Page 65 of Shattered Hearts
I nod. “A Diamond patron kept harassing her after-hours.”
There’s one kill I’ll never regret. Pulled the trigger in that guy’s mouth and slept like a baby.
“So what happened?” Riley’s voice leads me back to the story.
“One night, I went after her, and she stabbed me in the arm.” Still makes me laugh, but I don’t in front of Riley. “She thoughtIwas the one who’d been following her.”
“Why’d you really go after her?”
Wasn’t expecting her to ask me that. “To make sure she was okay.”
Riley listens intently, her blue-eyed stare as big as a child’s at story time
To someone who’s seen and been involved in as many dark, disgusting things as I have, her sweetness steals my breath. I’m a nuclear wasteland, and she’s a wildflower, miraculously unaffected by my toxicity.
She sips her water. “And then what?”
“I asked her to go out with me.”
Begged is more like it,asBrianne liked to say.
Riley whispers, “What was her name?”
“Marigold-Juliet Brianne Vandercluft.” Despite the pain, saying Bri’s name seems right.
Never talking about her makes me feel like I’m six feet under too. But none of the guys knew her very well. Bri never really warmed to them, and she made us get our own place, so talking like this with Riley is the first I’ve really spoken about my late wife in years.
“Was she also a member of the British royal family?” Riley lifts her eyebrows and glances at the table between us. “With a fancy name like that, I mean.”
I chuckle. “She did come from a fancy family.”
“Really? Then…”
I can practically read her mind. “How did she end up dancing at the Diamond?”
Riley waves away the question. “I’m beingsonosy. Ignore me.”
“I couldn’t ignore you if I tried.”
Her eyes snap to mine, that same heat from earlier still vibrating between us.
“Your wife.” The words tumble from Riley’s lips as if by accident, her eyes still stirring through mine. “She was a lucky woman.”
Those words sink a sword through my heart.
Riley’s meaning courses through every fiber of my being. She’s trying to give me a compliment, trying to say that something in me is worthy.That doesn’t stop my demons from rising from the depths.
My darkness comes along, tightening my muscles and coiling around my neck like a cobra made of grief, depression, and violence.
“You’re wrong.” Even to me, my voice sounds dark and scary. “Brianne died because of me. She wasn’t lucky.”
My tone shuts Riley up.
Good. She needs to hear this.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Angel. Your sister isn’t lucky to be engaged to me.” I squeeze the dessert spoon in my fist so hard it bends. “And you’re not lucky to be filling in. You all have terrible luck. That’s the only reason any of you ended up with your lives tangling withme. Got it?”
Riley rolls her lips together. While she’s visibly unsettled by my words, unsettled isn’t good enough.