Limit

by McAdams, Molly

  It was something I had stupidly been about to confess to Conor yesterday before breakfast had shown up. Thinking back, I was glad I hadn’t when the rest of the morning seemed to change everything between us.

  One moment, he’d been helping and teaching and teasing me.

  The next, it was hardened features and gruff tones and a coldness that radiated from him.

  With another glance at Conor to confirm he hadn’t moved, I looked at Jess and Kieran. “I’m sorry, but I don’t feel comfortable telling you.”

  “Jesus,” Conor whispered.

  “It’s personal,” I said, my tone pleading and full of anger at the same time.

  After a moment, he turned to me. “I know it is. We know it is. But this was why there were tests, Sutton. This was why we struggled to trust you, because all you do is evade. Now we’re here, trying to help, and you still won’t give.”

  “Then why are you here?” I prayed no one could hear the hurt in my voice.

  “Good fucking question.”

  “Conor,” Jess said, her tone full of warning, but he didn’t stop.

  “We’ve had people who needed help getting out of an abusive house and we’ve had people who needed to vanish.” He pushed from the wall and took slow steps toward me but stopped a few feet away. “None of us doubts that the second option is what you need, but we had the information on why before you did. For fuck’s sake, Sutton, you were more concerned with finding Veronica than getting away from Zachary when I found you.”

  I hated that I was trembling.

  Trembling from the guilt over all the lies and half-truths.

  From the ache that had built from his distance.

  And because this angry version of him should have fit him but didn’t and somehow made me want him more.

  “I know you’re afraid of him, I know. I’ve heard you. But relocating someone isn’t something people just decide to do for fun. It’s because they’re in real danger. It’s because that’s the only option they have. If what you wanted was to find Veronica, tell us. If something happened with Zachary, fucking tell us. It doesn’t change what he has done or that we know you need to get away from him.”

  It was there on my tongue, begging to be said.

  All of it, ready to spill at their feet.

  But every time I tried to open my mouth, I couldn’t seem to. My throat felt thick. My tongue felt heavy with lies and unknowns and worries.

  My eyes began burning, and I realized why my throat felt thick . . . why my chest felt weighed down with disappointment and hurt.

  I forced a shaky smile at Conor. “Einstein lied.”

  I pushed from the chair and walked stiffly to my room.

  None of them tried to stop me, and I wouldn’t have let them.

  I hurried through the room and silently shut the bathroom door behind me so I wouldn’t wake Lexi.

  Once I was alone, I struggled over the idea that one day I might have to tell them the truth and what the repercussions of that would be.

  Struggled with why I was so upset by the change in Conor.

  I couldn’t figure out why it even mattered.

  He was no one and meant nothing. He needed to mean nothing.

  I lifted my head to look in the mirror and tried to figure out how life had landed us here. How a man had gotten so deeply under my skin in less than a week. Why I had fit against his body so perfectly, and why it had felt so good to be pressed against him earlier.

  Large, firm, protective—

  My brows pinched together as I remembered that moment. The way he’d grabbed for us and pulled us close, ready to shield us from the danger.

  The way he hadn’t let me go.

  It didn’t fit with his coldness the past two days or his anger tonight.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I quickly ran my hands over my face. “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter.” With a determined sigh, I took one more look in the mirror and then left the bathroom.

  I had just started slipping into bed when I heard a hesitant knock on the bedroom door.

  Like last time, I considered letting it go unanswered.

  But, like an idiot, I found myself stepping out of the bed and moving toward the door. Reprimanding myself the entire way there.

  It wasn’t Conor.

  And from the look on Jess’s face, my disappointment was noticeable.

  She tilted her head back. “I made the guys leave.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Forever?”

  A secret smile lit up her face. “Just long enough for us to talk.” Holding up a hand in the air, she said, “I promise not to force you to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

  I glanced at Lexi, who was still out cold, and then followed Jess into the living room.

  Once we were seated, she began. “I’ve never seen him like that. It was like watching Beck—” She hesitated and then made a face. “Um, Beck was . . .”

  “Conor’s brother.”

  Surprise lit in her eyes. “Right. Beck was, well, passionate, I guess you could say.” A soft laugh tumbled from her lips. “And by passionate, I mean, he let you know what he thought and felt with all his emotions. But he was the best.”

  “I heard something like that.”

  Her eyes narrowed in wonder. “I’m surprised Conor mentioned him.”

  “Uh, well, he didn’t. Not to me anyway,” I hurried to clarify and then realized that was only more confusing. “I walked in when he was telling Lexi about him.”

  Jess nodded in understanding, and once again, that secret smile crept across her face. “Conor has always been calm and gentle. Seeing him mad is always such a shock because it rarely happens, but when it does, it’s over as fast as it began. Kieran claims it didn’t start until Beck died.”

  “You don’t need to defend a stranger to me.”

  “I could tell it hurt you.”

  My mouth opened to deny it, but Jess raised a brow and effectively shut down any lie I might have given her.

  “What did you mean by Einstein lied?”

