Two Truths and a Marriage (The Rory Brothers, #1)

by Nicole Snow

I’m a grown man with zero interest in love

because I know where it leads.

I’ve seen how it shreds a heart...

Junie might think she knows what she’s doing, but when it comes to the underworld, she’s horribly naïve.

Once she was inside the laundromat, she forgot to keep an eye on what was happening outside. She didn’t notice the way I was watching her through the window.

when I came in, when I walked through the doors, when I grabbed her.

wouldn’t have noticed a gun in my hand or the chloroform-soaked rag destined to make her another missing person be...

They would take her to a secure location and extract every bit of information they could.

they’d kill her or worse—how many women in the wrong place at the wrong time wind up being trafficked? Too many.

“You mean when you didn’t answer my calls? Don’t say that like I wasn’t driving around looking for you.”

She was crying, by the looks of it. “Only Emmy knew where I was…” She sniffs roughly. At least she had the

good sense to tell someone else, even if that person wasn’t me. That stings more than it should.

“You disobeyed me,” I spit. “I told you not to do anything alone. I told you not to get in...

“You barely told me anything,” she says numbly,

“All this was going on and you didn’t tell me shit, Dexter.”

told you about the plates. I showed you proof Haute’...

“Don’t lecture me then. Okay, so yeah, I went there alone. I made a mistake. You might have a point through all your snarling.

She’s still acting like it’s a game. “We found ourselves a drop site and we probably wound up on camera or worse, seen by fuck only knows. Where do you think that goes, Junie?”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child,” she flares.

“Don’t behave like one. What do you think would’ve happened if I hadn’t found you when I did?”

“You think I wasn’t scared out of my wits the whole time? When you grabbed me, my fricking life flashed in front of me. But this is my business. My life.

“I won’t bother you anymore. You’ve made your point. I’ve got a store and a life to get back to.”

“Don’t you understand? This is life or death, Junie,” I whisper raggedly.

You don’t just wind up on organized crime’s radar one minute and skate back into a normal life the next.”

“You may hate the fact that I’m telling you to stay put, but I need you to understand it’s for your own good.”

his fiancée so he could convince this guy to do business and he gave me money and advice for the Sugar Bowl. We had a contract, signed and all.”

“Marriage itself is a contract and a promise. I don’t care about your past, Junie. I care about right now—and I remember the way you two looked at each other. There was no faking that.”

“I remember being kissed like that a long time ago. I couldn’t fake that passion to save my life.” Ugh.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt safe. Protected.

“Look at you,” Nana says softly. “You’re not mourning a business relationship. This isn’t a simple contract gone wrong, it’s so much more.”

shouted at me to stay because he was so torn up about losing me.

He’d stormed in barking crap and protecting me from myself because he was afraid for my life.

His aggression came from a place of fear, the way a cornered dog lashes out.

Why couldn’t I just tell Dexter Rory I was falling in love?

“Yeah, we’ve established that,” I say. “Now we need a solution.”

footage from the laundromat?” Patton asks.

“Not without a warrant, and we won’t get it before Haute’s pals descend on Dex and Juniper for messing with their stash.”

But she’s stepping up patrols for my house and the Sugar Bowl. If they want to give us a real mafia send-off, they’ll...

She can’t stay in this city if strange men can come after her any time—meaning no Sugar Bowl, no money, and no life.

Junie’s in danger and she’s pissed as hell. She’s also completely done with me.

So, I go to Haute and I tell him I found out his dirty little secret. I tell him we want in.”

“Let’s assume Haute doesn’t know everything. He knows we stumbled on his cash, yeah. He knows we’re onto him using the Sugar Bowl for mule stuff, but that’s it.

One good recording gives Gillian Batista a nice big arrest. Junie might never speak to me again, but at least she won’t be in danger, and this whole thing will be ancient history.

“Just like I tried to prove today. If you give me the sweet stuff, Sweet Stuff, I promise you I won’t take it for granted again.”

“I love you, Juniper Winkley,”

“I’ve known it for a while, but I pretended I didn’t because we told ourselves it was make-believe.

It was always real to me, and if you’ll have me, I want to find out how sweet...