Chapter Ten

Cia.

“Wake up, Little Flame. We have somewhere to be.”

I groaned and buried my face deeper into the pillow. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I wanted to sleep. After the morning and afternoon I had, sleep was the only thing on my priority list.

Breakfast ended with Nex eating my pussy in place of his breakfast, followed by him fucking me so properly I didn’t think I had any more orgasms left in me. I soaked in the tub for half an hour while he fed me lunch that he ordered, then I crawled in bed, snuggled up next to my husband, and fell asleep in a matter of minutes, seconds possibly.

“We’re not leaving. This bed feels good.”

The heavenly sound of his deep laugh danced around me before I felt the roughness of his fingers brushing over my cheek, then my hair being moved out the way. The warmth of his lips followed, then his voice was there again, but this time right at my ear. “As soon as we’re done, you can get back in bed. This is important. Get up, Cia.”

“I don’t want to,”

I whined, peeling one eye open. Nex stood over me, looking dark and dangerous in black on black. His expression was sharp and I could see the tightness of his jaw beneath his beard.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. There’s something I need to handle and you have to go with me. It won’t take long.”

He bent over the bed and kissed my temple. “Get dressed.”

I sat up, tugging the covers around my naked body. Clothes were pointless around Nex so this time I elected to sleep without them.

“I thought we had a deal. No ‘bring your wife to work’ moments.”

He smiled sexily. “We do have a deal and this isn’t work. Only something that has to be taken care of.”

“Why now…”

He was being too elusive, which didn’t sit right with me.

“Because it can’t wait. You’ll have to trust me.”

“Trust you. When you’re being all mysterious and dressed like that…”

No can do, buddy.

“The most important layer of this marriage is trust, Cia.”

He reached for my hand and reluctantly I accepted, allowing him to help me off the bed. Once I was standing before him, Nex’s large hands moved down my back to my ass and over my hips, which he gripped firmly. His mouth brushed over mine and he murmured lowly, “I need you to trust me, Little Flame. Do you remember what you said to me, one of the main reasons you chose me over Harte?”

Oh fuck, me and my big mouth.

I remembered. “I’m safe with you.”

He smiled sexily. “You are.”

His mouth was on mine and the kiss had my body weak before he pulled away, dropping his forehead to mine. He did this a lot. “Get dressed.”

I granted his request, dressing in jeans and a light sweater. I’d packed for Christmas in Aspen with my family but ended up in Vegas so I had to make do with what I had. Downstairs, outside the hotel, a car waited, but this time Nex settled into the driver’s seat with me in the passenger. He navigated through the city to a section of town that didn’t look very appealing. We were in Old Vegas. I had been here years ago with a couple of college friends, but even then I hadn’t seen what I was currently witnessing.

Nex pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned building. It could have been a restaurant in another lifetime. We drove to the back where a black sedan was waiting. The windows were deeply tinted and I couldn’t see inside. All of which had my heart rate increasing to a dangerous degree. My husband was a killer and this moment felt like killer-ish behavior.

“Why are we here and who is that?”

“You’ll see in a minute. Let’s go.”

“Absolutely not. I refuse to get out of this car until you tell me why we’re here.”

Nex grinned but there was nothing pleasant about it. “Get out the fucking car, Cia, now.”

My eyes widened but I didn’t move. However, Nex did. He lifted from the driver's seat and rounded the front of the car. I quickly hit the locks but so did he, using the fob to gain access seconds before he yanked the door open and pulled me from the vehicle. That was when I noticed the door to the sedan open and Warren appeared from the passenger seat. He was dressed impeccably in a tailored suit but even at our current distance I could see the anger and hard lines shaping his expression.

“You lied to me. You said I could trust you.”

I struggled against Nex who tightened his grip on me. “You’re working with him. This entire time you planned on handing me over to Warren. My brother is…”

Nex jerked me in front of him, bringing his face to mine so our noses touched.

“Merrick isn’t going to do a gotdamn thing, Little Flame. I’m not working with Warren and I’m not handing you over to anyone. I’m here to give him the chance to accept that you’re my wife and not his. If he doesn’t, then I’m going to kill him.”

