Page 95 of Sins of Arrogance

“Here.” Zoey hands me my wa­ter bot­tle. “Don’t get lost in your head. Mick looks at you like he’s a starv­ing jun­gle cat and you’re the meal he’s about to run down and de­vour.”

Róise chokes. “Se­ri­ously?”

“You think so?” Fiona asks her girl­friend.

“You’re all too close to see it. What­ever Mick and Dier­dre’s past, that man watches his wife like she’s the only woman on the planet, much less in the room.”

Want­ing to be­lieve that so badly, I ache with it, I drink from my wa­ter bot­tle so I won’t pa­thet­i­cally ask Zoey to re­peat her­self.

Róise frowns and nods. “I can see it. I’ve no­ticed over the past year es­pe­cially that he seems like he wants more from you. But what­ever his feel­ings are, Mick needs to earn the right to stand be­side you.”

My throat tight­ens.

“He needs to treat you like you’re the only woman in the room,” Fiona agrees.

I look at my cousin, who’s grown into a woman with­out los­ing her fire. She never fit her­self into the good girl mold. She stood up for her­self and Fiona in a way, I’ve never been able to.

Only it’s not pity in her eyes right now. It’s be­lief. In me.

Fiona’s ex­pres­sion mir­rors that be­lief, warm­ing my heart even as a tiny part of me stays drenched in doubt. It’s so easy for them.

Fiona knows Zoey loves her, not what she can get out of be­ing with my sis­ter.

And Miceli looks at Róise like she’s the sun and he’s been locked in the dark for his whole life. He pro­tects her like it’s his re­li­gion.

No one’s ever wrapped me in any­thing but rules, ex­pec­ta­tions and obli­ga­tions.

I push a smile out any­way. “I’ll try to re­mem­ber that.”

Róise moves closer, her tone gen­tle. “Maybe we’re not the only ones too close to the sit­u­a­tion to see the for­est for the trees. Maybe Mick doesn’t re­al­ize he loves you ei­ther.”

I snort laugh. “Yeah, like he wouldn’t know if he felt some­thing that deep.”

“You’d be sur­prised,” Róise says.

Is she talk­ing about Miceli? I don’t ask. But maybe I should.

But I just shake my head, and plead, “Don’t.”

I can’t af­ford to start build­ing cas­tles in the sky again. The last time I con­vinced my­self Mick loved me and re­al­ized that he didn’t, it nearly cost me my life and my son his mom.

I’m never go­ing back there.

“Okay,” she says. “But if he for­gets who you are, we won’t.”

The burn be­hind my eyes threat­ens to spill over, but I blink fast. I don’t lose my com­po­sure. Not ever.

When I’m sure it won’t make mois­ture trickle from my eyes, I force my­self to nod once in ac­knowl­edge­ment of her words.

No mat­ter what my hus­band thinks of me, my sis­ter and sis­ter-of-my-heart will al­ways love and stand by me.

That’s more than a lot of women have.

Chap­ter 25: The Knife’s Edge of Loy­alty

MICK

I tase my pris­oner af­ter the sec­ond at­tempt to run and he fi­nally set­tles down.