Page 14 of The Ties That Bind

She wasn’t wrong. If someone was about to meet his maker, I wanted him to know who had sent him. There wasn’t always time for such a hands-on, personal touch … but yeah, the name fit.

“Is that why you reached out to me? Because you knew I couldn’t ignore you? So what’s the plan? Once you had me alone, we’d catch up for a bit and then you’d do your sworn duty? Tell me, Xander, how did you see this playing out?”

It was my turn to look away. I got it, she was angry with me. Of course she was. We had nothing but years of bitterness between us and I’d just told her I’d been sent to kill her. That’d be enough to piss anyone off. But surely she didn’t honestly think I had it in me. There were some lines a man just didn’t cross, and killing the woman he’d loved was one of them. That she thought so little of me stung, but then again, why should she think any different? I’d spent years killing her family members, hadn’t I? She knew my work. Of course she thought I was the type of man who could kill his former lover.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I answered, turning back to her. I dropped my head and stared at my feet. Clasping the back of my neck with my palm, I raised my eyes and captured her gaze. “I loved you Arabella. I might be a monster in every other way, but not like that.”

Her eyes flicked between mine and then she nodded, once. “So what now?”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “Now, I kill Jayce instead.”

“And how, pray tell, do you intend to do that? Even I know he doesn’t go anywhere without his security detail. You’ll be dead before you can even get a shot off.”

Jayce’s main bodyguard was my cousin, and I was pretty sure he hated Jayce even more than I did. Rumor had it Jayce was blackmailing him, and for a moment I wondered if whatever my brother was holding over him was worth dying over. Either way, it didn’t really matter because one guy wouldn’t be enough to stop me. Jayce would have to employ a whole team to protect him now that I’d made up my mind. One way or another, the fucker was going down.

“Not your problem,” I answered, dismissing her worry.

Besides, it wasn’t like Jimmy was at Jayce’s side all the damn time. In fact, he’d been nowhere in sight during my last meeting with my brother. Getting Jayce alone wasn’t going to be the problem Arabella obviously thought it was.

She nodded thoughtfully and began pacing again. “So he still trusts you then.” It wasn’t so much a question as a statement of fact.

“As much as Jayce trusts anyone, I suppose.”

“My sources tell me he’s been erratic. Paranoid.”

I didn’t answer. Her sources weren’t wrong, but just because I’d decided not to kill her didn’t mean she wasn’t still my enemy. When I took Jayce out, I’d step into his shoes, effectively pitting Arabella and I against one another. She didn’t need to know anything beyond what I’d already shared.

“I’ll take your silence as confirmation.” She walked back to the Mustang and leaned against it.

“Take it however you want,” I replied noncommittally, as I followed and took up a spot next to her on the hood of the car. “It doesn’t matter one way or the other since he won’t be around anymore.”

“Right,” she answered tersely. Then, all business again, she asked, “Do you know when you’re going to do it?”

Never in a million years had I thought I’d be sitting next to Arabella Wilson casually discussing murder. Even though she was the only daughter of my family’s biggest rival, we’d always set that part of our lives aside when we were together. We were each others’ safe haven, refuge from the insanity that came with being born into the modern-day mob. She’d known my role in the family business from the beginning, but we’d never really talked about it, as if our silence had negated our reality.

Maybe we’d been fooling ourselves back then. You couldn’t escape who we were. This conversation was proof enough of that.

I turned to her. “It has to be soon. If I don’t bring him proof of your demise by the end of the week, he’s going to send someone in my stead … and then we’re both done for.”

“Why now?” she asked, her eyes flicking away nervously.

I paused before answering, something niggling at the back of my mind.

“How long have you been running the show?” I asked, trying to make the pieces of the puzzle fit.

She shrugged nonchalantly. “Not long. Six months or so. Why?”

My voice subdued, I asked, “How’d it come to this, Arabella?”

She glanced my way and our eyes locked. Arabella sucked in a deep breath and then blew it out slowly. Then, leaning her head back and looking to the sky, she answered, “I don’t even know anymore.” With a sardonic laugh, she continued. “Dad’s not the man he used to be—the booze finally caught up to him. I probably shouldn’t be telling you any of this, but you coming to me with Jayce’s threat … well, let’s just say I think I can trust you.”

Her eyes found mine again and I took her meaning. This was going to have to work both ways. I nodded once to let her know we were on the same page. At least some things hadn’t changed. We’d always been able to communicate with just a look. Once upon a time we’d probably known each other even better than we knew ourselves.

She laid her hand on my arm to acknowledge our understanding and I felt a familiar bolt of electricity shoot up my spine. She might be my enemy, but my body seemed unable to distinguish friend from foe. Where this woman was concerned, it would always respond … like muscle memory, I thought. Even if I’d trained myself to block out those memories, my hands refused to forget skating over her naked skin, my lips recalled feasting on her lips, her neck … her clit.

And now I couldn’t get that image out of my head. The first time I tasted her, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Up until Arabella, eating pussy had been something I did in reciprocation, not necessarily something I enjoyed. But with her? I’d looked forward to. In fact, I’d eaten her out for months before I ever sank my cock into her waiting warmth. I swear, back then I could have happily spent every waking minute of my life with my head between her soft white thighs. Actually, strike that. Because the night I’d taken her virginity? It’d been the single happiest moment of my life.

That was a memory I vowed to never let myself revisit. Except that’s what I was doing right now, wasn’t it?

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