We Are Us

I can’t catch my breath. “He took your money?” Who steals from people with assassins on their payroll?

Tucker has always been smart, brilliant even. A good-looking savant with a powerful pedigree. He thought it made him invincible.

But who am I to judge? I thought it made him, and by extension me, invincible too.

We were both wrong.

And now it seems as if Tucker has left me holding the bag. An empty one.

Another soft, chilling laugh. “Not my money, no. Money belonging to the people who sent me. If I don’t get it back for them, they will just send someone else. And someone else after that. So, you understand then, why we must find your husband.” It isn’t a question, but I nod anyway. “I will take your word that you don’t know where he is, but you had better figure it out quickly. I am not a patient man.”

He starts to stand, but then hesitates. “Co-conspirator,” he whispers, soft as a sigh. “Is there a reason to believe you are as guilty as your husband? If you know where the money is… maybe I don’t need to look so hard for your husband?”

My breath catches in the back of my throat as he stares down at me, his eyes becoming even colder, even darker. No, please just go.

But he doesn’t. “You are beautiful, and beautiful women are often the most cu

“I don’t know anything, I swear.”

His full lips quirk as he sits back, dragging the Frette sheet and duvet off the bed. Inch by inch, I am exposed. “You know what else beautiful women are good at? Lying. I’ll bet you are a good liar. How can I be sure you are being honest with me?”

I shake my head back and forth, a strand of hair catching at the corner of my mouth. “I’m telling the truth.” A tear slides down my cheek, then another and another. “I don’t know anything about money. Not even what’s in our checking accounts.” My voice breaks. “I don’t even know how to pay my lawyer.”

He exhales heavily and drops the linens. “Stop crying or I will give you something to cry about.”

I sniff, wiping at my tears with shaking hands. “Sorry.”

“This bastard I now have to hunt down, like an animal…” He reaches for my left hand, holding my enormous wedding ring up for a closer look and exposing a long, thin scar that goes from his jaw to his chin. “He kept you here, like a bird in a cage.”

When he releases my fingers, his smile is more menacing than his scar. “Just don’t fly free until I have the money, or I’ll have to hunt you too.”