Prologue

Prologue

This was probably what would be called a soap opera moment. I mean, I was standing in a ladies restroom … wearing a bridal gown … being smirked at by a woman who coveted my husband … while my ex-boyfriend and the local sheriff argued a few feet away.

Not that weirder things hadn’t happened in my life. Particularly in the past year. After all, it wasn’t every day that you legally bound yourself to an ex-lover as part of a fallback marriage pact.

I looked at Mimi. “We’ll talk again soon.” I waved my hand at the door.

Still smirking, the brunette folded her arms and gave a little head flick that made her chin-length layers dance around her face. “I’d prefer to stay. This looks like it might be fun.”

God, I needed to cut that bitch up at some point.

For now, I switched my attention back to the two men who were deep in an argument. A deputy sheriff looked on, seeming intent on not getting involved—well, most cops swerved getting on my husband’s bad side, and this little scene would sure piss him off.

“I’m only here to ask her some questions, Grayden,” the sheriff insisted, his large fists perched on his stout hips. “She doesn’t need a lawyer present. And if she did, you wouldn’t be able to act as one for her—it would be a conflict of interests, given your past history.”

“I’m not leaving, Lowe,” Grayden asserted, a stubborn upward tilt to his chin as he drew himself up to his full height, placing him a few inches over the sheriff.

Exasperation rippled across Lowe’s jowly face. “Has it occurred to you that she might not want you here? I have to say, taking into account the way everything played out between you two, I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t.”

An emotion flickered in Grayden’s hazel eyes too fast for me to process it. “If you’re trying to manipulate Addison into demanding I leave, it won’t work. She knows better than to talk without legal representation present.”

“As I said before, she doesn’t need it—I just mean to ask her a few questions.”

“Go ahead,” Grayden invited, his tone as smooth as the short brown hair he’d slicked back. “But I’ll be right here while you do.”

Lowe’s gaze narrowed. “How do you think my niece will feel when she hears you rallied to the defense of a woman she hates? Do Felicity’s feelings matter to you at all?”

“You won’t guilt-trip me into walking out of here.”

“You turned your back on Addison once before. What’s the difference?”

Oh, low blow. Accurate, though. Once, it would have stung to be reminded that Grayden had broken every promise he’d made to me when he’d scuttled back to his ex-wife. But now? Now I could think of him and feel nothing—no regret, no sadness, no anger.

Lowe sniffed. “Who is it you’re really protecting, I wonder? Her, or Dax Mercier? Are you worried she’ll spill something about your old buddy that will put him in prison where he belongs?”

Grayden’s eyes flicked to the manilla file the sheriff held. “You don’t know that Dax has anything to do with that.”

“It has his name written all over it.” Lowe turned back and pulled something out of the file. A photograph, I realized, as he held it up.

Damn. The dude in that picture had taken one fuck of a beating.

“Tell me, Mrs. Mercier, how would you feel if someone had done that to one of your loved ones?” asked Lowe. “How do you think his family feels? Do you really believe your husband should be allowed to get away with that?”

What I believed was that the guy had brought this on himself.

“Did the victim finger Dax as the culprit?” Grayden interrupted.

Lowe’s face tightened. “No.” He dropped his arm to his side. “He claims he remembers nothing. But it’s fear keeping him silent.” Lowe tilted his head at me. “Is that what’s keeping you silent? Or do you just not care?”

I kept my expression neutral as I stared back at him, honestly wondering if he truly thought I was going to tattle.

“Obstructing justice is a serious crime, you know,” Lowe warned me.

“So is wasting police time,” Grayden chipped in. “That is essentially what you’re—” He cut himself off as the door swung open with a squeak of hinges.

A tall, suited-up, familiar figure loped inside. A person who wore many hats, who was so many things—Entrepreneur. Businessman. Criminal. Protector. Avenger.

Dax Mercier. Also known as my husband.

And a man who had only ever loved—andmaybe only would ever love—one woman. A woman that was not me. So it sucked large that, when it came to him, I’d fallen so deep into the L pit I’d never find my way out.

His mismatched gaze locked on me, glittering with anger, and gave me a quick head-to-toe inspection. Satisfied I was fine, he drank in the rest of the room. His eyes briefly narrowed on Mimi—whose smirk slipped away—and then lasered in on Lowe with a predatory focus.

Dax coolly hitched up a brow at him. “Want to tell me why you’re harassing my wife?” he asked, a deadly note to that otherwise velvety tone.

The sheriff straightened his broad shoulders. “Questioning her over a crime doesn’t count as harassment.” Again, he held up the photograph.

Dax’s expression didn’t alter in the slightest as he studied it. He then looked at the sheriff blankly.

Lowe’s mouth went tight. “If you didn’t personally do this, you had one of your people do it,” he upheld. “Either way, you’re responsible.”

Grayden cleared his throat. “You said yourself that the victim named no one. You have no proof that Mr. Merc—”

“I don’t need proof,” the sheriff snapped. “This reeks of Dax. He wanted revenge, and he took it. That’s his pattern.”

His expression still inscrutable, Dax looked from him to the deputy. “You can leave now.”

I almost snorted at how readily the deputy headed for the door.

Lowe, on the other hand, jutted out his chin. “You can’t throw me out. I’m not done questioning—”

“If this was about merely investigating a police matter, you wouldn’t have sought Addison out here at an event she’s managing,” said Dax, an edge of agitation to his words. “This is you using your authority to yank her chain and cause issues for her company. Simple. And I won’t tolerate it.”

