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“You’re also my wife.” I picked up my glass, taking a drink of water. “Your precious big brother must be crawling the walls right now.”
She shook her head, looking disgusted by me. “I’m not your pawn, so trust me when I say marrying me won’t make me any less difficult.”
“You tell them,” she shot back. “They put themselves on the line for me tonight, and that’s how you reward loyalty?”
She looked away, shaking it off. “Nothing. Just . . .” She paused, searching for words. Then she looked straight at me. “They won’t leave. They work for me, and they can’t go back there. That’s it.”
Pease tell him
But I guess, who wouldn’t want her attention? Nikova Banks was a beautiful woman.
But I didn’t deserve her. No matter what she’d done or how her choices had hurt me, I’d taken her hand today with as much force as I’d taken her innocence in that room in The Pope. She needed to be left alone.
“My father was having a party,” she explained, “and Marina thought he might let me come if . . . if I was pretty enough.”
Territorial is fine when it’s in the bedroom. It’s not fine when it keeps someone you’re supposed to love from living a life.
How she was the only woman I’ve ever seen him hang on to like a life preserver.
“Fuck him and your father,” I said gently. “Fuck me and the shit that comes out of my mouth.”
“Damon knew what a treasure you were, and he loves you. But he won’t keep me from you.” I tipped up her chin to meet my eyes. “This isn’t about him or the hotel or your father. I want you.”
“I won’t hurt him,” I said, knowing what her worries were. “But I do need to protect myself, so I need to see him. Do you understand?”
I couldn’t ask her to choose.
Thank u
“I want you,” I told her again. “And I don’t care what your name is, and I don’t care who your parents are or how much money you have or don’t have. I just want you, upstairs, and dressed in nothing but my sheets.”
She started breathing faster, her gaze turning heated. “Fuck the sheets,” she whispered.
“I want every memory you’re going to make from now on.”
Damon.
I smiled to myself, fingering my wedding ring with my thumb. He wasn’t going to be in a good mood.
“I’m the only one who’s taken care of her,” he argued. “The only one who’s loved her. You can’t ask her to give me up. You know why? Because it’s an impossible choice and you don’t want to know that she just might not choose you.”
I wouldn’t ask her to make that choice anymore. I would just keep fighting, because I loved—
Because I loved her.
CHAPTER 26
And when something feels off, it is.
“Delcour is the original Pope?”
White lace panties. You’ve got to be kidding me. He might’ve been in the building, but he couldn’t have gotten into their apartment, could he? Would he really have been there and been able to resist making contact with Will? Alex?
“A year,” Michael said. “He’s been coming and going, watching all of us, for a fucking year. From right here.”
I hadn’t talked to him a lot lately, and I wondered how he was holding up. Was he okay with all of this? He had a lot of shit in his head over Damon, I was sure.
“Because everything he wants is in Meridian City.”
“Because just that,” Will finally offered. “Michael, Rika, and I are here at Delcour. You and Banks are in Whitehall.” He paused, dropping his eyes. “The rest of the world has nothing that Damon wants. He wanted to be here. Close.” His eyes flashed to mine. “To us.”
CHAPTER 27
My mind trailed. For a moment, he looked like Damon. When Damon came in late, with that dreamy weariness in his eyes, because he was so drunk he was actually at peace for once, all he wanted was sleep.
Kai grabbed me, wrapping his arms around my torso, under my arms, and lifting me up. “I love you,” he whispered against my lips as he backed us away from the others. “And he can send me to prison again for a very long time. I’m not letting that happen now that I’ve found you. Please.”
These were things I thought would never be my life.
But, for some reason, that didn’t really scare me. I wanted to dream again.
“I’ll try not to.”
Thank u
CHAPTER 28
He wouldn’t come in. I didn’t ask why.
“Do you think she loves you? More than me?”
“She’s a part of me,” he went on. “And I’m a part of her.”
“I’ve fucked up, I’ve lied, I’ve nearly torn myself apart in front of her, but she understands that that’s what family is about. Family is what life gives you to help you endure. Their place is by your side, no matter how much it hurts, they’re the people who are always by your side. It’s duty.”
Not when it was abuse.
“The girls. He knew we’d leave them at the house.”
Idiots
CHAPTER 29
I grew up with Damon, on the other hand, and I’d seen enough destructive behavior that Devil’s Night seemed tame.
I followed her gaze, twisting around. Kai stood in the doorway wearing his mask.
She looked between her phone and me, and I heard it vibrating in her hand. “Kai’s calling me.”
Oh no
It was his only tell that he was holding in more anger than he was letting on.
But Damon cut me off. “Now,” he ordered.
Rika pushed off, heading right for them. “I could snap her neck in a second,” the one behind Alex threatened, staring at Rika and jerking Alex’s head in both his hands.
But before he could answer, Rika came forward. “You tried to kill us,” she charged. “Will . . . You tied a cinder block around his ankle, tied his hands behind his back, and threw him into the ocean.” Her voice cracked. “Do you know what you put him through? You’re a fucking horror.”
