Chapter 20

TWENTY

ASA

Leo walks in the house as Wyatt and I wait for Arianna to come in for dinner. Wyatt’s shoulders jut up to his ears, like he notices something off. When I look at Leo’s face, I do the same.

“What happened?”

With four words, my world fucking crumbles. “Mr. Donovan, she’s gone.”

Pain surges through my chest as my hand reaches for my gun, but as soon as I draw it, I realize I have no target. Wyatt’s done the same, already heading upstairs, likely for the shotguns or automatics. He stops when we see headlights approaching the garage.

Sprinting out the front door, I spot Cass’s truck pulling in, and even before it stops, I’m throwing open the passenger door, and snatching my wife out of the front, in my arms. She curls into my body and probably says something, but the blood pounding in my ears makes me unable to hear it. Narrowing my eyes at my former best friend, I spit out, “What the actual fuck are you doing here?”

“He came and got me, king! He saved me,” Arianna says as Cass’s mouth opens wide to protest.

I think I could kill him, but I need to get my pregnant wife to safety. That’s my only thought. Spinning, I carry her inside where Wyatt takes her from me. Then I march back to Cass, who is almost to the front door. Like he’s still welcome.

“What does she mean, Cass? You tell me what the fuck happened.” My chest bumps his as he looks down. His eyes won’t meet mine.

“She said one of Strauss’s people caught her in an alley. She lost Leo, he’d already left.”

“So why didn’t she call me or Wyatt?”

His throat constricts as he swallows, and when his dark eyes finally lift to mine, they have tears on the rims. “Ace, man…if I tell you something, will you listen to me?”

A pit forms in my belly like a rotten fruit of betrayal. “Did you sleep with my wife, Cass? Did you? All the other bitches…all the fucking sluts we fucked… I actually love my wife. And you fucked her, didn’t you? Did you fuck her, Cass?” The vision in front of me grows blurry as rage takes over. My breaths pant out in staccato stutters.

Tilting his head to the side, he shakes it. “No, man. I’d never. Listen to me…” He glances behind me for a moment, and I think about taking the opportunity to swing. “Wyatt’s not your friend, and I think your wife is afraid of him.”

Oh! So he’s still upset about my boyfriend. “Get the fuck off my property.” Cass doesn’t know him. Not like I do. He’s just running on blind hatred of something he doesn’t understand.

When I turn away from him and reach the front door, Cass yells, “Then tell your wife to stop calling me!”

Clenching my jaw, I march inside and straight to Wyatt, who’s strapped with an automatic across his back and two handguns on his belt. His arm is tossed around Arianna and they both look up at my entrance with fear in their eyes.

Wyatt jumps up and grabs my arms, then presses his forehead to mine. His voice lowers to a murmur as he tells me, “She said she was held in an open room by one of Strauss’s women. She doesn’t know who, but says she had a bull brand on her shoulder. Says the woman just wanted to threaten her pregnancy and warn her that Strauss is watching us and may be aware of the gun trade. I knew he’d try something. I’m going to the place where she was, and I’ll see if I can find clues. Take care of our wife.” His lips latch onto mine, but it’s more of a goodbye embrace than anything of affection. When he breaks away, his thumb strokes my cheek, and I lean past him to see Arianna staring at his back with narrowed eyes.

Her expression makes me wonder…was Cass telling the truth? Is she afraid of our boyfriend?

“Yeah, good idea.”

When he leaves, I jet to my wife’s side and scan her over, lifting her arms, placing my hands on her belly. “Did she hurt you? What happened?”

Standing, she goes to the window and watches as Wyatt motors away on his bike. The sound of the roaring engine dulls as she speaks to the glass.

“I was taken by a tall woman, very tall, who had blonde hair and a red dress. She had a bull brand on her left shoulder. She held a gun to my back and made me walk into an empty building three down from the store I went into and showed me a video on her phone. She said she was there to warn me and that I’m in extreme danger. Also, that I’m alone.”

