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I finally raise my head and frown in his direction. “Because you think she’ll forgive us, or because you won’t let her go?”

Something hot and ugly is filling my veins as I stare at him and wait for his answer.

“I’d prefer the former, but the latter works too.”

“Fucking asshole,” I mutter under my breath. I know he heard me, and I don’t give a shit.

“I’ll let that go. But the next time you or Maddox decide to forget my role in this syndicate and disrespect me again—”

“You’ll what?” I say, slowly sitting up and unfolding to my full height. “Kill me? No. You’ll order someone else to do it. Thatway, you can pretend you were simply doing your job. Kind of like Everest, huh. You were simply teaching her a lesson.”

“I don’t remember you protesting a fucking thing when I brought Nick in,” he says.

He hasn’t stood up. Hell, he hasn’t even dropped his foot from where he has his ankle crossed over the opposite knee.

He’s the picture of power. He looks so much like his father, Christos, I fight the urge to pull my gun and shoot him in the face.

Or maybe that’s just the fear of losing Everest. Fuck, even losing her trust is enough to shake me. For a moment, it had started to feel as though no time had passed between us, like we were those dumb kids who fell in love way too young.

“She’s moving,” Kato says, his eyes on his phone.

Still standing, I begin to pace as I watch the blinking dot winding through streets and pray she’s coming home. I know Madd will stay with her regardless, he will keep an eye on her.

But I need to see her, to hold her, to apologize to her for keeping that shit from her and one of us needs to make an appointment with someone to get her back on birth control ASAP. I won’t be another asshole who takes her choices away from her.

While Kato and I had run after the McLaren in hopes of stopping her, Maddox had the brains to chase after her. He’d stayed at the hole in the wall bar with Everest and Flora the entire time, reporting in periodically.

Not good enough. I need her here. I need to look her in the eye and apologize. Yeah, I know it’s going to take a shit load more than simply saying I’m sorry, but it’s a start.

What really sucks is my girl isn’t the kind of woman who can be bought with expensive shit or jewelry. She’s an action girl. Always has been.

We’ll be starting over from scratch with her, proving to her once again that she can trust us.

I won’t let her go, though. Never again. I might not be down with controlling her or taking away her choices, but that’s one thing I can’t give her – freedom away from me.

As the dot gets closer, my pacing continues, eyes glued to my phone screen. Definitely taking the streets leading home. Unless she veers off the path for some reason, she should be home in about five minutes.

Of course, the five minutes drag until I’m nearly coming out of my skin.

The garage door rumbles to life at the same time the motion sensor beeps at her arrival so close to the house. The guards would have opened the gate the moment they spotted Kato’s vehicle.

I’m already striding toward the door leading to the garage before the garage door begins to close.

Except Everest doesn’t walk through the door.

Nope. My wife is carried in by Madd, her protests slurred and half-hearted.

“I’m not that fucking drunk, asshole,” she says, pushing at Maddox’s chest as he carries her into the living room and sets her on the couch. “I’m going to bed,” she says, lunging to her feet the moment her ass hits the cushion.

“We need to talk first,” Madd says.

“Really? We need to talk now when I’m drunk? You three have had weeks…fuckingweeksto tell me the truth, to warn me that I could end up pregnant. Guess what? My father –Dimais in the wind. Yep. Apparently, he’s scared of the consequences and disappeared. Maybe this time, he’ll finish the job himself instead of sending one of his lackeys to do it for him. So that’ll be two kids –” She holds up two fingers as she sways on her feet.“Dead. Oh, and you get to grieve my death again. Or whatever the fuck you three did before.”

She turns her attention to Kato. “You can go make more money and kill more people.” She turns to me. “You can fuck your way through Cedar Springs. I mean, if there’s anyone left you haven’t screwed yet.” Then she turns to Madd. “And…well, I don’t really know what you did but yeah. Fuck you. All three of you. I’m still pissed. I don’t want to talk tonight. I want to go to bed. Alone.”

Even with her gaze a little unfocused, she still manages to level a glare on each of us in turn.

“You hear me?Alone. Do not knock on my fucking door. Do not come in there thinking you have the right to touch me, and don’t bother waking me up in the morning. I’ll come out if or when I feel like it.”