Page 52 of (Un)Rivaled

Her eyes flared, and for a moment, I thought it was fear. But upon second look, I could see there was something else under the surface: guilt. What the fuck did Devyn have to feel guilty about?

Her lips snapped shut, and she motioned for me to let her go, severing our connection. She swallowed heavily, dropping her gaze to the living room. I started to follow her eye-line, but she stopped me. “What secrets are you talking about?”

Her voice had gone cold, almost like I was talking to a stranger. It was concerning, especially given what we’d just shared downstairs. I thought that was the beginning of our fresh start, but Devyn’s reaction made my spine stiffen, wondering if there was more I was missing. While I was fully ready to confess my sins, from the way she was looking at me now, she seemed like she had her own hidden demons, and she was in no rush to tell me about them.

Ignoring that, I went over to the couch and sat down. My elbows found my knees, and I clutched my hands together. My knees refused to stop shaking, anxious energy pulsing through me. Devyn reluctantly followed, perching on the edge of the coffee table instead of sitting by my side. Fuck, I hated that, hated that there was so much distance between us after finally getting the taste of her on my tongue.

It would have been so easy to backtrack, to forget there was more to the story, to keep hiding the truth from Devyn, and protect her from all the carefully crafted lies. But I couldn’t, not when lack of trust and communication had doomed us before.

I looked up, exhaling slowly when I found her dark brown eyes boring holes into mine. “You don’t know everything about what happened when we were in Vegas.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Devyn froze, all her muscles stilling. She looked like she was barely breathing, probably terrified over what I was about to say. After all, I was the one who suggested we give our marriage a real shot, only to pull the rug out from under her. And now that I’d exposed all those healing scars, I was about to reopen them all over again.

“Devyn.” I took her hand in mine. I needed to touch her, needed that contact to know she was still with me. “You need to know I never meant to hurt you. I meant every word I said. I wanted that to be our chance, wanted it so fucking bad, it killed me to walk away.”

“But you still did,” Devyn whispered.

“Because I thought I didn’t have a choice.”

Her brow furrowed as she cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

I shook my head. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you, Devyn, things I’ve done that I’m not proud of.” I held her hand a little tighter. “But everything I’ve done, all of it was for you. I would do all of it again if it meant keeping you safe.”

Her brown eyes went wide. “What do you mean? What did you do, Gray?”

I rubbed my hand over my face, squeezing the bridge of my nose. “It started years ago. You remember that one summer, the one when you came to my house in the middle of the night, your face all bruised?” She nodded. “You told me you walked into a door, but I knew you were lying. You were hiding something from me.” I exhaled. “So the next day, I went to the hotel to confront David.”

Devyn sucked in a sharp breath and tried to pull her hand from mine. “Gray, you didn’t–”

“He wasn’t there,” I finished. “It should havebeen simple. I was going to confront him and convince him to leave you alone by any means necessary. But then, it all spiraled, and I’ve been trying to unravel myself from this mess ever since.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Devyn said, her voice trembling.

“It was part of the deal I made,” I answered, dropping my gaze down to our joined hands. “You had to be kept in the dark, at least until we figured out our plan. And when we got married…” I cursed under my breath. “It fucked up everything. It put you back in the spotlight and made our connection too public. If we’d stayed together, you could have been caught in the crosshairs, and I—we couldn’t risk that.”

Devyn suddenly stood and paced the living room. She didn’t speak, but I could see the gears turning in her mind. After a long stretch of silence, she turned back to me but kept her arms crossed around her chest. “Tell me exactly what you’re involved with, Gray.”

I forced myself to meet her eyes. “We’ve been investigating David for years, trying to tie crimes to his business dealings, find ways to punish him for all the pain he’s caused.”

“What?” Her face paled, and she held the edge of the table. “Wh—why?”

I stood, unable to hold back the fury coursing through my veins. “Because that fuckerhurtyou. He tried to destroy every piece ofyou, and no one else was willing to put him in his place.” I shook my head. “When this first started, I was just a kid, and there was nothing I could really do. But once I had resources at my disposal, I invested as much as I could so we could take him down, to make his kingdom crumble.”

She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved. David is dangerous.”

“Fuck that,” I snapped. “He put his hands on the woman I l—” I cut off before I said something I couldn’t take back. “I would burn the world if it meant keeping you safe, Devyn. I don’t fucking care what happens to me, as long as I know you’re okay.”

She stared before suddenly rushing over to me and throwing herself into my arms. Devyn kissed me like it was our last moment on Earth, as if she couldn’t wait another moment. But all too quickly, she pulled away, staring at me with a new intensity.

“Wait—did you saywe?”

TWENTY-SEVEN

FIVE YEARS AGO

As the hotel door swung shut behind me, a wide smile formed on my face. Every part of my body hurt, mostly from the ridiculous amount of alcohol I’d consumed last night. I might have made a few questionable choices, but I didn’t regret a single one, not when they all led me to Devyn.

My wife.

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