Page 8 of The Marriage Demand

Winnie woke up in pain, and in the bed she now shared with Elias. He had stopped allowing her to be in a separate room. They were husband and wife in every sense of the word. She groaned and the bed dipped.

“You’re awake,”

Elias said.

“And I’m home?”

“Yes, Mansell said I could bring you home. You’ll be fine. He has prescribed you some pain medication, as well as antibiotics as a precaution.”

She lifted her arm that hadn’t been shot, and pushed her hair out of her face.

“I must look a mess.”

“You’re fine.”

He held some water, along with the pills for her to take, which she did.

“The movies have it all wrong,”

Winnie said.

“Being shot is not easy.”

“You shouldn’t have stood in their way,”

Elias said.

“I wasn’t going to allow you to get shot when I could take the bullet.”

Last night was a little fuzzy. Especially after getting shot. She had a vague memory of Mansell, but other than that, nothing else made sense.

“I just … reacted.”

“You did.”

“What happened to that guy?”

“I took care of it.”

“Do you know why he was shooting you?”

Elias looked away.

“Did you even bother to ask?”

she asked.

“Yes.”

She waited. He didn’t say anything.

“Are you going to tell me why?”

“There is a pimp causing trouble on the streets. Rumor has it he is trying to take my job.”

“Your job?”

“Yes. He is trying to kill me. The guy is a … frequent gambler. He told me he wasn’t bad, but he made a bet with Bozo. It was an off-the-cuff kind of bet that he didn’t put much credit in. Bozo did, now he owes him tens of thousands of dollars. It would seem Bozo went to collect, and instead beat the shit out of the guy’s wife and son. He was going to kill them, but then he made a deal. He would shoot me, and in return, all bets were paid.”

“What did you do?”

Winnie asked.

“The wife and son are in a safe location. As for the man, the arm he used to fire his weapon is broken, but it will heal, and he also has a swollen eye.”

“You didn’t kill him?”

“No. I knew this was something you would ask me, and you wouldn’t be happy if I killed a man that had no choice in doing what he was blackmailed to do.”

Even though it hurt, she couldn’t help but throw her arms around him.

“Thank you,” she said.

There was no way she would be able to live with herself knowing that, and if Elias had killed him. People were put in difficult circumstances.

“What are you going to do about this Bozo?”

she asked, the she frowned.

“Why would he call himself Bozo?”

“I have no idea. I guess it’s a way for him to hurt others. Anyone seen laughing at his name, he punishes.”

“What are you going to do?”

she asked.

“I am going to kill him and everyone associated with him.”

“What’s wrong?”

she asked, sensing there was more to it.

“Nothing. He will suffer for what he has done, and seeing as I couldn’t kill the man that pulled the trigger, he will pay double for it.”

Winnie knew there was something else wrong, but she didn’t know what it was. Staring at him, she waited, but Elias didn’t say anything more. Just then, her stomach interrupted by grumbling.

“I’ll get the food.”

She looked down at herself.

“I need to get washed.”

“Do you need my help?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I won’t take long, just a quick shower. I’ll cover this so I don’t get it wet. It will be fine.”

She just needed a minute. Elias leaned forward and kissed her lips.

Something was off, and she needed a few moments to compose herself. Elias left, and she quickly made her way into the bathroom, and sure enough, she looked a mess. Her mascara was not waterproof, and had left streaks running down her face. Her hair was all over the place, and she looked terrible. Even worse than when he had first met her.

She turned on the shower, found a shower cap, and taped it across her shoulder to keep the dressing dry. Winnie didn’t take long in showering off the night, and the grogginess. Once that had fled her body, she came to realize just how hungry she was.

After her shower, she dried her hair and didn’t bother going to her beauty room. She pulled on a pair of lounge pants and an oversized shirt. She was just in time, as Elias had finished cooking them breakfast. Today, rather than bacon, he had cooked sausage to go with their eggs, along with what looked like a grilled piece of tomato. Her breakfast looked yummy.

