Page 120 of Seizing Control: Part Two

What the fuck was he thinking?

Double checking the identity of the doctors overseeing Everett’s care should’ve been his first move. He let Bebe slide through the cracks because she’s a woman. Letting the vicious redhead into his home without performing the basics of his role was stupid. A reckless move that could’ve ended worse than it did. As the Shamrocks SAA, Slash had a duty to protect the club. His responsibility toward Lily was even greater. The normally reliable man failed on both counts.

I left the love of my life under his guard.

He let his dick lead him astray.

While I was relying on him, my full faith and trust resting on his shoulders, my sometimes-best friend was only looking out for himself. His desires were his driving force. Slash saw my absence as an opportunity. He took advantage of Lily at her weakest, and set in motion a series of events that have led us to here.

Banished from her presence.

Splintered at a time when we should be pulling together.

I’m not ignorant of my role in this estrangement. My choice to leave her while she was enduring the loss of our first baby will haunt me forever. I fucked up big time. The ramifications have been life-changing, and I’ll feel them until the day I die.

Lily will never look at me the same.

I now share her heart with the weak snake who slithered in there while I was gone.

It’s a cross I have to bear for the rest of my life.

Now, I need to ensure that our enmity never spills over my sweet thing again.

Which is why I wish I could drive my knuckles into the arrogant face of the man who can’t seem to compromise amid a drama he helped create. Slash’s whining about the missing back fence proved how thin the truce is between us. He still sports a bandage over his self-inflicted bullet wound, yet he can’t stop himself from playing into every one of her fears about the duration of our treaty. Our argument will get back to her, there were too many witness for it to stay under wraps. The worst part is knowing the dispute he started over the backyard renovations was unnecessary. Slash wasn’t even man enough to live for her, so he’s lucky I even gave him the honour of letting him know about the housing situation first.

I didn’t bother to swear him to secrecy for two reasons.

One: I don’t want to keep things from Lily anymore.

Two: He’ll try to use it as a wedge, and it’ll backfire on him.

If I wasn’t committed to showing Lily the new version of me, a man she can trust, a man she no longer needs to manage like a feral animal, I’d give him a taste of my lethal side—just like I had planned to the night I found him with a bullet wound to his head. He deserves it. Unfortunately, my training has taught me restraint, and whether I like it or not, I’ve discovered that I prefer to think things through before reacting.

Even if the memory of the uppercut that I laid him out with yesterday makes me smile.

I couldn’t let him get away with lashing out at metukà shelì like that.

His fear is his problem, not hers.

Fucking coward.

But I’m not going to dwell on his weak disposition.

My priority is finding a way to work with Slash to regain my woman’s trust. She’s in-all with Garrett. He’s her son, in her heart and the eyes of the law. Now, my team could undo the legal entanglement without any effort if that was what Lily wanted.

It isn’t.

I don’t want it either.

Which means that maintaining a ceasefire with Slash is a necessary evil.

When I spy a black velvet box with a blue bow stuck to it on the table that my sweet thing has already piled high with books and a new embroidery project, my conviction is immediately tested. I straighten the three charms with my finger, then I stalk around the end of the bed.

After I snap open the box, a black diamond ring glints at me.

“That motherfucker.” The harsh expletive is loud in the quiet room. I glance around, then smirk. Once again, bloody Gabriel has me flinching at shadows, even though he’s no longer in charge. “Apologies, boss.”

I snap my heels together and salute, then I flip my middle finger.

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