“Hmm, I’ll remember you said that if you decide things won’t work between you.” Cooper’s voice was cool, almost threatening.
“Whether we stay together or not, I’ll still support her.”
“Good to hear.” To his surprise, Cooper sounded approving. “By the way, I know Lauren doesn’t believe me but if I’d known what Thalia had done back then I would have told Thal to back off and made sure Lauren came home.”
“Thalia? What the-” Cooper had already cut the connection and Chad found himself talking to no one.
Just what the fuck had Thalia done?
Chapter Sixteen
Lauren opened the French doors and stepped onto the gray patio stones, the only ornament in the back garden. While Chad might have worked wonders inside the house, the yard had been left virtually untouched. In the spring, she’d plant daisies and black-eyed susans along the back fence. Maybe some sunflowers, and a rose trellis beside the patio so the fragrance could waft in when the door was open. And a fountain would be nice. One the birds could dart into and drink from or bathe in. There’s always been something soothing about listening to trickling water in the lazy summer days.
If she still lived here next summer.
Chad had changed. So had she. Not for the worse. They were just…different. Subtle changes they’d both have to adjust to, accept. Yet so much about them was the same. He could still read her moods, still knew what she found exciting in the bedroom and knew the exact amount of force to set her on fire. But a marriage couldn’t be built only on what happened in the bedroom.
The doorbell chimed, rousing her from her musings. After diverting to the kitchen to place her cup in the sink, she checked the monitor installed over the front door.
Thalia. Shit. She’d hoped it would be a couple more days before she’d face her again. Maybe she could just not answer the door. Pretend they weren’t here.
After a gesture from her sister-in-law, Thalia’s husband pressed the doorbell again. Damn it, they were going to wake Chad up if she didn’t answer it.
Cursing under her breath, Lauren turned off the alarm and flipped the deadbolt. Steeling herself, she opened the door. “Hello, Thalia.”
Thalia hissed and her eyes narrowed when she recognized who had opened the door. “What the hell are you doing here, Lauren? You’re supposed to be in Europe.”
“Nice to see you too. What do you want?”
“I heard that my brother had been shot. I came to see if he needed any help.”
While Lauren couldn’t fault Chad’s sister for worrying about Chad, she resented the unspoken implication that she was incapable of caring for him. “He’s fine. He may have to do some physio for a couple months, but he’ll recover.”
Ignoring her husband behind her, Thalia rolled her chair to the door. “I want to see him.”
For the first time, Lauren realized the step had been designed as a ramp. As much as she wanted to leave Thalia on the doorstop and close the door between them, Chad would never appreciate her treating his sister that way. She sighed and opened the door all the way. “I really wish you’d come back another time. He’s sleeping right now.”
“Good.” Thalia rounded on her. “I thought we had an agreement that you were to stay away from my brother. Permanently.”
“You lied, Thalia. Repeatedly. That voided any agreement as far as I was concerned.”
“You weren’t right for him. I couldn’t let you get back together so I did what I had to do to protect him.”
“I love Chad, Thal. I always did, and I always will.”
“You signed the divorce agreement quickly enough,” Thalia sneered.
“Only because you told me he wanted to get married again. If I’d come back when I wanted to, we might have had a chance.”
“He needed someone better than you. Someone stronger.”
Lauren ran her hand through her hair. Ten years before, she’d have agreed. Now? Not a chance. “I trusted you, Thalia. I thought we were friends, but we weren’t. Were we ever?”
“You were his wife-you were supposed to be on his side no matter what happened. You weren’t there for him the way you should have been.”
“I was there.”
“No. You weren’t. Not like me.” Thalia rolled her chair forward, until Lauren was forced to step back. “You should have backed him a hundred percent for having the guts to go against orders to protect me. Instead you questioned him, argued with him about it. When that video got out, you should have held up your head and proudly admitted you submitted to him. That he was your Dominant. Yet you didn’t.”
The video. She’d often wondered how the press had managed to get a video camera into their bedroom. “You did that, didn’t you? You placed the camera in our bedroom.”
“It had to be done.”
“Why? Goddamn it, Thalia, why?” she shouted. “Why would you do that to us? Violate our privacy like that?”
“Because you didn’t agree with Chad about his decision to protect me. To protect the club members. He saved my life with that decision, you selfish bitch,” Thalia bit out. “If it had been up to you, I would have died. But all you could think about was your pitiful career.”
“I understood why he felt he needed to protect you, but there were other ways to protect you. More official ways. I knew how much his career with the Bureau meant to him and he sacrificed it for you.” Lauren’s nails dug into her palms. “If he’d come to me, we could have found some other way to help protect the club. It was his not telling me what he’d done that was the issue between us. That’s why I felt betrayed, because he didn’t come to me first.”
“He didn’t tell you because you were too busy blaming him and everyone else for Emily’s death,” Thalia snapped. “It was your fault my niece died. Your fault.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
They both looked to the top of the stairs where Chad stood, his good hand on the bannister, his gaze locked on Lauren. How much had he heard?
Thalia lifted her chin as Chad walked down the stairs to join them, but Lauren didn’t miss the way her throat moved, the way the vein in her neck pulsed. Her sister-in-law was nervous.
“I heard about what happened. About the shooting.” Thalia rolled her chair forward. “I can move in here and care for you. I can bring some of my people over to help out. You don’t need her here.”
“Is Lauren right? Are you the one who put that video camera in our bedroom?”
Thalia looked away.
“You were, weren’t you?” Chad’s scowl deepened, his eyes grew dark as a thundercloud when he stopped in front of her. “Then you sent it to that goddamned gossip site who put it on the internet. Let it go viral.”
“They had to see,” she whispered. “You had to see her for what she was.”
“What she was? She was my wife.” He grabbed the armrest of her wheelchair and leaned until their noses were an inch apart. “You damned near irreparably damaged both of our reputations. You made it impossible for either of us to walk down the street without people making snide comments. If it hadn’t been for Sam deciding to start Hauberk, I probably would have ended up a mall cop or asking a customer if they wanted fries with their order.”
“I did what was necessary.” Thalia’s chin went down a half inch before she jerked it back up. “You need someone strong. Someone willing to get down on their knees and submit to you the way you deserved.”
“That’s your kink, not mine.”
Lauren stifled her sigh when Thalia shook her head and persisted. “She’s not good for you, Chad. Why am I the only one who can see that?”