Sitting beside him at the breakfast table, it was strange as he seemed quieter than usual. Not that Elias had ever been considered chatty, but there was something different about him.

“You’re angry, aren’t you?”

“If someone finds out I let a guy live, they will think I have gone soft.”

“I won’t tell anyone,”

she said, hoping that would make it better. All it did was make Elias shake his head.

All too soon, he was standing with his breakfast half finished.

“I’ve got to deal with work.”

He kissed the top of her head, and like so many other breakfasts, without a word, he was gone. Winnie looked down at her own food and whatever appetite she had was long gone. She didn’t have the stomach to eat. Elias was angry and she had caused that.

He had tried to help her, and in doing so, it might have made him look weak. She made her way toward the kitchen and started to clean off the plates. She didn’t bother loading up the dishwasher. All she wanted was the distraction of using her hands, and not thinking about everything else. It had been a long time since she saw him that angry. In all the years they had been married, he never stormed out.

After she cleaned the dishes, she didn’t want to be under the guard’s watchful eye. Whenever Elias left the house or the apartment, which is where they were now, one of his guards stepped in to keep an eye.

She escaped to her beauty room, where she sat down at the vanity mirror and just … breathed. Tears filled her eyes as she thought about Elias. He was angry at her. There was no mistaking the way he felt. Running fingers through her hair, she wasn’t tempted to distract herself from the pain, which as the hours ticked by, began to increase. The makeup that surrounded her didn’t even feel good.

Elias had treated her like a queen. He’d given her a home, comfort, everything she could have hoped for. What had she done? Made him angry and potentially look weak. All because he cared what she felt.

The hours ticked by.

She didn’t leave her beauty room to have lunch. She stayed inside, and instead used it as an excuse to clean up. The pain in her shoulder intensified, and she slowed down.

It had already gotten dark by the time she heard a commotion outside. By commotion, it was simply Elias talking to the guard that had stepped in to take over for him.

She looked at her room, which was already clean. It had been clean when she started, and it was exactly the same now. Just things put in different places, and she would probably change them around in a short time. Waving her hand at them all, she quickly made her way out to find Elias at the dining room table. He had bags filled with Chinese food. She recognized the symbol on the bag, and the scents were amazing. She still didn’t feel hungry, but she hadn’t eaten since the little she had at breakfast.

“Hey,” she said.

“I got dinner.”

He wasn’t smiling at her. There was no laughter in his eyes. The man she had known the last couple of months seemed to have disappeared, and she hated it. Regardless of what she thought, Elias had a way of doing things.

“Don’t think about me,”

Winnie said.

Elias looked up at her.

She took a deep breath.

“When you’re doing business. Don’t think about me or what I think. You have been doing this a long time, and you don’t need to worry about what I think.”

She moved closer to him.

“I don’t want you to think you’re weak or a horrible man. You do what needs to be done, and I can’t stand the thought of someone … hurting you because they think they can.”

For several seconds he just looked at her and then he nodded.

“I took care of it,” he said.

And he started to hand out the Chinese tubs. Winnie expected to feel something—guilt, remorse, anger—but she felt none of that.

Elias knew what he was doing, and she was never going to allow herself to interfere again.

****

Elias had weighed his options and decided he couldn’t allow the shooter to live. Not only had he attempted to kill him, the son of a bitch had gotten his wife. She had to have surgery. Only minor surgery to retrieve the bullet, but it was still surgery, nonetheless, and that pissed him off.

If anyone heard that he allowed himself to be shot at and let the shooter go free, his streets would be chaos. He wouldn’t allow that to happen.

He also didn’t like what Mansell had said. Winnie was a weakness to him, and he couldn’t allow that weakness to spread. He loved her. That scared the shit out of him, because he had not loved anyone before. Love had never entered the equation.

The moment he first saw Winnie four years ago, he had known she was different. The clothes she had on had been well-worn and oversized. Like her size was an afterthought to whoever purchased them. He figured she had them for years, and imagined they hadn’t fit her when she first had them. Those clothes had been the first to go.

