Devious Vow: Chapter 27

“Thanks for coming.”

Kratos nods, planting a heavy hand on my shoulder. “All good.” His dark brows furrow deeply. “You okay?”

I nod. “I’m fine.”

He glances past me, gesturing with his chin up to my open bedroom door, where Eloise is.

“She okay?”

“She will be.”

We both turn and glance at the rug he brought over, which is now wrapped around a tarp, which in turn is wrapped around Rocco’s body.

Kratos glances to me. “That your first…time?”

He means first kill. The answer is yes. I’ve hit men. I’ve seriously fucked people up, and sent them to the hospital, but that’s the first life I’ve taken.

I feel nothing.

Not a poetic “gnawing cold of nothing”, I mean I literally don’t feel anything remotely approaching guilt, or shame, or any kind of “bad” for killing that piece of shit.

All I know is I’d do it again in a heartbeat to anyone who laid a hand on Eloise.

“You got anything to drink around here?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

Kratos follows me into the kitchen, where I yank a bottle of whiskey out from behind the cereal boxes on a shelf above the fridge. Yes, I hid it from Eloise. Sue me.

“Ice? Neat?”

He shakes his head. “Not for me, man. For you.”

“I’m good.”

He just takes the bottle from me, grabs a glass, and pours me a hefty shot.

“Drink it. Trust me. You’re fine right now, but there’s going to be an edge coming, and this’ll dull it. Drink.”

Fuck it.

I knock back the whiskey in one heavy slug and set the glass back down as I swallow.

“Better?”

“Yeah, actually.” I flash him a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

He nods and leans his large frame back against my fridge with his arms folded over his chest.

“So, what happens now?”

“How active is your building? I mean, are residents going in and out all night?”

I shake my head. “Nope.”

“Good. I’m going to chill here with the asshole”…he nods at the rolled-up rug…“for a while. If that’s okay.”

“I get the feeling one of us is the expert here, and it’s not me.”

Kratos chuckles quietly. “I’ll wait until midnight or so, drag his sorry ass out to my car where I parked out back. After that…” He clears his throat. “Let’s be real, Alistair. Probably best if you don’t know.”

“Not your first rodeo?”

He grins and shakes his head. “Nope. Look, you’re clear of this. It’s never coming back on you, or her. One of my guys swiped the tapes from the building security office before I even got here. And this fucker’s car has been…” he shrugs. “Well, again, you don’t need to know the details. His credit card is going to show up making some purchases in New Jersey, then in Kentucky, then southern Florida, and that’s that.”

I exhale, nodding. “I owe you.”

“Yeah, probably,” he chuckles. “How about for starters you don’t mention this to my brothers, yeah?”

I grin, shaking his outstretched hand. “Deal.”

Ares, Kratos’ oldest brother and the head of the Drakos family, does a lot of their business—both criminal and legitimate—through Crown and Black. And of course, Hades, the next oldest Drakos brother, is married to Elsa Guin, one of our top attorneys and an equity partner.

Kratos is helping me today because…well, because he’s a friend. But also, the Drakos family has zero love for the Carvelis. Not when Luca, and then fucking Massimo, tried to force a marriage to Calliope, who is Ares’, Hades’, Deimos’, and Kratos’ little sister.

“You two should get out of here,” Kratos rumbles. “I’ll stick around, clean up anything that needs cleaning up…”

Blood. He means blood.

“And then I’ll take out the trash. Sounds good?”

“Sounds like I seriously owe you.”

He grins as we shake hands again. “Don’t worry about it, man. I’m always up for anything that kicks dirt in that fuck Massimo’s face.”

Eloise is quiet as she stands in the entryway to the hotel suite, drinking it in. She’s been silent the whole way here, and my mind is going to the worst possible scenarios.

She shouldn’t have seen what she did. But there was no way around it. When I barged in and saw that piece of shit putting his hands on her—especially when I realized it was Rocco, the fucker who slapped her around for Massimo—there was only one conclusion.

But still, she just witnessed me kill a man with my bare hands. She saw me bloodied and savage, the worst, monstrous version of myself.

She hasn’t said a word since.

Fuck.

I frown as I close the door to the suite overlooking Central Park West.

“It’s just for a few days,” I say. “Again, it’s going to look like you’re on a business trip to Chicago with Taylor. He won’t know you’re in New York.”

I don’t know what the solution here is. But I do not want her with that psycho. It’s not like we’ll be able to keep this up forever, but I can buy us some days…a week, tops…before Massimo gets suspicious.

Unless he already is.

Eloise crosses the floor to the windows. She puts her hand on the glass, staring wordlessly out across Central Park.

I walk up behind her, keeping my distance, trying not to startle her.

“Eloise…” I shake my head. “I’m sorry you saw⁠—”

“Thank you.”

She turns, her eyes locking with mine.

“Alistair…”

“I know it’s a lot to take in, and if you want to talk—even to someone else—about what you saw⁠—”

“I saw you save my life.”

She moves toward me quickly, and I catch her in my arms as she hugs me fiercely. Her mouth presses to mine, kissing me slow and deep as she clings tightly to me.

When she pulls away, suddenly, she’s the Eloise I know again.

“I don’t need to ‘talk to’ anyone. And I don’t see you any differently,” she says quietly, as if she’s seen the unspoken question in my eyes. Her lips curl up. “And this place is amazing.”

“Amazing enough to be home for a few days?”

She grins. “Uh, yeah.”

“Good.”

Her hands grip mine tightly, even though I had zero of intention of moving away.

“Alistair?”

“Yeah?”

Her lip worries in her teeth.

“While I’m here…” Her eyes lift to mine. “Will you stay with me?”

“That wasn’t ever a question.”