Page 19 of Bride Unwanted

“Only if I have to.” That’s a lie.

“You didn’t have to kill the guy earlier.”

“Yes, I did. They took you, put you in a cell on a dirty mattress. I had to kill everyone involved,” Talon says in his matter-of-fact way.

I sigh. He doesn’t understand. “I don’t know if I can do this,” I whisper.

“Do what?”

“Stay here… with you. Knowing what I know now. I don’t know if I can be your wife. I don’t know if I can be part of this life,” I say honestly.

For the first time since I’ve known Talon, he looks shocked and speechless, as if he can’t believe I would consider leaving him, and for a moment, I wonder if he is going to let me go at all.

A few seconds of silence pass before he composes himself. “I understand you need some time and space. I’m willing to give that to you.”

This time, I sigh in relief. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. Just do me a favor and stay here one last night. I’ll take the guest room, but I want you to sleep here so I can make sure you’re okay. I’ll take you back to your apartment tomorrow morning.”

“Okay,” I agree.

One last night won’t hurt me. If I’m being honest, I don’t want to be alone right now, anyway.

10

TALON

A loud knock on the window of the shitty little Honda rips me out of sleep. My eyes are blurry. I try to clear them to see the cause of the sound. Finally getting my eyes to focus, a meter cop stands right outside my car.

I roll down the window and stare at her.

“What do you want?”

“Check the attitude, shithead,” she barks. “You want to stay here, pay the meter. Otherwise, go find some other spot to sleep off your drunken night.”

Am I drunk? I pull the sunshade down to look in the mirror. Shit. I look like hell warmed over. Heavy bags sag under my eyes from lack of sleep. I don’t even remember the last time I took a shower.

The weeks after Callie told me she needed time to consider everything have been hell for me. I am a man of my word. I have given her all the space she’s needed. But I’ve trailed her everywhere she’s gone.

Pulling out a few hundred dollars, I hand it to the meter cop.

“Will this cover me for a while?” I ask, not looking at her.

“You know what, sir?” she says, reaching for the money. “I think I was mistaken before. I think you can park wherever you want for the rest of my shift.”

I give her a smile and roll my window up. Knocking the empty fast food containers off the passenger seat, I grab an energy drink. Opening the top, the thought of my old man yelling at me for drinking this garbage reverberates in my head.

Looking down, the evidence of my sin litters the floorboards. Shaking my head, I focus back on task. Making sure she’s safe. Fear and anger grip me at the thought of what happened to her, and the fact it could happen again.

I thought killing Tony would make me feel better. But in the end, it doesn’t matter without her. If she isn’t by my side, none of this matters. Chugging the rest of the cocktail of chemicals, I add its corpse to the rest of the pile.

Almost on cue, Callie leaves her mom’s house at 7 pm. She has essentially stayed there since she left. Only leaving to go to her apartment and sleep. I bought this Honda so I could follow without her noticing.

Not that it matters, ’cause she literally pays zero attention to anything around her. I almost jumped out to save her as she crossed the street one day. Nose buried in her phone and a huge truck was coming down the road.

I pull out and take a different route to her apartment. I insisted she take one of my cars with her. Her driving behind several inches of bulletproof glass makes me feel a lot better. Plus, all of my cars have tracking devices in them. I left that part out when I told her, though. Parking in my usual spot, I see she beat me here. Lead foot. I roll my eyes and shake my head. I catch sight of her walking into the building.

The simple yoga pants she wears still make my cock twitch. Images of her taking me in her mouth. She gagged but was always so good for me and let me have her throat.

---