Page 109 of Betrayed in the Dark
“I’ll meet you there.” I step away, my mind surging into overdrive as I try to connect all the bloody pieces. “Everything ends tonight. You have my word.” Reginald appears relieved as I turn and head for my car.
As I accelerate down the driveway, relief coasts over me, knowing that we’re finally going to put an end to all of this tonight.
Once and for all.
Chapter twenty-three
Madeleine
Numbers stare back at me from my laptop screen as I try to make sense of this quarter’s profits from the casino.
“It says we’re almost two million short from what was predicted, but how?” I ask aloud, tapping the tip of my pen against my chin in frustration.
It’s not like me to make such a massive error.
But maybe with the stress of my upcoming wedding, I let things slip by unnoticed. Or maybe I just wasn’t on my A-game.
Maybe if you had spent more time in your casino and less time fucking your bodyguard, you wouldn’t be having this issue…
I groan in frustration, slamming my laptop closed. I need to go to the casino and have a word with Angelo, our manager. If anyone knows what’s going on, it would be him. But he sees the numbers, too, so why hasn’t he called to inform me of this situation?
I quickly send Reginald a text to let him know my schedule for today before sliding my phone into my back pocket. As I walk up the stairs, I take the printed reports with me to skim through them.
“Eli,” I call out as I approach his doorway. “I need to go to the casino.” There’s no answer. “Eli?” I knock and wait for a response, but there’s no sound or movement on the other side of the door. Hesitantly, I push it open and step inside. I’m immediately hit with the familiar smell of cedar and spice. A scent that wraps around every part of my soul, tantalizing my senses.
“Eli? Are you—”Right.I forgot he went to talk with my brothers. I rub my temple as stress builds behind my eyes.
It’s not as if he’s going to confess to them that he loves me or something…Right?No. No. Definitely not. I assume he’s just going to explain that it was all one big misunderstanding and that he was only being slightly overprotective because another man had put his hands on me.
And I’m certain they aren’t going to kill him.
Well,almostcertain.
Curiosity piques my interest, and I step closer to the bed, running my fingers across the smooth comforter that’s perfectly fitted to the mattress. But, of course, it is.
Eli would never leave his bed unmade.
I’m sure that’s a bit of the military life that will forever be instilled into him.
I stop in front of the nightstand, drop my reports, and pick up the book that lies on top of it. I flip through the worn pages, noticing words likelife after the military, relearning civilian life,andPTSD.
My chest constricts, and I absent-mindedly rub a hand over my sternum. The unknown of what he’s had to face over all these years makes my heart feel too heavy.
And just thinking about the burns on his back makes me see red. It fills my veins with a need for violence and vengeance. It makes me want to find the men who tortured him and kill them all with my bare hands. I want to make them suffer. I want them to feel every ounce of pain that Eli had to endure. I want to—
I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I place the book down.
Eli will get his revenge.
Maybe not today or tomorrow.
But he will. I can feel it.
Opening my eyes, I look down at the drawer and grin as I begin to open it. “What secret sex toys are you hiding in—?” My words die on the tip of my tongue as the solo object that sits before me causes my heart to race faster than it should.
I pick up the black square box, holding it protectively in my hand as if it might jump and make a break for it.
This can’t be what I think it is…right?
