It made me ache. Constricting my heart like a clamp pinching tight.
Torment in the most excruciating way.
But fuck all if I don’t believe that’s exactly what she needed to help her rise back onto her feet.
After she cried herself to sleep, I tucked her into bed, made something to eat, put a plate in the fridge for her, and tossed and turned in one of the spare bedrooms.
And I wanted a drink. I needed one so badly I could have clawed the skin off my bones. I laid there craving the burn in my throat and stomach until I heard Victoria rummaging around in the kitchen, then the beep of the microwave.
She called me a stalker, so I got up and watched her from the shadows, observing that she wasn’t sobbing for my peace of mind.
When Victoria turned, and I caught a glimpse of her blotchy red face and swollen eyes, I wanted to hold her and soothe her pain away some more. Felt she needed room to breathe, so I suffered the consequences of my actions and words even though they were for her own good and left her alone.
But like she said, grief is something that can’t be fixed.
That might be so, but Victoria isn’t broken. If anything, she’s brave.
Bold and beautiful.
An angel with a cracked halo. Yet, there’s more to be let out, and it’s nagging the fuck out of me trying to figure out what it is. What her real fear is when it comes to me.
Parking my SUV, I shove open the door. The side entrance to the building opens before my feet hit the ground. I dart quickly inside, only to be halted in my stride when an arm stretches across my chest, stopping me in my tracks.
Not many men dare put their hands on me without having it shattered, except this man isn’t just any man.
It’s Dray.
Eyes the same color as Victoria’s meeting mine, giving away nothing.
“You here to make sure I do my job, or to get some blood on your hands? Been missing doing the dirty work?” My questions come out as a sly tease to loosen the tension that instantly hits the air.
I know exactly why he’s here. To warn me. Show that protection, that loyalty, and love to Victoria. Makes Dray a good man in my book. Not that I didn’t think of him as one before.
“Believe me. I’d love nothing more than to take my fists to that fucker. Isaac is all yours. Just make sure he’s dead by the time you leave. Cleaners are on their way to take care of the body. I came here for two things. One, to make sure he signed a phony life insurance policy, so his girl and kid are set for life. And two, I figured this was the best place to talk to you alone.”
Bingo. Just as I thought.
“I appreciate you showing up to get this done quickly, Seth. Appreciate your loyalty to the Empire. I knew you were the right person for the job when Dad and Roan brought you up. That’s done and over. If you don’t care about Victoria, then break it off with her now. My sister has been through enough. She’s a one-man woman, Seth. She won’t share, and I don’t want her convinced she should. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Dray drops his hand, takes a step back, and looks at me squarely. He’s a big guy, has a few inches on me, like Aidan and Diesel, eyes sharp, mind always assessing. It makes him a good lawyer, but he doesn’t know me as well as I thought if he thinks I’d stake claim to Victoria and then turn around and hurt or share her.
The idea of either makes my skin crawl.
Quite frankly, it pisses me the fuck off.
Among every man in the Empire, Dray knows me best. Or at least I thought. He tended to be the one I called whenever I felt like flying here after Rocco opened up his club. Dray isn’t a saint when it comes to the debauchery that happens in a sex club, but as we have our stare down, I know I deserve his uncertainty. Earned it, respect it even.
It doesn’t mean I have to like it.
I’m not proud of my past with women. I was reckless and stupid. I didn’t much care who I slept with —married or engaged. It didn’t matter as long as I was drowning in someone else, along with alcohol. Not until Victoria, anyway.
I peg him with a stare that says he has me all wrong.
“Not a fucking fan of having to answer to anyone for my past. It’s time to move on, Dray. Pretty sure I’d be a dead man if I hurt Victoria. You have to trust me because my word is all I got. You said not to hurt her. I’m telling you I won’t. I would never, nor do I want to touch another woman ever again. You either take my word for it, or you don’t. Hell, I’d say the same thing if I had a sister. However, I wouldn’t be as nice about it. I’d threaten a man with a past as sordid as mine with my knife to his throat.” That’s not Dray, though. Don’t get me wrong. He’s as lethal as any of us. I’ve seen just how dangerous he can be when he’s pissed.
“Yeah, well, knives are you and Diesel’s thing. Me, I just snap a man like a twig and be done with it. Or shoot him between the eyes.”
Dray doesn’t beat around the bush with his idle threat. It’s one of the many reasons we get along. Why he’s a damn good lawyer, he’s not one to back down until he gets to the truth.
Just like me.
About knocked him back when he couldn’t get Diesel off the bogus drug charges. I still can’t
