“How?” I growled.
“Took the subway. I mean the trains. That’s what they call it here. I like it. I think I’ll do it more.”
Another mercury line shifted. My wife on the subway. I don’t think so.
“What’s the big deal, anyway?”
“You tell me,” I said tightly. “Why did you sneak out?”
She shrugged like we were talking about her preference for restaurants. “I needed time to clear my head.”
There was a fuse ticking in my forehead, and it was about to blast off. “What did she say?”
We both knew who the fucking ‘she’ was.
“She said you fucked her.”
I knew this. Because Nico was very good at getting the information out of a woman without touching an inch of her skin. I would take care of that bitch and her filthy mouth later. But the words coming out of my wife’s mouth still sent a punch to my chest because fuck if I knew how to prove I hadn’t.
“Before I met you.”
“No.” She tried again to get her hand out. “She said after. A few weeks ago.”
“I didn’t.” I’d been so busy looking for her that I hadn’t thought about my defences. My mind ran wild, a million miles an hour, trying to come up with ways to convince her.
My life slowed down to mere seconds. Desperation crawled through my body, grabbed hold of each bone, and hung tight. Realization, cold and harsh, swept through me, that I could never win her trust, no matter how much I tried. This time, I might lose her. Forever.
“I know.”
My head shot up. Of a million scenarios I’d imagined, this was not one of them.
“What?”
My hand on her wrist loosened a tad, and I pulled her closer.
“I know you didn’t fuck her.”
“Yeah?” A rush of irritation grated on the back of my neck. She was too fucking naïve. She shouldn’t believe the good in everyone, including myself. “How?”
“I asked her questions, and she answered wrong.”
Well, well, well. Dark amusement lifted my lips. “You asked questions?”
She nodded.
“Like what?”
“When? Where?”
“And?”
She shrugged. “The when didn’t add up. It was the day you were supposed to go to Boston. But you canceled. Remember when Orietta pissed me off?”
I did remember. “Where?”
She scrunched up her forehead. “She said at her place, but I couldn’t fault that. Oh.” She perked up like she suddenly remembered something. “Your tattoos didn’t add up.”
I frowned. “What else did you discuss? The length of my dick?”