A chill went down my body. I didn’t want to hear about what he’d possibly done with another woman at the club.
“If you were at the club, I don’t want to know.”
He let out a sharp bark of humorless laughter.
“At the club? No, baby, we weren’t at the club.”
I started to relax.
“Then, where?”
He dropped his hands to my throat and stared me in the eyes as he tightened his hold enough to have me gripping his hands, just in case. Not that I thought he’d ever hurt me. He wouldn’t. I just knew it.
“A warehouse. Someone who works for a competitor got a little too greedy. I put them in their place.”
A stronger, more overwhelming chill went down my spine.
“What do you mean?”
“Charlie watched me kill the man trying to hurt her. She knows who I am, what I do. That’s why she was scared. She worries I won’t come back one day. But that’s who I am, Sutton. I take care of problems. Always have. These hands you’re too foolish to push away kill. Tell me to fucking leave before I lose the last bit of control I’m hanging onto. I want to fuck you through this door. And then I want to bend you over and do it again while I tattoo my name on your pretty flesh. I want to sneak in here while you’re sleeping and tie you up before waking you up with my dick down your throat. I want to rub my filthy fucking hands all over your innocence, Angel. I want to make you my little devil and watch you crawl on your knees for more. Do you understand me? I want to fucking ruin you. Tell me to leave, Sutton. Right fucking now.”
It was too much information for my brain to make sense of it all. I just knew he’d admitted to killing someone in front of a child and his hands had tightened as he spoke, just enough to let me feel how easy he could choke me. My body was a sick mess and still responded to him like a moth to a flame but my brain kicked back on.
“Leave. Get out, Theo.” The flash of hurt in his eyes was almost enough to make me beg him to stay so I could admit how much I wanted him but I stayed strong.
He set me down gently on the counter and then he was gone. I heard my bedroom door shut quietly and ran out to lock it. Not that it would help anything. I didn’t want him to watch me freak out and I needed space. Space where I didn’t feel his eyes all over me. I turned the camera off and put the tablet on the dresser next to it so I wouldn’t be tempted to watch him, especially whenI knew he would be hurt when he saw my camera was off. I didn’t want to see more of that hurt in his eyes.
It was insanity. He’d just admitted he’d killed someone. He made it sound like he did it a lot. I should’ve been packing my things and making a run for it. I should have at leastwantedto pack my things and make a run for it. There were so many things I should’ve done.
Instead, I crawled into bed and curled up tight, hoping that his confession had just been a bad dream.
CHAPTER 21
Dominic
“My office, now.” I barked the order at Sutton on my way through the house. I didn’t even look to see if the kids were with her. The tension coiling through my body had settled around my shoulders and I had a massive fucking headache. A hard fuck at the club might’ve eased some of it but the idea of touching another woman made my stomach sour. The woman had broken my body and brain and she’d done the same to Theo.
I slammed into my office like a bull and crossed to my desk, needing something between myself and Sutton when she came in. I sat down and yanked my desk drawers open one by one looking for any kind of pain reliever.
“Yes, Sir?” Sutton’s gentle voice made my head throb harder. Sweet and innocent as she was, she held a power in her hands that she never should’ve been given.
“Shut the door and sit down.” I couldn’t help being short with her. I couldn’t help glaring at her, either. If she wasn’t so goddamn genuine, I’d believe she’d been sent by an enemy to ruin us. She’d broken Theo. He’d clearly lost his mind, if his actions the night before meant anything.
Sutton looked like she was biting her tongue to keep from insulting me for how I was talking to her. She sat and tucked another long skirt around her legs while inhaling deeply and blowing it out slowly.
“Yes?”
I leaned forward.
“What Theo told you. Do you understand that repeating a single word of it to anyone else could mean he goes away for a very long time?”
She flushed and managed to look indignant, like the idea was the craziest thing she’d ever heard.
“I wouldn’t.”
“No? Before you sound so surem, let me tell you something. Theo would go insane in prison, Sutton. Being forced to give up all control and live in a tiny space with too many people? He’d fight till his last breath to get out. He’d die there.” I shuddered at the idea. “I don’t know why he told you anything. He never should’ve. What he does is always to protect others. He did it for the government for a long time and now he does it to keep our family safe. He’s a good man. I won’t let you hurt him.”
For the first time since I’d met her, she looked at me with so much anger burning in her gaze that I sat back in my chair. The force of it was amazing.
