Page 51 of Cruel Vows

“For fuck’s sake.” I beat my fist against the white door again, shaking it in the frame until it opens.

Ellie crosses her arms and looks up at me. “I just need one day alone, and you can’t even give that to me? You have me tracked through the city, for what? You don’t give a damn and neither do I.”

I brush past her, heading down the hall to the guest rooms. Her things are spread around the room in the first one, her laptop open on the desk with soft music playing and some sort of medical journal up on the screen.

It’s the first thing I shut and stuff in the tote bag sitting on the armchair.

Ellie enters the room behind me. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I should be asking you the same thing.” I turn around and rip open the dresser drawers, pulling out the clothing there and tossing it into her suitcase. “You don’t get to just run away. I don’t give a shit what I did to piss you off.”

She scoffs. “You think that this is because you made me mad?”

“Well, considering you clearly weren’t willing to listen to me tell you that I didn’t cheat on you and I wouldn’t.”

Ellie throws her hands up in the air. “So, what? You weren’t at the strip clubs?”

I grab the last of her clothing from the floor and shove it in the suitcase, zipping it up. “I was, but that’s because Aiden has me going there to find out what rumors Aiden has been spreading around. I meet them in the back office. They’re fully covered up and I stay on the other side of the room. Happy?”

Ellie presses her lips together. “If you had told me about this when it first started, we wouldn’t be doing this right now.”

I throw the suitcase onto the bed, sweeping her phone up from the desk before shoving it into the tote with her laptop. “How the hell am I supposed to know whether or not I can trust you?”

“I think I’ve proven over the years that I can be trusted with the family business.”

“Yeah, well, when you and I are constantly at each other’s throats, I have a hard time believing that.”

She sighs and sits down on the edge of the bed. “I needed the time to think, Sean. I should have sent a message to Dominic or someone, so you didn’t worry, but I was hurt.”

I stand in front of her, seeing the sincerity in her eyes. “I’m tired of this back and forth between us all the time.”

“Me too.” She runs a hand through her hair, turning her gaze to the bright light above us as her eyes water. “I just want to have the happiest life I can, even in a loveless marriage.”

“Let’s start with being friends.” I clear my throat, taking her bags in both my hands. “Let’s go home.”

“I’m serious about the not cheating on me, Sean.”

I nod, meeting her gaze. “Sex with each other. Nobody else. And we work on figuring out how to live with each other without wanting to kill each other.”

“The only way this is going to work is if I’m the only person you’re sleeping with. Otherwise, I will blow this to hell, alliance be damned.”

As I walk out of the apartment with her, I don’t doubt her threat for a moment.

14

ELLIE

A heavy thudshaking the bed frame has me sitting up in bed, squinting against the night.

“Oh good,” a soft voice says, a large person looming over the bed, their face hidden behind a black knit ski mask. “You’re awake. I’ve been waiting.”

His voice is deep and raspy, the kind of voice that people get from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

I lunge to the side, heart leaping into my throat and body screaming at me to get away.

A big hand closes around my ankle and hauls me back. “That was stupid, Ellie. I didn’t want this to be harder than it has to. If you just act like a good girl, I’ll be nice. I promise.”

I kick out with my foot, catching him in the jaw. “Fuck you.”

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