  I pressed the tips of my fingers to my temple. I felt like an idiot for having said anything at all, for letting him get to me that much.

  “The first day, Conor was talking to her, trying to convince me it was okay to go with him,” I began. “Einstein told him to give me the phone and take it off speaker. She said that Conor was the heart of ARCK and the best man for the job. That he was the biggest, but he was also the kindest. She said that if any of the others had come, they would’ve started grabbing our stuff and shoving us into their car. And she knew Conor wouldn’t.”

  And he hadn’t.

  He’d been angry, but so had I.

  And in all that, he’d never pushed me. An act that would’ve confirmed everything I’d been told about him. About them.

  “She was right,” Jess said with a light laugh. “Kieran and I wouldn’t have given you an option. We would’ve just hauled you right out of there.”

  After meeting them, I wasn’t surprised by that.

  “Everything she said about Conor was just as true.”

  “It didn’t look that way tonight, or these last days,” I finally admitted. “He’s so angry with me, and it came out of nowhere. Even that first day when I attacked him and was constantly fighting him or insulting him, he wasn’t like this. Frustrated, sure, but I don’t blame him for that. But this? He’s . . . he’s cold.”

  Jess studied me for a long while before saying, “Don’t take it personally. He’s working through some very difficult things and has been through a lot. Not that you haven’t.”

  A huff escaped me. “How can I not take it personally? He hasn’t changed the way he acts around my daughter.”

  “I can’t answer that,” she said with a lift of a shoulder. “He’s being a jerk, but those boys usually are when they’re figuring things out. I would know.”

  “Must just be a universal guy thing,” I mumbled under my breath, but Jess still let out a laugh.
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  It was throaty, wild, and a little crazy, and it fit her so perfectly.

  But as soon as it began, it ended, and a solemn look took over her features. “I’ll agree to that,” she said numbly and then looked at me. “You said it was personal, and I understand not wanting to go there with strangers. Trust me, I do. But can I ask you one thing?”

  My nod was hesitant, and I regretted it as soon as it happened.

  “Considering what we do for women, and what you didn’t know . . .” Her darks eyes had been searching mine but fell just before she asked, “Was he abusing you sexually? Or physically, emotionally, mentally . . . anything.”

  I heard the question, but I had a feeling she was really only asking the first part.

  A soft laugh sounded in my throat, even though this was not at all funny and her question had been entirely inappropriate.

  I hadn’t been abused.

  He was my husband. I was his wife. What happened in our house was for us to figure out and wasn’t supposed to leave our walls.

  Then again, I wasn’t supposed to leave him.

  “No. But I somehow still felt violated,” I admitted as rows of pills and pink powder floated through my mind. Another laugh, this one louder and a little frantic. I rubbed my head, pushing out away memories. “That sounds so stupid.”

  Honesty and sorrow bled from her when she said, “No, it doesn’t.”

  I jolted when the door to the suite opened, my body relaxed and my heart took off like a thousand butterflies when Conor rounded the corner into the living room.

  Kieran followed close behind and went straight to Jess. He dropped a kiss on her lips before heading to the kitchen, but Conor slowed as he neared us.

  He cleared his throat, but his voice was still low and gruff when he said, “Didn’t think you’d be out here.”

  “I can leave.” I moved to stand, but he shook his head.

  “No,” he said quickly. “This is for you.”

  He carefully handed me a white bag, but as soon as it was in my hands, he walked past me to join Kieran in the other room.

  I opened the bag and felt my stomach flip and mouth pull into a smile at the container of frozen yogurt waiting at the bottom.

  On the clear lid, written in bold permanent ink, was: “I’m sorry.”

  I glanced to the guys, who were already whispering something that looked tense, then to Jess.

  Once again, she was wearing that secretive smile.

  She lifted a hand and snapped her fingers. “Over as fast as it began.”

  Zachary

  Eleven Months Ago . . .

  I nodded when Garret Vaughn stepped into my office and ended the call I was on.

  When three others followed him in, I quickly looked them over, sized them up, assessed the threat, and almost laughed because they were the biggest nerds I’d ever seen.

  “Larson,” Garret said gruffly, extending his hand to shake mine.

  I grunted something in response and gestured to the chairs and couches filling the room. “Before we begin—”

  “They’re silent,” Garret said with a wry smirk. “Completely. They don’t know how to talk because they like the way money feels too damn much.” He glanced at the men weighed down with equipment. “They’re my best.”

  I dipped my head. It was the only thanks he would ever get from me, no matter what happened from here on out.

  Once we were sitting, I loosed a sigh and said, “It’s bad.”

  “I figured as much when I saw your name on my phone.”

  I rubbed at my jaw to stop from punching the ever-present smirk off his face.

  A dark laugh slipped out at the thought of him on his knees, pleading for his life. The image of his blood staining my carpet would fuel my dreams for years to come.

  One day.

  Every man had goals, after all.

  “As I said,” I continued, “it’s bad. You hear about Jason Woods and his wife?”

  “Only that she left.”

  I leaned in closer. “She fled. He’d gone to the club one night and had been in a viewing room with two women. Looked up in time to see Vero running away.”

