Page 149 of Devil Mine

So I keep pacing, refusing the dinner the chef offers me and choosing to stare out of the front windows instead, hoping to catch sight of him when he comes back.

But he doesn’t.

He never comes home that night.

And I lay alone in our bed, my knees held tightly against my chest, and I cry.

???

Chapter Fifty-Five

Thiago

If I thought a night away from home would dull my fury, I find out the next morning just how wrong I was. Not just because I wake up with a crick in my neck from sleeping on the shitty couch in my office at Tanta, the cartel’s biggest club, but because the first thing I think about when I open my eyes is Tess.

“I’m not your wife.”

The fist of anger squeezing my heart crushes it once more just replaying those words in my head. They’ve been on a constant, endless loop in my mind since she said them.

I didn’t want to go home in the mental state I was in last night. I’d been so blinded by my rage that I’d feared going too far with her and actually hurting her. Visions of tying her up, of gagging her, of torturing her until she admitted to being mine had assaulted me almost nonstop since I’d left.

Keeping the monster away from her was in both our best interests. She already thought the worst of me and proving I was even more reprehensible than she could imagine wasn’t going to help my cause.

So instead I spent the vast majority of my day staring at my phone, looking at the dot that represented her location.

After Franklin assaulted her, I’d gifted her a gold necklace. What I didn’t mention was that it doubled as a tracking device. I knew if I told her about it, she’d refuse to wear it, so I’d said nothing. I’m incredibly happy about that decision now as I stare at her unmoving dot.

She hasn’t left the house since I stormed out yesterday. Today is Friday, she should have gone to work, but she didn’t.

She hasn’t missed work since our ‘honeymoon’.

I let myself hope that today’s exception is because of me.

I clench my phone so tightly in my fist, I’m surprised the screen doesn’t shatter.

She thinks she isn’t mine.

She thinks I could eventhinkabout another woman.

She thinks she doesn’t consume my every waking and sleeping thought.

I’m going to kill her father for poisoning her mind against me. I know he had to say a lot more to her than just playing a recording of our conversation. We were fine and then we weren’t, and it’s because of him.

It’s simple, really.

Iloveher.

So much that there’s nowhere for me to keep it. It overflows out of my heart and past my ribcage and spills embarrassingly out of me.

I would give it to her if I thought she wanted it, but last night’s argument proves she doesn’t. That she isn’t ready to hear it.

She’s softened to me over the past few months, yes, but she doesn’t love me back. Not yet at least, but I won’t stop until she does. I just can’t rush it. She’s like a skittish mare, ready to run away at the first sign of fear, and the last thing I want to do is scare her.

What if she disappears again? It’s a looming worry in my mind that’s never far away.

The door bursts open and Arturo stalks in, the severe expression on his face getting my immediate attention.

“Matteo Leone wants to meet.”

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