“Whatever happened to get us here, she’s my wife now. You said so. We stood out there, and the state made it legal in their eyes and God’s. We can’t forget our roots, Sean. We’re still Catholic, and the church doesn’t sanction divorce or adultery.”
“So, what are you saying Dek? You aren’t fucking anyone else?”
“Why would I?”
“Why indeed?”
“Sean, don’t you think we should get back to the actual business at hand?”
“No, I don’t.” I hear Sean let out a big sigh. “What I want is for you to admit that your wife wishes she had married me instead.”
“I don’t see that it’s relevant.” Deklan still sounds calm, but there’s a tightening of his voice. “What’s done is done.”
“She’d drop on her knees and suck my cock if I told her to.”
If Deklan replies, I can’t hear it.
“Where are your loyalties, Dek? With me or with her?”
“Both,” Deklan finally says. “We should make sure we all stay in alignment so neither ever comes into question.”
There is a long moment of silence before Sean replies.
“It’s a good thing I’m feeling kinda generous today, Dek. I’ll let this slide for now, but I’m going to expect some compensation.”
I hear footsteps heading for the door, and I quickly run back to my seat at the desk and start tapping the keyboard and moving the mouse around.
“Time to go,” Deklan says. He grabs our coats from the rack and practically pulls me out of my seat to help me get my coat on.
“I haven’t finished what Teagan asked me to do.”
“Later. I’ve got stuff to do.” He doesn’t say another word as we leave the house and wait for John to bring the Viper around to the front door. Deklan puts the car in gear, and we speed away from the house.
“Are you all right?” I ask quietly. I’m tempted to tell him what I overheard, but I’m not sure what his reaction might be.
Deklan ignores my question and tightens his grip on the steering wheel until his knuckles go white. I don’t want to keep secrets from him. I want to tell him what I heard, but he is obviously in no mood to talk.
His phone buzzes in the console between us, but he ignores it.
I sit and silently look out the window at the buildings speeding by and force thoughts and images of the day from my head.
The phone buzzes again, and the sound puts me on edge. The third time it buzzes, I grab it to look at the screen. The contact name is Teagan, and the text message just says “WH.”
“Deklan? There’s a message from Teagan on your phone.”
Deklan takes the phone from my hand and glances at the screen.
“What does it mean?” I ask.
“She wants to meet with me.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going with you.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” Deklan says, “so yeah, you are.”