  He hissed through his teeth and smacked his hand on the arm of the chair. “Goddamn it, how did she get in there?”

  “Gets worse. By the time he made it home, she wasn’t there. He thinks she left straight from the club because she left all her stuff, including the files full of information on him that she’d been gathering. Some right, some wrong. It all started with her thinking Jason was cheating on her.”

  “Well, she wasn’t wrong,” he said grimly. “He should have known better than to fuck other women and then go home to his wife smelling like them.”

  The corner of my mouth tipped up.

  I wasn’t going to agree or disagree. Any response I gave, Garret would only dissect it and use it against me. The way he did with everything.

  “She thought he was into illegal things, thought he had men working for him. Drugs, money laundering, embezzlement, prostitution. Even thought Thornton might be in on it and that they’d killed people to silence them.” I grunted in acknowledgment when Garret’s eyes closed on a mumbled curse. “But she thought he was going to a strip club at night.”

  “There was no mistaking that place for a strip club once she got in.”

  I let out a grim laugh.

  If that wasn’t the goddamn truth.

  The sex club the Woods family owned was far from a strip club. Only those with pockets deeper than the goddamn ocean were members, and it thrived. Hidden just enough to keep it off the radar, bougie as fuck, and filled with every fantasy any man or woman could ever think of.

  Woods’s wife had money to get in, but the bouncers should’ve known to never let her near the doors. The one from that night was already in the ground.

  None of our wives were allowed to even know about it, never mind actually be allowed inside.

  They were showered with money and anything they could ever want, they didn’t need to know how it all came to be.

  Traffickers and murderers didn’t remain off government, cartel, or mafia radars for generations by telling their women the ins and outs of business. The moment one found out, word would spread, and the Tennessee Gentlemen would be hunted until there was nothing and no one left.

  “So, what are we gonna do about Vero?” Garret finally asked. “She needs to be kept silent.”

  “And that’s the problem . . .” I leaned back in the chair and spread my arms wide. “She made it to her parents’ in North Carolina and then vanished.”

  “Vanished,” he said dully.

  I waved a hand through the air. “Gone. No trace of her parents. No trace of Vero—real or otherwise.”

  “Real—” His brows lifted in recognition when I gave him a knowing look. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh. Forget about that one?”

  “For a minute, yeah.” He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, nodding as he did. “Well, it’s hard to find ghosts, but it isn’t impossible.”

  A slow grin spread across my face. “I can make it easier.” When Garret only stared back expectantly, I said, “Woods still has Vero’s messages linked to his computer, and she was talking to her parents on the way. Her mom sent some message saying, ‘This is them. They’ll be here when you arrive,’ and there was a link to ARCK Private Investigation attached. Woods and I have been looking into them. Small company made up of four people in an even smaller town in North Carolina. They are private investigators, but they have a hidden contact page for those who are afraid for their lives. It says they can help you start over.”

  “That isn’t how it works. You don’t interfere in TenGen matters.”

  “They’ll figure that out soon enough.” At his questioning look, I said, “We need to find out everything we can about the people in this firm and where they sent Woods’s wife. Then we need to show them what it feels like when someone takes and hides something that doesn’t belong to them.”


  “Why are you heading this?” Hesitation crept through his tone. “Why not Woods?”

  “Because he came to me, like everyone always does,” I said pointedly, which only seemed to spark his anger. “When we decided to take matters into our own hands, we said we’d have each other’s backs if shit ever went south to keep it from getting back to the older generations. That’s what I’m doing.”

  “And what, you’re gonna collect on him when the time is right?”

  I shrugged. “Every favor needs to be repaid.”

  A feral smile inched across his face. “Then expect me to come collecting for this.”

  “She’s already my wife, Vaughn. Can’t have her now.”

  His smile only deepened. “For now.”

  “I’ll bury you alive if you attempt to take her.”

  “Back?” The word ripped from him on a growl. His breaths were uneven when he said, “Take her back, is that what you mean? You fucking stole her from me.”

  “I told you, every favor needs to be repaid.” The corner of my mouth twitched up. “Does your little girlfriend know you’ll always compare her to someone else . . . obsess over someone else?”

  Rage and wrath clashed in his eyes before they snapped away.

  He barked out a command, and the three nerds came scrambling over. With a cold look in my direction, he said, “Tell them what you need so we can be done.”

  It was the only response I would get.

  I knew Garret Vaughn would always love Sutton. But he couldn’t have her . . . no one could.

  * * *

  I pulled up ARCK Private Investigation’s hidden contact form while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.

  Hidden because these pieces of shit didn’t want just anyone stumbling onto their site—then again, I wasn’t just anyone.

  Their true site boasted of their services and who they were . . . veiled stories of who they were, as I had come to find out since that day Garret Vaughn and his band of nerds had first stepped into my office eight months ago. But this page was nothing more than a white text box and a few perfectly scripted words to lure someone in.

  Someone like Vero.

  Someone like my wife, if she were ever to start thinking for herself. But she was too compliant and obedient to, so there was no one better suited for this.