Page 51 of The Vow

“Then something else.”

I flipped over piece after piece, searching for more belonging to the sunset; there was a good chunk missing, yet I wasn’t coming across any that belonged.

“I won’t lie and tell you Damon doesn’t want the world toknow you’re his, but neither can I agree that there was another option that wouldn’t have put you in more danger.”

My throat felt stiff, swallowing becoming a task.

“Anything else, and Belmont would be hunting you down right now. The shortcut to an upper hand over Damon.”

My eyes snapped to his. “And it’s somehow different because I’m his wife?”

“To go after his wife would be a declaration of war, not a negotiating tactic,” Pat grunted. “Especially the way Damon had to play this.”

I continued to dig through the box: a distraction. Though finding a sunset piece seemed as elusive as finding a good reason to disagree with him.

Damon was playing with fire to go after Belmont the way he had, but the quickest, surest way to figure out the details of Belmont’s arrangement with Shazad and the specifics of their operation was by being invited inside, not barging through the gates and storming the castle.

It was why my brother and I were never able to get close enough.

Damon’s strategy, though, was the embodiment ofkeep your enemies close, the inherent risk of that undeniable. I’d felt the full crush of its weight when Damon pointed out the security cameras in the room once the mistletoe drone was gone.

Every person, every interaction monitored. Even the number of men who’d moved at the slightest perceived threat to Belmont…the only safer place for me would’ve been to not be there at all.

“We’re all selfish sometimes, Robbie, but don’t mistake the man who’s amassed an empire by reshaping consequences into advantages for one who’s only acting in self-interest,” Pat said. “The mark of success isn’t the absence of setbacks, but theability and adaptability to turn those setbacks into strides forward.”

My head flicked up. “Are you his motivational coach, too?”

“If you mean do I kick his ass when I think he’s doing the wrong thing? Then, yeah, I guess I am.”

I set the box on my legs and asked him squarely, “So did he do the wrong thing?”

“Once you were there? No.” His shoulders dropped. “I think he did the wrong thing by bringing you. I think he’s risking too much by letting you be involved, but no matter how many times I tell him, he won’t change his damn mind.”

“I have to be involved.”

His lips pulled into a firm line. “That’s what he says.”

“Well, he’s right.” And it might’ve been the only thing my husband and I agreed on at this moment.

“I wouldn’t say right. I’d say determined to do whatever it takes to win you back, no matter the risk,” Pat rumbled, and before I could protest, he added, “Since the moment I met him in that prison, it’s always been about you, Robbie. For him, it’s always been you.”

Heat flamed in my cheeks. The shocking tenderness from the sheer mountain of a man didn’t even come close to the utter genuineness buried into each syllable. I tried to look away, tried to speak, but for seconds, I could do nothing but feel Pat’s confession layering into Damon’s exact sentiment like mortar around bricks of truth.

I jerked my head, battling through the walls that closed in from the inside.

“It’s been fifteen years, Pat. It doesn’t matter what it was or what it’s been, all that matters is what it is. And what it is, is unsalvageable.”

I dug into the box again, the pile of pieces scraping loudlyfrom side to side. Even though my focus was faulty, what I was searching for wasn’t there.

The box clunked as I set it down on the table. “I think your puzzle is missing some pieces.”And your mind, a few screws.

Pat tipped his head to the side, replying low, “I think you are, too.”

And then the sly bastard reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of sunset-colored pieces, setting them in front of me. “Hard to see the whole picture when you’re missing pieces, Robbie.”

He’d played me, hiding them this entire time to prove his point.

Bitterness welled on my tongue. Bitterness for this conversation. For his defense of Damon. And for the torture hearing those words and wanting them to be true, put me through.

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