Libby
“I DON’T CARE,” I SHOUTED when Christian finished reading the contract out loud. “I don’t care what it says. We changed the terms. That one is void.”
“Doesn’t work that way.” Christian laughed darkly. “Whatever you thought your brother did, I assure you he didn’t. You belong to me.”
“No. No, I don’t—I never. You can’t do this to me,” I cried out. “You can’t claim me and then decide how the rest of my life is going to play out because you think you own me. That stupid piece of paper means nothing to me.”
He pulled me closer and yelled, “That was a contract signed in blood, Elizabeth. You and I are the only things binding our families—the only things keeping them from fighting.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Gabe whispered as he emerged from the shadows.
“Screw you and your fucked-up family,” I yelled at him.
Gabe’s mouth twitched into a crooked smirk.
My next scream was nearly as piercing as the sound of the gunshot tearing through the warehouse.
Christian stumbled back, roaring in pain and clutching his shoulder.
What . . .
What the hell?
I couldn’t process what was happening.
There had been so many shocks tonight that I couldn’t grasp this new one. It was as if my mind was trying to protect me by filling itself with mundane things instead.
The only thing I could think in that moment was Dare would give me so much shit if he found out I’d screamed . . .
“The hell are you doing?” Christian snarled.
Gabe rounded on him, his smirk growing broader. “To answer your questions from earlier, Elizabeth, yes, I had to stalk you and kill innocent men. But I’m not the man you’ve hated all along. That award goes to this man here.” He lifted his arm and shot again.
I barely flinched, and only cast Christian a quick glance to see him bleeding from both shoulders and struggling to stay upright.
“Cousin. My partner at the firm. Underboss of Willow Gang,” Gabe continued dryly. “He ordered every picture to be taken and delivered to you. Ordered the deaths of the men you slept with. And he snuck into your bed a few nights ago.”
“Oh God . . .”
Gabe smirked. “I had to hear about it. In detail.”
My stomach rolled violently.
The box in Gabe’s truck. The film, camera, and envelopes . . . it hadn’t occurred to me someone else might be behind any part of it.
I should’ve known.
The presence Christian exuded—so dark and heavy and wrong—it’d been in my room that night.
I’d felt it. Dismissed it.
A growl built from deep within Christian’s chest when Gabe stood before him.
“You don’t deserve to be next in line. You also don’t deserve to be the one in the contract.”
“You don’t get to decide—”
“Don’t I?” Gabe slowly advanced, making Christian stagger back. “It said a grandson, which I am. It said they had to consummate the marriage.” Gabe smiled wide, making him look feral. His stare dragged to me for a few seconds. “Which we did. Over and over. After all, you had me watching her for years.”
Christian lunged just as another gunshot rang through the warehouse.
He stopped suddenly, clutching at his chest and staring wide-eyed before dropping to his knees.
A wet cough worked up his throat, spraying blood from his mouth.
Gabe stepped directly in front of him, all cruel smiles and greedy stares. “That fourth signature? I made the call for it.” Gabe shrugged slightly. “We already had the contract signed and delivered back to us before you decided it was worth your time to meet her. We’ve just been waiting for you to make a move desperate enough to warrant being taken out. For example . . . your decisions the last couple weeks.”
“I’ll kill you,” Christian choked out.
Gabe laughed, short and mocking. “Thought we already covered that you have clean hands.” He bent his head closer and said, “I’ll take care of the family better than you ever could.”
Christian’s face twisted in rage and pain, his mouth opened to retaliate, when Gabe put a bullet through his forehead.
I jolted when Gabe suddenly appeared in front of me, brow furrowed and eyes searching me.
“You look like you’re going into shock.”
Did I?
It wasn't the first murder to happen in front of me.
Not by a long shot.
But I’d felt blindsided tonight. Repeatedly.
“I was unaware you two were related. And Moretti.” My eyebrows slowly lifted and a breath of a laugh escaped my lips. “Then you started picking each other off in front of me. And somewhere in the middle of that, I found out I was married to a goddamn psychopath.”
Gabe looked to where I’d gestured to Christian, then back to me. That crooked smile I used to beg to see making an appearance. “Not.”
“Not what?”
“Weren’t you listening? You were always married to me.”
I stumbled back into the wall, my head spinning as I tried to remember what was said. “No. No, no . . . oh—shit.” I flinched when he palmed my waist and tried to move away, but he crowded me in place.
“I won’t hurt you.”
