Page 64 of Wedlock
“Angie, don’t do this. Whatever it is, don’t do it.”
“I can’t leave him. Not yet.”
48
“What the fuck are you doing here?
Jag shakes his head, his eyes sorrowful, and steps back from the bars as I slam my body against them to reach him. I’d dearly like to throttle the bastard, and Wolf, because as sure as shit he’s behind this visit.
“I came to offer my services,” he says quietly, “such as they are.”
“I’ve made a vow. You’re dead to me.”
“The vow wasn’t witnessed or lodged with the Court,” Jag shrugs, “it can be withdrawn as easily and hastily as it was made.”
“I didn’t make it in haste,” I snarl. “And I don’t withdraw it. You came to gloat because you feel safe at the moment with me here, exactly as you want me, unable to rip your throat out to avenge my honour and my brother.”
“Falcon…”
“I don’t want to hear it. You fucked my wife, you betrayed me as surely as if you’d stabbed me in the back with a silver blade. The answer for such treachery is death, no less.”
“I came at the behest of Wolf and your mother,” Jag sighs. “They say you need help finding witnesses to clear your name, and there’s the small matter of another child, a bastard.”
“Don’t judge me, you prick,” I growl, “and I don’t need your help.”
“I’m not judging,” he snorts, “and yes, you do. I’ll find the baby, but first I’ll find someone who can corroborate your story. If you’ll do me the courtesy of telling me exactly what happened.”
“Get Wolf to explain,” I snap, turning my back to him, fists clenched. “I can’t stand the sight of you.”
“Sounds familiar,” Jag retorts, “isn’t that what you said about your wife a year ago?”
“You’d dare to go there?” I hiss, swinging back to face him.
“Sure,” he shrugs. “Sooner or later we have to, and given your temper, it might be best that you’re behind bars when we do. So let’s get to it. You hated her guts, you bit her, you wanted to kill her. You were planning on marrying Sophie and having her son become your heir. Youdidnotwant Angie.”
“She was stillmywife!MINE.”
“She was a woman who needed protection from a suspicious madman who wouldn’t see reason, whocouldn’tsee the truth, no matter how often it was presented to him. I protected her.”
“You fucked her. No wonder you kept urging me not to kill her and supplant her with Sophie. You were between her sheets and legs the entire time.”
“It was just a few weeks.”
“A few weeks? Oh, that’s OK then, by all means feel free to stick your cock into any woman of mine when you feel like a short conjugal vacation,brother.”
Even as I snarl this, I can’t help but feel relieved. He’d corroborated what Angie had said. The boy set to inherit my title was indeed mine. But it doesn’t make the bitter pill of knowing my best friend screwed my wife any easier to swallow.
Jag clears his throat.
“I was wrong to sleep with Angie. I freely admit that, and I’ve apologised to her for my part. But what difference does it make, Falcon? I was what she needed at the time. She doesn’t need me now. You do.”
“The difference is that she was under a thrall, Jaguar. You were not.”
He sighs and shakes his head.
“Was I not?”
I grit my teeth and meet his steady gaze.
