Emanuele nodded sharply, dropped to a knee, and began closing up the tool kit. She hadn’t used most of it in the end, so it was worth saving. As was the knife block.
Alessa pulled in a shaky breath.Just pull up your big-girl panties and say what needs saying.She didn’t have to sob all over him about anything else. She knew that, but when she finally let her eyes lift to Rocco’s, the hardness she saw looking back at her hurt like one of the wounds she’d just inflicted.Say. The. Words.She swallowed and tried not to breathe too hard, only in part because the entire room smelled putrid. “Mr. De Salvo … will pay for the property loss. I’m sorry.”
She clamped her lips shut before that apology could lose the meaning it needed and dropped to scoop up her bloodied tools. It only took a few seconds to deposit them near where the heart of the blaze would be, and instead of going back in Rocco’s direction, she continued past the half-dead men toward the other room. Rocco had acquired paper towels from there earlier, so she assumed it was a bathroom.
She wasn’t prepared for the hand that closed around her forearm, or being spun against the wall before she could reach the bathroom altogether.
Rocco pinned her bodily to the wall, his entire body tight. With anger? With tension? She couldn’t tell. “Your job’s done now,” he said, his tone a low growl. “Any one of us can strike a fucking match. I know how to handle a messy scene. And I don’t need De Salvo money buying off an old property. Tell them I’ll ask for something else instead if it makes him feel better about the loss.”
Alessa felt her jaw quiver, just for an instant. Was he really …thatangry, over a job he had to know she did? Even if he’d struggled to believe it… It made no sense. Almost any other day, she’d have lit into him for the judgment. From any other man, under any other circumstance, perhaps she still could have. But in her current state, from him, after the moments they’d shared, she couldn’t. She couldn’t even work up a glare.
So she dipped her chin. “I’ll tell him.” Was she supposed to apologize? Had he felt like she was grandstanding? It was her scene, her mission, of course she’d been leading it.
Rocco let out a hard breath. “Fuck.” He slumped against her, one arm coming up to rest on the wall above her shoulder, and he pressed his forehead against hers firmly enough to force her to straighten again. “I know you’re mad at me,” he said, the anger gone from his voice like it had never been. “I know I fucked up. I’m sorry, beautiful. I am. I fucking swear. I— You know what happened, and it’s not really an excuse. But I can’t promise I’ll ever just passively stand still and let some dickhead talk to you that way. Which is a shit apology, I realize.” Hecurled his other hand around hers and squeezed. “Please, talk to me.Lookat me.”
Tears rushed her eyes and Alessa gasped in a breath. That was not at all she’d expected he might say. That was the polar opposite of what she’d thought he was thinking.
She wiggled her fingers to thread them with his. “You’re not … mad at me?”
He blinked. “Mad?”
She swallowed hard against the lump already forming in her throat as she forced out the word she’d most feared, the word that had felt like devastation. “Repulsed…?”
Rocco’s eyes widened for a beat, he grunted, and then he was kissing her. The kiss was hard and frantic, but searing with need all the same. He flattened her entirely against the wall and rolled his pelvis into hers, assuring her that his interest was alive and well. Perhaps lacking all sanity, but definitely alive. Then he retreated, just enough to justify easing the tight hold he’d taken of her hair and let them both breathe. “Watching you work is living fucking art. The room smells like shit, but I’d still fuck you on this wall just to prove it if we didn’t have a time limit on a thumb to worry about.” He pressed a chaste kiss to her nose and ran the knuckles of his hand down her cheek. “If anyone says one bad word about you, I’ll rip the skin off his goddamn bones. Never doubt that.”
She had half a mind to tell Emanuele to go deal with rounding up and destroying the paperwork. He had all the information, anyway. But that would have been unprofessional, and Rocco wasn’t wrong.
The room was only smelling worse by the minute.
But her smile was easier. “I’d like to continue this conversation, once everything else is done and we’ve washed up.”
His lips twitched. “Orwhilewe’re washing up?”
She rolled her eyes and pushed at his chest. “Work now, other things later, you addict.”
“I think you pissed the cleaners off,” Em said with a near-silent chuckle after Rocco and Alessa were back in the SUV. The SUV which would, also, need a deep clean, thanks to the blood transference from Deadmen One and Two.
Rocco grunted at the statement. He’d caught the too-slowly averted glare and heard the grumblings. “Too damn bad. They get paid a little more today.” And all because they’d had to go back and destroy a handful of documents that might, potentially, tie a dead man to a De Salvo.
Alessa made a sound of discontent. “Iamsorry about your car, though.”
“No worries,” Em replied as he swung them into motion. “I like to mix things up, anyway.”
Rocco tipped his head to the side and grinned at Alessa. “He just has vehicular ADD. Can’t ever be satisfied with sitting behind one specific wheel for too long.”
Her face lightened with a soft laugh and she sank into the seat. “We need to ditch these bloody clothes before we goanywhere else, though. Walking through the hotel’s gonna be risky.” She raised a brow at him. “I don’t suppose you have a sneaky private entrance?”
He shrugged. “Only to my private residence.” He projected his voice to be sure Em knew to listen. “You get that job done?”
“As per your specifications. We’ll still get there first, though.”
Rocco nodded. “Just get us inside.”
Alessa poked his arm. “What am I missing?”
“Just making sure we don’t get caught covered in someone else’s blood, beautiful.” He caught her hand and folded it in his. “We’ll go hide up in my place, no one will see, and emerge all sparkly clean. People will make other assumptions.” He wiggled his brows suggestively.
Alessa rolled her eyes but didn’t retract her hand. “Please never do that again.” She paused. “What about Carla?”
