Page 7 of The Marriage Demand

Once again, they were back in the casino, one of many Elias owned.

She sat, watching the cards play out, and she continued with her role.

Only, this time Elias was different.

Randomly, he’d touch her thigh or her knee, or stroke her arm. The small touches meant everything to her. She loved when he touched her.

A month had passed since their anniversary, and since then, she had been on cloud nine.

She had also gotten her period, just last week.

It had sucked as well.

Much to her surprise, Elias had stayed with her.

Yep, while she was dealing with some bad cramps, he was there with a hot water bottle, company, movies, and ice cream.

Never had he been so attentive, and she loved it.

The truth was, she had already fallen madly, deeply in love with her husband.

But Winnie didn’t know if she was ever going to tell her husband how she felt.

He was not a man that did … feelings.

She had no idea if that was going to change, because he was different with her—more loving, caring, tender.

A lot had changed in a short space of time.

Kind of like the summer months, which were fast turning to fall.

Gone were the dresses she loved, and she was now in thick tights whenever she wore skirts and dresses, jeans, or pants.

Also, sweaters had emerged from her wardrobe. She loved the fall.

They had also moved to the country house for a few weeks, and she had started to decorate.

A fall-inspired wreath hung on the front door.

Not that anyone but themselves and the guards would see it.

It wouldn’t be long before she got the pumpkins out and started to decorate for Halloween.

She had set up a hot chocolate station as well.

Elias was not a hot chocolate lover, but he had enjoyed one she made, or at least he had said so.

Winnie glanced around the casino as something didn’t quite sit well with her.

She didn’t know what it was.

Looking around the room, she felt a sense she’d not felt in over four years.

The danger sense. Something wasn’t right. Each time she looked around the room, nothing was out of order. People seemed normal. They were all there to spend money and have fun.

She didn’t know why her sense was off.

In the past, she trusted this feeling.

Right now, she had no idea why it was acting up.

If she felt this way in the past, she would find some way of leaving the house. When she did return, it was to find out that the foster mother or father had gotten angry. She would tell some of the kids, but they rarely believed her. This feeling had gotten her out of so many scrapes.

Grabbing Elias’s hand, she got his attention and leaned in close.

“Something doesn’t feel right.”

He pulled back and looked at her, and she tried to convey her concern with a single look. Elias looked doubtful, but she couldn’t stop the feeling.

“Gentlemen, that is the end for me this evening,”

Elias said, putting the card on the table, and removing himself.

He took her hand, and his men must have sensed something as well, as they gathered close. Elias didn’t say a word as they started to walk out of the casino. He held her hand tightly, and that was when she saw it. The man with stained clothing suddenly had a gun.

She didn’t think, she reacted—by throwing herself in front of Elias. The gun went off, and she felt a burning in her shoulder. It was instant, and she couldn’t help but cry out.

A second bullet rang through the air, only she didn’t feel any more pain. There was no need to feel more, as she had already been shot.

Elias wrapped his arms around her, and she didn’t quite know what happened next. One moment, she was stopping him from getting shot, and then they were in the back of the car. He had pulled her sweater off, and his hand pressed against her shoulder.

“I’ve been shot.”

“It’s okay, Winnie,” he said.

“I told you,”

Winnie said, and she let out a gasp. This was a lot more painful than even the movies made out.

How did they get away with the hero being shot and still being able to save the day? She’d been shot in her shoulder and it hurt like fucking hell.

She closed her eyes as he pressed something against her shoulder. He shouted directions, and the car suddenly jerked.

“How did you know?”

Elias asked.

“It’s … something I’ve had being in foster care. Even with my mom. A sixth sense, maybe, where I feel something isn’t quite right. It’s nothing but a defense mechanism, at least according to the books.”

She groaned.

“I’m not a witch with mind-reading abilities, but could you imagine if I was? That would be totally awesome.”

She giggled.

The silence in the car was uncomfortable and making her very aware of the pain in her shoulder.

“It stopped me getting hit, kicked out, or hurt. I tried to tell some of the other kids. Some would listen to me and get out of there. Others thought I was talking shit. I wasn’t. We’d come back to a mess, and the ones that stayed behind often had a few bruises along the way.”

She winced.

“None of them shot me before. Why was he shooting you?”

“I’ve got a lot of enemies.”

“I don’t know why. I think you’re a nice guy.”

“I’m only a nice guy to you.”

She giggled and then moaned.

“Is that because you’re my husband?”

“There are a lot of reasons.”

She gritted her teeth, and then all too soon the car came to a stop and they were out. Winnie saw an older man, who had a door open. He was dressed in a suit, and he didn’t look impressed.

“Winnie, this is Mansell, the doctor. Mansell, this is my wife, Winnie.”

She nodded her head, not interested in making a good impression. They were escorted into the house and taken to a room that looked like a doctor’s office. There was a bed with a single white disposable sheet.

“Is he a good doctor?”

Winnie asked, attempting to whisper.

“Or a bad doctor?”

“I’m a good doctor,”

Mansell said.

“You’re in good hands, Winnie. I would never bring you to anyone that wouldn’t take care of you.”

