Gentry clasps my shoulder. “You’ll get her back on Friday. You don’t need to waste your energy chasing after a fool’s errand.”
I undo the top button of my crisp, white dress shirt. “I want to bring Maverick down. After I get Delilah back, I want him and his entire group of rebels to burn.”
“Stetson will pay for what he’s done to you, brother,” Gentry assures me. “But right now, we need to be focusing on the countless opportunities ahead of us. As maddening as it’s been to coordinate your wife’s safe return, look at all the good her capture has brought.”
I take a deep breath and force myself to smile. “You’re right.”
“Good man,” he praises, turning to the rest of the high lords. “Does anyone have any ugly wenches they can spare to offer in exchange for Sister Gabriel?”
The room erupts in laughter as the brothers compare their old and unattractive maids, but my mind is still on that island—on my wife.
I wasn’t bluffing. I’ll run every goddamn test on the planet when she gets home to ensure Maverick hasn’t touched her. Not because I’m a jealous man per say, but because I’ll be damned if my best friend—my brother—whoabandonedme gets to cuck me too. And if I find out that hehashad her, I swear to god I’ll fuck her so many times she’ll forget she ever knew the touch of another man.
Maverick
Present Day
“Wives are to remain physically and emotionally loyal to their husbands. Female infidelity is forbidden.”—LAWS OF MARRIAGE, N.A.L. 5 § 24
I force my shoulders to relax and my jaw to unclench, taking a deep breath. Before, Delilah going back to New Athens was merely an idea, a hypothetical concept in the realm of possibility. Now, it’s actually happening.In three days. The thought of her being back in Gabriel’s vicinity induces a level of anxiety I haven’t felt for ages—maybe ever.
“You’re worried,” Delilah says from behind me.
I finally turn around to face her, hoping I look calmer than I feel. “Come on. We gotta go.”
I help her into the speedboat and start the engine, gunning it toward the small, neighboring island. Once we’re close enough, I chuck the spare phone Benji gave me onto the shore, hoping that if they do track its location, it will lead them even farther from our base.
Only once we’re headed back toward home at a steady pace does Delilah speak again. “Maverick.”
I don’t slow down—can’tslow down. Not until we’re back where I know they won’t find us. We chose an island that’s about a thirty-minute boat ride away from our camp, and god, now that doesn’t feel far away enough. What if they send a helicopter or a drone to find us?
A singular, pivotal thought plays over and over in my head:Keep her safe.
How thefuckam I supposed to do that if I’m not with her? And I have no doubt Gabriel will make good on his promise to hurt her if he thinks we’ve been together.
“Maverick,” Delilah says again, louder this time. “Talk to me.”
I shake my head. “Not here.”
She doesn’t push me, just sits in silence with her arms wrapped around herself to combat the biting wind as the boat skips across the water. Half an hour later we’re back on our island and the boat is stored and hidden, but I still can’t bring myself to look at her. I trudge back inland, Delilah’s footsteps sounding behind me as she struggles to keep up.
“What is wrong with you?” she huffs.
“Nothing,” I grumble, still not bothering to slow my ruthless pace.
“Maverick!” she shouts. “Stop!”
My feet freeze on the brush-laden path, as if under some sort of spell. Perhaps I am; she entranced me from the moment I saw her, after all. She catches up to me and comes around to my front so she’s looking up at me, her wild curls sticking out at countless angles around her face.
“Please talk to me,” she pleads, reaching up and tentatively placing her hands on my chest.
“It’s nothing.”A lie.“I just have a lot on my mind now that we know the time and place of the exchange.”
“I’m not scared,” she says, lifting her chin.
A choked laugh slips past my lips as I run a hand through my windblown hair. “I am! I’m fucking terrified.”
“He won’t hurt me. Not more than he already has, anyway,” she adds under her breath.
