Page 85 of Ruthless Enforcer

“Cry. I have no defenses against that shit.”

She laughs through the tears and throws her arms around me.

I catch her automatically.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I graze my nose against her neck. “Don't thank me yet, Duchess. I'm probably going to buy half the show.”

Pulling back, she scowls at me. “You absolutely will not.”

“A third?”

“Gabriel.” She pokes my chest.

“Fine.” I sigh exaggeratingly. “I'll be subtle.”

“You don't know how.”

I clutch my heart. “That's hurtful.”

She kisses me. Soft. Sweet. Happy.

And I hold her in the middle of the solarium while the ocean moves beyond the glass and try not to think about the question that's becoming harder to ignore.

Not whether I want to keep my wife—I already know the answer to that.

Whether keeping me would cost Clara too much.

65

COLE

Doubt isn't enough. Eventually, someone has to give it a reason to grow teeth.

I look at the photograph on my phone. A black SUV. Two men. One of them carrying the equipment I arranged yesterday. Neither has ever met James Whitlock.

That’ll be difficult to prove, though. The vehicle belongs to a company buried beneath three layers of ownership, the last of which leads directly back to a Whitlock subsidiary.

The phones are cleaner. The weapons aren't.

Everything tells the same story: Whitlock.

I type two words.

Do it.

Then I delete the message and drop the phone onto the passenger seat.

Frankly, I’m disappointed in James Whitlock. He doesn’t have the teeth I thought he did.

It’s been almost a week since I all but told him Reyes manipulated Clara into marrying him, and the old fool hasn’t made a move. I’m done waiting. Whitlock isn’t going to act? Fine. I will.

Whitlock doesn't have to order an attack on the Reyes family. Reyes only has to believe he might have.

And Whitlock?

Whitlock only has to hear that someone attacked the Reyeses hours after our conversation and wonder whether Gabriel will blame him. Fear will take care of the rest.