Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
But back to the point, Dante is right. When she first mentioned the idea of a barbecue with the Wades, her agenda was to reintegrate me into life. As always, my selfless girl isn’t acting in her own interest but in mine.
“I hope you know how lucky you are,” Dante says, scrutinizing me. “She’s not like anyone I’ve met. She deserves more than your husbandly duty of respect and protection. Anya is the kind of woman who wants to be loved. Don’t be an asshole to her about that.”
My voice holds a warning. “I told you before. Keep out of it.”
“You don’t have to punish her for what your ex-wife did to you. She’s not Rachele.”
“I fucking know that,” I say through clenched teeth.
Anya proved it so well too when she rejected Bennet’s proposal in her humble way without rubbing another man’s desire in my face. She could’ve flaunted the power a dangerous man’s interest gave her and sent a message that said I could easily lose her to someone who’d treat her better, that she had her pick of men in New York City, but she didn’t. Rachele would’ve definitely used that attention as a tool to manipulate me. If she were in Anya’s shoes, she would’ve employed my jealousy to coax things out of me I didn’t want to say, things like I love you.
“Your wife is valuable,” Dante continues. “You better treat her like she’s fucking precious. Do you want to know why?” He gets into my space, the mask of charming carelessness he perfected dropping from his face to reveal the cold, dangerous, and scary motherfucker he is underneath. “In case the fact didn’t penetrate your thick skull, she’s the most powerful person in our organization.”
His words hit me like punches, knocking the air from my lungs. I can only stare at him, not wanting to admit what that means because the truth is too terrifying.
“She knows our suppliers and our clients,” he says. “She knows our informants in and outside the force. She knows our strengths and our weaknesses. She knows how many weapons we have and where we keep them. She knows every man’s most personal details down to his secret offshore bank accounts and the name of every enemy’s throat he slit. She knows how and where we launder the money. She knows fucking everything because she pays the bribes and the bills. You know what my old man used to say? He said the person who manages the money runs the business. Well, she runs your business. And do you know what her greatest power is in the eyes of our enemies?” He deals the final blow with flourish. “She’s your biggest weakness.”
I go stone cold. I want to deny it. But everything he said, every frightening word, I already know. Isn’t that why I work so hard to keep a barrier between us?
Biting off every word, I make sure there’s no misunderstanding about what I’m saying. “I do not fucking love her.”
“Yeah.” Dante bobs his head, a smirk curving his lips. “That’s what you keep on saying, but that’s not how you behave. You can tell the world you don’t love her as much as you like, but people have eyes in their heads. No one believes that. The only person who does is Anya.” He adds before turning away, “I hope you realize that.”
I catch up with him before he’s made it two steps, stopping his progress with a hand on his arm.
He looks at where I’m gripping his bicep, but I’m too livid to care that I’m crossing a line.
With my fingers digging into his muscles, I snarl in his face. “Anya is nobody’s business but mine.”
His laugh is wry. “Wrong again. She’s yours in one way, but she’s ours in another. She’s the backbone of this organization, and that means she belongs to everyone. She’s not simply an accountant managing the money or a boss lady making decisions when it matters. She’s the keeper of our secrets. That’s why every man in this business will protect her with his life.”
Grabbing the lapel of his jacket, I give him a shake. “What the fuck are you saying?”
He watches me with a cool, emotionless gaze. “I’m saying that we better do a damn good job of protecting her. I’m saying that if, God forbid, our enemies ever manage to snatch her from under our noses, the biggest mercy you can show her will be to drop a bomb on the lot of them because I don’t have to explain to you what they’ll do to her to get the information they want.”
I shake him harder. “Never, do you hear me? I’ll never kill my own wife.”
Undeterred, he continues in the same, flat tone. “What I’m saying is that men like us don’t die peacefully in our sleep. We all go down with bullets in our chest. You dragged her into this life. There will very likely come a day that Anya will be taken from you, from all of us, so you’d be wise to make every day you’re lucky enough to have with her count. More than that, you should make it count for her too.”