My mouth dropped open and Nex turned my back to his chest, tightening an arm around my waist and addressing Warren who approached us. His eyes narrowed on where Nex’s arm held me in place and at the same time he growled his demand. “Give her to me.”

“No.”

Warren’s head tilted to the side. “No?”

“You heard me. I said no.”

“We had a deal. I’m not paying you more money than we already agreed to.”

Deal.

More money.

My body went rigid and Nex brushed his fingers over my hip before he quietly whispered, “Relax.”

Relax.

Is he fucking kidding me?

“I don’t want your money, Harte. I never did but I needed you to believe I was following through so you would show up.”

I watched unmistakable rage settle onto his face. “Then what do you want?”

“Her. And before you tell me that’s not a possibility, please understand, I already had her in every way possible.”

The smugness in his tone caused me to grind my teeth in annoyance.

“Is that what you think? That you’re keeping what belongs to me.”

Listening to these two men haggle over me like I was property pushed all my buttons.

“Okay, I’m done with this shit. Fuck you both. I don’t belong to Nex but I most certainly do not belong to you either, asshole.”

Warren lifted his eyes from my face and addressed Nex without so much as acknowledging my statement. “I don’t have time for games. Name your price.”

“There is no price. Cia is my wife, that’s not changing. If you can’t accept what that means, we have a bigger problem than you not wanting to let go of the idea that you’ll never in your fucking life put your hands on her.”

“You seem confused about your place, Nex. You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do. And you damn sure don’t get to tell me who I can—”

Before the sentence was completed, Nex shifted. He reached around us, released his hold on me, then I was shoved behind him. He revealed a gun I wasn’t aware was in his possession seconds before my ears were ringing from a gunshot. I dropped to my knees and covered my ears just as another gunshot sounded.

This cannot be happening.

I’d avoided this all my life and one terrible decision, a moment of weakness for a man I had no business with, landed me right in the middle of a shootout.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

But I’m okay. No one shot me because I’m able to have these thoughts and nothing hurts.

Wait…

My mind shifted to the reason I was here and a flood of panic pushed through my veins.

Nex. Was he the one who got shot? There were two shots. Nex fired one, surely Warren fired the other.

Why do I care?

Because you fucking do, Cia. He’s your husband and you like having him as your husband. You don’t want him shot, hurt, or worse…

“Ciana…”

The voice was familiar but not the one I was hoping for or needing.

I peeled my eyes open to find my brother Merrick standing over me, hand outstretched.

Oh no, please no…

What was he doing here? Was he the second shot? Did he shoot Nex…

I knocked his hand away and stood on my own. My eyes darted around frantically until they landed on Nex. He was standing over Warren who was on the ground with a puddle of blood pooling around his body.

Logic flew out the window and I launched myself at Nex. Thankfully he turned just in time to see me coming and caught me. My legs locked around his waist and I clung to him for dear life.

“If I wasn’t still overwhelmed from thinking something terrible happened to you, I would kill you my damn self,”

I rushed out against his neck.

“All things considered, I’d let you,”

he rasped, holding onto me tighter. After a minute or so of just appreciating the moment, he lowered me to the ground and cupped one side of my face so our eyes met.

“You okay?”

“No.”

His eyes lowered to my body and I shook my head. “You just killed a man and I thought he killed you. So physically, yes I’m fine, but emotionally, not so much.”

“He didn’t shoot me. The second shot was Merrick killing Harte’s bodyguard.”

He motioned behind him to the car Warren arrived in. There was another body on the ground.

Merrick stepped into view with a deep scowl on his face. He didn’t understand what was going on between Nex and me, but hell, how could he when I barely did. In less than twenty-four hours I’d married a man that I didn’t know and chose him over my own family.

“What are you doing here?”

I managed to get out as soon as my mind cleared.

Merrick glanced at Nex which made me tense. I frowned incredibly deep when Nex demanded my brother tell me the truth.

Truth about what. What was I missing?

“I’m here because you were never going to marry Harte.”

My eyes darted between Nex and my brother. “And you damn sure weren’t supposed to marry him…”

Merrick was furious.

“Don’t you dare be upset with Nex.”

