Rafe
The town car parks out front of my New Jersey compound.
It’s a sprawling estate carved from the heart of the Pine Barrens. Self-sufficient,
mostly off-grid. Multiple redundant wells, a slew of solar panels and battery cells,
and even a windmill whirling in the distance.
The safest place within driving range.
June hammered me with questions during the trip here. She gave up eventually
when I made it clear that I wasn’t going to answer. But god, that woman has done
nothing but make this impossible situation even more difficult than it needs to be.
Moments after I st ep out of the car, Theodora arrives with my daughter, followed
by a small caravan of soldiers, Nunzio in command. My guard captain barks orders as
the men fan out and take positions around the walled compound.
Theodora’s carrying little yawning Hattie in her arms when June comes flying
around the car.
“Baby!” June all but rips the girl from Theodora, hugging her tight. Hattie clings to
her mother like a baby sloth. “Oh, I missed you so much.”
“I’m tired,” Hattie complains. “Where are we?”
“Vacation,” Theodora says happily. “I explained on the ride down, remember?”
“Do I have to sle ep here?” Hattie doesn’t sound happy. “It looks big and weird.”
June looks to me. I turn to the house. “Theodora, please show them to Hattie’s
room. When she’s in bed, bring June to the back sitting room.”
“You know I’m billing you triple for this, right?”
“Like it matters.” I look back once. “Make sure my wife is still in her dress.”
I leave them to handle it.
The house is massive. I don’t spend much time here, however, and it has to be
brought up to par. I called ahead and sent several of my personal staff to tidy up and
pr epare suitable lodgings. My suite connects to Hattie’s room and is set back on the
most heavily guarded and safest wing of the whole structure. I bypass those halls
though and go straight to my favorite room.
It’s a big glass atrium with views out to the pine trees and the walls around the
edge of the property. Plants grow in profusion all over the place. I ke ep an old local
lady on staff to tend the garden year round and she does a magnificent job. Flowers,
vines, small ferns, like a jungle in miniature. I fetch a drink and prowl to the far
window, staring out into the night.
This was a fucking unmitigated disaster.
I worked my ass off on this plan. I had everything ready, all the invitations sent,
the guests pr epared. It was going to be the world’s greatest forced wedding, a show
of my strength, proof that the Lords of Ashes are masters of this world. No man,
woman, or child can resist me. No politician can stop me, no business magnate can
buy me. I sit astride them all.
Instead, it was a rushed fucking mess.
“You’re brooding.” Silas approaches through the foliage. He swirls a glass and ice
clinks. “You must be in your happy place.”
“How are the others?”
“Cassian disappeared the moment you left. Kellan and Devlin are securing the
area. They’ll come around tomorrow to meet the girls.”
“That’s fine.” I crack my neck. “They tried to take her, Silas.”
“I know.” My brother’s usually confident and cocky smirk is missing. He stares
into the night beside me. “But Cassian stopped them.”
“Barely. I should have been there.”
“You were pr eparing for a wedding and running our entire operation. You can’t be
everywhere.”
“I should have been by her side.”
“Rafe—“
“This is what always happens.” I clutch my glass tightly, raising it to toss hard
liquor down my throat. It doesn’t quench the rage in my heart. “I let myself indulge
and everyone gets hurt.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Explain that to June and Hattie.”
He has no answer to that. Instead, he sighs and sips his bourbon. “I’ll clean up
back in the city. I’ll find a way to spin this the best I can.”
“There will be ugly rumors.”
“Aren’t there always when the Lords of Ashes are in volved?”
“I want them under control.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He turns away. “Looks like she found you.”
I follow his gaze. Standing at the far end of the room, framed by the door and the
light from the hall, is June Ashworth.
Now June Corvino.
Still wearing her white dress. Her hair falling artfully around her pretty face.
God, she’s fucking beautiful.
That’s the sickest part of all this. If I didn’t want her, that would be better. She’d
be an obligation and nothing more.
But I thrill at the thought of making her my bride.
My blood boils knowing she doesn’t want it, and that makes me need her even
more.
“Thank Theodora for me. And tell her she’s welcome to stay the night.”
“Think she’ll happily stay in my bed?”
“Don’t make this night even more painful, Silas.”
“A man’s got to try.” He squeezes my shoulder. “Stop looking like you’re standing
at a funeral, brother. It’s your wedding night.”
He walks off, pausing only to say something softly to June. She smiles she epishly
at him before he d eparts, leaving the two of us alone.
My wife drifts into the room. I can’t take my eyes off her. It’s like an angel floating
through an enchanted forest. The way she glides, her hips, the plunge of her
neckline, the plumpness of her lips. Her eyes are pink from crying, but that’s to be
expected.
“Tell me what’s happening right now or I’m out of here.” She stands there so
defiant and gorgeous.
But she has no fucking idea the mess she’s in.
“First, I want to make something clear.” I shift to face her. “We are hundreds of
miles from civilization. If you es cape, you will be lost and alone in the pine barrens
with no easy access to water and no food for possibly days or weeks at a time. Not to
mention our daughter will slow you down. I will find you and I will bring you back. Do
not make this difficult.”
