Page 38 of My Wife

“I did. You’ll understand soon enough why. All I’ve ever done is protect you, even if it had to be from myself.”

Well, I’m thinking he didn’t do that great of a job considering I’m face-to-face with a formerly masked killer who chased me through the woods.

I gulp. “What else did you protect me from?” I think of the two bodies that I’m pretty sure he guides me past on purpose. “The mean girls?”

“From the rumors,” Clay says flatly. “Allof them.”

I take a deep breath. “Because I’m the one who found my mom.”

He jerks his head at me. Yes.

Summer fucking Kaye. She told everyone I did. No one believed her, not really, but there were enough curious stares that I was more than happy to leave Gullhaven with Clay when he asked me. Even if I didn’t think I couldn’t survive without him myself, I would’ve gone.

But look at that. Ididsurvive. I made it five terrible fucking years without him, andnowhe’s back?

He faked his death. That much is obvious. Suddenly, I don’t carewhy, either, though I do say, “What else is new? Since I came back to Gullhaven with Tommy, they all thought I killed you, too.” I make a sound in the back of my throat that could be interpreted as me joking, but I mean it when I add, “I thought about it. For making me live without you, if you hadn’t been dead, I would’ve. Instead, I thought about going after who hurt you. But I couldn’t find any leads. Of course not. It’s so obvious now.Youdid it. So maybe Ishouldkill you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

He grins. God, I’m a sucker for that grin… “I’m your husband.”

I’ll do anything to wipe that smug grin off of his face. “‘Til death do we part, remember? You died.”

He doesn’t have an answer for that, though I did what I accomplished.

His smile is gone.

And, for the second time, I ask, “What now? Are you going to kill me, Clayton?”

He lifts his knife. I try not to, but I flinch.

“What? You’d kill me. Isn’t that what you just said, baby? Maybe you’re not that appreciative of my gifts. Mysacrifices. Of my offerings…” He hardens his expression to the point he’s unrecognizable. “Deny me, Cyn. See what happens.”

I close in on myself.

He looms, taking one step, then another, until we’re less than a foot apart. I have to tilt my head back to meet the fury in his gaze.

“You promised me your loyalty,” he grates out between clenched teeth. A muscle tics in his cheek. “How long was I in the ground before you let Tommy fuck you the first time?”

My heads jerks as if he slapped me. It’s my fault? He disappeared and, after three years, I found solace with an old boyfriend, and it’smyfault?

“I thought you were dead,” I snap at him. “You weresupposedto be dead.

He cradles the back of my head, pulling me closer while ducking his, forcing our foreheads to touch. “Oh, Cyn,” he murmurs. “Did our vows mean so little to you? In sickness and in health… I lost my mind and I lost my wife. You should’ve waited for me. I wanted to you to.”

“You should’ve told me,” I whisper.

“I should’ve,” he agrees, releasing me.

Once he does, I move until a good five feet are keeping us apart now. I’m so confused. Worse, part of me is ecstatic that Clay’s here. All I ever wanted was my husband bad—but this is not the man I remember.

So he knows. I suspected as much. In order to arrange this… to get on the ferry, to even know we were coming to Halo Island in the first place… to go through with this insane pla of revenge, he had to have knows about Tommy.

I bite down on my bottom lips, wipe my damp hands on my jeans, then blurt out the only thought currently on my mind: “If you hate me so much for getting with Tommy while you were gone, is he next? Or am I?”

He sucks in a breath. His cheeks hollow, and I see something flicker in his eyes that I know all too well. “I don’t hate you. So get that out of your head. As for Tommy…” He lifts his knife again, tilting it, using it to reflect the moonlight so I can miss it. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. What will you do for me if I decide to spare him? Another chase, maybe? See what happens when I catch you again?”

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