Page 99 of His Fury

I dampened down my rage. “Heletthem take you.” Reaching over, I flicked through some of the pictures. “You think Delayney’s idiots know where you buy your groceries?”

“They were following me, they could have?—”

“For fuck’s sake, Is!Openyour eyes.”

She flinched, but I saw the defeat in her eyes. “Maybe…maybe I don’t need to know the details of the…retaliation.”

Reaching out, I grabbed her and pulled her into me, holding her tight as her body shuddered against mine. I kissed the top of her head. “You don’t need to know,” I murmured against her hair. “Ask me, and I’ll tell you, but I’ll keep you away from it all.”

I heard her stifled sob, and I hugged her closer. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I know I need to be stronger.”

“You’re doing fine,” I whispered, kissing her forehead. “It’s a lot, I know.” I stepped back. “I do need to look at this closer.” I reached out and tapped the laptop. “You don’t need to stay.” I brushed a light kiss over her lips. “The bath in the main bathroom has a jacuzzi.”

Isla narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re sending me for a bath?”

“I am.” I didn’t care how misogynistic that made me appear. “He wanted me to see this for a reason, and I don’t want to find that reason while you’re within hearing distance…” I told her honestly.

“Or he wanted to scare me away,” she said with a guilty look that she tried to hide.

“Yeah.” I smiled. “It isn’t working though, is it?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m staying with you.” She sighed, her gaze drifting back to the laptop. “You think you’ll be angry? At whatever you find.” She looked at me and corrected herself. “Angrier?”

“Isla, you have no idea how fucking furious I am.”

“I’ll go soak in the tub,” she said with a dramatic roll of her eyes, her intent to make me smile, which worked. Rising up, she kissed me softly, and when she went to pull away, Igrabbed her hips and dragged her closer, taking over the chaste kiss and making it more.

“I’ll be up later,” I promised as we separated.

She reached up and cupped my face. “I’m upstairs if you need me. Okay?” She hesitated. “Don’t hurt him,” she whispered. “Please, Zayn.”

I kissed her palm and didn’t promise her anything. When she left the kitchen, I turned to the laptop and the flash drive. The anger that had been simmering, that I had hidden from her, began to boil once more.

“Right, motherfucker, let’s see what you’ve got.”

I was still standing in the same spot when Rye let himself into the house a while later. No knock, no announcement—just the softclickof the door and the sound of his heavy boots crossing the threshold as if he belonged here. Because he did; he was the only person besides me who considered this house ahome.

Julian had rarely come here, and as I clicked through file after file, I was grateful for it. Even though we’d changed the codes, I liked knowing how few times he had been.

Rye took one look at me, and his face darkened. “What’s happened now?” he asked with a sigh, seeing the empty beer bottle on the counter. He craned his neck to look into the living area. “Where’s Barnie?”

“Bath.”

He opened a beer, handed it to me, and opened his own. “That her laptop?” He looked closer. “Are you looking at a flash drive?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” he asked curiously, stepping closer, and I let him look over my shoulder. He gave out a low whistle. “What the fuck is this?”

I didn’t answer. He already knew. I stepped aside as hereplaced me, flicking through the files quicker than I did. Pausing on the images of Isla, his face grew darker and darker as he clicked.

“This is a shit show.”

I leaned against the counter, eyes down, as I thought about my next move. “I know.”

“You were supposed to be smarter than this.”

I lifted my eyes slowly. “Careful.”

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