This morning, I stayed in bed.
In Vidar's bed. His sheets, his pillows, his scent soaked into every thread of the fabric I had burrowed into like a creature that had finally found somewhere warm enough to stop moving. The morning light came through the curtains in long, pale bars. I watched them shift and did absolutely nothing about it.
My hand went to my neck again. The mark was tender; a deep, pulsing ache that radiated outward every time my fingers brushed the edges of it, sending a low current of sensation all theway down to my toes. I touched it again. Pressed, gently. Felt my own pulse knock back against my fingertips.
I was sore in ways that would make a porn star blush. I was tired in a deep, cellular way that had nothing to do with the kidnapping or the wolfsbane— though all of that was probably somewhere in the total — and everything to do with the hours after we came home.
Dante Lupetto felt very far away. I knew, with a certainty that sat in my bones rather than my brain, that he was no longer a problem. I didn't know exactly what Gunnar had done, and I didn't need to. That was the thing about being a Blackwood, I was realizing; there were people in your corner who handled the things that needed handling, and you were allowed to simply trust that they had. My father had enforcers too, but they had always felt like his weapons, aimed inward as often as out. The Blackwood brothers were something different.
I thought about Mei Ling smoothing the bandage over my finger. Selecting the one with the tiny pink crowns.
I thought about the phone call that ended in Dante screaming.
I thought about Vidar on his knees on the family room rug, pressing his mouth to my hand.
My fingers found the mark again without my permission.
And then I thought about my husband's smile. He had called me brilliant. It was the sexiest thing a man had ever said to me.
My phone rang from the other room. I knew it was my phone because I recognized the ringtone. I lay in Vidar's bed for one more moment, resenting it. Then I untangled myself from the sheets, pulled one of Vidar's shirts from his closet, and pulled it over my head. It fell to mid-thigh.
The phone was on the nightstand charging when I came into the other room. I hadn't brought it up. But again, it was a thingabout being a Blackwood. I had others to take care of menial things like finding and charging my cell phone.
The caller ID said it was Elias.
I answered. "Are you okay?"
"I can get you out."
I spoke exactly one language. English. The five words that came out of my brother's mouth did not compute.
"Out," I repeated.
"The Ironwood seizure, I've been going through everything since they gave me archive access. The Ironwoods were thorough. They documented everything on their side. Clean records, clean transfers. But I kept pulling the thread on their partners. Who they were. How they operated. And Addie—" A pause. "The Ironwoods didn't move against the Blackwoods alone."
I sat down on the edge of the bed.
"They had silent partners," Elias continued. "Pack and human. People who backed the Ironwood play — provided capital, cover, strategic support — in exchange for a piece of what the Ironwoods were going to take from Blackwood Enterprises when it was over. These aren't people who wanted to be found. I only found them because I was looking at the Ironwood side of the ledger. "
"How many?" I asked.
"Four packs, two human businesses."
"Which ones?"
"Does it matter? There are only six packs. Only one isn't moving against the Blackwoods. Addie, we need to get out of here."
"No. We need to figure out how to use this to our advantage."
"Our advantage? Who is our? The Blackwoods stole you and forced you into a marriage."
"You stole from them."
"Because that's the world we live in. Kill or be killed, and I was trying to figure out how to live with our father fucking the entire pack over. I did what I thought I had to do as future alpha. What I didn't know was that everyone was after the Blackwoods as well. Now that I know, I need to get you out of there. You're my family."
He was right. Elias was my family. Even after I left him with a monster, he was still trying to hold on to me. But I wanted to hold him with one hand and my husband with the other.
"I know they're not all bad," Elias was saying. "But with everyone coming for them, you are definitely going to get caught in the crossfire as his wife."
