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Chapter Eighteen

JOSHUA

If I break the window, Skyla is going to kill me. I can see it now, broken glass on the ground and that damn butterfly knife in my neck.

It might be satisfying, but I don’t want to risk pissing her off that much when I don’t have the entire story yet.

I do place at least a little value on my own life.

And these fucking feelings she has me struggling with just mess everything up.

If only Andrew could find out what the fuck it is that she’s hiding, this would all be a lot easier.

I pull out the key she gave me this morning, inserting it into the lock and twisting.

The black door swings open, and I’m met with a place that looks like color and life exploded.

I forgot how filled with plants and jewel tones her house was.

Oddly, now that I know her better, it’s hard to picture her living here. It seems too over the top and dramatic for her.

It’s easier to picture her in a sleek and modern home, maybe with something like a saber-tooth tiger as a pet. Something just as feral as she is.

Rattling comes from the kitchen as I ease the door shut behind me, careful not to make a noise.

I slide the keys into my pocket before taking the gun out of my waistband and flicking off the safety.

I creep through the house, looking around the corners, not entirely sure who to expect in here.

Logan could be here, alone, or there could be members of the Rinaldo family lurking around and waiting for their chance to take out one of the Lyndes. It’s a coin toss, and it’s not like Skyla has a shortage of enemies right now.

A loud crash comes from the kitchen, my brother’s soft cursing following it.

I enter the room behind him, the gun still drawn.

He freezes as I press the mouth of the gun against his temple from behind.

“Whoever you are, you should know that I’m with the DEA. If you kill a cop, that’s not going to look good for you.” Logan’s voice wavers, his breathing coming in short little bursts as he clutches the bowl in his hands tighter. “I have money. I can get you whatever you want.”

“Once a coward, always a coward.” I press the gun closer to his temple, forcing him to crane his neck to the side. “What the fuck are you doing?”

His shoulders climb closer to his ears. “Why are you holding a gun to me?”

I jab him harder with the gun, not bothering to give him an answer.

Logan sighs. “Look, I was just coming here to see what evidence I could find. We thought that if we could get her sent to jail, you wouldn’t have to keep up this charade.”

I bristle, wondering how much the little worm has managed to find out.

Skyla and I have been careful when we’re in public, making it look like we’re in a relationship in case anyone sees us.

“Joshua, I don’t know what you think is going on here, but you’ve got it all wrong.” Logan leans forward to put the bowl on the counter, holding his empty hands up beside his head.

“Aiden caught you jacking off to pictures of my wife on her couch.”

“If she’s really your wife, then why does she still have her house?”

“Because it’s a decision that she and I came to.” I wrap my finger around the trigger, my heart thudding.

I could end this, right here and now.

We wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.

There would be one less problem to deal with.

I wouldn’t have to keep looking around the corners, expecting my brother to jump out at me with some bullshit charges he made up to get me out of the way.

I’m sure it’s going to happen. He’s obsessed with Skyla. He always has been.

It’s not a good kind of obsession, though. It’s one that makes him unpredictable.

It’s the reason why he needs to die.

Bella enters the room with a photo album in her hands. “I’ve finished burning some of these.”

She stops dead in her tracks when she sees me, but that’s when a twisted little smile crosses her face. When she tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear and cocks one hip, the innocent act slips back into a mask.

“I didn’t know you were going to be joining us.” She sets the album on the counter and tears out a picture of Skyla with Summer when she was a baby. “I was thinking about inviting you. Logan, too.”

Logan nods despite the gun still pressed to him. “You know you want to do this, too, Joshua. She’s nothing but a problem for the family.”

“You want to talk about wives?” I drop the gun and flick the safety back on, tucking it into my waistband. “Then let’s talk. Does Bella know that you were here jerking off to pictures of Skyla?”

Bella’s smile falls, and she rolls her eyes, leaving the kitchen and heading into the living room with the photo album.

I follow behind her, not sure what she’s about to do.

She smirks at me before launching the photo album into the fire with what looks like another that’s already burned.

Without thinking, I lunge across the room and reach for the edge of the photo album sticking out of the fire.

I yank it out and toss it to the ground, stomping out the flames before turning to Bella.

My blood boils as I advance on her, not looking up as Logan makes a noise in the back of his throat.

I grab Bella by the bicep, holding her in place as I tower over her. “You don’t know who the fuck you’re messing with.”

Logan shakes his head and sighs. “You don’t know who you’re married to. You need a wake-up call.”

My fingers tighten, digging into Bella’s flesh as if Logan didn’t say anything. “You’re going to leave right now.”

She tilts her chin upward, a surprisingly hard look in her eyes. “And if I don’t?”

Maybe she isn’t the woman I thought she was all this time.

I pull out the gun, tucking it just beneath her chin. “I don’t want to have to kill you. You’re a stupid flicking bitch, but you keep Logan out of my hair. I would hate for you to stop being useful to me. Wouldn’t you?”

Fear takes over her gaze, and she swallows hard. “I’ll go.”

“That’s what I thought.” I lower the gun. “And if you even think about leaving here and telling anyone what’s going on, I’ll let Skyla kill you. I’m sure you know she’s been foaming at the mouth to do it.”

Bella nods and steps to the side the second I release her arm. She takes off through the house and slams the door behind her.

I turn to Logan when she’s gone. “You’re talking about my wife.”

“My wife this and my wife that.” Logan scoffs and crosses his arms, proving once again that he has to be the biggest idiot to walk the planet. “What are you really going to do about it? You need me.”

“Cutting off your cock would be a good place to start,” I advance on him as he starts to walk backward down the hall.

