Page 152 of The Sinner's Bargain

“Wife?” he muttered at last.

“We were married this morning,” I said.

The crimson stain spread up his neck, matching the veins across his white knuckled fists.

Naya glanced from me to my cousin, her expression apprehensive, but she offered him a small smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Ronin wasn’t listening. He had narrowed his eyes on her like she was personally responsible for his fucked-up life.

My arms tightened around her. My body braced to get between them if he even thought about getting to her.

“You got married?” Ronin said at last. His gaze shot between me and Naya. “How? I didn’t hear anything. Who even is she?” He looked Naya over with a visible curl to his lips. “An escort?”

Cyrus got to him before I could. He grabbed Ronin by the jacket front and yanked him out into the halls. He shoved him towards the front of the house. Ronin staggered, nearly hit the floor, but he scrambled up and whirled, finger jabbing.

“You put the family name in the hands of some whore?” he roared. His voice echoed through the hall. “You’re going to die,” he snarled at Naya who flinched into my side and stared at him with wide eyes and I finally understood what seeing red meant. “Just like the others. You’re going to die here so I hope he paid you enough—”

I hit him.

I had no recollection of moving, but I had the fucker by the throat. My free hand sang with the delicious sound of bones shattering. His nose. His jaw. His blood burned hot on my skin and soaked into my clothes. I made him swallow his teeth and choke on his blood as I took him to the edge of death but gave him no mercy.

“If you ever talk to my wife like that again, I will cover your dick in honey and tie you to a tree in the forest,” I snarled into his mangled face. “This is the last favor I will do for you as family. I will let you leave this place, but if you ever come back, no one will ever find your body.”

I released him.

He slumped across the floor in a bloody heap, barely conscious.

Cyrus took my place when I moved back. He grabbed the back of Ronin’s collar and dragged him down the hall.

Breathing hard, I turned to Vance ... and Naya. The latter stared at me with an expression I couldn’t decipher, and I felt something in my gut dip. I became too aware of the blood soaking my wedding clothes. The gashes on my burning knuckles open for a second time in mere days. The body that was literally dragged away in front of her.

Fuck.

“Blue...” I started, not sure what to say to calm the horror and terror she must have been feeling.

Wordlessly, she stepped forward. Her heels a methodical click on the marble matching my heartbeat. Her pale eyes never left mine as she reached out and took my blood-stained hand. The look in her eyes ... I didn’t understand it but, God, it made my cock hard.

“Let’s go upstairs,” she said softly.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

NAYA

I was hot.

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