She offered him a smile, and then she cried out as something jabbed into her arm. She turned to find Mansell had injected her.

“I find it easier if the patient is not looking. You won’t feel pain very soon.”

“I took a bullet for him,”

Winnie said.

“That’s why I’m here. Someone tried to shoot him.”

And everything was getting blurry.

“I don’t want anyone to shoot my husband, because I think I might kind of love him.”

And with that, the world went dark.

****

“Your wife is taking bullets for you now?”

Mansell asked.

“I have a lot of enemies, and they will be dealt with.”

Elias sat with Winnie as Mansell got to work. The bullet hadn’t hit any major arteries, and the damage was not going to cause further problems. However, the bullet couldn’t stay there. He was in the process of removing it.

Winnie was fast asleep, hooked up to a heart monitoring machine. Once she had passed out from the first medication, Mansell had gotten everything ready to perform the extraction.

“I never thought I would see the day a woman would jump in front of a bullet for you,”

Mansell said.

Mansell and Elias’s friendship went way back. When Mansell was at the hospital, he had been being blackmailed by one of the cartels to perform surgeries on people. Some of them were to give women bigger breasts, others were to take babies out of girls. It was an ugly mess.

Mansell was at the end and couldn’t stand it. He had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, which had resulted in him using his medical skills for evil.

Elias found out, and he gave Mansell a chance. He could work for him, he would never require him to go against his oath, and he would be his personal doctor. No one would ever discover his past, and he would remove the cartel without a problem. A deal was struck, and their friendship had begun.

Mansell had fixed him up on more than one occasion. He had also gotten him to help with some of his men when needed. He was his emergency contact and the only person he trusted. The only man he would ever trust near his wife.

“Winnie is not just any woman.”

“No, she is your wife. You did tell me you were married, but you didn’t exactly say your marriage was real. This is a surprise to me.”

“It was always real, you just failed to see it.”

“I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing for you,”

Mansell said.

“What do you mean?”

“You have never been a man with a weakness, Elias. I don’t need to point out the obvious.”

He ran a hand down his face.

“I’m not giving her up.”

“I’m not telling you to give her up, but I am warning you that you have to face the consequences of what being with a woman does to you. What it will do to your enemies.”

Elias didn’t need the details. Winnie was a risk. For the past four years she had been a risk. He couldn’t kill her and didn’t want to. He loved her.

Holy fucking shit. This was a revelation to him. He loved his wife, and that was not something he ever expected to think or feel.

Love. He had never loved anyone.

“Have you ever heard of a pimp called Bozo Robins?”

Elias asked.

Mansell did a lot of street work after Elias had freed him from the blackmail of the cartel. He left his high-paying job and took to the streets where he helped men and women, even kids that were runaways. He tried to help them in any way possible.

The good doctor let out a growl.

“Yes, I have heard of that piece of shit.”

He let out another growl.

“He’s bad,”

Elias said.

“Yes, he is. He … one of the girls that worked for him didn’t want to give a customer a blowjob. Do you know what he did to her?”

Mansell asked.

Elias looked at him.

“He removed all her front teeth. Yep, just tore them right out of her mouth, and then forced her to suck the cocks of ten men, with blood pooling out of her mouth, and in pain.”

Mansell took a deep breath.

“She came to see me, and I tried to reason with her. I found out she killed herself a week later.”

“I’m sorry.”

“She was sixteen,”

Mansell said.

“I was trying to reconcile her with her parents. She was just a spoiled kid who got into the wrong crowd. She never saw her seventeenth birthday.”

Elias hated Bozo, but the man had gone into fucking hiding and disappeared. All his homes were empty. The man had vanished like a ghost.

“He wants your position,”

Mansell said.

This made him look toward Mansell.

“How do you know this?”

“The girls are nervous, and seeing as I do most of my work in silence, they talk. They’re scared. They want to come to you, but the girls that have tried ended up dead.”

“No one has come to me,”

Elias said.

“That’s because someone close to them is a rat. Bozo finds out, makes an example of them.”

“And you didn’t think to come and tell me?” he asked.

“Elias, I have a busy schedule, and if you check your cell phone, you will see a couple of calls. I only found out this past week.”

He didn’t need to pull out his cell phone. Mansell had tried to call, but he figured he would see the doctor when he needed to. Now, he was pissed off.

“Trust me, I have been trying to reach you.”

“I’m going to kill him,”

Elias said.

“The moment he slips up.”

“He is coming for you, Elias, and you have never showed a weakness until now,”

Mansell said.

He looked toward his wife, and he shook his head.

“I am not going to use my wife.”

“You might not have a choice,”

Mansell said.

“You haven’t been able to stop him, and the only way might be to lure him out by using her. He doesn’t know what you’re capable of, or that you wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but it will help you remove the problem quickly, rather than waiting around. Do you think the person who tried to shoot you tonight did so without cause? I would put money down that Bozo is the one who did it.”

Elias had no doubt about it as well.

“I’m not going to hurt her or put her life on the line.”

“Sometimes in life, we have no choice but to do exactly that,”

Mansell said.

He hated that Mansell was right, but he also hated that he was tempted to do so. It was time to bring Bozo in line.