Page 55 of Sacred Vow

“That’s the same fucking question I’ve been asking myself for the last twenty-odd years,” I tell her.

“It was an open-and-shut case. It should have been easy, but her lawyers painted me as a jealous, abusive husband. They forged documents to suggest I was in violation of custody arrangements, that I was the one who had taken off with the baby, and that her boyfriend was nothing but a hero, racing to her defense to help save her child. The jury didn’t give a shit.

They ate up her sob story and denied the facts, but that’s the justice system.

I was convicted of murder in the first degree and kidnapping.

I was sentenced to ten years without parole, and Zephyr went straight back into her waiting arms.”

“Fuck.”

I nod, never having agreed with a single word more in my life. “I’m not proud of how that day went down. Taking a life isn’t something I ever thought I’d have to do. But I don’t regret trying to save my son. What I do regret is the years that followed.”

“In prison?”

“Yes,” I say. “I had to become a man I didn’t recognize.

I was young and trying to survive being locked up with men who had committed worse crimes than I could even fathom.

I did things that I am not proud of, made choices that still haunt me to this day, especially in those earlier days.

I needed to be the man the others feared, and so that’s exactly what I became. ”

Her tears fall harder, and I can only imagine the things going through her mind.

“I’m sorry,” she says, barreling against my chest, her arms wrapping around me as though I were the one who needed protection.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but I’m even more sorry that I asked you to risk going through it again because of me. ”

My arms wrap around her, holding her close to my chest. “It’s okay, Tilly. It was a long time ago.”

“But those demons still haunt you.”

“They do, and they will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life, but they don’t rule me. Not unless I lose control.”

“Like last night.”

“Exactly.”

Tilly’s fingers weave up into the back of my hair as she sits with that information, trying to process it all. When she sits back up, her horrified stare locks onto mine. “So what happens if Jordan dies? Do you get charged for murder again? Will you be taken away from me?”

I shake my head, pulling her back against my chest, trying to console her.

“No, baby. I don’t want you worrying about that.

We have enough to prove that you were assaulted and kidnapped, and that any actions I took were to save your life.

Even if those actions might have been particularly . . . brutal.”

She nods, more than agreeing with my assessment of how her life-saving went down, but then her brows furrow, and her gaze shifts back to mine. “Wait. How do we have proof that he assaulted and kidnapped me? Isn’t it just my word against his? Nobody else was there.”

Ahhh fuck.

“We have got . . . fuck.”

“We’ve got what?” she pushes, a deep suspicion in her eyes.

“We’ve got surveillance on your apartment complex,” I finally admit. “More specifically, inside your apartment.”

Tilly sucks in a breath, her eyes wide. “You . . . What?”

“The good news is we have video footage of Jordan breaking into your apartment, trashing it, and then assaulting you before dragging you out of there. Right down to the moment he shoves you in the trunk of his car. The bad news is, you now know how fucking far I’d go to protect you.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

Tilly pulls off my lap, scootching off the edge of the bed and getting to her feet before pacing the length of my bedroom. “You put cameras in my home?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“After you had me look into that asshole who’d been making those accounts online,” I explain.

“He hadn’t just been trolling you online and posting that video.

I did a deep dive and found evidence that he had been following you.

There were pictures of you on the street, with Zeph, on campus.

I wanted to make sure there was nothing more to it, so I had cameras installed outside your building, the hallway outside your door, and inside your apartment. ”

Tilly just gapes at me, her mouth opening and closing as she tries to figure out which insult to hurl at me.

“You just . . . What?” she demands, shaking her head.

“First off, that guy online was Jordan. He bragged about it while he had me hanging from a fucking chain, but more than that, you had no business not telling me that you’d found pictures of him following me.

That’s not cool. You should have told me. I could have protected myself better.”

“I didn’t want you scared, Tilly. I was monitoring the situation, but yes, in hindsight, you are right. I should have told you. I was wrong for that.”

She nods as though not having expected me to give in and admit my wrongdoings, but that’s the difference between a man and a boy. I’m not here to argue with her, despite how fucking gorgeous she is when she’s angry.

“Okay. Fine. I mean, it’s not fine, but .

. . You know,” she says, glancing away. “But this doesn’t make it okay.

You can’t just go around bugging my apartment with cameras.

That’s fifty shades of fucked up. Were you just watching me all day, jerking off like a happy little clam, thinking you were getting away with something? ”

“It’s not like that,” I explain. “Did the idea of seeing you any time I wanted do something for me? Absolutely. Did I get myself off watching you? Yeah, I won’t deny that.

But that wasn’t my intention. I wanted to protect you, and I only checked in every now and then.

I wasn’t sitting in a fucking dark room, madly jerking off for hours if that’s what you’re thinking. ”

“I . . . I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

A smile pulls across my lips, and I climb out of bed before striding across my room, her heated gaze locked on mine with every step I take.

I walk right into her, my arms wrapping around her waist as I pull her in against me.

“You say thank you for being a fucked-up asshole who’ll go above and beyond to not only protect you but fuck you into oblivion any time you want. ”

Tilly tries to fight a smirk, but it stretches across her face anyway. “It really is fucked up.”

“Mm-hmm. And now you know how far I’ll go.”

“You’re in love with me, Caesar Di Rozé.”

I nod, letting out a breath. “I’m aware.”

“You’re obsessed.”

“Yeah.”

She grins. “You jerk off like a crazed stalker watching me through your little phone.”

I shake my head, but all I can do is grin back at her. “Have you had enough yet?”

“Not even close,” she tells me, pulling out of my arms and stepping around me before limping across the room and reaching for the bathroom door.

Only she stops at the very last second and glances back at me, those bright eyes shining like diamonds.

“Oh, and just so you know, I fully intend to hold it over your head for the rest of our lives.”

And with that, she hobbles into the bathroom, closing the door behind her, and I realize without a single doubt in my mind that being called out for the rest of my life by this beautiful woman for being a sick pervert is the one thing I want most in this world.