Page 75 of Sacred Vow

“I know.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Let’s get you home.”

“Wait.” I stop him when he moves to stand. “You aren’t going to kill his son, are you? He wasn’t involved. Not then, and I didn’t see him today.”

“Don’t worry about him.”

“If he’s innocent—”

“No man in my world is innocent.” He gets to his feet and carries me through the wrecked cars and piles of scrap metal.

Once I’m in the car, one of his men brings over an industrial bolt cutter.

“Hold still.” He works the cutter between my ankle and the cuff. In one clip, one ankle is free. He does the same to my other ankle and then my wrists, throwing the chains to the ground.

He climbs into the car with me, dragging me into his lap as we pull away from the scrap heap.

“Can I tell you now? What Craig told me while we were locked in the trunk?” I keep my head tucked beneath his chin.

He wraps his arms around me tighter. “Then you will close your eyes and relax. It will take us some time to get home from here.” His chest rumbles with his words.

I nod, knocking his chin. “He said to tell you that everything is in your post office box.” I shrug. “That’s it. That’s all.”

For a moment, he stiffens.

“What does it mean? Haven’t you already been there? If you and he shared it, didn’t you check it after he… after what happened?”

“It’s not an actual post office box.” He kisses the top of my head. “Close your eyes now.”

“What do you think is there?”

“Isolde.” He’s trying to use his I’m the boss voice, but it catches ever so slightly at the end.

“All right,” I sigh and snuggle into him. But I don’t close my eyes.

I can’t.

Every time I do, the memories my brain has spent years protecting me from flash. Sounds that will haunt me forever ring in my ears.

And I see the murder of my brother.

She sleeps. Finally.

Izzy has been up for two days, fighting me at every turn to rest. I know what she remembered, and I wish I could erase it from her mind again.

“She’ll be out for the night,” my physician assures me. He’s responsible for her finally drifting off. She’ll wake up furious that I drugged her, but at least she will be rested.

“Will she sleep deep enough to avoid nightmares?” I question.

He nods. “She should. But I would check on her regularly just in case. It’s possible that she’ll have one and not wake up from it.”

After he leaves, I stand at the door of our bedroom. Ours, not mine. Ours. I came too close to losing her. It should have occurred to me that he’d take her to the scrap yard, to the same place his men had killed Craig.

The bruise on her cheek is already fading, but I still see it. I know it’s there, and I own the blame for that asshole being able to get to her.

“Andrei.” Igor interrupts my thoughts. “It’s here. In your office.”

I nod, sending him away. Not wanting to leave her alone for a moment, I sent him and two others to find the box Craig and I hid away years ago. It had been a childish game, burying a box in the back of his mother’s yard to hide treasures we’d stolen. But we were children then.

I’m over thirty now and the only treasure that interests me is the one lying in my bed.

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