Page 90 of Vicious Betrayal

Loyalty demands I go back to Declan. That's what Oksana told me to do, too. Go back, help him clean up the paper trail to the point where we're airtight against the feds, especially since I still have Oksana's phone and they won't get the documentation they need, and protect the men I've spent my life fighting beside.

Or I go after Oksana.

I can track her. But the feds have her by now, almost certainly. What the hell am I supposed to do about that? They could have her in a guarded facility. She might be locked up already while they wait for her to give them something useful. I don't know if I can save her, but I sure as hell can make a difference back in Chicago.

And she lied to me. She betrayed me. Whatever desires and feelings there are between us, however much of what she felt was real, the blatant fact of the matter is that she lied. She trapped me. I have years of loyalty and service, family and friendship, waiting for me back in Chicago… and a couple of months of falling for a woman who was always supposed to destroy me.

But if I don't go after her, she's lost.

I feel like I can't fucking breathe. I see her face in the dark of that hunting cabin, tears on her cheeks as she pulled that needle through my torn skin. I remember the first night I took her to bed. I remember the shape of her lips saying vows to me on our wedding day. I remember her tears when I proposed to her.

It's all cast through a different lens now. But she has a piece of my soul and all of my heart, and I can't drive far enough away to escape that.

She was blackmailed. Her sister sold her out. She was put into a terrible position, and she did her best.

But her best would destroy everyone else I care about.

I start driving toward Chicago. It's the only sensible option. I can't abandon Declan for a woman who betrayed me, even if she is my wife. I can't abandon Rian, the other men who depend on me. I'm needed right now, there.

Oksana needs me, too. Our child needs me.

I make it sixty miles before I hit the brakes. I yank the car over to the shoulder, pressing my forehead to the steering wheel as I clench my jaw. And then I sit there in the silence of the cab, staring at the empty road ahead of me for several seconds.

Then I grab my phone and call Rian.

He doesn't even bother with hello. "Cormac? Jesus Christ, where the fuck are you?"

"On the road. Listen, I need to talk to you. I don't know if I can come back to Chicago right now."

"What do you mean you're not coming back?" Rian's voice drops. "Cormac, you have to get back here so we can clean this shit up. If the feds take you⁠—"

"Oksana left this morning," I cut in. "She stole the burner while I was asleep and called the feds. She's pulling them away to buy me time to get back."

"Then let her," Rian says immediately, without a trace of hesitation. "She sold you out, Cormac. Maksim's little girl played you from day one⁠—"

"She didn't sell me out," I snap. "Her sister Katya went to the feds. Reyes and Brennan ambushed her at her house and laid out prison sentences for her entire family. They told her if she didn't get close to me, she'd go to prison along with the rest of them. And when they found out she was pregnant, they told her exactly what happens to babies born in the system."

Rian goes completely quiet. All I can hear is his breathing on the other end.

"She's twenty years old, Rian. They backed her into a corner. I don't know what the fuck else she could have been expected to do. They scared the shit out of her. She's still scared, but she cares about me like I do her, and now she's trying to play them in order to buy me time. I can't fucking let her do that."

"Cormac..." Rian's tone shifts. "What are you saying?"

"I love her," I say quietly. "Fuck, Rian, I love her. I want her. I want that child. And if I turn my back on her now, if I drive back to Chicago and let Reyes grind her into dust just to save my own skin and protect Declan and the men, how am I supposed to live with that?"

I lean my forehead against the cold steering wheel, closing my eyes against the throbbing in my skull. "I've given twenty years to this life," I whisper. "Every drop of blood, every night of sleep, every ounce of whatever soul I had left. But she's the only thing that makes me feel fucking alive. I can't live without her."

The line stays silent for so long I wonder if the call dropped. Then, Rian lets out a long, heavy exhale that crackles through the speaker.

"I've seen the way she looked at you, Cormac," Rian says softly. "At that party, and at the wedding. I've seen women look at you because of your money, or because they like the idea of fucking a dangerous man. That wasn't what was in her eyes. She was looking at you like you were the only thing she wanted in this world."

My throat tightens, and I feel my chest ache. My eyes burn.

"If she was blackmailed," Rian says finally, "then yeah, I don't know what any girl her age would be expected to do. Grown men have broken under pressure when their families are involved. And if you believe her, if you think she really didn't want to do it and she's trying to make up for it now, then go after her. You've earned a life, Cormac. More than anyone I know. If you think there's a chance that what she feels for you is real, you go get your wife."

"Declan isn't going to understand."

"He might. He's had his share of difficulties with his own wife early on, you know that. If anyone understands how complicated love can be, he will. Let me worry about Declan. Just... bring her back in one piece, brother. And don't do anything stupid."