Lowe’s nostrils flared. “You’re not above the law, Mercier, you are—”

“Rapidly losingmy patience with you,” Dax finished, his face hardening. “You really don’t want me to push me further. Not unless you want certain things about you to come to light. Your wife might be interested in hearing that your Saturday poker nights aren’t really poker nights at all, though some ‘poking’ is involved.”

Watching Lowe’s face flush, I inwardly smiled. He should have expected that Dax, who made a point of sniffing out the secrets of his adversaries, would have something on him.

“You’re still here. I’m struggling to understand why.” Dax pursed his lips. “Maybe you’d prefer it if I made a call to your wife here and now.”

His face morphing into an almighty glower, Lowe jabbed a finger in his direction. “This isn’t over.”

“Then your marriage soon will be,” said Dax matter-of-factly.

Cursing a blue streak, Lowe stormed out.

Grayden cast me a tormented look and then turned to Mimi. “Come on, let’s go.”

Ignoring him, she nervously licked her lips and zeroed in on Dax. “I know about the pact.”

“Do you.” Dax didn’t phrase it as a question. It was more of a bored statement. He made his way to me, his eyes roaming over my face. “Are you all right?”

Removing my headset, I sighed. “Yeah. Just annoyed.”

“I have no idea why you acted all secretive instead of just telling me about the pact,” Mimi said to him. “We’re friends. Practically family.”

I snorted. If circumstances were different, Dax might have one day been her brother-in-law, but she did not think of him as family. We all knew it.

“Mimi,” Grayden clipped, “it’s time to go.”

Again, she completelyignored him. “You’ve done some crazy stuff, Dax,” she said with a smirk, shaking her head in incredulity, “but marrying a woman you basically put on reserve? That’s wacked.”

His eyes darkening to flint, he cast her a glare. “What’s wacked is that you would dare come here. You know you’re supposed to stay away from Addison. Yet, here you are.”

She rolled her eyes. “So she got her boo-boos hurt by what I said last time we talked. It ain’t a huge deal.”

Uh, like what she’d said was nothing? Unreal.

His gaze iced over. “Don’t try to trivialize what you did.” The words were quiet. Deep. Dripping with anger. “The things you said might have fucked up my marriage.”

“This isn’t a marriage,” she snarked. “You made a pact, you stuck to it. That’s it.” She looked away with a sniff. “I should have guessed it was something like that, really. An emotionless union would of course suit you just fine.”

“Mimi,” Grayden cut in, a plea in his eyes. “Don’t do this. Let’s you and me just walk on out of here.”

“Why?” she demanded, whirling on him. “Why should I have to stay quiet? Why would you want to leave when we both know you hate this situation as much as I do? You’d take her back in a fucking heartbeat if—”

“Enough,” Dax bit out, pinning her with a somewhat callous look. “Out. Both of you.”

Mimi turned back to him, clenching her fists. “But I—” She stopped speaking when he slashed an arm through the air.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Dax asserted. “I’m not interested in hearing what you have to say about anything. I have officially hit my limit where you’re concerned, and I want you gone from my life.”

Mimi blanched. “You don’t mean that,” she breathed.

“I gave you chances. Too many. It was my mistake, and you’ve been making Addison pay for that. No more. I’m done with you.”

She slowly shuffled back, her expression wounded. “How can you say that to me?”

“Very easily. You made it easy when you started fucking with my wife.”

“Like that ring she wears means anything,” Mimi scoffed, the words coated in pure scorn. “She’s nothing to you but a backup plan.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

“Bullshit,” she sneered.

“No bullshit,” he said, his voice grave. “Pure truth.”

Mimi gave him a Come on look.“If she left you tomorrow, it wouldn’t even be a ping on your radar.”

“Addison isn’t going anywhere. Ever. I wouldn’t allow it.”

“Oh, please. It never bothers you in the slightest when women walk away. You might have married this one, but you didn’t do it because you care for her.”

Yeah, ow. Not that she was wrong, unfortunately.

“The only woman you have, and will ever, truly give a crap about is Gracie,” Mimi added, bitterness lacing each syllable. “No one will come close to mattering to you the way she did.”

“Once upon a time,” began Dax, “I would have agreed with you. But not now.”

I tensed. Whoa, back up.

For a few beats, Mimi only stared at him. “You … What’d you just say?”

That was my question.

Dax didn’t repeat himself. He held her gaze, his own sober and unblinking. The resoluteness in the depths of those eyes had my pulse quickening.

A weak, nervous chuckle fluttered out of her. “Right,” she drawled, all skepticism.

Again, he said not one word, letting his unwavering expression speak for him.

The faint amusement began to drain from her face. She forced a mocking smile, but it withered fast. “I won’t buy that she means anything to you.”

“You should,” he told her. “Fact is she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I all but gawked at him, my heart slamming so hard against my ribs I was surprised the bones weren’t creaking in protest.

Dismay settling into the lines of her face, Mimi took another step back. “No,” she rasped, emphatic. “I don’t believe it.”

He gave an uncaring shrug. “That won’t make it untrue.”

She gave her head a hard, fast shake. “You’re lying.” She slammed her manic gaze on me. “He’s just saying all this to hurt me, right?”

Uh … quite possibly, come to think of it. After all, she’d probably disappear for good if he could convince her of his claims. Dax didn’t exactly have an issue with being deceitful if it meant getting what he wanted.

“That’s all it is, isn’t it?” she pushed.

Digging my teeth into my lower lip, I cut my gaze to him. He wasn’t looking at me. Or her. His attention was on the object he was smoothly pulling out of his pocket.

He lifted it up for her to see. “Maybe this will answer your question.”