Page 52 of They Call Him Reaper

His confession hurts my feelings, along with the child he was. That poor teenager and all he endured.

“I believe you. I believed you in the car. I just needed a moment. Even if you had killed her, I would be aware that it was because he ordered it. It still doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. I know that, ultimately, Father is behind all of this. Just like I know you were the one who sent me the information about my mother.”

“I never lied to you.” The conviction in his voice makes me tear up. “But I understand your doubt. It just makes me feel…” I can tell he’s grappling for the right word to convey his feelings.

“Hurt?”

Dante nods and looks at me with sad eyes. “Yeah. I don’t want you to have doubts about me, but I put them there. It upsets me that you’d have to wonder if that’s something I’d keep from you.” He reaches up and wipes my tears with his thumb. “I don’t want to cause you pain again. I can’t fix the past; I can only try for our future.”

I laugh a little, although more tears fall. “You’re doing great. Under the circumstances, we’re doing great, but the detectives were very comfortable with their accusation.”

“I just might go to jail, Inaya,” he admits. I shake my head, but he keeps talking. “If they are confident enough to think I did it, then Father has framed me, and he has framed me well. He was in complete control of me when your mother died. I just need you to know that no matter what bullshit they throw at me, I wouldn't betray you like this. I know exactly how it feels to berobbed of a mother. I wouldn’t do that to you and even if he made me do it, I would have admitted it.” Dante takes my hands and kisses my knuckles. “I’d rather deal with the pain of losing you than keep you with a lie.”

Savoring his nearness, I drop my forehead against his. If only the world could just stop and leave us in the moment. I’d love to meet our child but the issues withtomorrowscare me. I don’t want him to leave me, not even for a moment. The reminder of what Father did to him still makes me ill, but I push all of it away and focus on my husband. We need each other for different reasons.

I want to hold him forever. The sentiment lingers on my lips, along with a request for him to take me to our room so he can hold me, but his next words freeze my brain.

“I love you.”

THIRTY-FOUR

Dante

I love her.That’s the only way to describe the range of emotions I feel toward Inaya. My desire to be with or around her consumes almost all my priorities. She’s found her way in a place no one has been able to reach since I was kidnapped, but I don’t want it any other way. I wouldn’t be surprised to find my obsession with her started when I began monitoring her. Maybe all of this was a twisted way for my brain and heart to work out what they really wanted from her.

It’s hard to know how things would be if I were normal and saw her outside of the circumstances that brought us together. I’m just happy that she’s crazy enough to love me as well. Her love helps make things shift in my brain, like wanting to make her happy or feeling sad that she’ll never have the normal family dynamic that she’d like to have.

I still will kill her only living relative the moment I find him, but she knows that. It hurt when she doubted me. It felt like someone was squeezing my heart, which stirred up more emotions that I’m not used to feeling. I needed a moment to calm the hurricane building inside of me to keep from overreacting. I push that aside to focus on the moment ahead ofme. Inaya’s eyes are still big with surprise, so I know she heard me. It took a while for me to be able to understand the feeling, but I refuse to back down now. Although I’m also surprised that I said it, I know I mean it.

“I love you,” I repeat to see how it feels to say it intentionally.

These are words I haven’t meant since I was a little boy. It’s bittersweet. I’m both happy that I can give Inaya what she wants, but sad to have lost my parents to Father’s greed. Speaking of which, I did promise to always be honest.

“I’m still going to kill him when I find him.”

My statement seems to pull her out of the stupor I placed her in with my declaration of love. Inaya’s expression can only be described as one between pain and amusement. She nods as she looks down at her round belly.

“I think it’s the only way to have peace. As much as I hate the thought, our relationship has always been one-sided. He cared about me in his own way, but the way he treated me the last time I saw him is unforgivable. He didn’t care if I lived or died.”

I tuck a finger under her chin so she can look me in the eyes. “I care. I take it very fucking seriously; and I’ll continue to take it seriously until the day that I die.”

I cover her lips with mine because I don’t want to talk anymore. Sharing is still something that is foreign to me so I can only do so much. Besides, I love the taste and feel of her-two things I’ve never craved until Inaya.

She breaks the kiss to look me in the eyes once more. “I love you, too, husband.”

My smile remains until I pull her in for another kiss. I would never have thought hearing someone refer to me as their husband would have such an impact on my emotions, but her kind words always make me feel warm. Everything in me lives to protect all of her and our child.

She laces our fingers together and leads me back to the house. The way she grins and bites her bottom lips tells me where her mind has gone.

“Remember when you got drunk on the island and offered yourself to me while you were handcuffed to the wall?”

She shakes her head like it’s an embarrassing memory, but it was hot even if I weren’t in the headspace to recognize it.

“Yeah, I remember.”

We enter the house and it’s surprisingly quiet with how many people are there. Andrea and Wyn must be in a strategy session.

“Well, I still have the handcuffs,” I lean into her face, but don’t take the kiss she’s offering, “and duct tape.”

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