Page 75 of Midnight Salvation

Catarina and I waved him off. There was a black car at the other side of the street from the townhouse. When the driver saw us at the door, he looked the other way. I texted Ash when we returned to the house and I heard the back door close a few moments later. There was never a dull moment in this house.

Sofia arrived with her new husband that night. Papa was furious, but her additional surprise that she was pregnant had Nic growling at him to stop upsetting her. He was everything Sofia had fantasised about in a man since she was little—tall with black hair that fell into his blue eyes. He was gruff with little to say, but he was the first man I’d ever witnessed punching Jordan, since he took Sofia from Cuba. That told me everything that I needed to know. He loved my sister and that was good enough for me.

Jealousy was a horrible, nasty emotion which gnawed at your heart when you least expected it. I was already married, but what hurt the most was that Sofia could show the world her wedding ring when mine was in the drawer of my bedside unit. I wanted the world to know that Ash belonged to me.

I stood at my bedroom window and watched the moon as it shone into our courtyard garden.

“It’ll all be over soon,” Ash whispered in my ear when he found me here, his arms holding me so tightly that I felt safe. “I promise.”

“Is it wrong for me to be jealous?” I asked.

“Nope.” He kissed my shoulder. “But I’m not Nic and your safety is too important for me to lose focus at the final hurdle.”

“What’s the last hurdle?” Even as I spoke, I knew that I didn’t want to know.

“My dad has to die for you to be safe.”

A shiver of fear pierced through my stomach. How did you kill a devil like Matteus Blackwood? I had only met him once, but there was something lurking behind his dark eyes, a feral beast watching and waiting to emerge. My heart thumped in my ears as I envisaged Ash facing him. Someone that evil would do everything in their power to survive and ensure their opponent was killed.

***

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ash

There was one silver lining right now in my life and it was that Lucas was fucking furious with Nic. He had married and impregnated his eldest daughter without permission. At least I had him at Lucrezia’s and my wedding. If looks could kill, that man would be shrivelled and crispy in the corner right now.

I was suddenly the favourite son-in-law.

“I hate lying to them,” Lucrezia muttered as she rearranged the items on her dressing table and then put them back to the way they were again.

“You can tell whoever you want that we’re married when the threat of my father is neutralised.”

She faced me with her hands resting on her hips. “That man has nine lives, so you better not use a revolver, as it only holds six rounds.”

Lucrezia was cute when she was worked up. I moved across the bedroom to tug her against me by the hips she’d been holding to show me how annoyed she was.

“Should I chop his head off, too? I’ve heard that it tends to really kill people and not just eliminate one of their lives.”

Her eyes narrowed at me in a silent warning that made me grin.

“Fuck off!” Her hands pushed my chest even though I stood firm.

“The guys and me have to go to this dinner to try and draw Silas out. What if you tell your sisters when it’s all over and you can compare your rings?” I leaned down to whisper the rest in her ear. “I’m guessing yours is the most impressive since I know the designer personally. She gave me a discount because I made her scream in ecstasy.”

“You’re being a dick,” she replied, but her body swayed into me.

I sucked her earlobe into my mouth and gently bit down, my tongue flicking the tip the same way I did with her clit. “Need me to relax you?”

“Hmmm.” Her hands that had been trying to push me away slid around to my back to cling to me.

A loud bang at the door made me groan and release her to go and hide in the bathroom. This was getting to the ridiculous stage. I knew they were my rules, but they were in place to keep her safe.

Lucrezia grinned and her hand curved around my dick that was already hardening against my zip. “If it wasn’t a secret, I could have told the person at the door we were having wild sex and come back later.”

Wild sex sounded pretty good right now. My dick voted yes as well. Her smile when she closed that door in my face meant her ass would be red tonight. I locked the door to save any unwanted guests from arriving while I was in here.

The visitor was Catarina and I stood at the door listening as she confided in Lucrezia that her security detail had been pressuring her into blowjobs and anal sex. I might not be able to fix a lot right now, as Dad was in the wind, but I could sort this out with a quick message in our group chat.