Page 53 of The Woman with the Handcuffs

“Didn’t get his ass fired for that shit?”

“He’s the owner’s son.”

“The pizza place on the corner?” he asked. “With the green and white awning?”

“Um, yeah. Why?” I asked, reaching for one of the dumplings but avoiding the chili sauce. It said ‘sweet’ on the menu, but I’d been burned before. In a literal way. From the inside. Better not to be up all night with a fire blazing across my chest and up my throat.

“Nothing,” he said, putting down his half-eaten slice, wiping his hands, then reaching for his phone.

“Checking in with your family?” I asked.

“Something like that,” he said, shooting off a rapid-fire text.

“I thought criminals didn’t text. Logs and all that. What?” I asked when he shot me a look. “I watch a lot of crime documentaries.”

“Ever consider that might not be great for the whole anxiety thing?”

“I like to think of it as research. I know what’s out there and maybe how to avoid it.”

“Cait,” he said, waving a hand between us.

“I mean, yeah. But also, you’re not the same.”

“Different class of criminal?” he asked. “We might have a code. But make no mistake, we’re criminals, too. Do whatever needs to be done. Morally questionable all the way to completely immoral.”

“But not to women or kids.”

“Not to women or kids,” he confirmed. “Or animals. Basically, just to men.”

“But only the guilty ones.”

“Been alive a while. Not sure I’ve ever met an innocent man. Not in my line of work, anyway. You know what you’re doing when you get involved with the Family. You wanna fuck up or fuck us over, you know what consequences are coming.”

“And do you dole them out? The consequences, I mean.”

“If I need to.”

“I’m having a hard time imagining that.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t give me any consequences. And I’m pretty sure in the grand scheme of bad things a person could do, holding a capo captive is high on the list.”

“Yeah, it’s up there. But you get the woman card to keep you safe. Also, still feel kinda bad about your wrist.”

“I mean, I did punch you.”

“I provoked it.”

“You did. Here, you need to try one of these,” I said, grabbing a dumpling and climbing off the bed to go over to where he was sitting on the edge of his.

I really thought nothing of it.

Not until I was holding the dumpling up by his lips and his gaze flicked up to mine.

My breath stalled in my chest.

My face felt flush.