A maniacal laugh burst from my chest. “Excuse me for not believing you.”
Anger briefly flashed across his face. “I never hurt you before tonight.”
“You lied to me,” I bit out. “You let me think I was free for eleven years.”
“There are prices to pay for trying to back out on a blood oath, Libby. Freedom is usually one of them.”
“We didn’t back out. Dare—”
“I’m aware of the cataclysm your brother was at fault for.”
I blinked quickly. “What? He . . . what? He didn’t do anything.”
“He almost started a war because he was too young and careless to think about the consequences of his actions.” He shrugged, the movement jerky with frustration and bringing him closer when his body relaxed. “But he was the only blood male, so what he said went.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Gabe stared at me for a moment, stunned that I clearly didn’t know yet another thing. Leaning forward, he growled in my ear, “There’s a reason your brother was made boss at thirteen. Didn’t any of you think someone else would better fit the job?”
I looked past him, denial and confusion warring within me.
“Blood had to fill the position to keep our contracts and alliances alive. Dare was the only blood male. No one else was allowed to take the position. The older gens knew that.”
“No . . . no, that’s not—”
“Read the damn contract, Libby.”
“Dare would’ve told me,” I yelled at him, pushing him away.
He spread his arms wide, gun still hanging from one of his hands. “You sure about that?”
“Fuck you.”
“If he knew,” he said calmly, conceding. “Vince came back livid after his visit when your old man died. Kept yelling about your brother and how he was going to try to break the contract.”
“Of course he wanted to break the contract. For me.”
Gabe looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “It’s a blood contract, Libby. Do you know what breaking one means? Did you read the last line?” He stepped closer and lowered his tone. “War, Libby. Death.”
I blinked slowly when I realized what he was saying—what his family had done.
“He was thirteen,” Gabe continued. “Not hard to think he might not have been told by the older gen why he became boss. That no one else was allowed to. But before Vince could remind your brother how serious our arrangement was, he stopped fighting Vince on it.”
“And then Vince died,” I said through gritted teeth. “And your uncle let Dare break the contract. He knew Dare had no idea what he was doing and he welcomed it. Your uncle wanted Dare to start a war.”
“Do you see a war going on between us?” he asked in a dangerously low tone. “Are Borellos disappearing? Do you see them dropping all around you? There is no war because we figured your brother didn’t have a fucking clue what was really going on.”
I stared blankly at Gabe when he turned and holstered his gun as he started pacing. His long legs easily eating up the space. “I don’t . . . I don’t understand.” I shook my head, trying to sort through the chaos swirling around inside. “Why not tell him? Why not retaliate after he did it—or after I didn’t go to Chicago?”
He stopped suddenly.
For a long time, he stayed like that. Back to me, body still, barely showing even a hint that he was breathing.
“It was obvious he would’ve done anything to have you taken out of the contract . . . and that’s not something anyone can do. We knew he would’ve taken it to a point we didn’t want it to go, so my uncle let him think he could have it his way.” He turned to face me and folded his arms over his chest. “Dare gave us information and weapons. Helping each other is in the contract—not that we needed the help—but he wasn’t offering anything that we didn’t already have a right to.”
I lifted my chin. “And me?”
The corner of his mouth lifted into that crooked smile. “You?” A breath of a laugh left him. “Jesus, Libby . . . Moretti almost went to war against each other over you.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t.”
He shot me a cold glare. “Nearly half of us wanted to send someone after you. To bring you to Chicago and keep you locked away until you broke. Until you begged to be allowed into the family.”
“I would’ve fought my way out, killing as many of you as I could.”
“I don’t doubt it.” For a split second, amusement and pride flashed through his eyes. “The other half was sure it would have the younger generation of Borellos coming after us. Once again, starting a war.”
“And which side were you on?” I asked, my tone part challenge, part taunt.
“The contract said if you didn’t come to us, you would be transferred to us by a person of our choosing.” He held out his arms. “I’ve been here . . . and you’re still here.”
I tried to hide the horror now pulsing through me as everything began clicking in place. “Wait, you? What about Christian?”
Rage burned in his eyes. “He’s the only son of Vince’s oldest son. He’s next in line by birth . . . but no one thought he deserved it—including his old man. It’s been in place for me to take over since the contract was written. You learn a lot about yourself and your limits when you’re forced to watch your wife fuck other men for years.”
“I am not your wife.”
