She arches a brow. “Have you murdered someone? Stolen anything? Cheated? Taken up drug trafficking or sex trafficking?”
“What? No! Of course not.”
“Then I won’t think less of you.” She snuggles into my side, and I put my empty mug aside, wrapping my arms around my wife.
“I’m not worthy of you.” I press my lips to her soft hair.
“Of course, you are.” She kisses the underside of my jaw and my skin tingles. “We’re worthy of one another.”
A heavy sigh emits from my lips. I’m done holding this inside. I need to talk to my wife. Maybe she can help me to make this right. “I’ve done something at work behind the guys’ backs. Something they specifically said no to, yet I made my own decision to do it, and now I’m wracked with guilt and stressing because it could come out and possibly ruin everything we’ve built together.” My arms tighten around her. “It feels so disloyal to them after everything they’ve done for me.”
Emery cups my face, directing my gaze to hers. “What is it?”
“Are you really sure you want to know?”
“Yes. If it’s troubling you and I can help, I want to.”
“A few months ago, this guy came to us for help.” I wet my suddenly dry lips. She’s not going to like this. “He’s part of the Italian mafia in New York.” Her eyes widen like saucers, but she keeps quiet, urging me to continue with her expression. “We have done the odd favor in the past for some of the mafia leaders, but we mostly steer clear of involving ourselves. They have their own tech department with highly skilled resources, so they handle most of their shit in-house anyway, which suits us.”
“So why did this guy come to HDAK? Why didn’t he use the mafia resources?” Her eyes widen as she answers her own question. “Shit. It was something he didn’t want them to know, right?”
“Correct.” I peck her lips. “I didn’t just marry you for your beauty.”
Her lips curve up. “Go on.”
“There is an unspoken agreement between us and The Five Families that we don’t step in their shit and they don’t step in ours. We have mutual professional respect for one another, and this guy coming to us threatened to tear that apart. To be fair to Hunt, Daniels, and Kennedy, they gave it lots of consideration,but after lengthy discussion, I was the only one who wanted to help. My business partners felt it was too messy and risky. Even agreeing to keep what the guy told us confidential and not to disclose to his leadership that he’d come to us is dangerous. If they find out, our professional respect might go out the window.”
“Who is this guy, and what does he want that’s so important he has to hide it from his people?”
“It’s better you don’t know his name. As for the why…” Air expels from my mouth as I rest my head back against the wall. “He discovered his adoptive parents have lied to him for years about how his bio parents died. Worse than that, they were both directly and indirectly involved in their deaths.”
“That would fuck with a person’s head,” she quietly admits, stretching her legs out in front of her.
I’m momentarily distracted by all the smooth, creamy skin in front of me.
“Zayn.” She waves her hand in front of my face.
“You’re beautiful. Do I tell you enough?”
“All the time.” Her features soften, and her eyes moisten as she stares at me. “You’re the most amazing husband and father, Zayn, and I’m the luckiest woman in the world to call you mine.”
I bundle her against my chest, squeezing my eyes shut and smothering her with my love. “I’m the lucky one, Em. You make everything better.”
“Which is why you should’ve told me this weeks ago.” Her voice is muffled against my chest, and I reluctantly ease back when her small hands push on my chest. “Continue with the story so we can work out what to do.”
Lifting her hand, I raise it to my face, placing it against one cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too. You and Darcy are my world.”
“You ever regret not having more kids?” I ask, and yes, I know I’m deflecting.
She does too, but she answers anyway. “No. I’m happy with our life and the decision we made to just have Darcy.”
“Same.”
Her shoulders relax. “Good, now stop deflecting, and tell me the rest.”
“He wanted to know exactly what happened to his bio parents and find out who else was responsible. He can’t use the mafia tech resources as he’s now estranged from his family and he doesn’t want them to stop him or stand in his way.”
