Page 43 of Cruel Devil

I hurriedly shove away the thought. Patrick’s been nothing but, well, polite, since he met us upstairs. And it’s not like he’s ever been one for smiles and jokes. It’s always business with him. The only time I saw him smile was when Liam knocked out a heavyweight in the second round of a state championship a couple of years back.

There’s a click as the lock disengages. Patrick swings it open and steps aside to let me through. It’s pitch black until the fluorescent strips on the bare concrete ceiling flicker to life.

The lights illuminate a long tunnel. Like a long, long tunnel.

“Get a move on. We don’t have all day.”

I stay where I am, frozen. “Donny’s not in the club, is he?”

“Why the hell would he be here?”

I lick my lips. “You know what…on second thought…” I shake my head, taking a slow step back, a faint grimace on my face.

A gun appears in Patrick’s hand like he’s a fucking magician.

“Let’s stop pretending you have a fucking choice, lass.”

Chapter 14

Savage

“Patrick,” I repeat woodenly.

Vito throws me a concerned look.

Andy doesn’t bother nodding again. She doesn’t bother telling me, again, that this was Nyx’s decision, and that my stubborn-as-a-goddamn-mule wife doubled down when Andy tried to argue with her.

“This wasn’t the plan,” I say, more to myself than Vito or Andy.

“He wasn’t like violent or anything.” Andy shrugs. “She seemed to trust him.”

“That’s why he didn’t have to be violent.” I’m shaking my head, glaring at the entrance of The Foundry from our SUV, where we retreated to after fetching Andy. Vito managed to talk me down from pulling my piece and gaining forcible entry into O’Brien’s club.

Barely.

If Andy hadn’t blurted out that Nyx went willingly, that she had said she was fine…

But that doesn’t change the fact that my wife ran.

Not fast, not far…but she did the one thing she promised she wouldn’t do.

Again.

How many times will she play me for a fool before I realize the only person Nyx listens to is Nyx.

I watched her at Liam’s tiny apartment while he was dumping a lifetime’s worth of secrets onto her. It’s obvious she blames herself for what’s happened to her sisters, as if she tied pretty little ribbons in their hair and hand delivered them to O’Brien.

Fuck, I get it.

Sometimes you’re the only person there is to blame, even if a hundred other people tell you otherwise.

But why the fuck does she keep thinking this is a personal vendetta? Sure, our marriage was for the Gray’s protection. It had nothing to do with vows and shit like that…but does she honestly not think I care about her family?

Nyx is a Domingo now.

And family is the only thing that matters.

My father taught me that when I was a kid. That’s why it took him so long to reign me in after my mother was murdered. The fuckers who killed her gouged a huge chunk out of our family.

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