Page 132 of Deceptive Vows

I carry her out onto the terrace and set her against the wall where the moon shines on the surface and over her.

This is how I want to take her.

“Out here?” She looks around nervously.

“It’s just us. No one can see. Now give yourself to me.”

I claim her lips and then push her against the wall and claim her body, fucking her hard the way I like to fuck.

Madness consumes us quickly, and we share one of those wild nights we got lost in weeks ago.

I take her everywhere in the house all night. By morning, she’s out cold.

I have to go to work, so I can’t stay in. There are also things to do with Ivan I have to check on today.

Instead of leaving her the way I have in the past, with nothing, I pull a white rose from the bouquet in the hallway and leave it on the pillow next to her, so when she wakes up, it’s the first thing she’ll see.

I leave it with a note simply saying, “Later.”

That way, she won’t have to wonder if I’ll be back or whose bed I’ll be sleeping in.

She’ll know I’ll be coming back to her.

Before I even make it down the stairs, my phone rings. I answer quickly when I see it’s Eric.

“Hey,” I say.

“Can you come to the hotel? I found something I need you to look at.”

Fuck, I wish I could feel some accomplishment at him finding something, but every time I get a call like this, my stomach sinks.

“Of course. What did you find, Eric?”

“Just come.” His voice has that cautious edge again. “It’s best I show you in person.”

“I’m on my way.”

Eric has things set up so our phones can’t be tracked or tapped into. His reluctance to give me a hint about what he found means it’s something big again. Something he wants me to see in person.

Shit. What the fuck is it now?

I get to the hotel half an hour later, and the moment I read Eric’s face, I know what he’s going to show me is worse than the previous shit.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Come and sit.”

I do, and he heads over to his desk to retrieve a document. When he returns, he sets in front of me.

“I’ve finally finished checking through Raul’s files. This was one of the last documents I found. It was encrypted, but it wasn’t amongst his emails. It was on his computer listed in a secret file. It looks like he was still working on it, preparing it to be sent out.”

He hands me the sheet of paper from the document. When I look at it, the first thing I see is my wife’s beautiful face.

There’s a picture of her at the top of the sheet. It’s a standard full-length picture of her dressed in a black tunic. There’s nothing amiss about the picture itself, but I notice her eyes.

They are what looks amiss. Her eyes are brimming with that internal pain I witnessed weeks ago and she looks like she’s lost the will to live.

When I scan down to the details below the picture, my eyes are glued to the details listed for her name.