Page 89 of Heartless
“Do I have to tell you what I saw?” Reaper’s voice cracked. “Because I’ll paint that picture. I broke the door to find him on top of you, his hands around your neck, your face covered in blood—”
“I know. I was there,” I cut in, sounding more snippy than I intended. “I felt everything. I couldn’t breathe and thought for sure I was going to die. Iknowhow bad it was.”
My husband’s face crumpled with despair. “Then how can you excuse any of it?”
“I’m not,” I sighed. “Something does need to happen. I’m not spending the night with him again until—”
“You areneverseeing him again,” Reaper snarled. “He is not worthy to be yours and never will be.”
“That’smydecision, Reaper.”
“God damn, fuck everything.” He lowered his head into his hands, fingers tearing through his hair. “I was really hoping you’d come to your senses after you got some rest.”
“I have,” I insisted. “I’m feeling a lot more certain about this now than yesterday.”
“Mari, please…”
His voice softened to a whisper, a plea of desperation tugging at my heart. He dragged a chair next to my bed and sat down, tears filling his eyes as he took my hand. “Please try to understand where I’m coming from. Iloveyou—”
“I love you too,” I said.
“No, listen.” He drew in a shaky breath, fingertip rubbing over the stone on my ring. “You are mywife. My whole world.” One hand stretched out to caress my waist and lower abdomen. “I want to put my babies inside you and watch them grow.” He huffed out a humorless laugh. “If I break a hip in forty years, I want it to be because I was chasing your fine ass. If he—” Reaper’s breath stuttered as his grip tightened on my hand. “If he had taken all of that away from me…I don’t know what I’d do, Mari. I’d havenothing. Do you understand?”
I turned toward him, sliding my hands up to his shoulders, caressing his neck and scalp. His arms came around my waist to hold me, his face in my chest.
“I love you so much,” I whispered, brushing kisses across his forehead. “You’re my husband in body and spirit, the father of my future children.” My whole body felt heavy, like a pile of bricks, as I brought my lips to his ear. “But if you kill him—” My breath halted, stuck in my chest for a moment before I pushed through. “I’m sorry my love, but if you do this, I can’t ever forgive you.”
Twenty-Six
SHADOW
My head pounded like the worst fucking hangover. Which was odd, considering I made sure to keep my drinking under control at the party. I rubbed my temples with a groan, confused to find sticky, flaky blood stuck to my skin.
“What…” My eyes fluttered open with the quick realization that I was not in my bedroom. I was in a jail cell, the bars reminiscent of the cage I grew up in. And Mari was nowhere to be found.
“What the fuck?” I demanded of the barren, cold room as I scrambled to my feet. “What happened?”
No one was around to answer me. I inspected my hands and arms, cold dread seeping in at the state of myself. Dried blood and scratches covered my hands and forearms. Bruises and splinters were embedded in my skin. A throbbing in my head. I touched my face gingerly, feeling the swelling around my eye and jaw.
“Mari…”
I fell asleep next to her with no clothes on. Now I was alone, in a dark, dingy jail cell, dressed haphazardly in a pair of pants. A shirt had been crumpled and tossed onto the cot in my cell.
Panic gripped my chest, the sensation as unwelcome as it was familiar. I hadn’t felt like this in weeks and now it was back with a vengeance.
Oh fuck, no. Fuck, what did I do?
I walked up to the iron bars, wrapping my hands around them as I took in my surroundings. The room had other jail cells, but mine was the only one occupied. There were no windows, so I had no idea what time of day it was or how long I’d been out. Nothing good came from me waking up in strange places and feeling like roadkill, I knew that much.
Did I take a sleeping pill?
The thought cut through me, anxiety slashing from my abdomen to my throat as I replayed the details of that night. My bottle of pills had been on the nightstand, like always. Then Mari came to my room with me and…I forgot about everything outside of being with her. She finished pleasing me and we talked, held each other. She started falling asleep and then I…
No…
No.
Oh please fucking God, no.