I shoved my brother in the chest. “This is your fault. If you hadn’t auctioned me off…”

“It wasn’t real, Ci. I only needed Harte to believe it was. Things got fucked up when Arlo found out about the wedding.”

“I don’t understand. So this whole thing was a game?”

Merrick closed his eyes briefly and exhaled a sigh. “No, it wasn’t a game. Dad really got in over his head. He was in debt to Harte, who wanted you as payment. I would never let that happen.”

“But you said…”

“I know what I fucking said. I had to make it sound real. They were at the house when you got there. The plan was to get them out of there, explain things to you, and send you somewhere safe until I had this figured out. But you fucking ran, Ci. I didn’t get the chance.”

“Why wouldn’t I? You sold me off to Warren Harte.”

“He didn’t,”

Nex cut in, stepping to my side.

“If that’s not the case, why did you come looking for me?”

“Arlo found out. He sent Nex, hoping to stop a wedding that was never going to happen in the first place. Arlo didn’t know that. He hired Nex to grab you. I had already placed a call to Nex to find you. When he did, he offered an alternative. If I was willing to pay, he promised to keep you safely tucked away from Arlo and Warren to give me time to figure this out.”

Merrick’s angry glare moved to Nex. “But he fucking married you, which wasn’t part of the deal.”

My eyes shot up to Nex in time to catch his cocky grin. “I told you that was your sister's idea, not mine.”

I punched him in the shoulder. “You could have told me what my brother’s plan was and I wouldn’t have asked you to marry me.”

Nex smiled wider. “Do you want a divorce, Little Flame?”

“Yes.”

He slowly arched a brow and I huffed. “No.”

“What the fuck do you mean no,”

Merrick growled.

“I mean no. I married him and we’re staying married. If you don’t like it, blame yourself because this is all your fault. You should have just told me.”

I inched closer to Nex. I wasn’t happy with either of them but if I had to choose sides at the moment, it was Nex, and not my brother.

“He should have told you,”

Merrick argued.

I shrugged. “That’s beside the point. What’s done is done. He’s my husband. I’m his wife, deal with it.”

I glared at my brother, then lifted my chin to look at Nex.

“Do you have to like do stuff to handle them or can we go?”

I had no idea how this worked. Even though things like this happened in the backdrop of my life all the time, I had never once been a part of it. There were two dead bodies, which couldn’t be left here out in the open, or maybe they could. Who knows? I certainly didn’t.

Nex barked a laugh. “No, I don’t have to do stuff. Merrick will take care of this.”

“No the fuck I will not.”

With a stare so icy, Nex took a step forward, but unlike the last interaction I experienced between the two of them, my brother didn’t back down. After a dangerous war of wills, Nex smirked. “Glad to see my partner has grown a set of balls.”

“Partner? You work for me.”

Merrick’s voice was laced with agitation while Nex’s was overflowing with amusement when he responded.

“In case you’ve forgotten, brother. Cia and I are married and we just got rid of Harte. That means we both have a claim to Malone interest as well as his. We’re partners. The quicker you accept that, the better things will be for all parties involved. I also think your sister would rather be anywhere other than here. So again, you can handle this and I’ll get her back to our hotel.”

Merrick took a step in Nex’s direction but I eased between the two of them. “He’s right. I’m ready to go. You two can have your pissing contest another time. Take care of them. You owe me this much since all of this is your fault.”

My brother wanted to argue but didn’t. Instead he hugged me tightly. “I love you, Ci. I promise you never would have married that muthafucker and if I can find a way to get you out of this…”

His eyes lifted to Nex and I sighed.

“I don’t want an out but we can discuss that another day. I love you too but I don’t like you very much right now.”

I shrugged out of my brother’s embrace and left the two of them to do whatever they needed. As soon as I settled into the passenger seat and dropped my hands into my lap, my eyes lowered, watching as they trembled uncontrollably. While everything was unfolding, adrenaline had kept me level but now I was functioning off the reality of watching a man die and thinking my husband got shot.

I was a chaotic mess of anxious nerves. I closed my eyes and felt my pulse racing again and oh fuck…

I think I’m having a panic attack…

Or dying…