Vow to Protect (Vow To Protect 1)

I lean down to speak into her ear. “And what if Sal had raped you? Would you be so lenient on him then? What if the last thing you saw was his greasy mug above yours? What if your last moments were spent in humiliation and pain?”

“S-Stop…” she sobs. “Stop it. Don’t do this.”

I grip her hands tighter, forcing them to the trigger. She’s shaking against me and crying, and I can’t take it. With a little shove away from her, I release my hold.

She stumbles forward, still holding the gun. Then as if realizing it, she flings out, trying to dislodge it. Kai gets to her first, catching the weapon, and deposits it safely on the table.

I turn to face her, grabbing her shoulders so she can look at me. “This is part of our world. If I can’t trust him to keep you safe, then I can’t trust him to do anything.”

She sniffles hard, her cheeks red now. “But he’s your friend.”

“My friend wouldn’t have let my wife be attacked.” I glare over her shoulder as I say it. “My friend would have caught the bastard and presented him to me wrapped in a bow ready for me to take my vengeance on him.”

“This is my choice, right?” she asks, her voice stronger now, her tears gone, only the dampness on her cheeks remaining.

When I don’t answer, she cups my cheeks and guides my eyes to hers. “It’s my choice? Since I was the one who was attacked, it should be. And I don’t want him to die.”

Fucking hell, I can deny her nothing. Not when she looks at me with those soft eyes and halo of curls for good measure. I stare at the gun and then at her. “His life is yours then to do with what you will. Kai is no longer my second but yours. But if he gets you killed, I swear to you, every single person involved will die.”

She nods once and turns to face Kai, who wears a stunned expression, his face bleached of color. “She can’t…what…?”

He cups the back of the chair with both hands and leans in like he needs the extra support. And maybe he does. It hurts to lose the one man I thought would get me through anything. The one man I could count on above all others. But, by the same token, I know if something else happens to her, he’ll die to prevent it. His code of honor would allow nothing less.

“Any news on his whereabouts?” I demand.

He stares back and forth between Valentina and me, now unsure of who he should address. “No, nothing yet. But we did get a message from her father.”

She gasps, and I pull her against me, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. “My father? How does…? Oh, someone from the party would have told him they saw me.”

“That was the point. He would have learned of our marriage eventually,” I tell her. Then to him. “Send word it’s not going to happen, and get the others back here so we can discuss strategy.”

He nods and fishes his phone out. The skin on his face is already swelling from hitting him, and my knuckles are a jagged mess. I’m still angry enough to beat him to death on my command room floor. The only thing standing between me and his death is five feet of too much fucking compassion.

She scans us both and rushes out of the room. When she’s gone, I take a step toward him. “If something like this happens again, I don’t care what I told her, I will put a knife to your throat myself. Are we clear?”

He rubs at his bloody nose with his shirtsleeve. “We’re clear. It won’t. I’ll protect her with my life.”

I shove at him. “You should have done that last night.”

“Hey!” she shouts. “You said he’s mine, and I don’t want him hurt anymore.”

She crosses between us and presses a plastic bag of ice to his cheek. The sight of her touching him makes me want to rip his arms off and beat the shit out of him with them. It’s stupidly irrational, but I can’t help myself. The only person who should touch her is me.

“Don’t fucking touch him,” I grit out, forcing everything in me to focus on something else. She enters my field of vision and takes my hand in her own, then presses another ice pack to my skinned knuckles. “I won’t touch him again. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I grab her around the throat, only hard enough so that she understands how serious I am. “If you touch another man, any man at all, I will kill him.”

She gives me a shaky nod, and I can feel her gulp under my palm. When I release her, she clucks over my knuckles, and Kai starts to leave.