Our marriage is far from normal. I may have fallen in love with Austin Lowes, but she didn’t soften me in the least. I still crave blood, and she never tries to stop me.
“Where’s Demi?” she asks, looking around.
Deke shrugs. “I thought she was with you, honestly.”
“Shit.” She sighs. “She probably knocked out a vampire, smeared his fake blood all over her, and has hijacked a coffin by now.”
He arches a brow. “Is she applying for a job or something?”
She shakes her head. “We thought you guys were here to fuck with us,” she admits. “So she wanted to scare you before you could pull one on her.”
He runs his finger across his bottom lip. “Oh, I can fuck with her all right.” Then he walks out of the room with a smile on his face.
I turn to Austin. “Where are his friends?” she asks me. “There were three of them.”
I’m very aware of how many of them there were. “Shane took care of them.” Although they made some comments I didn’t care for, they never touched any of the girls.
I watch her cradle her hand to her chest, and I know it’s time to go. I step into her and cup her gorgeous face. “Can we go home?”
She looks over at the guy who mumbles nonsense behind the tape over his mouth. Someone will find him before they close tonight. Maybe. If not, sucks to be him.
“Yeah.” She sighs. “Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER ONE
COLE
“YOU’RE LEAVING TONIGHT,” I order, running up the staircase to our master suite on the second floor.
“Oh no, I’m not.” Austin gives a humorous laugh, her heels stomping behind me.
“Staying isn’t an option.” I shove open our bedroom door and storm into our walk-in closet.
“I’m not going anywhere. Demi and I …”
“Demi is leaving too. Deke is placing her on the private jet as we speak.” We rented one a few hours ago and paid the pilot twenty thousand to take them wherever they decide to go. Not even Deke and I will know their destination, and it’s better this way. The girls aren’t safe here. Not with us. Not anymore. The game has changed.
“What?” she shrieks, entering the large space.
I don’t like repeating myself, so I ignore that and pull her Louis Vuitton luggage down I got her for Christmas last year and start shoving clothes inside.
“Cole, stop!” she orders, bending down and yanking them out.
She has some jeans folded on a shelf, and I toss them into the bag as well. Then I open the drawers and start grabbing underwear, bras, and socks.
“Cole!” she shouts. “Stop! I’m not going …”
“Yes, you are,” I growl.
“I’m not!” she screams.
I spin around and throw a wad of shirts to the floor.
She stands before me dressed in a black silk dress—it’s her wedding dress. Every time I look at her in it, it takes my breath away. She is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of. Her wide green eyes show her concern, but her thinned lips tell me she’s angry as well. Her small hands hit my chest, trying to shove me, but I don’t budge.
“Austin …”
“No! I won’t leave you.”
“I’m not giving you a choice.”
She shakes her head back and forth quickly, and I hear her sniff. The gravity of this situation has started to set in.
My jaw tightens. “Austin …”
“You can’t make me.” Her voice cracks.
“Sweetheart …” I reach out for her, but she pulls away.
“No!” She throws down the clothes she had pulled from the bag. “I’m not fucking leaving! You can’t make me!”
Reaching out, I grab her arm, then yank her to me. I shove her wild, dark hair from her face and watch the tears falling down her cheek. She doesn’t cry to get her way because she knows her tears have the opposite effect on me.
“Please?” she begs, her hands fisting my shirt, and my chest tightens at her words. Austin isn’t the kind of woman who begs for anything. “You promised me.” She lifts her left hand, shoving her ruby wedding ring into my face. “You promised to never leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Can’t she see we have no other choice?
“Neither am I.” She lifts her chin in challenge. She’s so stubborn. It’s one of the things I love about her. But she needs to understand I’m in charge here. If I say she goes, she goes.
I lean forward and press my lips to her wet ones. I kiss her slowly. Passionately. Burning her taste and feel of her to my memory because I’m not sure when I’ll see her again. If ever.
My tongue enters her mouth, and I grip her hair, making her whine in the sweetest way. My cock instantly goes hard. She does this to me every fucking time. And that’s exactly why she has to go. Austin has always been my weakness. She clouds my vision, and I can’t take that chance. I won’t survive sitting on a kitchen floor, holding her dead body in my arms again.
She’s panting when I pull away with a small smile on her face. She thinks she won.
I take a deep breath and break her heart like I did the morning after prom. When I pushed her away, not sure if I’d ever get her back. “You will leave tonight.” Her face falls. “This is not up for discussion. And there are no other options.”
A small gasp escapes her lips. I feel the need to explain myself and make her understand that I won’t risk her life. Not even for myself. “Because I love you, sweetheart. And you’re not safe.” Admitting I can’t protect her is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to accept. I can’t fail her. Not again.
She yanks away from me, green eyes burning into mine. Another reason I fell in love with her is because her hatred can match mine any day.
“I love you—”
“Fuck you, Cole!” she snaps. “You want me out?” She reaches down and shoves the things on the floor into her bag. “I’m out.”
“Austin …”
She looks up at me from her knees with streaks running down her gorgeous face from her eyeliner. “Just don’t expect me to come running when you call me to come back.” Then she exits the closet, leaving me to eat my own words.
My chest aches at her absence. The sudden silence almost deafening. Her perfume lingers in the large space, but my eyes scan over the empty shelves. Hangers litter the floor. Might as well be my soul in pieces because she owns it, and I just forced her to leave me. Who knows if she’ll ever forgive me.
I jerk at the sound of the front door slamming shut.
I have to remind myself this is for the best. I’ve always been selfish when it comes to her, but I can’t afford it this time. The cost is too much.
I walk into our bedroom and see my keys lying on the end of the bed. Picking them up, I follow her.
Fifteen minutes later, I pull my car to a stop and get out. I lean up against the hood as I face the private jet that sits on the tarmac in the night. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I look it over, hoping she can see me. That she knows this hurts me just as much as it does her.
I watch Deke exit the plane and walk down the steps. They close right behind him, and it begins to pull away.