I sit forward, ignoring the nausea that sloshes through me at the slightest motion. “It started the night I iced a contract killer for Ares in my flat. We were supposed to do the job at his club, but he got away,” I say, keeping steady. “Your brother-in-law tried to intercept him before he got to my building, but Ares got there too late.” I take a breath. “Fallon was there. She saw the whole thing.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Griffin mutters, eyes fluttering closed for half a beat.
“It’s exposure, Griff,” Shane voices his concern. “This ambush tonight means Elias Black is watching us.”
“I can’t believe we are once again teetering on war,” Trace utters.
Raina returns just then, and I sit up. “Is she okay?”
Chin lifted, she says, “No. She’s not.”
Fuck…
“The Albanians are at your disposal, Griffin.” Raina, as the second in command to Valdrin Sokolov, herkyrefather, stands battle-ready.
“I’ll call Lachlan,” Trace mentionshisbrother-in-law, the other infamous Irish enforcer from Astoria.
“Quiet,” Griffin snaps. “Everyone.”
Silence spreads through the room like napalm, deadening every voice. Shane actually steps back. Connor stiffens, nostrils flaring.
Griffin’s gaze pins me, sharp enough to make my chest ache. Like I’ve disappointed him somehow.
“She doesn’t want money,” I insist. “Or bribes. She wants…me.”
That makes her look crazy, and they stare because they don’t see me as any kind of prize.
“There’s only one way to protect us if she breaks down and says something to the wrong person,” Griffin says. “Rhys, you have to marry her.”
The words hit me harder than the baseball bat didearlier. “That’s not necessary?—”
“It’s the only way to ensure our safety if she refuses to stay silent,” Griffin says.
“Rhys, he’s right,” Trace agrees, even though he looks like he’s having an aneurysm. “It’s also for her own protection. As your wife, dogs will think twice about biting her.”
“Griffin,” Cormac interjects. “If she’ll allow it, I can have her checked. Quietly. No reports. No flags.”
Something inside me detonates. I lunge off the gurney before my vision fully clears, shoving past Trace’s arm. My skull spikes white with pain, but I don’t care.
I’m in Cormac’s face before anyone can stop me. “Don’t you fucking go near her. She is not mentally incompetent!” The words rip out of me like claws.
Cormac blinks, caught off guard.
Shane and Trace haul me back before I put my fist through Cormac’s perfect teeth.
“She’s not broken,” I spit, straining against Shane’s grip. “No more than me. No more than any of you. She’s?—”
Mine, I almost say. But maybe that’s not true anymore, especially if she refuses to forgive me for betraying her trust.
We dish about people’s secrets every day like it’s nothing. Our targets and their problems don’t mean anything. They are simply complications we need to be aware of to navigate around. I screwed up by placing Fallon in that sterile category.
I want to fight for her, but she might be changing all the locks, so I can never get inside her flat again. Or worse…lighting mine on fire.
I wrench out of Shane’s hold and stagger back a step, breathing hard. My ribs ache. My head pounds. My heart feels like it’s trying to tear its way out of my chest.
“I won’t force her into a marriage,” I say, lower now. “Iwon’t force her to take her pills. That will destroy her. Everything I love about her will be gone if I do that.”
Connor’s mouth twitches like he’s trying not to smile, like he’s not really surprised I managed to find someone perfect for me the way he did. The way they all did.
