Adrian watch Mia wrap herself around the man who just tormented her—again—and have different expressions of awe. Adrian has seen it before, so he just shakes his head. “He’s sure lucky he found her.”
Rafe is more baffled. “Why isn’t she…?”
“This isn’t her first rodeo,” Adrian explains. “We should probably clear out of here and give them some privacy. They will proceed whether we stay or go.”
“But he just…”
“Don’t try to rationalize it,” Adrian advises. “Just leave them be.”
Mateo pulls away from Mia’s mouth, so she trails kisses down his neck. “I want to see you both in the study. Just give me…a half hour.” Mia climbs in his lap and wraps her legs around him. “Forty-five minutes. Somewhere around there.”
We all head for the door, leaving behind Mia’s sighs of pleasure as we step into the hall.
Rafe pauses, looks at Adrian, and indicates the now-closed bedroom door with his thumb. “Is that gratitude sex? He gets thank you sex after what he made us all do?”
Adrian sighs. “Let’s go have a drink.”
“Wait, what about me?” I ask, since they’re just treating this like business as usual.