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Chapter 81
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Contracted Husband Chapter 82
Natalia Love is the deadliest weapon.It’s sharper than a sword. More precise than a sniper’s rifle. It takes without discrimination of age, gender, or race.If you’re human, you’re defenseless. There is no barrier that can stop it. Once you’ve looked into its shadowed eyes, there’s nothing you can do to arm yourself against something so powerful.My father warned me about love. “Keep your head down,” he always said. “Stay focused on what’s in front of you.”He told me love would only bring me betrayal and deception and pain. That loving someone would put me in a vulnerable place. That it was like handing someone a loaded gun, placing their finger on the trigger, and pressing the barrel right over your heart, daring them not to pull.“Their fingers always twitch, Em,” he’d say. “And a bullet to the heart is impossible to survive.”I’d grin at him in that way I knew melted some of the frost from his expression. “I bet I can find someone on the internet who survived a bullet to the hea
Contracted Husband Chapter 83
It’s true that betrayal can spark to life a bone-deep hatred of someone. But love and hate aren’t natural opposites that cancel each other out. They can reside within the same heart. Bleed into each other. Become so tightly wound around each other that it becomes impossible to tell which is which.Guess I won’t have the time to sort that mess out.“Good night, Natalia .” His deep, warm voice rumbles through me just before the crack of the hammer against the bullet.Pain spears me through the chest and I go down to the floor. White-hot fire blazes from my ribs to my back and I futilely gasp for air .He stands over me, looking at me the way I imagine he has with the dozens of others he’s killed. Then he lifts his arm and aims at my chest once again to deliver the finishing blow.And he shoots.Nathan Four Months Ago…Death.It surrounds me. It’s in everything that I do. Eating. Breathing. Fucking.I wield it like an extension of me, a scythe that forms another limb.I’ve been given th
Contracted Husband Chapter 84
“I know who you are,” I say to Patterson . “You have information for me?”“Yes. But you’re going to need to see this in person. Can you be here between one and two?”“I’ll be there.”Two hours later, I pull my black Aston Martin DBS Superleggera into the parking lot of the morgue where my father’s autopsy was performed.I remain in the car for a few minutes, breathing deeply, my hands clutched to the steering wheel.For as many people as I’ve sent here, I’ve never been to a morgue. Wish I’d come sooner, seen the blue bodies of random strangers to get acclimated.I step out and go into the building, where I’m met by Patterson . We pass the lone receptionist stationed at a curved desk to the right. She doesn’t bother glancing our way, simply keeps her head bowed over a bowl of noodles.“It’s lunchtime,” Patterson informs me. “Arteta is under Andre’s employ. She won’t let anyone disturb us.”I follow him down a wide sterile-looking hallway that reminds me of the ones in hospitals, with p
Contracted Husband Chapter 85
To see him naked now, cut up and stitched back together, helpless… He may not have had my love, but he has my fierce loyalty. As does Katy . I will find out who killed him and give them both peace. I look at his gaunt face, cheeks sunk in and lips blue, and can’t find a hint of the life he once had. There’s nothing but a mask that resembles the man he used to be. “Tell me what you found,” I order through gritted teeth. Patterson slips on latex gloves. From a small tray, he grabs a sharp tool and uses it as a pointer. “There are two gunshot wounds. The first is this graze.” He signals to a gash on his left forearm. “The second here”—he indicates the one low on his chest—“is the point of entry for a nine millimeter bullet which was lodged in his spine. It hit him straight on at close range. Being this far down, it makes me believe the person who shot him was either short or had their elbow bent.” “Someone short,” I repeat, my mind flipping through the catalogue of every short fuck I
Contracted Husband Chapter 86
Either way, it seems a conversation between us is in order. He needs to unfuck this situation so that my father can get justice. That, or he can get out of my way.Sliding into my vehicle, I slam the door shut with enough force to make the windows rattle.It’s rare that I lose control, but I’m so angry that it’s hard to rein in the fury. My stepmother’s distraught face flitters through my mind.“Promise me you’ll make them pay, Nathan ,” she begged. “Whoever took Leonardo from me needs to pay.”Katy may not be my biological mother, but she’s the only one I have. And I promised her.I toss the bag containing the last items my father carried with him onto the passenger seat. When it lands, the contents shift, spreading out inside the plastic.Sunlight streaming through the windshield glints off the gold rings he favored. One for his forefinger, one for his middle, and…Frowning, I grab the bag and bring it in for closer inspection. There are three rings. My father only wore two.I take
Contracted Husband Chapter 87
“Yeah, bitch, take my dick. I’m stretching you so good with my big cock, aren’t I?”Grimacing, I go to the wet bar by the dinette near the stern and pour myself a shot of whiskey.It takes him about thirty seconds to finish. Although it seems like an eternity to me and I’m sure to the poor woman in there with him too. All the while, he demeaned her, called her a whore and a slut because he needed her approval. Validation that he was big enough to make her feel something.I’ve never seen Andre ’s dick. Don’t need to view his prick to know it’s probably proportional to his body size.Because if your dick is big enough, you don’t need to ask a woman if she feels it. In fact, if you’re big enough, she shouldn’t be able to speak, much less answer stupid fucking questions.A few minutes later, a brunette climbs out of the lower deck, wiping white powder from her nose as she shrugs into a thin red sweater. She gives me a weary smile before she grabs her purse from the cushioned benches aroun
Contracted Husband Chapter 88
“Or is it the other way around?” I ask, my tone still calm. “What did you do that she’s now unwilling to work with you?”His gaze flicks to mine. “What are you, my consigliere? You givin’ me advice on how to run my own show? I never appointed you to that job. It’s none of your fuckin’ concern what I do! Don’t forget, you work forme.” He points a finger at me as he sneers the last words.“Is that what you think?”“It’s what I know. I’m the king around here, bitch. I make the decisions, and if I don’t want to work with those assholes anymore, you can’t say shit. You’re nothin’ but a lackey hitman. So act like it and go kill somethin’.”His skinny neck is in my hands before he can make a peep. I have one knee on the cushion beside him, the other across the top of his legs, pinning them. But the majority of my weight is on his windpipe.“Do you know what it takes to be a hitman, cousin?”Mouth opening and closing like a fish, his tanned skin turning purple, he stares at me with wide, wild
Contracted Husband Chapter 89
“Good,” he said. “We may not be blood, Nathan , but wearefamily. And we do everything to protect the family.”If only his sons were half the man he was, everything would be simpler. I wouldn’t have to step in every time they piss someone off.I wouldn’t be considering removing Andre from his position.My car keys clank loudly when I toss them onto the black granite counter in my kitchen. I push the button on the fireplace mantel that turns it on and pause when I go to sit on my couch.Katy is lying there, sound asleep. I crouch beside her and swipe a lock of her dark hair from her face.“Mother?”She stirs, a soft sob escaping her, but she doesn’t fully wake. The light from the fire catches on her soft features, accentuating the lines created by age, which haven’t managed to dull her beauty.I sigh, hating to see her like this. Frail, broken. Her cheeks streaked with dry tears.It’s too late to take her home now. Besides, I’m not sure if I want her there alone, surrounded by the memor
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