Page 86 of A Twisted Arrangement

Damon glances at me, then away. “According to the information you sent us, this car has been following Scarlet.”

“You’re only telling me this now?!” I yell. I’d trusted them with handling this because I’ve been too busy with my wife. Leaving her for any length of time pisses me off. Rage burns through my gut, pinching my throat. “Who the fuck are they? I thought we took care of this?”

“It’s a new car every time. We haven’t been able to track any of them. Whoever’s after her knows what they’re doing.” Xander hands me another drink, and a rock forms in my stomach.

Fear lances up my spine. Every second they’re out there, my wife’s at risk.

Damon cups the back of my neck, pulling me closer. “We will figure this out before anything happens. Until then, don’t let her out of your sight.”

The only thing stopping me from hitting his hand away is the memory of what happened to Misty. He’d never willingly let me go through any of that.

There’s a hardness to my older brother when he tightens his grip. “We will kill them, Matthias. No one’s ever touching our family again.”

Bash’s usual playful tone turns cold. “No one’s getting anywhere near our sister. We owe her a lot.” He gives me a playful wink. “And as soon as you stop hoarding her away like a damn dragon, we can all get together.”

I rake a hand through my hair. “I’m not hoarding her away.”

All three of my brothers give me knowing looks.

It’s not so much that I’m hoarding her away as I’m fucking terrified she’ll be taken from me. At first, I thought it was some lowlifes who thought she was the best way to get into the Order of Saints, but the longer this goes on, the clearer it’s becoming that whoever’s after her is more organized than we expected.

“Do we know for sure it’s not another family trying to overthrow us?” I ask, already knowing all the measures we have in place. We have tails on all the main members, tapped phones, hacked computers. No one can do anything without us knowing about it. Which means whoever the hell this is, they aren’t a member of the Order.

“It’s definitely not one of the Saints, but we can’t rule out the fact that they want Scarlet’s place in the Order.” Damon cracks his knuckles. “You should make your marriage public.”

It makes sense—if they’re after the Laurent seat, that avenue has been closed since I forced her to marry me. That doesn’t ease the nausea crawling up my neck.

“If that is their plan, they’ll have to kill me,” A coldness takes over me, filling my veins until there’s no warmth left. “And I’d like to see them try.”

“Whoever is behind this won’t take the news of her marriage well.” Xander says, eyes sharp on mine. “It might be better to keep the marriage portion a secret, so at least they’ll be less drastic until we can find those assholes.”

“There’s no way they don’t already know. Whoever this is has been trailing her for a while. We were able to pull up street camera feeds and track them down. They’ve been following her since she came back to Boston.”

“What the fuck are they waiting for?” Bash asks.

“My guess is, it’s personal,” Xander answers his brother and confirms what I was already thinking.

Bash looks between us, brows pinched together. “We made sure everyone who was involved back then died, and I know she didn’t tell anyone else about the Order.”

“It makes sense though. This all started with the video from that night resurfacing,” Xander says.

I run my hands down my face, the overwhelming need to get back to my wife nearly taking over my mind. Each second I’m away from her is going to drive me insane.

“How many guards do you have at your place?” Damon asks, typing on his phone again.

“Four.”

“Double it.” He looks at me and smirks. “Oh, and Misty’s coming over for a visit.”

The gleam in my older brother’s eyes tells me nothing good will come from this.

I’m not expecting to see Scarlet curled up on the couch. Her laptop’s open on the coffee table in front of her, papers she must have asked someone to go get for her scattered around. I mayhave to go pay her boss a visit if she’s going to overwork my wife. The only thing holding me back is Scarlet will likely try to kill me if I do.

Warmth fills my chest, knowing she’s more than capable of accomplishing it. If my girl wants me dead, I’m not going to stop her.

I drop to my knees in front of her, brushing the hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. She looks so young like this, all of the worries she usually carries around are absent from her expression. I swipe my thumb along her cheek, chest clenching around my heart. One day, she’ll always look like this. No worries holding her in place. None of her past coming back to haunt her. I can promise her that. Now that she’s within my care, nothing will ever happen to her.

“What’s that serious face about?” Scarlet’s sleepy voice drifts up to me, pulling my attention.

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