Moving to her side, I touch her arm. I won’t be able to not touch her. The fear of almost losing her makes me insane. One thought won’t stay in my mind as they all jumble together. Rage, terror, and relief war inside me all at once. “And then what happened? What was on the phone?”

Her brown eyes flash to mine, and she purses her lips, hesitant to say. Snagging her around the waist, I pull her close to me.

“Please, empress. Tell me.” Was it me at a strip club? Or some other dumb shit I did in the past? Is it Max?

“Wyatt. He was in a dark cave-like place and there was a man in a tuxedo there. The man called him Barrington. He-he acted like he knew the guy there, um, John was his name. And then asked something about rifles.”

My shoulders relax as a small chuckle escapes my lips. “Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we know he runs guns for your brother. Was she, like, threatening to harm him because of it? Or your brother?”

Arianna’s hands reach to caress my cheeks, and she forces me to bend closer to her. I’ve never heard her voice so sound and serious. “Listen, Asa. She told me not to tell anyone, except you, because you’re part of me. We’re one. So you’re the only one I’m telling.” She swallows and whispers, “I think Wyatt isn’t who he says he is.”

I take a step back, shaking my head. Maybe the pregnancy hormones have gotten to her. Is she just paranoid?

“I don’t get that at all. Sounds like Strauss is trying to fuck with you, make you think the man you’ve been in love with is someone he says he’s not. Maybe he’s trying to split us up.” Spinning in a circle, her accusation makes the anger surge to the tip of my emotions more than the others. Holding up a finger to her, I say, “I’m more concerned with why you called Cass instead of your husband or boyfriend to pick you up! I can’t even tell you how betrayed I feel by that. Why, Arianna?”

She reaches for my hand, but I suddenly don’t want to touch her for the first time maybe ever. Tears flood her eyes, and she sobs that fake little girl cry she does. Like at the wedding and with her precious cake.

My hands find my hips, and I unleash what she needs to hear. “You can’t just manipulate me anymore. I won’t stand for it. So either be direct and say exactly what you think and feel or…I just can’t believe you. It feels like I’m with a stranger when you do that to me, and I don’t like it.” My hand slaps at my chest. “It hurts, Arianna. Tell me the truth. The whole truth.”

“I-I’m trying! I called him because I’ve been suspicious of Wyatt for a while. I don’t know why.” She huffs in choked breaths and my heart aches seeing her in pain. I’d do almost anything to take it away, but I won’t give in. Not this time. Not if she’s trying to manipulate me. Crossing my arms, I wait and listen. “So I’ve been stockpiling cash away in your family’s old vault. Phones, clothes, food, and water, everything in case we had to get away.”

My face pinches. “We?” Were her and Cass up to this? A sick feeling settles in my stomach.

“You and me. We. My husband and I and our baby. Cass knows a little because he’s been dropping me off there, but not why I’m doing it. I’ve also been trying to make sure you two apologize to each other. He misses you.”

“How would you know what Cass wants, huh? Just how close have you become?” I’m ready to rip something off the walls. “How long have you two been meeting?”

“Just for the last two weeks. Nothing is going on with us. I’m in love with you. I figured he was the only man I could trust other than you right now. He knows you the best, so I reached out to him for his help.” Her face falls and the droplets drip off her face onto the floor. “I can’t even trust my brother anymore.”

“I thought you wanted Wyatt and I together, sweet cheeks. And now that we are, what? Are you jealous?”

Her head snaps up to meet my gaze. “No! I don’t trust him! Not after what I saw.” She darts her gaze outside. “I-I don’t feel comfortable around him anymore.”

“And yet, you felt comfortable enough to have a baby with him.”

As her hand finds her hip, she narrows her eyes at me. The sunset turns into a raging fury behind them. Then she brushes past me and heads to the stairs. I can’t let her leave. Not like that.

Running after her, I gather her in my arms and carry her up the stairs to our room. “You’re not getting away from me.”

She tries to fight me, but she doesn’t have the strength. I carry her into our room and kick open the door with my foot. Laying her on the bed, I crawl over top of her, and she thrashes, but doesn’t give any real effort to get me off her. “Look at me, empress. Look at me.” Her body stills as she pants. “Are you trying to manipulate me right now?”

