Page 9 of Midnight Legacy

Everything could be blamed on pregnancy hormones.

The handle rattled and I was grateful I’d locked it when I came in.

“Just give me a sec!” I ran the water and splashed my face. In the mirror, I was pale and my eyes were too big in my face. The smile I’d mastered for clients formed on my face and I wandered out to the quizzical gaze of my husband.

He arched an eyebrow in question, but I merely smiled and wandered back toward the kitchen. His hand landing on the bottom of my back nearly made me jump.

“Why don’t we watch a movie after dinner, your choice,” he suggested. “We can get your cushion collection, cover ourselves in your blankets and forget the world.”

“Bad day?” I asked.

“I’ve had better,” Xavier replied. “I was with Ash and his dad as they organised Michael’s funeral.”

And just like that, I felt like a selfish bitch. “How is he?”

The table was set and our plates ready for us. Guilt threatened to swallow me.

“Hanging in there, blaming himself, angry at the world, pissed at whoever paid those men. Take your pick.” Those blue eyes missed nothing as they scanned my face from across the table.

“Any idea what happened?” I finally asked.

“Jay got the zip drive. Among the files they wanted was the Doulton file. We think the others were a distraction.”

A tremor of fear curled deep in my stomach. “Why does that name keep coming up?”

“Dunno, baby, but it might be time for me to have a closer look at some of your father’s files.”

All the fight had deflated out of me for the night. “You know where the keys are.”

“You don’t want to come along?”

I set my fork down and stared at him for several moments. “I’ve read those files for years and those particular ones made no sense to me. Right now, I have enough to be worrying about, Zee. I don’t need to visit the ghosts of the dead, they’ve haunted me too long.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I need to speak to your father’s business partner as well.”

My eyebrows hit my hairline. “You can’t tell him where I am.” I recoiled.

Xavier’s fingers threaded through mine on my right hand. “He’s never getting his grubby hands near you again, baby. I told you that you belong to me, and that’s never going to change.”

The heat in his eyes seared into my frozen soul.

Nothing good ever happened when that man appeared. He was there on that isolated road while my family lay dead. He cut my hair and took me from everything I knew, throwing me into a world I didn’t understand. There was something intrinsically evil about him that I couldn’t explain, almost as if death and destruction followed him.

“You need to be careful,” I whispered, my fingers tightening on his.

“I always am, Cas. That’s why I’m going to take Jay with me. Who would mess with him?” His smile didn’t reach his eyes.

Nothing I could say would make him reveal what he didn’t want to, so I picked my way through my dinner. It was spicy and succulent, but no matter how many times I tried to force myself to eat, nausea burned up my throat.

That man was the devil in a suit, a demon released from hell just to torment me. Until Xavier returned home in one piece after meeting him, I wouldn’t be able to rest.

In the end, Xavier removed my plate and settled me in beside him on the sofa and let me watch some eye candy in the form of my favourite sci-fi series. Who wasn’t up for a bit of Sam and Dean?

“You need to stop worrying so much,” Xavier whispered into my hair, halfway through an episode.

I turned to face him, and my nose rubbed against his. “He made an entire family from the Council disappear. They were dead and buried and no one knew.”

He snorted. “Someone knew, he didn’t cover all that up alone. Jay is head of security now, Ash keeping an eye on the financial side of things.”

---