The woman softly slaps his chest in a warning to be nice, but I don’t act bothered. It’s only fair that he asks that question. Since this is his mother’s house.
“Everett, but, please, call me Eve.” I hold out my right hand to her because that’s what you do when you want to get to know someone.
The woman smiles, taking her hand from his in order to shake mine. “Ellington,” she introduces herself. “But you can call me Elli.” Then she places her hand on the man’s chest, smiling proudly. “This is my husband, Easton.”
His eyes narrow on mine, as if he’s heard of me. Then he looks me up and down again, but this time he’s sizing me up. Seeing how hard it’ll be for him to snap my neck. After how easily Kashton took me to my knees, I know it wouldn’t take this man much.
Elli drops her hand to her growing belly, and I look over her halo wedding ring. This is one of the families that Kashton warned me about. Easton is one of the men who will throw me into the fire to save his loved ones. I can’t blame them for that. I wish I had someone who loved me enough to sacrifice someone else.
But as I learned at a young age, not everyone deserves to know what it feels like to be loved.
KASHTON
I sit in the office with Haidyn and Saint. We’re still not on the best terms. We all seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room, and I’m allowing it. If they don’t want to talk to me, I’m not going to force them.
The door to the office opens and Jessie enters, clearing his throat. “You guys have a visitor,” he announces and then steps to the side.
We all sit up straighter when Sin walks in behind him. Last time he was in this room, he was here on official Lords business—to kill Adam.
“What’s up, man?” Haidyn asks, giving him a handshake hug. I stay where I’m at because he’s still not speaking to me. “How’s Elli doing?”
“Good,” he answers with a faint smile.
“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Saint asks, falling into his seat.
I point to the chair across my desk, and Sin takes it, running a handthrough his hair. “As I’m guessing, you all know Kash came to see me about Adam. You’re all aware that I didn’t kill him.”
I frown, wondering why he’s here wanting to discuss it now. I’ve tried to talk to him about it, and he’s done nothing but blown me off.
“Have you heard from him?” Saint asks, sounding hopeful. Placing his elbow on his desk, he leans forward.
“No,” Sin answers. “I haven’t had any communication with Adam. I don’t even know…” He trails off and then sighs. “I didn’t know any of you even existed until Ryat overheard that Elli’s dad was at Carnage.” He rubs the back of his neck. “But I know Bill.”
Haidyn nods, and I wonder why he’s telling us this. We were just talking about Bill in Tyson’s office. Maybe he didn’t want to give too much information away with so many people in the room.
“I trusted him. Bill helped me with Elli. I was going to marry her but knew our families wouldn’t allow it. I went to Bill; he came to our house and snuck a marriage license into the stack of paperwork she was signing to add her to the house. Deal done. We were married. Husband and wife. The Lords found out…”
“You think Bill told them?” I wonder, cutting him off. He said hetrustedhim. Something tells me he doesn’t anymore.
He sighs. “I don’t know.” He stands and starts to pace the large office. “A Lady getting an assignment to prove her loyalty isn’t anything to think twice about. But no one knew other than Bill and me. Not even Elli knew at that point.”
“What about Chance?” Haidyn asks.
“I…I called her my wife once to him, but he didn’t know it was official. He knew that was the plan, but I kept it a secret.” He takes a deep breath. “The Lords made me put her through hell. She didn’t have to kill someone or do anything for them. However, they pretty much wrote her off, said she couldn’t be a Lady, but that if she proved herself to be faithful to me, I could ‘keep’ her,” he growls, walking to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Crossing his arms over his chest, he continues, “It didn’t matter what they wanted me to do; I was going to make sure she stayed my wife. Even if that meant making her think I didn’t love her.” He turns to face us. “They made Chance test her and she passed. She was mine. Forever. But I knew there was a timeline for how long I got to keep her. Before I gave myself over to you guys, I went to see Bill again. He set me up with papers to make sure Elli was taken care of. Since I’d bedead.” We all remain silent as we let him get whatever is bothering him off his chest. “I was in his office a few weeks ago getting stuff together for the babies. Elli and I want them to be twins on paper…from birth. No adoption. No bullshit. In case something happens to me. He was setting it all up when I got a text. An assignment…”
“Adam,” Haidyn guesses when he trails off.
Sin nods and confirms. “Adam. I’m reading the text and thinkingwhatthe fuck?I didn’t even know the Spade brothers existed six months ago, and now they want me to kill one of you? Bill could tell I was stressed. Asked what was wrong. I told him, and he said he could help.”
I stiffen and Haidyn stretches his neck while Saint lets out a growl. We’re starting to understand why he’s so confused.
“He calls Adam up right then and there and puts him on speaker. I sat there while they put together this plan for me to make it look like I killed him.”
Saint stands and runs a hand down his face.
“How did Adam know Bill?” I wonder.
“Through his boss?” Haidyn guesses. “Bill and the detective seemed very close on the private jet that night. And then there was that sketchy phone call the detective got…” He shrugs.
