AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, right before I tore it up.” His vision had been blurry and he’d been so conflicted about mourning Jairo. He still was.
“What was the number?”
“I don’t—”
“Think,” the guy barked. “Think carefully. It’s important.”
Win frowned. “Why is it important?”
No response.
Win released a frustrated sound. “It was a phone number for us to call him. Obviously with him…dead, we didn’t need it anymore. I tore up the paper and tossed the scraps in the trash. I didn’t give it a second thought.”
“Win, I need that number.”
Win blinked at the sound of his name coming from the stranger’s mouth. A dangerous man if he could come onto the property undetected, if he was connected with Jairo the way Win suspected he was. “H-how do you know my name?”
“I knew your real name the moment he decided to marry you.”
Breath hiccuped in Win’s lungs and he felt the blood drain from his face. “But you didn’t tell him?” Why the hell not?
“You were never a threat, Winston Shäfer.”
What?
“You had your reasons for tying yourself to him, and he had his reasons for tying himself to you. I was okay with it.”
“I don’t—” Win didn’t understand, and he didn’t think he ever would.
“I want you to think back to the moment when you looked at the numbers on that piece of paper, and I need you to recite them back to me. Now.”
“Um.” Win licked his lips and cast his memory back. “I know it started with one, three, zero. They didn’t look like any phone number I’d ever seen. They were underlined. Then, um, I think two, five, and one?” He frowned. “Then maybe…six, seven, four, eight?” He rubbed his forehead. “Or the last two could be eight, four.”
“Thank you.” The man turned to go and Win jerked.
“Wait! Why is the number important? Did you grow up with Jairo? Did you know his brother?” The one Jairo had confessed to killing, but who might not be dead after all? Fuck, all of it gave Win a headache.
“Take care of yourself, Win.” And the intruder disappeared, melting into the shadows just as a low moan reached Win’s ears.
Shawn was coming to. Guess the guy hadn’t killed him after all. But Mathieu would when he found out what happened.
40
The only reasonMathieu didn’t put a bullet between Shawn’s eyes was because Win begged him not to. Still, Mathieu tightened his grip on the gun in his hand and kept his gaze on Shawn.
To his credit, the bodyguard didn’t cower or break eye contact. He held himself still, stance telling Mathieu he was prepared and accepting of whatever punishment Mathieu deemed appropriate.
A bullet to the face was the only appropriate thing after his men allowed a fucking stranger to get onto the property and within spitting distance of Win. Renewed rage burned in his throat and his fingers twitched. The idea of somebody getting so close to Win, after all they’d been through recently—
“Mathieu.” Win touched his shoulder, offering a calm Mathieu didn’t want to accept.
Nothing about what just happened was acceptable. The anger and urge to draw blood were way easier to embrace than the fear that had stolen his words for a moment when he’d been awakened by raised voices. Realizing Win wasn’t in bed beside him, he’d hurriedly pulled on a pair of discarded boxers, grabbed his Glock, and raced downstairs. There he’d found Shawn wobbly on his feet, the other guards crowding around, and Win in the center of it all acting as if it wasn’t a big fucking deal that someone had breached their security to get to him.
It’d been too easy—way too easy—and Mathieu wasn’t okay with that, not one bit. It didn’t matter that Win wasn’t hurt. He could’ve been, and that, the thought of it, fucked with him. It made his chest hurt and he wanted somebody else to experience that pain. If it couldn’t be the actual person who’d ambushed Win, then it had to be someone else.
“Mathieu.” Win called his name. “It’s okay.”
Okay. It was okay. Mathieu was raging inside and Win thought it was okay. “Get the fuck out of my sight,” he bit out at Shawn. Glancing at Jason standing off to the side, Mathieu told him, “I want a complete overhaul of our security measures. Fucking now.”