He purchased her a whole new wardrobe, and in a way a whole new life. Little by little, he found himself enjoying her. In the beginning, it was because he didn’t want to kill her. She had been a fighter and forced into a situation not of her making, and he wanted to make it right.

Those early days had been tough, as he had been tempted to just send her away. Each time he did, something held him back.

She watched him kill, and not once did she ask if she could go to the police. She did exactly as he told her, and didn’t put up a single fight. There wasn’t even any sign that she was afraid of him.

Now, she asked him to not think of her, to just do his job the best way he knew how. He’d already taken care of business and made everyone aware that if they came after his wife, they were going to die.

The man’s wife and son were gone, not dead, just out of the way. He wasn’t going to kill them when they had nothing to do with the man’s actions. He wasn’t a total monster.

Mansell’s suggestion kept ringing in his head. He was not going to use his wife to get to Bozo. That fucker was going to get what was coming to him.

Rather than wait for him to make an appearance, his men were scouring the city, looking everywhere. They were leaving no stone unturned. They were going to find him, and anyone associated with him would be taken care of.

After enjoying the food, he went to take a shower as Winnie sat down, enjoying the movie. He didn’t take long. Usually, he made his way to his office to do some work, but he needed to have Winnie close to him. Sitting beside her on the sofa, he didn’t even have to wait before she closed the distance between them, wrapped her arms around his waist, and snuggled in deep.

“I missed you today,” she said.

He stayed silent. The truth was, leaving today had been so fucking hard. He wanted to stay with her, make sure she was safe, that she took the pain medication.

“Did you take your pain meds?”

he asked, just realizing she might not have.

“No.”

“Damn it, Winnie,” he said.

“I … it has been a strange day.”

He got to his feet and made his way into the bedroom, where he grabbed a couple of her pain pills, and then to the kitchen. With the pills in hand and a glass of water, he handed them to her.

“Take them,” he said.

She sighed.

“I can handle the pain.”

“Babe, you shouldn’t have to handle it. Take them, before I make you.”

She smirked and it was such a cute look. He glared at her, but he was entertained.

She took the pills, stuck her tongue out to show that they were gone. “Happy?”

“Very.”

He sat down, and this time he wrapped his arm around her. Winnie got comfortable against him, and he noticed she did so without putting pressure on her shoulder.

For several moments, he stared at the television, not really paying attention. He just held her. Again, he marveled at the fact he was happy to just hold her. He didn’t know why it fucking mattered to him. All his life he had used women, just as they used him. He didn’t give a shit about holding them, loving them, or doing anything with them. They were a means to an end. Yet, there was nowhere else he wanted to be than with Winnie in his arms.

He kissed the top of her head, and he felt her slowly begin to fall asleep. This had to be the first time today, other than this morning, that she had been pain-free.

Turning off the television, he picked up his wife. She was so out of it, she didn’t even stir. He carried her to their bedroom and tucked her in. He didn’t even attempt to get her changed. She looked so peaceful, he did not want to disturb her.

He also wasn’t tired either, so he left her alone to make his way to his office, to get down to some business. It was the same old shit. A combination of legal and illegal businesses. He checked through some of the paperwork.

He saw that one of the mechanic businesses was reporting a loss, which made no sense. Cross-examining the stats he had, something didn’t add up. It was one of the places that tended to do really well. None of his usual men went to this shop, as he tended to trust the owner, Carson. Looking over the paperwork, he frowned.

“You know, when you put me to bed, you should stay with me,”

Winnie said.

He’d been so wrapped up in his paperwork, he hadn’t heard Winnie enter his office. She had changed out of her lounge pants and sweater, into a sexy lingerie piece. Her breasts were covered in black lace that hinted at her nipples beneath. One look at her, and concentrating on work went right out the window. His cock was hard as rock, and she took a step toward him, then another.

“Would you like me to leave?”

Winnie asked.

“I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You’re not disturbing me, but I am curious, Winnie, are you ready for what you’re about to do?”