I wipe the moisture from the edges of my eyes and shake my head. The truth is, it doesn’t matter if there’s a list, and if there is, I don’t want to know. This marriage was doomed from the beginning, and I’ve known for a while now that our time together was coming to an end. This is the reminder that I have to let him go. Not just for him, but for me. If I stay, it will destroy us both.
“Abella?”
Gabi’s anguish draws my attention back to her, and when I look at her face, I don’t have to say anything. She knows what I’m going to do.
“There’s a lot you haven’t told me,” she says softly. “Isn’t there?”
I nod, and we both fall quiet as we come to terms with my decision. The founding members of Aegis live by a code, too. And within that code, we have a failsafe that grants us power and strength in numbers. None of us have ever invoked it before, but I know when I do, they’ll show up—no questions asked.
“When?” Gabi asks, trying her best to hide her heartbreak.
“Tonight.”
It has to be tonight. Before I lose my courage.
She gives me a resigned nod, and we gather ourselves, returning to the ball as if nothing has changed.
Angelo finds us a few minutes later, his gaze lingering on me as he picks up the subtle shift in energy. I go through the motions, wearing a mask of normalcy as his associates come to exchange pleasantries with us.
After another hour passes, Angelo leans in to whisper in my ear.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes.” I smile. “Just a little tired. Can we go?”
His lips brush my cheek as he nods. “I thought you’d never ask.”
47
ANGELO
There’s a palpable silence in the car as Nicky drives us back to the penthouse. Something feels off with Abella, and I don’t like it.
When we arrive, I guide her to the primary suite with the intention of getting to the bottom of it. But the moment the door closes behind us, she mauls me.
She grabs me by the lapels of my suit jacket and starts stripping me down. After she’s made her way through the first layer, she dispenses with my shirt too.
“Don’t get me wrong,” I muse. “I’m thoroughly enjoying it, but what prompted this urgent need?”
She pauses to look up at me, a quiet ache lingering in her eyes.
“I just…want you.” Her breath hitches. “More than anything.”
Those words imprint on the darkest part of me, vindicating the obsession I’ve carried for so long.
It doesn’t feel like a lie. It feels like the most honest thing she’s ever said.
I trace the line of her jaw, grazing my knuckles against her soft skin. Gabi was right. My wife looks angelic in this dress. Almost too pure for my world. It’s how I felt the first time I realized I wanted her to be mine. There was something a little sinister about the thought of touching her with my criminally deranged hands. But it was that same nature in me that refused to let her go.
She was the softness to my brutality.
Looking at her now, I realize that even after everything that has happened between us, she still is.
All the resentment and hostility I’ve held for her isn’t in the room tonight. I don’t know when it left, and I don’t really care. Not when I have what was always meant to be mine, staring up at me like she’ll die if she doesn’t have me right now.
“Go on then,” I tell her. “Have your way with me.”
I mean it as a joke, but she takes it seriously, pressing her hands against my chest and walking me backward. When my legs brush against the chair beside the window, she gives me a little shove like she’s trying to push me down. It’s about as effective as a kitten batting at a lion.
