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Cassidy didn’t even see me until I was nearly on top of her. Her friend saw me first, and the questioning look on her face finally alerted Cassidy to my presence. “C-Connor.”
It was a double-edged utterance, full of surprise and anger and fear.Steamin’ Jesus, love, be aware of your surroundings. I could have killed you four times over before you even noticed I was here.
Instead, I put on my most charming smile. “I’m done early, and I thought I’d bring the car…give you a ride home so you don’t have to walk.”
She smiled back, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I just got here. I haven’t seen Teresa and Jerome in weeks.”
“You have that appointment with the decorator, remember?” This time, my tone held a warning edge.
Her smile hardened. “I’m not done yet.”
Yes, you are.“You’ve already rescheduled with her twice, love.”
Her friends looked back and forth between us with uncomfortable smiles. Cassidy apparently saw I was not about to be budged, because she jutted out her chin, her smile cooling by several degrees. “Of course, you’re right, thank you for reminding me, Connor.”
I didn’t like the way Jerome was looking at me. It made me feel even lower than I already did. Vaguely, I wondered what Cassidy had told him about us.
Thankfully, though, Cassidy didn’t waste any time with long, drawn-out goodbyes, instead hugging her friends and rising to her feet with a promise that she’d call them soon. I grabbed her arm probably rougher than I should and sped her towards the rear exit, placing my body between the windows and my wife as we passed.
She tried to pull away from me as soon as we got outside. “Let me go, Connor.”
“Shut up.” Heart pounding, I tightened my grip on her arm and forced her head down. Another dark car idled in the alley, the driver and passenger staring directly at Cassidy and me.
Grady stepped in front of us as I pushed her into the back seat. The door had barely shut before she was on me. “That was incredibly rude. You could have at least waited until—”
“Not another fucking word.”
The car was blessedly silent on the ride home.
As we put the miles between us and the coffee shop, I began to feel my fear rolling over to anger. Anger at Cassidy for icing me out and disobeying my one request of her, anger that everything I touched lately seemed to be falling apart at the seams. Anger at the situation we had been placed in. I could feel a similar heat rolling off my wife, but I welcomed it, fueling my own frustration as we sped towards home and our inevitable confrontation.
Cassidy must know—shehad to know—that what she did had been dangerous, yet she did it anyway, without a thought to her own safety or my own feelings.
I grabbed her by the arm and firmly let her into the elevator, down the hallway and into the penthouse. I know I was probably going a little rough on her, but honestly it felt good to have her just fucking obey me for once without trying to back sass or outmaneuver me.
Apparently, though, I was wrong about the whole obeying thing, because Cassidy was simply waiting until the moment the front door clicked shut before rounding on me.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I turned. She was standing there, hands on her hips and glaring at me as ifI’ddone something wrong. “I mean, you all but dragged me out of there by my hair like a goddamn caveman, away from the only friends I have left, who I haven’t even been able to talk to in weeks, bring me back to my little gilded cage up here, and you have the nerve to just stand there and glare at me like—”
“Do you have any idea what could’ve happened?” I stared blackly at her. “Moretti’s men were camped out on that corner.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“You’re not stupid, Cassidy, and I refuse to think that you’re that naive—”
“I told you after that travesty of a wedding that I wanted nothing to do with your business. I. Don’t. Care." She turned to brush past me, but I caught her arm.
“Well, I’m going to make you care,” I growled. I spun her around sharply and pressed her against the wall. Cassidy gasped, but the brief flash of fear in her eyes both broke my heart and ignited the fires of rage smoldering inside that rapidly pumping organ.
“Get your hands off me!”
“No. Not until you listen. The Bratva were a front. Moretti’s men were tailing you tonight, they were probably the ones who took the shot at you in front of your apartment. And to top it all off, we’ve got a mole in our ranks feeding information to Moretti. We’ve lost multiple assets and several men already. Blood has been spilled, Cassidy. You’re still not safe.”
“I thought marrying you was supposed to fix all of that,” Cassidy taunted. “If it hasn’t, then why the hell am I still here?”
“You’rehereto keep you safe.”
She scoffed. “Bullshit. You just wanted a little trophy wife you can boss around, and my father and Tommy just want me under their thumb again. No wonder you get along with them so well. You’re just like them.”
