Page 63 of Charming But Reckless

All three men nodded at me in understanding. They acted like this was just a normal babysitting gig. Not as if they were about to cut into and tear apart a man who was supposed to be sitting in a jail cell.

If we hadn't kidnapped him, that's exactly where he'd be.

“I'll leave you to it,” I said, half saluting them as I went to meet my brothers at the door.

The entire drive back to the NightShade offices, I wondered how Arick would react to what I’d done. I wasn't going to hide this from him. I couldn’t.

He deserved to know the truth. He needed to feel peace about the fact that the man who had hurt him and his son would no longer be a threat.

The guys remained quiet, letting me work through my emotions as we reached the office and went upstairs. They immediately went to change but before I could go anywhere, Arick came rushing down the hall. He went to hug me, but I held my hand up.

"Blood," I said by way of explanation.

He shook his head, tears in his eyes. “I know what you did. I wish you would have told me beforehand.”

I winced. “Couldn't risk you being a part of it. Didn't want to get caught. Plus, I figured you wouldn't want to stomach it.”

He punched my shoulder. My eyes went wide.

“You jerk. I would have wanted to watch. That man deserves everything he got from you. Is it done?”

He asked, arms folding in front of him.

I shook my head. “I've got three friends working him over. They'll let me know when he stops breathing. They want to have some fun with him first. Show him exactly what it means to be tortured.”

Arick's smile was a bright light. My mood immediately brightened. I leaned forward enough to press a kiss to his lips.

"I'm going to shower and then I'll be back.”

He bit his lip and nodded. "Okay, but when you get back, I need to tell you something too. It's a secret I haven't quite shared with you. Or maybe we should just get to it.”

“Get to it,” I repeated.

He waved his hand. "Go change. We'll figure it out when you're back."

He pressed another kiss to my lips and then went back into the war room. I took off to the showers, my heart full, but my mind wandering.

Arick wasn't upset with me, which was nice. But he'd also been keeping a secret, which had me worried.

Whatever it was, we'd get through it. He wasn't mad at me for kidnapping and killing a man on his behalf. I wouldn't get mad about whatever he had going on too.

CHAPTER 21

ARICK

I wasnervous about taking Orion to the secret I had kept from him. It wasn't because I was worried that he would freak out or be angry with me.

More that I didn't know what emotion he would feel.

I only knew that he needed this. It was his right to have it. I had simply been the person to hold it while he couldn't be around to claim it.

Since I didn't want to tell Orion exactly what was going on, I spoke with Tank about coordinating our travel.

“Tell me what you need and it's yours.”

I smiled at him, appreciative of the help he was giving. “I need plane tickets back to our hometown. There's a storage unit there.”

Tank nodded as if he understood completely what I was saying. He likely did. The man's intuition was amazing. Even when he didn't say a word, you could sense that he was aware of everything going on around him. He led this team and built this company. There wasn't anything he couldn't do it seemed — except maybe commitment.

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