Page 74 of Danger Close
You Look Beautiful
Cobra
Thirty years is a long time to live as a shadow. I was the villain’s villain. I was the thing the bad guys feared most. I had wielded that persona like a weapon against the woman I cared about the most. Second only to my child.
“I’m sorry, Princess,” I whispered into the empty foyer, unable to bring myself to say it to her.
There’d be time to grovel… after the wedding. I wasn’t ready to have a fight. I wasn’t ready for cross words. I just wanted to get through this wedding without disappointing our daughter.
When she stepped out of the room, walking sheepishly down the marble steps, whatever anger I had fell away.
“You look beautiful.” I waited for her at the bottom of the steps.
Her slow gait didn’t bother me in the least. I knew she was hurting. But the swelling on her lip had gone down, the rest was hidden by makeup. The makeup artist we’d sent had definitely done her work.
Even more enticing was the burgundy colored dress with crystals down the bodice, floating to a long mermaid tail that floated beautifully around her ankles, barely grazing the ground. I’d had Yuliya find her a fur wrap to keep her arms warm. We’d put heaters in the barn, but it would still be far from anything that resembled “warm”.
She looked like something from an old Hollywood film, her hair in a french twist, her lips a pale pink, with eye shadow that matched her dress. Her gold complexion was perfect, and all the warm, red tones just emphasized how deep and blue her eyes were.
At the bottom of the stairs, she took my arm. I tried not to react to how much weight she put on me. I was tempted to just carry her, especially when her feet wobbled on the gravel.
I opened the passenger door of an armored SUV, and helped her climb in. We would be alone, as per my request, but in a convoy formation for our own security. Mostly hers, really. The SUV was bulletproof. It was like driving a tank.
“Who are in the other cars?” she asked, her voice whisper-soft with her hesitance.
I hated that she was scared of me. I, like whatever bastard was tormenting her, had diminished her light just a little bit more, and I was a fucking asshole for it.
“In the front is my brother, Jericho and his wife, Aoibheann.” I put the car into drive, and started down the road as soon as Jericho’s tail lights shut off. “Behind us is Yuliya, my sister, and Dave Beaufort. He’s…”
I chewed my bottom lip, wondering how much I should tell her.
Then, I opted for the truth. “He’s helping me on a project.”
“What kind of project?” she asked, her fake innocence just adding fuel to the fire.
The urge to kill traveled through my body like electricity. I had a hit list that was at least four people deep. Probably more, if I really tried to examine it.
“Kill the man who makes you flinch away from me.” At the end of the day,thatwas the thing that will kill him.
He made my wife flinch from my touch, and for that, he had to pay. Every other sin was just another hour of torture added to his execution. It was another scream of agony I would elicit from his dirty mouth.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.” Teri’s voice cut into my thoughts, her voice muffled, with the snot in her sinuses. “You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
She was a martyr, her hands together on her lap, her posture straight, and her eyes on the floor.
“I just hope that heonlytakes his pound of flesh fromme. Not anyone else.” She shut her eyes, her feelings were getting the best of her. She took one deep breath, then let it out through her plump, beautiful lips. “I’m ready.”
“Ready for what?” I couldn’t help asking.
She looked away, her eyes watching the landscape as it passed us by.
“For… all of this to be over. If that is what has to happen.”
I brought the car to a halt at the four-way stop. The blue barn looked different today. One of the large doors was opened. I was surprised that it could still do that, the ancient hinges holding on for dear life. I idly wondered if I could buy a barn and refurbish it into a home. Would Teri like that?
Either way, I thought about a house that had that color of paint. Maybe something a little darker, to match Teri’s eyes.
“Come off of it, Teri!” I snapped, putting my other hand on the steering wheel, trying like hellnotto pull the car over to the shoulder, to grab her and put her on my lap. “Of all the people in the world I ever thought would be so fatalistic Ineverdreamed that it would be you–”
