Page 90 of Deceitful Oath

“I love you,” she whispers, shutting her eyes against the pleasure. The confession spurs me on, giving me the energy to drive into her harder and deeper, the way she likes. “I truly, madly love you, Rafael.”

I lose myself in that sentence, in the sensation of her scent encircling me, her skin against mine.

She moans deep and low, tightening her thighs around me as I let go, spilling inside of her. I collapse on top her, feeling the growing bump of her belly for the first time. I panic that I’m crushing it. As I roll off, she giggles and turns to face me.

“It’s okay,” she says, “you won’t hurt it.”

I pull her against me and we melt into the mattress, spent and satisfied. After a while, she pulls herself up to face me again. Hereyes, two deep pools of light, draw me in, making me wonder what’s going through her mind.

“What happened to Vince?” she whispers. Of all the things I imagined she might say right now, this was last on the list.

“He got away,” I sigh, shutting my eyes. The moonlight is too bright in the room, suddenly. I just want to crawl under the covers and pretend the world revolves only around the two of us.

“Maybe we should just let him go,” she says, unsure of herself.

“We don’t just let people go,” I snap. I see the hurt in her eyes and immediately soften my tone. “He tried to kill you, Lux. And he’s not going to stop until he succeeds. Do you really think I’d let that happen?”

“Maybe he learned his lesson?” she muses. I shake my head at her child-like naivety when it comes to the world and the people in it.

“I’m sorry, but I need to find him,” I repeat firmly. “And make him pay for what he did, not only to you, but to my father.”

“I’m really uncomfortable with the violence,” she finally admits, rolling away from me. I know that she’s a pacifist but I don’t know how to handle this any other way. The fact is, Vince will kill her unless I kill him. There’s no other way.

“I understand that, I really do,” I assure her, stroking her arm, willing her to come back into my arms. “But this is what I do. It’s the life I live.”

“What if I don’t want to live that life?” she whispers, a tear slipping down her cheekbone.

“Oh, Luxy, you don’t have to. You don’t need to involve yourself in any way.”

“But don’t you see?” she cries, frustration seeping into her voice. “If we’re married, I’m automatically involved. What do you want me to do? Sit at the dinner table with you every night pretending like you haven’t been out killing people and smuggling weapons into the country all day?”

“It’s not every day,” I try to joke, desperately hoping to lighten the mood. “We sometimes just have meetings.”

“This isn’t funny, Rafael,” she says crossly. She slips out of bed and throws on her bathrobe, crossing her arms. “I’m serious about this. I can’t be married to a man that tortures and kills innocent people.”

“Hey, hey, they’re not innocent. They’re just as involved in this as I am.”

I jump out of bed and pull a pair of pants on, crossing the room toward her. She whirls away from me, her eyes blazing with anger now.

“And no one innocent ever gets caught in the crossfire, hm?” she argues. “And anyway, who areyouto decide whether someone’s innocent or not? Whether they deserve to die or not?”

“Lux,” I sigh, rubbing my aching head. “This is just a job, like any other.”

“I want a divorce.”

“What?”

The statement catches me so off guard that I almost trip over my own feet.

A divorce?

Chapter Thirty-Six

Lux

“That’s right,” I confirm.

My mind spins, screaming at me to stop.

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