I place the order, and with fucking on my mind, I walk into the living room, déjà vu slapping me hard in the face, a thousand memories crashing over me.
“Thanks, Millie,” Candace says, settling onto the couch and grabbing a blanket. She always has a blanket on top of her that I have to fight to replace with me.
I sit down next to her, remembering our first night here, her naked and on that occasion, she was on top of me, while I was falling the fuck in love. “Same couch.” I drag her legs over my lap. “It survived the years well.”
“Better than me,” she dares. “And you I’m not big on change.”
“And yet you were wearing another man’s ring.”
“Really Rick? That’s where you want to go? You left. You—”
“I know. Fuck. I’m sorry. That’s wasn’t fair.”
“No. No, it wasn’t fair.”
“I threw the ring in the trash.”
She gapes. “You did what? That’s a ten-thousand-dollar ring.”
“Fuck him and that ring. Why were you even wearing it?”
“Do you know how badly you deserve to hear: that’s not your business?”
“I get it. I’m an asshole. I’m a prick. I’m a piece of shit. I’m the douche of douches. I also never even considered giving another woman a ring. Now, why were you even wearing his ring?”
“He asked.”
“He asked?” I scowl in disbelief. “Are you fucking serious, woman? Is that your criteria because that isn’t making me feel good about you saying you’d marry me.”
“It’s complicated.”
I read between the lines and it’s written in my regret and what she doesn’t want to say to me. “You thought you loved him,” I say flatly.
“No.” She laughs bitterly. “No. You made sure that didn’t happen.” She shifts the topic back to me. “You really never—”
“Never. There’s never been anyone for me but you.”
“Yes, but—”
“No but. There’s never been anyone but you. I won’t tell you I didn’t fuck my share of women. But that’s all they were. That’s all they were ever going to be.” I lower my voice. “Candace, baby. I need you to talk to me about Gabriel. Why did you agree to marry him if you didn’t love him?”
She seems to fret a moment and then she says. “It’s easier to show you.” She grabs her phone from where she’s slipped it to the couch beside her and tabs to something she clearly plans to share. Just not yet. “I found a phone and didn’t recognize it. I grabbed it and just started tabbing through it. I now believe it to be Gabriel’s burner phone. The very fact that he needs a burner phone says a lot. This message was the message on it.” She hands me her phone with a photo pulled up. I read the message:
The general has to go sooner rather than later, but after the wedding. I’m going to rush the proposal. That means you speed things up. He’s becoming difficult. He needs to know that I can take everything from him, including her. If that doesn’t work, we’ll end him in a more final fashion. Her father was Black Moon. He was the one who dictated the work to Tag for that project. It would be easy to assume that Gabriel has a link to that operation and wants anyone who knows about that link, dead. Maybe that’s even why he sought out Candace. She completed his resume and controlled her father, or so he thought. No one controls her father. It would also, at this point, be easy to assume that’s why Tag wanted me here. To kill Gabriel.
It would be a simple assumption, too simple.
There’s something I’m missing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Savage
“He proposed three days after I found that message,” Candace says, drawing me back to her and out of my own head. “I forced myself to say yes because I was afraid for my father. He’s deployed. I couldn’t contact him. I still can’t. I’m afraid to even try. I have no idea who he can trust. I don’t know who I can trust.”
“Me,” I say. “You can trust me.”
“I do. I trust you. That’s not what I meant, but no one else. He’s powerful, Rick. His resources reach far and wide.”
“As do mine, far more so than you realize right now.” The doorbell rings and there is too much left to say, too much about the past that can’t be said here and now, while our delivery waits. I’m not even sure it’s territory you dive into while eating pizza. “Let’s eat. Then we’ll get into all of this. Are you okay with that?”
“I can’t put him at risk.”
“I’ll protect your father. You have my word.”
“Yes, but—”
I lean in and kiss her. “Right now, let’s enjoy the first pizza we’ve shared in years together.”
“Yes,” she whispers and then with a firmer voice she adds, “Yes. Okay. I just—okay. I’d like that very much.”