Page 242 of Quinlan

“He’d hurt you the first shot he has.” Rome leans over Damien and me, taking the phone from Liam. “You know what? Fuck that. No. This was a mistake. Let’s settle this by agreeing that you’re never leaving home without us ever again. That you won’t lose it because we’re sticking to the plan.”

“Show. Me.” I’m staring into Rome’s eyes, reaching from beneath the blanket for the phone. “If watching him suffer is a part of your revenge plot, then it’s a part of mine just the same. We’re together in this.”

“She does have a point.” Damien doesn’t sound happy about it. At all. He kisses the crook of my neck softly. “His misery is a win for her too. We’re done hiding things from each other.”

“One video,” Liam offers a compromise, sliding closer to us, lending me his warmth. “That’s it.”

“You can always hit the stop button.” Damien tightens his grip, his arms a vise around my stomach. “There’s no shame in that. He’s a motherfucking bastard. No one should hear the shit coming out of his mouth. Especially you.”

Witnessing this monster doesn’t scare me. My heart needs to catch up with my head, and I know this will help. Has to.

Maybe I’ll be okay with it. So much so that I’ll fix us some popcorn and have a screening of these videos together. We could ask Jagger and Laurel to watch it with us on a video call once everything is behind us.

A smile teases my lips. How wholesome would that be?

Very.

My finger hovers over the play button, then I remember. “Do you have videos of Aria? I’d really like to watch those. Did she find another job?”

Liam’s head shakes, his eyes clouding.

“She didn’t find a new job?”

Another shake. Why is he being like this?

“You just don’t want to watch her suffer?”

“I don’t want to watch her, period.”

“Why?” I stroke the unruly curl on his forehead.

“You’re going to like this one, darling.” Damien smiles against my shoulder.

“There’s only one woman in my life, little flame.” He pulls my hand to his mouth, his lips pressing to my knuckles. Subtle tremors wrack through me. They feel a lot like love. They are love. “One woman who takes up all the free space in my heart. That’s you.”

“Our investigators follow her and Rex from morning to nighttime,” Rome elaborates, and while I look at him, my soul is being spread between the three of them equally. “When theygo to bed, so do our men. We get a daily status report on Aria begging the bank to extend her loan and the like, but that’s that.”

I turn to Liam. Something stronger than love swells in my heart. The wax on my body. His eyes, the fidelity brimming in them.

“It won’t count as cheating, watching her suffer.” My commitment to him is stronger than my jealousy. Stronger than anything. He’s owed this. “It won’t. In fact, I insist—”

“No.” His hand on my mouth silences my objection. “She’s fucked. I’m aware. A few more days of that, and I’ll kill her. I don’t need to see her until then. I don’twantto see her until then. To know she suffers is enough.”

My fingers curl around his, prying his hand off. “You’re sure?”

“I am.”

“Okay.”

He raises an eyebrow, searching my face. “Okay.”

Damien presses a gentle hand to my cheek, returning my attention to the phone. And I hit play.

“You’re not firing me, Maeve.” Rex’s face is beet red.

The bright hue is visible, thanks to the camera the private investigator used. He recorded him through a window looking over into Rex’s apartment.

He’s standing there, looking over the street. His white shirt is wrinkled, his hair greasy.

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