Page 60 of Sweet Rule
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
LAW
Honey’s asleep which is good. It took a while to settle her down but after another orgasm, courtesy of me between her legs making up for the abuse I gave her clit, I was able to put her to bed. I glance over at her and smile seeing her curled up in the middle of the bed. She’s calm now. Face relaxed and hugging a pillow to her as she sleeps. I wonder if she needs another blanket to stay warm and grab another one of the fluffy blankets she kept looking at longingly online until I told her to pick out whatever she wanted.
Now there’s a row of pink girly shit meant to go on the bed in the closet. I’m fine with it if it makes her happy. What do I care what the bed looks like so long as she’s in it? I’m just glad she didn’t buy a hundred pillows. It would make laying her down on the bed harder, but even if she did want to buy every last fucking tasseled throw pillow this side of the Hudson, I’d keep my mouth shut.
I tuck the extra blanket around her and smooth her hair back from her face. The moonlight slants in through the windows and lights her up so that every detail is on display despite the dark room. Her high nose, the full lashes, that fucking mouth I love so much. I stare at her, drinking in my fill of the woman I thought I’d lost when I hear the familiar beep of my phone.
It’s late. Only a few numbers would come through at this hour and none of them are good. I walk over to the bedside table and pick up the phone. I see Charlaine’s name across the top letting me know I have a text. When I open the text I see it’s short and sweet.
Heard you’re home now with the little lady. Mazel Tov.
I snort and tap out a response.Thanks. What’s the situation with Zeus?
Same old same old except for the farm.
I frown, staring down at my phone.What farm?
I think I found the thread but I’m not sure. I’ll have more this week. Enjoy the Honeymoon, cowboy.
I stare down at Charlaine’s message. Farm. Interesting. I try to think of what she could mean, but if she’s talking in fragments then she doesn’t know yet either. Asking her won’t get me anywhere, but I worked with Charlaine for enough years to know she wouldn’t bring it up if she didn’t think it was important.
I’ll double your rate. Good work.
She sends a GIF back of dollar bills falling and I close the app. I think about what Charlaine could be looking at and why it would be linked to a farm. She better not be fucking playing with words and it’s not a farm at all. I hate it when she does that shit. I turn back to the bed, intent on climbing into it, but I stop short.
I can’t rest. I have to make sure that everything is in place for Honey’s safety. I was honest with her when I told her I want to fix everything for her and track down every sonofabitch that ever made her cry and make them pay. I want to break them down until she says it is enough. Honey is too soft. She’ll say it is enough at the first sign of trouble, but it doesn’t change the fact that I want to give her that power. Want to put all of it right back in her hands from every last person that hurt her.
I open the app and text Taylor. The man usually never sleeps but heshouldbe asleep by now if his taking up with Addie is any indication. He has her close. Doing exactly what I’m doing with Honey, protecting her from the bullshit her brother brought down on her. I know he’s had her at his place and I know Addie gets crabby when she doesn’t have her sleep. He’ll see it in the morning.
Bring the security detail back online. Only people we trust. No less than a dozen.
I have enough contacts in the security sector to make it happen. There’s more than a few big players in the city that owe me. A capo uptown, and the Bratva in Brooklyn make sure to remember their promises, but those are favors I don’t want to cash in. Not yet. If I do that there is no way I am going to be able to keep Honey’s hands clean. Working with men like that has its price.
It would bring them closer to our world. Bring Honey on to their radar. It was fine when it was just me. I can handle them. They know what I am capable of, because I've done it all. But that had been on their dime. So long as I keep myself out of reach and with them owing me then it is all good. They are more than happy to clear the ledgers, but the second they know I have something worth fighting for?
A woman I’d die to keep from losing?
That’s when shit is going to go sideways. No, calling in favors is going to be a last resort. I’ll pay for the protection now and let Taylor pick the men. It will work to keep us safe while Charlaine figures out whatever the fuck she is going on about with a farm and let me decide on my next move.
I still haven’t figured out how Honey will feel if I kill her father. She avoided the topic of him earlier but she did give me the details about her mother.
Justice. Revenge.
Things I never thought Honey would have it in her to demand from Zeus, but she did. She’d said he’d taken everything from her mother and from the looks of the way Rosario had been hauled out of the club, it had been immediate. Good. Fucking bitch.
If she was able to take everything from her mother, how will she feel about losing Zeus? My girl is sweet to the core, even if she’d let her anger take the driver’s seat with me tonight. Even then, she hadn’t managed to hold it for long before she’d crumbled.
I don’t know what she’ll make of my plan to end Zeus. It has to be done. I’ll make her understand in time. I turn back to the bed and sigh, looking at the woman I love as she sleeps. She shouldn’t have to deal with this. Not them. Not fucking me.
If I was a better man I wouldn’t have tied her to me the way I had tonight. I would have found a way out of the marriage, but I hadn’t. The marriage certificate is sitting on the counter. It’d been delivered by a courier courtesy of Zeus half an hour after Honey had fallen asleep. I am thankful there’d been nothing in the envelope but the marriage certificate. If there had been some asinine riddle or note I would have have called that fucker up and told him to eat shit.
I can’t do that. Not yet, so it is a very fucking good thing Zeus didn’t try anything smart ass. He has to have the last word, so I know it is coming. I rub my eyes and shake my head. I’m dead on my feet. I need to rest if I am going to make moves tomorrow, so I shove Zeus out of my head and focus on the now.
Now I have Honey. Now she is my wife. Now she is asleep and warm and waiting for me. I climb into bed beside my wife and pull her close to me. I run my hand up her side slowly. I linger, taking in the warm feel of her body beneath my hand and curl myself around her.
“I love you,” I whisper to her and press a kiss to her shoulder. She is gentle, even though she’d tried to be tough to face what the world had brought her way. With parents like Rosario and Zeus, the deck had been stacked against her, but that is in the past. I am going to make good on my vows to her.