As if she’s thinking about it, she blinks several times. “Not at all, Asa. I’m telling you the truth and how I feel. I think it’s the first time, other than our first time, that I’ve felt open with anyone. You make me feel that way. You make me feel safe and protected.” Pride swells my chest, and I think I fall deeper in love with her until she says, “Except with your loyalty to him.” And my heart sinks.

Despite how sick it makes me, I believe her. I do think she’s telling the truth. But maybe her interpretation of events is off. Wyatt wouldn’t betray us. He loves her. And I think he even loves me.

“I love you,” I tell her, and I let my body writhe against hers. Our souls echo each other’s. Something about her calls to me and has since that first kiss, possibly even before then. Maybe her parents and mine knew what they were doing by wanting us to be together. Wiping her tears away, I kiss each of her hot cheeks, then her full lips, jetting me to that serenity where only we exist. It’s just Arianna and me.

Without much thought, I’ve pulled down my pants, needing to get closer to her. Let my skin and hers collide. Sliding her dress up, I push aside her panties and let my cock rest on her entrance. It’s wet, warm, and inviting. Her nails dig into my neck as we caress lips, tongues soothing our desire for one another. Lifting onto my knees some, I almost enter her, but refrain for a moment, allowing her a choice.

When she lifts her hips to wrap herself around me, I’m suctioned deep within her. My cock throbs within her tunnel’s tight embrace. But I don’t move. Surrounding her with my arms, I breathe into her mouth my own truth. “I love you, Arianna. I do. I want to know everything about you and every day is the best day of my life because you’re in it.”

Her smile soothes me as she says, “Asa, I want to take care of you. Let me. You’re my family. I love you.” She moves slightly, so I’m thrust in deeper. Pretty soon, I’m there holding her as her hips work my length so slowly I know I want to sleep like this every night. Just tucked inside her body, our hearts beating together, and our lips combined. We’re one.

With another arch of her back, she comes beautifully, unraveling around me with a scream while I watch her exquisite face and embrace her. It’s not even that my own orgasm matches hers so much as I unload my love inside, so she has it all for safe keeping. And the thought enters my mind…

I needed this.

Just us.

Hopefully, Wyatt won’t be too upset. I had to help her calm down so she can make up with him and we can go back to being our pack again.

Like a koala, she attaches herself to me and mutters into my chest, “Thank you. I needed that.”

A sighed chuckle escapes my lips. “Me, too.”

She digs her head out from underneath me to look into my eyes, my dick still softening within her. “Asa?”

“Yeah, sugar lips?”

“Do you really want to be senator? Or consort?”

Tapping my lips to her forehead, a smile spreads across my face that she knows me so well. “No. I don’t.” Rolling over onto my back, I take her and her pussy with me. She lays her head on my chest. “You know what I want?”

Resting her chin on my pecs, she asks, “What?”

“I want a house with my wife and kids. I want to be a dad. I want to feel safe and know that you all are, too. That’s it. I guess that’s pretty stupid. Or lazy or something.” Thinking about our boyfriend checking up on our security right now, I can’t imagine being away from him, either. But I don’t say anything. Not until I’m sure she’s okay.

“No! That’s my dream, too.” After a swallow, she asks, “Asa?”

“Yes, empress?”

“I think we should meet with Cal.”

My brow furrows. If I wasn’t in some post-coital bliss, I think I’d be mad at her suggestion, but I listen. “Why?”

“I think he’ll have some answers we need about Barrington.”

Shaking my head, I close my eyes.

“Am I interrupting something?” Wyatt stands with his hand on the doorknob and his guns at his sides. Some momentary fear strikes me that we’re lying here in a vulnerable position while he’s loaded. But that’s ridiculous. This is Wyatt.

Arianna slides off me and goes into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Standing, I pull up my jeans and zip them. “You gonna shoot me or what?” I ask him.

His neck takes a moment to relax, but he then sets the weapons on the dresser. His voice is flat as he asks, “What happened?”

I toss my arm over his shoulders and lead him into the hall. “Come on. Let’s talk in the office downstairs.”

