Page 80 of Devious Secrets

“There’s no reason for you to throw away your life because I have some crazy asshole looking for me. You said you have one of your friends looking for Mira, right? When he finds her, we’ll figure out a way to pay Marco off.” It could work.

Marco was taking the money before, so why would he stop now? He’s a business guy after all.

“You think marrying you would be throwing my life away?” Somehow, he’s gotten more irritated.

He steps up to me. My body tenses beneath his hot glower, and I want to take a step back. To put more room between us. But there’s no point. If he’s taught me anything in these past weeks, it’s if I run, he chases.

And he will always catch me.

“I think you’re looking at a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

“Yesterday you seemed to finally understand the danger. But now you’re pretending like the money is the only issue.”

I swallow.

“Dexter Thompson’s death.”

“Murder, Megan. His murder,” he emphasizes. “With my name, you are safe. No one would dare come after you. It will assure anyone who thinks you may speak out of turn, that your lips are sealed.”

“Marco will give up because we got married?” It can’t be that simple.

“Others that might side with Marco will step away from it. They would not dare go against me in this.”

“Marrying you might give me protection, but what about Mira? If he can’t come after me anymore, he’ll start going after her.”

“Your loyalty to your friend is admirable, Megan. It’s one of the things I like most about you. But in this case, you need to protect yourself first. Rurik will find her, and he will bring her home. But you’re here now.”

“Marriage doesn’t work, Alexander.” Mom tried to keep herself together after Dad walked out on us, but late at night, when she thought I was asleep, I heard her sobs. The man she’d called the love of her life had walked out without looking back.

“It can.”

“How? By letting you do whatever you want, like your dad obviously did? Will I have to watch you have mistresses and watch them give birth to your children the way your mother did?”

His jaw tightens.

“I am not my father,” he says so low, so raw, I know I’ve struck a live wire.

“And when you tire of me? When you finally break me and are bored with me, what then? Will you send me away?”

He snatches me, his hand firmly wrapped around the back of my neck as he drags me forward.

“I will bend you, Megan. But I will never break you. And life with you will never be boring. We’ll fill the house with children. The girls will keep us both on our toes because they will be like you, and the boys will give us both gray hair too soon because they will be like me.” He squeezes my neck.

But I can’t believe him. I won’t.

“And when you realize we’re all too much for you?” I breathe out my question as tears threaten. I will not cry over a future that will not happen.

“I would never walk away from you, from our family,” he vows.

“Alexander. You don’t want this; you don’t want me. You’re only trying to protect me.” I pause. “When the danger is gone, you might change your mind.”

He kisses my cheek. “My mind is made up. The judge will be here this afternoon. We’ll stand before my family, and we’ll speak our vows.”

“And what I want has no meaning? Still?”

His sigh is heavy.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. If I have to drag you downstairs and force you to say the words at gunpoint, I will do it to keep you safe.” He moves his hand to my cheek. “I will protect you, even from yourself.”

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