Page 43 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

It took all of his strength to toss him over the side. It seemed it wasn’t only gambling the man had been addicted to if his girth was any indication. Marko didn’t bother to hide his disgust as Devito’s body flopped into the water and was dragged down by the weights he had attached to him.

He couldn’t stand anyone who didn’t take care of their appearance.

As far as he was concerned, they were a waste of space and didn’t deserve to share the air he breathed. He had done Devito a favor really, since the man was eating himself into an early grave, and that was if the loan sharks hadn’t got to him first.

At least this way, he had only suffered for an instant.

He tossed the gun he had used into the water, watching as that, too, disappeared without a trace.

Now what was he going to do about his wife?

A sound behind him caught his attention.

He spun around to find his wife standing shakily on the opposite side of the yacht.

Her eyes were wide with fright. Her hair — immaculate at the marina but now a mess of tangles — blew in the wind that had suddenly picked up.

Her feet were bare, the Manolo heels having fallen off when he had carried her onboard. Her dress was twisted around her hips, riding high, revealing much more leg than was decent.

“You killed him,” she said, her tone laced with horror, but it was the underlying accusation that upset him.

“You don’t understand, Dear. This is how my business works.” Marko thought his response calm and controlled, all things considered.

“You work in insurance?” She replied, confusion clouding her eyes.

He didn’t bother to set her straight, focused on calming her instead. There was a wildness to her eyes he didn’t like.

“He wasn’t a good man.”

“That doesn’t mean you can kill him.” She gaped at him, stunned by his reaction.

“You have no idea how many lies that man has told, how many lives he was ruining with his actions. He doesn’t deserve your sympathy.”

“That still doesn’t give you the right to do that! How can you be so calm about this? You just murdered a man!”

His hope that she would understand him were fading by the second. Her face turned a whiter shade of pale.

“Unless… was he not your first?”

Marko didn’t say anything, wondering how he could frame his answer in a way that she would accept it. Maybe he should just lie? He’d be doing it to spare her, of course. She never could take much stress.

A light appeared in her eyes, the light of dawning realization.

“You are a monster. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before, but it’s as clear as day now.”

Her words cut into him with the sharpness of a knife. The yacht rocked unsteadily as another flash of lightening tore through the sky, followed by the crack of thunder directly overhead.

Fear had turned his blood into a freezing river of ice.

He was losing her.

He could see it in the way her lips had curled with horror.

In all the years, throughout each of their disagreements, she had never looked at him as she was doing now.

He had to win her back.

There must be something he could say, something he could do to make her forgive him.

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