Chapter Nineteen

A Taste of Fear

Rafe

She doesn't know. Shock ripples across her beautiful features, and I wonder what she would have done if she did. If she would ever have told me, or continued this facade of cat-and-mouse with a man I hated.

Leaving the matter of my wife for a moment to marinate inside my mind, I focus on Seamus. "Remove yourself from Konnor's house. You've got two hours, then I will make a phone call." I return the backhanded courtesy he paid me in forcing Willow's hand. I already hate the man, but this little soiree hasn't helped.

Seamus intended to sew distrust between us. He meant to break us up, because I snatched away his little gold mine without knowing what that cost meant to him.

"No," he says simply.

"I'll make that call now, then." I smile humorlessly at him and reach for my phone.

"Stop."

I glance at Willow, and my resolve to tether her to me harder sets in stone. Or in seed, perhaps—what I'll fill her with every fucking day until she bears our children, tying her to me so she can never run again.

"I want you to consider your words carefully, my love," I croon softly, lacing my tone with mockery and promises of punishments, the sort both of us will enjoy. "I give you everything, and you run. I bring you back, and I find a dagger lodged in my back. If you take away my ability to protect you now, I will raise hell on this earth to see you chained to my bed, taking us back to the level of trust we had the day I married you. Is that clear?" I keep my voice soft, easy.

Her eyelashes flutter, her breath quickening at the sweetly delivered threat to everything that makes the foundations of who we are together. "I understand you, Rafe."

"Do you still want to stop me?"

Seamus twitches, and I slide my hand under my desk as we talk, finding the loaded gun Dom ensures was always primed and ready.

"Yes," Willow whispers.

I sigh, gripping the gun and pressing its cold length to the back of her thighs where I pull up her dress. The movement is below the line of the desktop, and Seamus has no idea his life is about to fall short of its intended mark.

She freezes at the unexpected contact, her gaze locking on mine. This is a choice I can't take back. I've never shot a cop before, let alone an FBI agent. But Seamus can't be left alive. Knowing what he does about Konnor's family and mine … so much more than testifiable, chargeable events. He has collected secrets the way I did, and I'd always known the soulless putanas yos would end up as collateral by my hand.

What I didn't realize was the slice of my heart he would take with him.

"I love you. I trust you, gynaíka. But I cannot let this go. Is there anything you need to say?"

She shakes her head, her eyes welling with tears for the asshole who walked into my house, fucked up my date night, and ousted my wife's secrets.

That little motion, indicative of their intimacy, proves my course of action is the right one.

I lift the gun without looking at Seamus, and pull the trigger.

Nothing happens.

I glance along the sights, straight into Seamus's smiling face.

He raises his wrist to his mouth. "Come on in, boys. We've got him."

Fuck.

****

This isn't how I saw tonight going.

I stare at the inside of a jail cell and reconsider my life choices. Not the ones that matter, just the ones that got me here.

My gun wasn't loaded.

Seamus set a trap, and I walked willingly into it.

He used my wife as a decoy.

I. Am. Predictable.

Rage brews deep in my heart. I let him trap me and was too busy planning my wife's punishment that I failed to see the line of breadcrumbs right in front of me. That I'd been betrayed on two fronts ripped at me from the inside out.

Willow. Had she known more than she let on? She'd been part of my family for such a short time and yet left so many marks on us both.

Secondly, and more important … where the hell was Dom? He walked away the moment he failed to halt Seamus's progress through my house. Dom had never failed me before. Not once. Before this, the only person he failed was Thalia, again and again. I knew it ate him up as much as the two-pronged assault on my empire ruined me.

That the man I despised made it to the top story of my home without anyone stopping him left me bereft. Where had I screwed with the loyalty I worked so hard to ensure of every man in the house? Is Regina safe? Roman? Sonja has an eye on him at the boarding school. Surely she would have reached out if there was an issue. Fuck, my house is still a goddam mess.

Willow…

I squeeze my hand into a fist until my knuckles crack.

"Gallo. You're free."

"Of course I am." I don't spare a glance at the tired police officer who unlocks the door and waves me through.

"We spend hours filling out paperwork for assholes like you that we know will be released. Money talks. Always," the man complains, but there's no heat in it, only exhaustion, but his apathy gives me pause.

"I'm sorry to have taken up your time," I say softly, straightening and meeting his gaze with mine. Berring, his tag reads. Like the firearms. How apt. He must be my father's age, before he was killed. "I'm sure your family is grateful for your support and efforts."

He sends me a crooked smile. "My wife left with my ex-partner five years ago, Gallo. I can't sleep when I get home at night. But men like you don't have the same problems as fish like us." He gestures me forward again, but I hold my ground a moment longer.