Flopping into my leather chair at my desk, I prop my feet on the top as Wyatt sits in front of me. His elbows rest on his knees as he cradles his chin, which bobs as his leg bounces rapidly up and down.

When he lifts his green eyes to me, there’s hurt behind them. “You had sex without me.”

“I’m sorry. It just sort of happened. Like that day with us in the pool. It won’t happen again.”

His jaw clenches. “But you stopped it then. With us.”

“Yeah…” Somehow, I don’t really feel an ounce of guilt for having sex with my wife without him around.

If Arianna is telling the truth and didn’t misinterpret things, I could cause her more danger if I mention the video. She obviously didn’t tell him about it.

“I was thinking,” I say, and his eyes narrow even more.

He stills, not moving an inch. “You want me gone? You’re leaving me?”

Confused, my lips purse. “What? No. Not at all.” Wandering to the other side of the divide between us, I grip his hand. “The opposite. But I think Arianna is feeling, I don’t know, maybe protective of the baby. And this is causing her to feel different about you. I think.”

His eyes widen. “Shit. Really? What should I do? Should I⁠—”

My first instinct is to tell them to talk it out, but I pause. “I think I’d give her some space for a bit.” Placing his hand on my thigh, I squeeze it. “Just for a little bit, though. I can’t be without you. But I…I’m going to try to calm her down.”

He sneers as his gaze drops to my crotch. “With your dick?”

The vitriol of his reply is like a dagger in my heart. “I mean, by trying to get her to come around to you because I fucking love you.” Oh, shit. I didn’t mean for that to slip out.

Standing, he presses his chest into mine. Our bodies are so close, I can almost feel the reverberations of his heart beating in his hard chest. “You do?”

I don’t say anything until he grabs my body and pulls me into him. His lips meet my neck, and he whispers, “Because I love you.”

My hands latch onto his ass, and we thrust into each other for a moment as our mouths meet. When his groan rips through his throat, I feel it on my tongue. But Arianna needs me to be on her side. And she wouldn’t like seeing this, so I pull back. “We-we’ll figure this out. I have a job for you.”

With his eyes closed, he pants out, “What’s that, maverick?”

“I want you to take over this political campaign you’ve been pushing on me. I think you would have a better time getting votes than me and you’d be much better at it.”

Holding me at arm’s length, his face lights up. “What? Are you serious? I have ideas that I can use to change this place for the better. Make real changes for the people. Do you want to see my plan?” Sliding his phone from his pocket, he shows me a note with some community organizers and places for rallies and so forth, but at the top are some slogans like, “You’ll have an Ace in the hole if you vote for Donovan!”

My stomach squeezes into a knot when he outlines his entire platform like it’s his own, and I almost lurch when I see the bottom as he tries to scroll past quickly. “Steal back your future with Steele” and “Your future is as strong as Steele” are typed out plain as day. Fumbling, he keeps scrolling, trying to explain the plans he has. But I don’t hear any of it.

My whole life flashes before my eyes like I’ve died and been reborn in an instant. Now I know. Things make complete sense. And it grips me across the chest like a heart attack.

Clapping my hand on his shoulder, I give him a warm smile, the one I know works like a charm. “I love this. Listen, I think it’s best to stay in your apartment for the week. Only until things settle down with her. Maybe it’s hormones. I just want her to be okay. And I know you do, too.”

There’s a glimmer in his eyes as he freezes, and I think about my handgun sitting in the top of the desk drawer.

“Sure, yeah. Okay, maverick.”

As he leans in to give me a kiss, I move to grip him around the waist and simultaneously lead him from the room. “I’ll call you,” I say, running up the stairs, my pulse pounding as if I’m being chased. When my feet hit the landing, I pull out my phone and text Cass.

Hurrying into the bedroom, I swiftly lock the doors. Arianna peeks out from the bathroom, and I shove an armchair underneath the doorknobs. Making sure the shotgun has shells in it, I glance back at her as she dances from foot to foot.

“Empress? You’re completely right. Let’s go see Cal.”