Page 82 of The Vow

“Hit me again, Robber.”

My brows cinched in the center. “Why?”Was this another trick? It had to be.“Do you get off on your pain, too? Here I thought it was just mine.”

Sparks flung, my strike hitting squarely on its mark.

“There is nothing you could do to me that is more painful than having spent the last fourteen years, nine months, thirteen days, and nineteen hours without you.”

The exactitude of his timeline made my heart stop.

“Time for you to go home,” Damon said before I could respond, nodding to Pat, who returned to the driver’s side of the car while Damon led me by my imprisoned wrist to the back seat.

Releasing me, he opened the door, but instead of getting in, I spun and stepped flush to him. He needed to know I wasn’t afraid of him—of getting close to him.

I slid my palms up his chest, wishing I didn’t feel the hammer of his heart because I swore he didn’t have one. The solid silver of his stare splintered under my touch, and his cheek twitched when my fingers curled into the lapels of his jacket.

“Then it will be all the more satisfying when this ends andI know you’ll have to live the rest of your miserable life without me,” I promised him in a breathy whisper, smiling even though it hurt.

“Ring or not, you’re still my wife, Robber.” His possessiveness poorly disguised his petulance.

“Ring or not, you’re still a monster,” I hissed and then slid into the car, all the way to the other side so I wouldn’t have to look at him, and so I wouldn’t have to feel his eyes on me.

Damon Remington might be a wanted man…but he was wanted by everyone but me.

Chapter Twenty-One

Robyn

“You should listen to what he has to say, Robbie.” Pat’s low drawl wrapped around the interior of the car.

I tensed. I was tired of nicknames laden with intimacy given to me by those who continued to put their own needs above mine—or worse, at the expense of mine.

And I was tired of everyone being on Damon’s side when all he did was hurt people.When all he did was hurt me.

“Why? So, I can be brainwashed like you?” I grumbled, staring out the window as we crossed back over the Golden Gate Bridge, wishing my past and my husband could disappear as easily as the city skyline.

A string of curses, some possibly not even in English, spewed from his lips.

“You know better than to think I’m brainwashed, Robbie. I just happen to know the truth.” His voice grated as the car picked up speed. “What you saw in there wasn’t what it looked like.”

Oranges.

Unease coated my skin in goose bumps.No.He couldn’t be telling the truth; it didn’t make sense.

“Then why wouldn’t he tell me? Why would he let me think…” Thathe was handing over my network to Belmont.

“Oh, I told him to, believe me,” the large man grumbled, his eyes flickering to mine in the rearview mirror. “I’m sure you heard me in there with him last night.”

So, this was what they were arguing about.

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth.God, who was I? Still finding reasons to keep believing the man who lied to me?Maybe Damon lied to Pat, too. That had to be what happened. Damon lied to Pat so that he would go along with it.

“Well then maybe he lied to you, too. I know what I saw, and it doesn’t surprise me that Damon did…what he did. It’s what he always does, right? Whatever it takes to meet his ends.”

You are my end. Thosewords haunted me like a gorgeous ghost from our first conversation we shared all those weeks ago.What would Damon resort to to make sure I remained his at the end of this?

After tonight, I didn’t want to think about the possibilities.

“Goddammit.” Another strung-out expletive before the car made a sharp veer off the highway.

---