Page 62 of Brutal Husband

“Nothing. Never mind.” A moment later Shields shoots a sly grin at me. “Those kids weren’t even my type. I like ’em prettier.”

I don’t know what Luca and Shields’s relationship is like. Maybe they make these kinds of disgusting jokes with each other all the time, but something tells me that even if Shields means for me to take it as a joke, he’s not joking.

I see red. I grab the back of his neck and slam his face into the steering wheel. The man shouts in pain, and the car skids off the road.

“You’re talking like that about my wife’s family? About little kids? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

The car slams into something, my head hits the side window, and the airbags deploy. The motor cuts out, and my head throbs with pain.

The airbag squashes Shields into his seat, but as I lift my fist to hit him again, he holds up a placating hand. “Okay, okay! I was out of line. I disrespected your family. I would never put what I want over our relationship, Nero. You’re too important to me.”

I wipe away the blood that’s trickling down my temple, struggling to get a hold of my temper. I don’t want to talk to Luca about this. I want to know the kind of man Shields is for myself. “The kids you were in the news about. Were they pretty?” It makes bile creep up my throat just to say the words.

Shields hesitates.

“Go on. Tell me.”

His eyes gleam. I can tell that he never gets to talk about this, and he dearly wants to. “They were so damn pretty. You should have seen—”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence because my fist slams into his face. I go on punching him, hearing the cartilage in his nose crunch and break, feeling the slice of his broken teeth on my knuckles.

When I finally stop punching, his face is a pulpy mess, and he’s not moving. I don’t know if he’s dead yet or not. I hope not. He deserves to suffer. I fish around and find a handgun under the driver’s seat. Getting out and moving a distance away from the car, I fire three shots into the gas tank. A moment later, the car is engulfed in flames with Shields still in it.

I wipe my prints from the gun and throw it into the fire, and then I walk away.

Tomorrow, Shields will make the headlines again, and I hope the parents of the children this creep molested relish every word about his demise. I hope Rieta will take some comfort from knowing that the man who was around her family’s children all day won’t be coming after them.

I have to walk, and it takes me another forty minutes to arrive at our office. When I enter the room, it’s apparent that Luca has been pacing up and down waiting for me, and he’s in a foul temper.

Luca takes in my disheveled appearance and the blood on my face. “What the fuck happened to you? Did you pick a fight at my wedding?”

My twin is dressed in an identical suit to mine. The only thing missing from his outfit is the daisy. He strides forward, pulls it off my suit, and tucks it into his own buttonhole.

“I want to talk to you about something,” I begin.

“We can talk when I get back from my honeymoon. Give it to me.” He holds out his hand.

He wants me to give him my wedding ring. I stare at it on my hand. Instead of doing as he asks, I say, “Why was there a sex predator at my wedding?”

“My wedding, and who are you talking about?”

“Paul Shields.”

He waves a dismissive hand. “Innocent until proven guilty. Give me my wedding ring.”

Rieta slipped this ring onto my finger as we promised ourselves to each other. “She’s my wife. It’s my ring.”

Luca presses the heels of his hands into his eyes. “I can’t believe we’re still having this argument. I never should have let you take her on those dates.”

I’m sick of the way he talks about me. That heletsme do things. That I must ask his permission for what I say and who I talk to. Most of all, I hate that he speaks about Rieta like she’s his when she can’t fucking stand him. “Are you looking forward to your wedding night? Anticipating your virgin wife all laid out for you?”

“Give. Me. My. Ring,” Luca repeats through clenched teeth.

“No.Myring.Mywedding day.Mywife. This is nonnegotiable, Luca. You have the big house and the creepy fucking business associates. You have my clean name to do business under. You’re not having Rieta as well. Guess what? I already fucked her, so that’s that. I’m the one who loves her. I’m the one whomarried—”

Luca grabs me by the lapels and shoves me until my back hits the wall. His face is lit with fury. “You fucked her? You dared to lay a finger on her? You touched what belongs to me?”

“Why was there a fucking sex predator at my wedding?” I shout, shoving him off me. “What kind of business are you in? Because I’m beginning to wonder if you’re involved in someshit that I wouldn’t touch in a million years. In fact, I wish I’d been more thorough when you tracked me down. I should have demanded to know why you were so eager to be me.”

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