Page 80 of Cruel Revenge

“Don’t scold me like I’m a child. She didn’t hurt anyone. And I let her go because she was the reason we were able to save Gia. Now, we’re even on that front.”

“Yeah, well, it seems like we’re going to have more problems with her. She may be laying low right now, but that’s onlybecause she’s been meeting with your husband’s friend, Emily Granville.”

The blood in my veins freezes as I sit upright and look at him. “That sounds an awful lot like an accusation, Aiden.”

“Shouldn’t I be accusing your husband when he’s involved with this shit? We didn’t have any reason to so much as think about trouble from the Granvilles, and now that you’re married to him, it seems like they’re going to be a problem. You can’t blame me for wondering if that has something to do with him.”

“Icanblame you, and I do.”

He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be like that. You know if you were in my position, you would be suspicious, too. Especially after everything we’ve been through.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, considering his words for a couple of minutes. “Joshua isn’t involved in anything.”

“Can you say that without a doubt?”

No.

“Yes.” I get to my feet and dust off my borrowed sweatpants before leaning down and grabbing the bag of bloody clothing. “I’ve got to go. I’m going to have a late night at the laundromat trying to get this blood out.”

Aiden sighs and stands with me. “I don’t want you to go back home and tell Joshua about this. Promise me that you’re not going to tell him.”

I give Aiden a flat look. “He’s my husband. If he asks what you and I were talking about, it doesn’t seem right to lie to him.”

Aiden walks with me to the gate that leads out to the driveway. “You’re lying to him about so much already, what’s one more thing?”

I don’t bother to tell him that “one more thing” could cost me my life.

Aiden doesn’t need to worry about anything else on top of all the shitshow our lives have become.

Not when I can handle this on my own.

I think.

Chapter Twenty

JOSHUA

Maybe I should start planningfor the day when she uses that butterfly knife to kill me. When she finally snaps.

I could kill her first.

The thought has no appeal anymore, though. The more I think about slitting her pretty little throat, the more my chest hurts.

Maybe I should stop following my wife around New York and hoping that one of these days she’s going to tell me the truth about everything.

A smarter man would stop and try to earn her trust even though I don’t think that’s a thing she’s willing to give anyone. I’ve seen the way she talks to her brother. She doesn’t even trust him.

Or maybe that man would be a complete fucking idiot and put his trust in the wrong person.

Skyla isn’t the most trustworthy person.

But earning her trust would be the fucking pot at the end of the rainbow.

Andrew sighs and sits down on the steps of the apartment building across the street from the laundromat. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re making a mistake doing this.”

I shrug, pulling out my phone and looking at the tracking app for the bug Andrew placed on her car two days ago. “She’s going to be here soon, by the looks of things. Wouldn’t you come to a laundromat to wash the blood out of your clothing if you owned one?”

“I’m not talking about staking out her business. I’m talking about planting bugs on her and following her around. There are ways to get her to trust you enough to open up about what she’s doing. This is not one of them.”