Page 2 of Coup De Grâce
I finally worked up the courage to face the man who had tricked me into thinking he was my husband. Even now, staring at him, I couldn’t distinguish the difference. Rafe was a master manipulator. Hell, he even softened his eyes so he didn’t look so menacing. I didn’t know if he was doing that because he wanted me to forgive him or if he was just off the clock at the moment. Frankly, I wasn’t sure Rafe ever stopped.
“My husband just spent the better part of a month in the hands of the enemy because of you,” I snapped. “Cash’s own men could have gone in and rescued him, but you refused to accept help. He’s in this bed because of you. Don’t you dare ask me if I’m sure.”
Sighing, he placed a metal box on the foot of the bed and opened it up, revealing the contents. “How many?”
“Three. And make sure he won’t notice them.”
His dark eyes flicked to mine, but he didn’t argue. Pulling out the syringe, he loaded the first and placed it under Cash’s hairline. I didn’t really want to watch, but I had to make sure it was done.
Rafe hesitated as he loaded the second, but I glared at him, refusing to turn away until it was done. “He won’t appreciate this.”
“I don’t believe I asked for your opinion.”
A smirk filled his lips as he placed the second in the back of Cash’s leg. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re going behind his back.”
He put the third in the syringe and studied my husband for just a moment before deciding on his shoulder.
“Will he know?”
Rafe shook his head as he packed up his stuff. “With the way he’s feeling? He won’t have a clue.”
“Good.”
I lifted the box out of the trunk and set it on the floor, carefully opening it. Taking the small computer out of the box, I turned it on, holding my breath as I waited for the blinking lights to appear. Seconds later, I was rewarded with not only a single red dot, but all three. They were still there, still embedded in his skin. No one had found them yet.
Cash hadn’t found them.
I smirked as I pulled up the tracking software and found his location on a map on my phone. He had moved since last week. I didn’t know if his father was still with him or not, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. All that mattered was that Cash was alive.
Carrying the computer to my bed, I laid down and finally relaxed for the first time in a week. After the first six months that Cash was gone, I promised myself I would no longer obsess overhis location. I locked it in the trunk and only allowed myself to pull out the computer once a week. Only then did I truly relax.
The blinking dots on the computer settled something inside me, an ache that wouldn’t calm until I knew my husband was still alive and well. My body sank further into the bed and I fell asleep watching those dots blink on the screen.
2
LIBBY
I sat on the barstool,drinking this fucking girly drink as the man who had been following me for the past week eyed me from his corner booth in the dark. I had hoped to escape any connection to Rafe after I walked away after his funeral, but that was really too much to fucking ask for.
I was well aware of their eyes on me, following me wherever I went, and from that moment on, I knew it would never truly be over. Not until whoever Rafe pissed off was dead.
Just thinking about my late husband sent a sharp pain through my chest that I could no longer ignore. In the weeks following his death, I let anger fuel me. I ignored any links I had to the man I once thought of as invincible. Now I knew better.
The sacrifice he made really was amazing. My husband was incapable of doing anything for others. Except one person. His sister. I knew that now, and it hurt so fucking bad that I hadn’t rated high enough on his list to protect. Not in the way that truly mattered.
We’d always had a strange relationship. We both turned on each other if the situation called for it, but deep down, I always thought when push came to shove, he would still be there for me.
Oh, how wrong I was. I tipped the glass back, letting the fruity alcohol slide down my throat and numb my senses just a little. The depressing act wasn’t hard to accomplish. I really was fucking depressed.
But that was bound to happen when the man you thought you knew so well turned out to be some virtuosic legend. It wasn’t that Iwantedhim to be the bad guy. I just understood him. Or I thought I did. Now I was left wondering if he ever really loved me. And that was something I didn’t want to examine too closely. Because I had been in love with Rafe pretty much from the moment I met him, and the idea that I had just been a means to an end really fucking hurt.
“Is this seat taken?”
Surprised by the interruption of my thoughts, I glanced up at the devastatingly handsome man who had been following me around all week. Tall, dark scruff coating his jaw, intense blue eyes…yes, this man would be easy to wrap around my finger.