Gabe was suddenly there, in my space with his face directly in front of my own. Body pressed to mine and hands on the wall, caging me in. “We have an arrangement bound in blood. And it says you’re mine.”
“No,” I yelled, my voice getting louder and higher when I continued. “Why didn’t Vince or your uncle tell Dare what the contract was? If he would’ve seen it, he wouldn’t have done what he did. If I would’ve seen it, I wouldn’t have thought all these years—” A sob wrenched from my chest.
That I could’ve had a future with Maxon.
That I’d really escaped the whole thing.
“Thought what?” he asked, goading. “That you weren’t married? That you weren’t already fucking your husband? That you weren’t finalizing the contract the first night you slept with me?”
My stomach rolled and my head felt light.
I’d tried to live life without regrets. Who knew the tall, dark, handsome strangers in my bar would end up being the biggest regrets of my life?
“I hate you,” I breathed.
“Dare never saw the contract because we didn’t have it at the time,” he mumbled after a few moments. “The lawyer did. He’d had it from the day it was written. When you turned twenty-one, I got a call that he signed it. He told me to let him know when the next step was completed, and he would take care of getting the priest’s signature.”
I slapped him.
He looked stunned before his eyes set in anger.
His hand shot out to catch mine before it could connect with his face a second time.
“You tricked me into sleeping with you to get a fucking signature,” I yelled and tried to wrench my hand free.
“Is that right?” He dipped his head close, his mouth grazing my jaw when he whispered, “I seem to remember it going a little differently. You flirted relentlessly. You gave me your number. You asked if I was going to take you back to my place.”
“Stop.”
His knee pressed between my thighs. “You begged.”
“Stop.”
“And that was just the first time.”
“Shut up.” I thrashed against him and finally got my hand free enough to push him away.
Instead of the amused or taunting look I’d been expecting, he looked furious. “And the entire damn time, you just wanted placeholders until some guy came back. But I tricked you.”
A harsh laugh left me. “I never said I wanted anything from you other than what we had. It was sex. Nothing more.” I waved a hand at him and curled my lip. “And don’t act so hurt now. You never pretended it meant anything to you. You never pretended I did. Not until now.”
His face fell. Again, he looked at me like he didn’t know how I couldn’t understand the situation. “I was trying to figure out how to get to know my wife when she had no idea we were married,” he yelled. “I was trying to figure out how to gain her trust and get her to fall for me, all the while knowing how she would react when she found out my name. I was fucking pissed off that I had to watch my wife flirt with other men—and know that I couldn’t do anything about it without telling her everything.”
“Years. You were there for years and you never said anything.”
“Would it have changed anything?”
“In your favor?” I wanted to laugh in his face. I wanted to tell him he was delusional. But the genuine curiosity and want pooling in his eyes stopped me. “Gabe, you’ve been stalking me. You’ve been scaring me and killing guys I knew for one night.” I held his hardened stare and clenched my teeth. “A night. You married me without my consent. You’ve lied to me about who you are. And you have me chained to a wall.” My chest pitched with a ragged breath. “The guy I used to beg to smile? I have no idea who that is. I don’t know who you are. But even if all that was taken away . . . there’s still Maxon.”
He nodded slowly and started to turn but stopped to look at me again. “I didn’t say anything because after a while, I had to come to terms with the fact that you’d hate me when you found out. And I lived for Friday nights. They were the only nights I could let you see me. The only time I could talk to you. I craved the nights I took you back to my place. And I knew those would be gone when you found out. It would go one of two ways after that . . . I’d drag you back to Chicago kicking and screaming, and you’d hate me. Or the war I’d been trying to prevent all along would finally happen.”
“So what now?” I asked when he started slowly pacing again. “If you keep me here, my family will find me. If you take me anywhere else, I’ll spend every waking minute thinking of how to escape until I finally get the chance. Either way, you will never own any part of me.”
“I’ve never wanted to own you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t belong to me. And like I said, we are passionate about keeping what belongs to us.” He stopped a few feet from me and faced me. “This is the one time I agree with my cousin’s methods.”
My brows pulled tight and stomach knotted when he pulled out his phone and tapped on it.
“Alive, Maxon will always be in the way, Libby.” He flashed me a quick smile. “I appreciate you telling me where he is.”
The room tilted. “No.”
Gabe held the phone to his ear, his expression settling into stone as he waited.
“Gabe, no. Please . . . please, I’ll do anything. I’ll go to Chicago. I won’t run. Just don’t do this.”
His eyes locked on me. “Kill him.”