Her lips twist and her hands ball to fists. “Stop saying our daughter. She isn’t
yours.”
I choose to ignore that. We have plenty of time to bicker over semantics. “Come
here.” I hold out my hand, gesturing for her to join me at the
windows. “We have our future to discuss.”
She doesn’t move immediately. Which is fine. She’ll learn to jump in time. I sip my
drink, savoring its smoke and flavor, until she finally comes and takes a position a
few feet to my left, out of reach.
“You can’t hold me against my will, and there’s no way that wedding was legal.”
“I can and it was. You already signed the documents.”
“I didn’t sign anything!”
I glance at her. “You think you really needed to?”
“This is crazy. How is this happening?!”
I turn to her, one palm against the glass. Last time we were together like this, I
had her tits against a window; my cock sank between her legs. I don’t think that will
happen tonight, but my god, I would bleed to taste her again.
“Here is the reality of your situation. Out there—“ I tap at the darkness beyond.
“You are not safe anymore. If this could be any other way, I promise you, that’s what
I would do. However, if I am going to protect you and my daughter—“
“My daughter,” she hisses at me.
“—I must do so with all my resources and as publically as I can. Your existence is
no longer a secret, and I will not allow it to be a liability. Making you my wife and
Harriet my legitimate daughter is the only way I can protect both you and my
empire.”
“Your empire?” She spreads her hands. “Who the hell are you, Rafe?”
“The details of who and what I am are not for you to worry about. All you need to
know are a few simple rules, which you will obey.”
“This is crazy.”
“The first rule: you may never leave the grounds of this house without my explicit
permission.”
“Got it, I’m a prisoner.”
“And the next rule: you will respect my men and you will ensure they respect you
in turn.”
That gets her attention. “What do you mean, respect me in turn?”
“Any comments, any unwarranted attention—“
“Do you think your employees are going to hit on me?”
“You are my wife now, June. You will have to deal with a lot of attention.”
She bursts out laughing. I don’t find it funny. Maybe she doesn’t realize how
beautiful she is, but she’ll quickly learn that male attention is hard to avoid in a world
like mine.
And I’ll be damned if anyone so much as glances in my wife’s direction without
answering to me.
“Should I walk around fully covered too? Necklines to here, hems to here?” She
points at her throat and her knees. “Actually, maybe down here—“
“This is not a joke.”
Her smile slowly fades. “You’re right. It’s a kidnapping.”
“The third rule: you will be faithful, no matter what.”
“I don’t cheat on people.” She grimaces and holds up a hand. “Exc ept we’re not
really together. And that’s convenient of you, saying I’d better ke ep it in my pants,
when I bet you’re spraying that thing all over town.”
I arch a single eyebrow. “Spraying it? Should we discuss how r eproduction works,
love?”
“Shut it, you know what I mean.”
“I will be faithful to you, June.” I don’t mention that I already am, that I have been
since the night we sl ept together. Years of celibacy haven’t been easy. A lot of long,
thoughtful showers have k ept me sane. But she was a slip to begin with.
Any woman. Any attachment. Any desire. It becomes a liability.
A weapon my enemies will use against me.
The fewer ways I can be hurt, the stronger my family will be.
“I’m so sure.” She groans and starts pacing. “This is crazy. People are going to
worry about me. Beth and Marnie—“
“Will be contacted and dealt with.”
She opens her mouth to list more names, but who else is there?
Her grandmother is gone. Her mother abandoned her a long time ago. She has
other friends and acquaintances, but none that care about her enough to call the
police if she doesn’t check in for weeks.
She doesn’t even have a normal job that will miss her.
“You can’t just make me disappear.” She whispers the words, and I watch the full
weight of her situation settle over her.
I smile, lips curling with delight despite myself. I should hide my joy, but in this
moment, it’s hard.
Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I can do: make her fade away.
Her shoulders slump. Her face goes pale.
What else does she have? Who else is going to miss her?
Nobody.
She’s all fucking mine now.
“Return to our room, wife. Come to grips with your new reality. I will make
pr eparations for your stay and join you shortly.”
For a moment, I think she’s finally broken, but there’s another surge of defiance.
“Like hell I’m going to sle ep in the same space as you. I’ll go to Hattie’s room.”
“If that’s what you want, but it will only be temporary. Here’s the most important
rule of all, the only rule that guides my life: strength and power
are everything. I will not look weak because I can’t ke ep my own wife in my own
bed. Do you understand? Everything we do, every word we speak, every action we
take, will reflect back on the family. I will ensure you do not sabotage everything I’ve
built.”
I tilt her chin up. She trembles, rage in her eyes, and I know what she feels right
now. I know it better than almost anyone. The desperation, the anger at her situation,
the denial, the hate. She’s wondering how the universe could do this to her. How she
could find herself in this hell.
But ah, my love, she’ll come to acc ept it soon.
“I don’t care what kind of two-bit criminal you are, I am never going to be yours,
and neither will Hattie. Do you understand? Never.”
She turns and storms off, dress brushing across plants in her hurry to es cape.
God, she’s beautiful, especially when she hates me.
But she’s wrong about that.
Because she may not realize it yet, but I’ve already won.