Page 86 of The Vow

Blurry or not, Damon Remington didn’t leave a trace.Nor was I going to leave her wedding band behind as a damn donation.

It took ten minutes to find the man in green. Two minutes to persuade him to open the box so I could retrieve the ring. And one minute to take his camera and drop it into one of the numerous champagne fountains in the room. He knew better than to make a single sound of protest.

“She okay?” I asked. He was waiting for me to ask. His stare was like a loaded gun.

“Depends on your definition of okay.”

I frowned. “Physically well but emotionally enraged with me.”

“Yeah, then she’s okay.”

“Thanks,” I grunted and tipped my head back against the headrest, sliding my hat over my eyes.

Monster.

I was a monster. There was no question. The things I’d done over the last fifteen years were the definition of monstrous. Drug deals. Arms deals. Smuggling. Extortion. Thievery. Bribery. Piracy. Murder. It didn’t matter how I buttoned them up in salt-and-pepper suits and manicured manners or gave my infamy a flare with my skewed moral code—Damon Remington never did business that dealt in the harm of women and children—I was still a criminal. The king of the criminal underworld.

I’d become a monster, but so would any man resigned to hell for long enough; becoming a monster was the only way to survive. Becoming the biggest monster was the only way to protect her.

“Damon—”

“Not tonight, Pat,” I cut him and his good intentions off, wanting nothing more than to sink into the darkness.

“Then when, Damon? You’re leaving tomorrow.”

My throat managed to siphon a swallow. “Maybe never.”

All I ever wanted was to protect her. Robber.My wife.I was the one who brought her into my world, and I swore to keep her safe from the demons who lived there. To keep that promise, I did things I never imagined I was capable of because that was the price of love.

To protect her, I left everything behind. I’d become a traitor. I’d been beaten and tortured. I’d swindled and charmed, lied and stole, threatened and harmed—I’d committed every crime in the book and some outside the box to pave my way from nothing into the world’smost wantedman.

Fifteen goddamn years, and it never occurred to me that what I had to become to keep her safe was the very thing she could never love.A monster.

“Damon—”

“She can’t love a monster, Pat. I never should’ve asked her to.”

She was mine, for better or for worse, but she didn’t belong in my universe.

“You’re not a monster, Damon.”

A sound puffed through my lips. A laugh starved of any actual joy. “You have to say that because I pay you.”

Pat swore. The man hated when I brought up our professional relationship as a barrier to conversation.

“You’re a stubborn, wool-brained bastard, Damon. You think I tell you that because you pay me? Because I got plenty more where that came from if it’ll get me a good raise.”

I palmed my hat and pulled it from my face. So much for a few minutes to decompress on the ride home.

“What do you want me to say?” I glared at him. “I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t risk it. And I don’t expect her to forgive me. Her forgiveness wasn’t part of the deal.”

“You know, the same party trick gets old after a while.”

My brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”

“The one where you do the right thing but make yourself look like the villain.”

“That’s not a party trick, Pat, that’s who I am.”

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