“But I think it would be more entertaining to disgrace you in front of your peers. What would all your little cop friends think about you sitting in a cell for stalking and harassing a woman?”

He stops in his tracks and stands taller. “You even think about doing that, and I’m going to turn in all the evidence I’ve been hiding about you for years. And the Lyndes. I’ll take you and your new family down with me.”

I chuckle, tucking the gun away once more, hands clasping together behind my back. “You think people would believe you when you’re a disgraced cop?”

Logan’s jaw works overtime, opening and closing while he searches for a way to talk himself out of this.

There is no way out, though. He knows I’m right.

The cases might get pushed forward, but if he’s thrown in jail, there will be holes I can poke through and pockets I can line.

His eyes narrow. “You know, I could tell them exactly who your wife is.”

“You don’t know anything about Skyla. If you did, you wouldn’t have cheated on her.”

The corner of his mouth crooks. “You don’t know the first thing about her. If you did, you would be begging me to deal with her.”

“You tell yourself whatever delusional things you need to get through the day.” I circle him, hands loose at my side in case he lunges at me.

“You think you have everything worked out in your head? You think she’s going to come back to you?

She’s not. Your threats are useless, and they always have been.

Not a single person in your life takes you seriously. ”

“That’s their mistake.”

My shoulder bumps into his, sending him stumbling to the side. “I don’t think it is. At the end of the day, you’re nothing more than a little boy playing pretend.”

Logan tenses, his hands balling into tight fists and his stance becoming rigid. “Why don’t you ask your wife who she really is instead of trying to intimidate me?”

“I’m not trying to do anything.” I stop beside him, taking a step back so I can look him in the eyes. “You’re intimidated by me, and you should be.”

“You’re just like Dad,” Logan says, his voice filled with venom. “You’re going to spend the rest of your life in prison.”

“Probably.” I smirk and raise an eyebrow.

Logan’s face is bright red. He looks at me before spinning on his heel and stalking out of the house.

I watch him go, slamming the door shut behind him before pulling out my phone.

Andrew picks up on the second ring. “Hey.”

“I’m going to send you the address I’m at. I need you to have two people stationed to watch it around the clock.”

“Is there a problem?” Something shuts in the background.

“Logan.”

“I told you when you first took over that he wasn’t going to be good for the business.”

“And funnily enough, I told you so isn’t what I’m interested in hearing right now.

” I head to the fireplace and douse the fire, looking at the remains of Skyla’s memories in the hearth.

I grab the burned album and tuck it beneath my arm.

“I don’t want anyone in or out of the place, and if Logan so much as sniffs around the building, I want to be called. ”

“Will do.”

“Have someone watching Logan, too. If he’s going to turn on us, I want to be the first to know.”

“What about Bella?”

“Too obvious. She might be a psycho, but I don’t want to tail both of them. Logan would see someone following her from a mile away, but he’s too self-involved to think about me putting a tail on him.”

“The sooner you put him in the ground, the better.”

“I know.” I head out of the house, shutting and locking the door behind me. “Have people to the location as soon as possible.”

Skyla looks up as I walk into the office, Kalani trailing behind me.

I ignore the suggestive movement she makes at the very edges of my peripherals while Skyla stifles a smile.

“How did going to the house go?”

She pushes the paperwork to the side as I drop the album on the desk.

“Bella was inside, burning your things, and Logan was looking through everything.”

“Of course.” She gets up and rounds the desk, shooing Kalani away before turning to me. “You look like there’s something else you want to say.”

“I keep being told that you’re hiding things from me.” I cross my arms, watching her as Kalani gives us a bit of privacy, the door rattling against the frame. “And since I know for a fact that you are, I thought I’d give you a chance to come clean.”

“Well, that’s funny, considering you’ve had people following me.

” Her gaze is cold, and she steps closer to me.

“Is that the level of trust we have in this relationship, husband ? You put a fucking tail on me because I told you that the parts of my life you don’t have access to are none of your business? ”

I step closer to her, forcing her to take steps back until the back of her thighs meet the edge of her desk. “What the fuck are you hiding, Skyla?”

She puts her hands on my chest, pushing me back. “None of your business.”

I grab her hands and pin them against the small of her back with one of my hands. “You’re going to tell me right now.”

“I’m not.”

I apply more pressure to her wrists, smirking when she wriggles slightly, trying to free herself.

“I’ve been patient. It ends now.”

She scoffs, something dangerous shining in her eyes. “If Logan knows so much, why hasn’t he told you?”

“Don’t spin this.”

“I’m serious.” She drives her knee upward, catching me in the thigh hard.

My grip on her wrists loosens enough for her to get her hands free.

She tries to grab for me, but I sink my hand into her hair, pulling her head back, and forcing her to look at me.

When she tries to knee me again, I spin her around and shove her up against the wall.

She kicks backward, catching me in the ankle before she brings the chunky heel of her boot down on my toes.

I grit my teeth against the pain, pressing my body against hers, forcing her closer to the wall. “I want you to tell me.”

“I’m not hiding anything.” She rears back and slams her head into my nose.

The warm trickle of blood rolls down my chin as I drop her hands and step away from her. “You’re fucking on your own if you want to play games.”

She glares at me, a pink flush entering her cheeks and her chest rising and falling. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you to deal with your brother. You’re just like him, fucking pathetic.”

Before I have the chance to grab her again, she takes off, striding out of the office and leaving me standing there with a bloody nose.

Fuck me.

The only thing that’s clear right now is that I have no idea who I’m pretending to be married to.

Or what she’s capable of.

But I’m sure of one thing.

I’m unable to let her go. This is no longer fake to me. She is mine.

And she’s going to get me killed. If she’s not the one to kill me herself.