Page 131 of Nash

To my point, Nadine approaches one of her guards with her hand outstretched. Quickly, he puts his phone in her palm.

She stands with Nash over the man whimpering with his naked ass presented to her. “You pigs like to take pictures,” she says. “You’re too pathetic to have someone desire you, so you take pictures of people forced to endure your stench. And trust me, you stink.”

Urine puddles beneath him. I suspect he’s about to shit himself, too.

“So what if we take pictures now,” Nadine smiles, “and send them to all of your country club, good ol’ boys? My, my, how they’ll laugh at pictures of your pancake ass in the air and your saggy balls drawn tight. Your picture will spread like a prairie fire in high wind. And don’t you worry a thinning hair on your greasy little head about it. I’ll make sure you barely live to endure the humiliation. Or…”

Nash squats by the man, pressing two fingers against the bridge of his broken nose. The man howls in pain while Nadine roars, “Tell us where he is!”

“County Shed Road,” the man snivels, “the Deliverance Chapel.”

“Of course, he fucking did,” Nash sneers. “Turner’s hiding the most immoral sin in a church.”

Nash unbraidsmy hair while calming lavender bubbles surround us. I sit between his legs, admiring his muscles and soaking in his love while my bottom still stings from his punishment.

I earned a helluva spanking for my stunt tonight.Whoops.Then I got the most luscious, brutal fuck against the window of The Mercier as Nash fisted my braids like reins, loving how a man watched our silhouettes from the sidewalk below, knowing I was a woman getting railed to orgasmic delight.

Now, the beast is gone, and Nash is quiet.

Too quiet.

“All your talking sounds like white noise.” I joke.

Still, no answer.

“Do we need Jesus to make you talk?” I warn, “I can screechThis Little Light of Mineand crack mirrors for you.”

He finishes with my hair, pulling me back to rest my head on his chest. My dark strands fan through the bubbles, falling over his arms that wrap around me.

“If I lose you,” he murmurs, “I’ll die inside. I’ll live for Alena; she’s my soul, but you’re my heart, Vale. If you pull another stunt like that again and get hurt or worse, my heart will die with you, too.”

“But I’m okay.” I reach for his hand.

“But you don’t know everything. There’s more. So much more. Some I can’t even tell you; you have to see it to understand.”

“I understand what you have to do sometimes. I know you don’t want to; you have to. It’s one of the things I love about you. Nash, all you do is fight for the ones you love.”

“Just promise me,” his lips press to my ear, “when you’re my queen, you’ll remember what you saw tonight. You’ll understand the threats we face, the work we do, and the decisions we’ve made. Promise that you won’t hate me for it.”

“I won’t hate you.” I turn around in his arms. I kneel, cupping his clenched jaw. “I promise I’ll understand.”

He takes my promise with a kiss, the kiss he killed for. Then he takes me in the tub with such passion I swear a tear falls from his wet cheek along with our sloshing bath water.

All I can feel is our love.

All I can wonder is…

…what else is he hiding?

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

VALE

Funnyhow a few days can change your life.

For me?

I’m dressed in the couture fashion Nadine brought to our suite at The Mercier. A glam team just finished my makeup and hair while a piercer waits to give me the final touch.

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