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Nathan stared at me, his eyes cold.
“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.” My voice shook. So much for pretending everything was fine and wishing for it to be true. I hoped that hadn’t sounded as desperate to him as it sounded to me. “Chicken parm is in the oven.”
My own simpering voice made me despise myself. I couldn’t imagine what other people thought.
What kind of a waste of a mother can’t protect her own little boy?
“Do you think I’m that easy to manipulate?” he asked me, and his voice was even quieter than it had been with Dylan. “That you can make my favorite dinner, and I won’t care that you’re sneaking around with Lawson behind my back?”
“I wasn’t, I promise. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Oh?” He leaned close to me, his big hand braced on the island, not quite touching me. I froze, caught in his predatorial gaze. His voice still held that same deadly kind of quiet when he said, “Because you know if you did, I’d kill you.”
For a few long seconds, I couldn’t speak, but he was obviously waiting. Finally, I whispered, “I know.”
“What am I going to do with you, Amelia?” he asked me. “I’ve loved you since you were a girl. Even though I could have had any woman in the pack, I waited for you. I’ve given you everything. I’ve been a good husband, haven’t I?”
“Yes.” The lie came too easily. Blame it on my motherly instincts or even self-preservation, but I would tell Nathan whatever he wanted to hear.
“And you keep disappointing me. Why can’t you be a good wife? Don’t I deserve a good wife?”
“Yes. Of course, you do.”
“You still love him, don’t you?” His upper lip lifted in a sneer. He didn’t need to say the name.
Brennan was my ghost, but he haunted Nathan too.
“No,” I said, a second too late, because even after all these years, it killed me to deny the way I felt for Brennan. “And I promise, Lawson was just taking his sister’s kids to the playground. He wasn’t trying anything—”
“Why would I believe you, you little liar?” He stepped toward me, his reddening face too close to mine. His breath stank of old coffee. “You pretty little liar.”
“Nathan, please.” My voice broke as if I were on the verge of tears. Pathetic.
“You embarrassed me in front ofCliff.”His lip drew back in a snarl.
“I’m sorry. You’re right—I shouldn’t have even talked to Lawson, but that’s all it was. We said hello to each other.”
“He still fucking wants you.” Then, suddenly, he grabbed my hair and yanked me toward him. I let out a startled cry then tried to swallow it.Don’t let Dylan hear.“Come here.”
“Where are we going?”
“I’m going to show Lawson you’re mine.”
“Nathan, please,” I begged. “We can’t leave Dylan alone. Let’s take him to my mother’s house and let her watch him overnight while we talk things out.”
She wouldn’t deny me with Nathan at my side. She’d be eager to please him.
“Maybe Ishouldbring him with us,” Nathan agreed. “Show him what his whore of a mother deserves. Show him what’s going to happen to him if he keeps acting like a little bitch.”
He towed me through the house. My feet slipped on the expensive Italian tile as I tried to keep pace with him even as he pulled me off-balance.
He yanked open the door to the garage, then shoved me down the steps. I tried to catch myself, but my foot slipped off the step. My knee banged painfully into one of the wooden steps. Adrenaline had me up and moving, though, heading toward his truck, desperate to obey and pacify him.
“Get in the truck,” he barked.
I grabbed the door handle and scrambled into the passenger seat. As he got into the driver’s side, I wished desperately that I could still make myself cry. Maybe that would convince him I was sorry, would ease his anger.
“Please,” I whispered. “Please, Nathan, calm down.”
