Drake flinched. Silas and Maddox winced, their eyes brimming with sympathy—and anger, fully directed at Drake.
“I’m on my knees, Drake, and I swore to never allow myself the humiliation I felt the night you degraded me in our apartment, but right now, I have no pride. I have nothing if you don’t believe in me. Please say you’ll believe in me. Just this once, Drake. I swear you’ll never have cause to question me again.”
For a moment, she thought she might have gotten through to him. She couldn’t bear to look at all his other men. They’d just been harassed and embarrassed and inconvenienced for over an hour and if they, like Drake, blamed her, then she’d find no safe harbor in their eyes.
So far, she’d only borne witness to Silas’s and Maddox’s reactions, and at least they seemed inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Listen to her, Drake. Don’t be stupid,” Silas said with a curse. “Look at her, for God’s sake. She’s on her knees begging you. Is that what you really want from the woman you’re going to marry?”
His words had a whiplike effect on Drake. His eyes grew ruthless and ice encompassed him to the point where she no longer recognized the man standing above her, looking down at her like she was nothing but trash.
“No,” Drake bit out, a lethal edge to his voice. “You’re right. She isn’t at all what I want in the woman I marry. I expect my wife to have utmost loyalty to me and to my men. Not seduce me with lies in order to give information to undercover cops.”
All the blood left Evangeline’s face. All the life left her body and she sagged downward, her knees no longer able to support her. She listened dully as Drake, seemingly miles away, barked an order to someone—Who?—to get her the hell away from him. To throw her out. Anywhere but here, but get her out of his face and his life forever.
“See her out, Hatcher, Jax,” he said in a harsh tone. “Since Silas and Maddox seem to have difficulty heeding my orders.”
“You touch her and you die.” Silas’s voice hissed into the silence, his voice sounding like the harbinger of death. “Get away from her. Now,” he barked.
Then, as if he hadn’t just threatened to kill one of his own brothers, Silas very gently helped her to her feet, another savage curse spewing from his lips when she stumbled and couldn’t get her legs underneath her.
He half picked her up, tucking her underneath his shoulder, and walked toward the elevator, her silent sobs racking her entire body, her head hung in defeat, her shoulders as bowed as her head.
He turned at the elevator and directed his cold, unforgiving stare at Drake. “See what you’ve done, Drake. Take a long, hard look at what you’ve destroyed. I’d tell you to have a nice life, but you’ve fucked up any chance you ever had of that.”
Maddox strode to the elevator, holding his hand to prevent the doors from shutting. “Make sure she’s safe and cared for,” Maddox said to Silas in a low voice. “I’m going to stay here until I find out what the fuck is going on and who betrayed us. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.”
Evangeline lifted her head and stared blankly at Maddox. He flinched when he met her gaze, and blind fury welled in his eyes.
“You heard Drake,” she said in a vacant tone. “I betrayed you. Him.”
“That’s fucking bullshit and you and I both know it,” Maddox exploded.
“But he doesn’t,” she said, tears running down her cheeks, her voice cracking under the weight of her grief. “And now he never will.”
“Look at me, Evangeline,” Maddox said, in a tone he’d never before used with her. It was like a thread of steel, unbending, dominant, forceful. She was helpless to do anything but obey. “He will know it wasn’t you. But I’m afraid it’s too late for him now. He didn’t believe you when it mattered. When I bring him irrefutable evidence that proves your innocence, he’ll know he made the biggest fucking mistake of his life. And then he’ll have to live with the consequences for the rest of it.”
“Take care of him, Maddox. Please. For me. Someone is out to hurt him. To destroy his life—and yours. Don’t let them get away with it. They lied about me to him. They aren’t honorable or noble police. They won’t use the law to get to Drake. They’ll go around it. So please keep him safe.”
“Son of a bitch,” Silas said, fury emanating from him in waves. “I can’t stomach this another goddamn minute. Let us go, Maddox. Before I go in there and take Drake down myself so the cops have one less thing to worry about. That son of a bitch just cut her down as cruelly and as viciously as a man could ever cut down another woman, much less one he’d asked to marry him. And yet here she stands begging us to take care of him and keep him safe? I’d like to kill the bastard with my own hands.”