Nash nodded. “I see. So, he paid you to marry him so he could stay in the country.”
“Right.”
“But, you fell for him?” Nash said, phrasing the statement like a question.
Aria screwed up her face in disgust. “What? Hell, no. I don’t even like the man, let alone love him. Matter of fact, I’d go as far as to say I can’t stand him.” She sucked in a breath. “Are you going to arrest me now?”
Nash barked out a surprised laugh. “What?”
“I know the law, Nash.” She shook her head. “I don’t care, just… just get it over with. Do you… Do you hate me now? I wouldn’t blame you.”
A slow smile spread over Nash’s lips. “Why? This is the best news I’ve had all day.”
Aria frowned. “It is? Why?”
“Don’t you see? He’s your husband, and earlier, at the bakery, you told me to go away and leave you with him, so I thought you loved him. I thought I was destined for a lifetime without my mate, but I had to at least come here tonight to see if you were all right and tell you what you are to me. I never would have forgiven myself if I hadn’t at least tried. And no, I’m not going to arrest you. Although I can think of other uses for a pair of handcuffs we might both enjoy more.”
Aria shook her head. “But nothing has changed, Nash. We still can’t be together.”
“The hell we can’t,” he said.
Aria folded her arms. “I’m being serious. I can’t leave him—not now, or for the foreseeable future.”
Nash gaped at her as if she’d grown another head. “Why not?”
“He threatened to hurt my mom,” Aria said quietly.
“That’s it, I’m going to kill him,” Nash spat, making to barge past her, his eyes already fixed on the door that she had no doubt he could smash through with barely a tap.
“No, listen to me.” She stepped to put herself in his path again. “You can’t just go in there and—”
“No,youlisten tome. The days of that man threatening you and abusing you and treating you like his own personal ATM machine are over. I am going in that house and I’m kicking that sorry son of a bitch out.”
He tore his eyes from the house and met hers again, and she tried to ignore the rush that came over her, because there were more important things at stake than her hormones—like the fact he was about to get all of them killed.
“Then,” he continued, oblivious to her reaction, “I’m going to call my brother who owns a private security company and I’m going to tell him to put your mom on round the clock surveillance. If that man so much as breathes in the direction of your mom’s house, my brother will put a bullet in his ass.”
Aria shook her head, blinking. “I don’t… You’d do all that for me?”
“That and more,” Nash replied, raising one hand to gently touch a finger beneath her chin.
A lump started to rise in Aria’s throat. “But you don’t even know me.”
“You’re my mate. That’s all I need to know. You put yourself through hell to protect your mom. And now you’re standing here, protecting a man who treated you in the most horrific way, because you’re kind, and good, and beautiful, and I love you for it, but I need you to move aside now.”
When Nash made to move past Aria, she planted a hand on his chest to stop him.
“Nash, wait. There’s something else.”
“Go on,” he said, a little warily. He was right to be wary. Any sane man would run away from this situation.
“It was only after I married Diego that I found out where he got the twenty thousand dollars to pay me for the marriage.”
“Okay…”
“He used to work for a drug cartel. He stole from them and now he’s on the run. He thinks they’ve found him.”
Nash’s lips thinned. “Jesus, that man is a piece of work. They haven’t found him, though. If they had, he’d be dead already. But they might have an idea where he is, which makes it all the more paramount that we kick his ass out before he brings a whole heap of trouble to your door.”
