Buttons and Blame (Buttons 5)

When I didn’t move, Tristan grabbed Adelina by the hair and yanked her back to her feet.

She didn’t make a single sound.

Like a man guiding a horse, he pulled on her hair like reins back to the three-story house right on the water. Even when she kept pace with him, he yanked on her anyway. His men moved with him, the two guards posted outside the house watching me.

I just stood there.

Tristan opened the front door then shoved her violently across the threshold. The door shut a minute later, and all was silent.

I remained where I stood, my chest rising and falling at an accelerated rate. All I felt was pain, unbridled burning pain. Air was circulating in my lungs, but the oxygen wasn’t reaching my blood. My muscular legs suddenly felt weak. I felt like I’d lost everything when I still had it all. Only a month had passed, and nothing was different.

But now nothing was the same.

I needed to turn around and go home. I needed to get back to my life. I was fine before Adelina came into my life. I would be fine again.

But I wasn’t sure if I could believe that.

I finally turned around and got into the car. Even when I was behind the wheel, I couldn’t start the engine. I was in no condition to drive. To an outsider, my face was stoic, and I didn’t share a single emotion.

But inside, I was dying.

Inside, I was broken.

All I could think about was her suffering, what Tristan was doing to her, how she was begging for death in that very moment.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pressed it to my ear.

Crow answered immediately. “Hey, what—”

“It’s done.” The emotion didn’t escape my voice.

Crow was quiet for a while. “I’m here if you—”

Click.

I turned off my phone and threw it onto the seat beside me, onto the leather that was still warm from Adelina.

I finally turned on the car and drove away.

But I drove away as a different man than when I first arrived.

10

Crow

I listened to the line go dead.

I didn’t bother calling him back because I knew my brother so well. The phone was already off. He didn’t want to talk to me. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. Even if Pearl approached him, he would blow her off.

Cane’s voice didn’t sound any different than usual, but I could feel the pain in his tone. I could hear the crackle of anger. I could feel his sadness, his brutal pain, over the quiet line. My brother claimed he didn’t love this woman, but if it wasn’t love, I didn’t know what else it could be.

When I turned around, Pearl was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. She searched my face for clues as to what just happened. She wanted confirmation, but she also didn’t want to hear it at the exact same time.

“It’s done.” I repeated my brother’s words to her, finding them short and effective.

Her eyes immediately watered, quicker than I could snap my fingers.

“Button…” She darted around me and left our bedroom, dismissing me without a backward glance. Her light footsteps pounded against the hardwood floor as she practically ran down the hallway.

My initial instinct was to go after her, but she obviously didn’t want me with her. In her eyes, I was somehow responsible for this. Since I wasn’t willing to risk my life as well as hers for this woman, I was somehow evil.

Adelina was a nice woman who deserved better, but I would always put my wife first.

That was how this cruel world worked.

* * *

When it was late in the evening, I finally left my study and went after her. She’d had enough time to grieve, to let her emotions clean out her tear ducts. Logic would descend once again, and she would understand this wasn’t her fault or mine.

Life just sucked.

I found her sitting outside on the patio, one of my sweaters bundled around her. Instead of making her look bulkier, she seemed even smaller in the oversized clothing. I walked up behind her then took the seat in the armchair beside her.

She stared across the vineyards even though practically nothing could be seen. There was a soft breeze in the air, slightly cold from the approach of fall. Sweet grapes were on the wind, along with the smell of olives from the trees.

I waited for her to say something, to feel out her mood.

But she was dead silent.

“Button.” I watched the side of her face, seeing the anguish in her expression.

“She’s my friend…”

“I know. I liked her too.”

“Right now, as we speak…” She never finished the sentence. She let it die away on the tip of her tongue.

“Don’t think about that. She even told us not to feel guilty. She knows we couldn’t do anything for her.”