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“I don’t know. No one would tell me what happened.”
“You didn’t kill him,” I say, refusing to believe it. “He was still breathing when they hauled him out of there.” Unconscious but breathing. He’s okay. He has to be okay. Bexley isn’t a murderer… he isn’t like Cade and the rest of them.
But the look in his eyes…
“Does it matter? I did that… I…” He jams his fingers into his hair and tugs the ends sharply. “I fucking hate this.”
“James said—”
“James is just as bad as them.” Bexley’s head whips up. “Playing with our lives, our futures. We’re just pawns, Mia. Pawns in a game I’m still not sure I understand.”
Silence settles over us as we stare out at nothing. The trees are dense around us, closing in until I feel a weight on my chest. Then Bexley says six little words that make my heart shatter.
“What happened with Cade last night?”
“Don’t ask me that.” I let out a shaky breath.
“I’ll kill him, Mia. I’ll fucking kill him if he—”
“He didn’t.” I twist to look Bexley in the eye. “And I’m okay. That’s all you need to know.” He told me his truth, but I can’t tell him mine.
“It isn’t…” His fist clenches ag
ainst his thigh and then his hand shoots out, curving around my neck. “The thought of him touching you…”
I blink, overwhelmed at the intensity in Bexley’s voice. “The Coglio is soon. You need to accept that if I go through with it, I’ll have to be—”
“Don’t,” he hisses. “Just don’t.” His eyes drop to the ground, and it’s like he reached into my chest and ripped out my heart. I need him with me on this.
I need him.
“You need to understand what it means, Bexley. What I’ll have to do. The ceremony at Gravestone Hall is only a formality… it’s the union after that seals the—”
“I can’t. I can’t hear you talk about… being with him.”
Pain snakes through me. “If you don’t want to be with me, I understand.”
“How can you even say that?” His eyes flicker to mine, full of desperation and regret. “I love you, Mia. I’m so fucking in love with you that I can’t see straight. But the thought of letting him—”
“It’s okay.” I press my hand to his cheek and shift closer. Bexley surprises me by scooping me up and dropping me on his lap so that I’m straddling him.
“Nothing about this is okay. I’m your guy. I’m supposed to protect you. I’m supposed to be able to keep you safe.” He brushes the hair off my face and gently wraps his hand around my throat again. “I would kill him for you.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t ever—”
“It’s true. If I thought it wouldn’t start some kind of war, I would end him for ever looking twice at you.”
“You think it’d start a war?”
“Yeah, something still doesn’t add up. If Q are pulling all the strings, why leave Cade to run things with the Electi? He’s a liability. They know that…”
“They need him to continue the Kingsley line.” I shudder at the very thought of ever bearing his child.
“But why does it matter? Q is powerful. We know their reach is far beyond Gravestone… Unless someone else is calling the shots.”
“James alluded to other players,” I say, and Bexley nods.
“What if they want Cade around?”