"You'd be surprised," I tell him, leaning on the bars. "My wife betrayed me for a handler who groomed her perfectly. The man I banked on saving my ass—rather like your partner, I presume—left me exposed. Loyalty means the most to me, and yet tonight, I have none of that."

"And I expect you'll go home and raise hell right now, won't you?" He shook his head, as though to say, We aren't the same. "More paperwork for me."

I smile slightly. "No. I will go home and consolidate my position. I will weave out any of the not so loyal, but you won't see those from my house. They will be going on a little errand for me, to an old … friend's house." My smile grows as I imagine Konnor's face when he sees what I'll deliver next to his kin. Maybe we can rekindle that truce after all. "Then I will fuck my wife and make sure her reddened ass reminds her who owns her."

The cop blinks at me. "Thought women were independent and shit these days," he grumbles. "Get outta my precinct, Gallo. I don't wanna hear more of your bullshit life story."

If only you knew.

"It's quite amusing sometimes. I have stories to tell."

"Then tell them to your wife before she leaves you for whatever dipshit decided to stab you in the back, yeah?" He walks me to the front desk, raises both eyebrows, and points at the door.

"Good advice." I sign my name on the bottom of a form, wink at the receptionist, and opt to walk the two miles home.

Dom glares at me from the inside of my own goddamn car, his arms folded, his face as haggard tonight as the tired cop's.

I hold his gaze for a moment, my expression impassive, giving nothing away. But my actions do as I rotate slowly on my heel and stroll away from him like his time to collect me from jail means nothing at all.

Because tonight, it doesn't.

****

"I worried about you," Willow whispers from her perch on our bed as I slip my tie from my throat and wrap it around my fists, pulling it tight.

The walk didn't do shit for my rage. I should have hailed Dom up to the docks and had it out with him on the cement that bore the echoes of so many invisible bloodstains washed away by bleach.

Our haunting ground.

"Did you?" I murmur, still testing the silk between my fists. "Come here."

She obediently slides off the bed, traipsing across the plush carpet to stand before me and holds out her wrists. I watch her, and wait. She stands still for the first minutes, then as our time stretches out, she fidgets. Her white nightgown slithers smoothly against her thighs, and I'm pleased to see that she's held to our "no underwear" rule for evenings and special occasions.

Finally, my silence is too much for her.

"For fuck's sake, Rafe," she cries, throwing her hands up. "I don't know what to do!"

My smile curves my lips at her mini-tantrum. "Kneel. Apologize. Offer your freedom, your body, and your sanity, and see what I'll do." Her brow furrows at my words, and she shakes her head, neither able to stand still nor retreat, apparently. My smile widens. "I didn't think those options would stump you, wife of mine."

She blinks up at me like a baby fucking owl, too cute for her own sake. "But, Rafe. You already have all those things from me. I promised I was yours when I came back. By choice, with you. You promised to protect us all, and … and Roman," she finishes on the barest whisper.

The silk drops from my hands and I cradle her head, winding my fingers in her raven-black locks instead. "What about your brother?" I demand, harsh and unyielding.

"He's gone."

My heart cracks, straight down the middle.

I never had a brother, or a son, though Dom filled part of that hole for me. I hadn't understood how much Roman meant to me, to both of us, until that moment.

"How?" I hiss, fisting her hair and yanking her head back.

Willow bows to my will, letting me manipulate her body without resistance.

"I don't know," she sobs as I bite her lips, her throat, marking her. She whimpers but never struggles. "After they took you, I ran to his room. He wasn't there. Dom was gone. Seamus…"

"He stayed here," I realize, cold horror growing in my stomach. "Fuck," I swear, dragging Willow upright and folding my arms around her. "I promised you both safety, and instead I allowed a lion into my den." I kiss her fiercely. "Did you check everywhere else he might go? His other home?" I clear my throat around the pressure building there, the lies tripping off my tongue, knowing full well where Roman is.

Willow caresses my face with trembling fingers. "I'm so sorry, Rafe. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to keep everyone safe."

I smile, gentling my kiss. "As do I. We may break, but are never broken. We get Roman back together." I kiss her knuckles. "If I fail, I'll hand you a loaded gun and you can pull the trigger yourself."

Her jade-green eyes pierce my soul with the look of understanding that passes between us.

"I'd prefer a knife."

My smile twists as I grab her hand and tow her from our room.

We have an assault to plan. I don't know if it will be the FBI, Konnor, or wherever else Seamus might hide himself away, but I know one thing for certain: I'll need those loyal to me at my back.

It's time to weed out the unfaithful.