Page 85 of It Hurts Me
Yep. He definitely knew.
“I’d kill you right here, right now, if I could. Luck is on your side, Theo. But I have another idea—a compromise.”
He wanted to compromise with the man fucking his wife?
“You want to know who put that hit on Killian? I’ll give you the contract details. But this man is a cut above the rest. If you intend to take him down with your usual means, you’ll be unsuccessful. So, not only will I give you his information, I’ll help you put him in the ground. But I want something in return.”
To stay away from Astrid.
“You’re going to hurt my wife.”
My heart gave a sudden clench.
“There will be no explanation. You’ll just dump her and ghost her. You got your revenge and poisoned my fucking soul. It’s done.”
“It was never about revenge?—”
“Take the offer.” He grabbed his gun and aimed it at my butler. “Or I shoot Grandpa in the head.”
My butler stiffened, his breaths turning anxious.
“Bolton—”
He cocked the gun. “Take the deal, or he dies.”
My brother was my other half, and to never reclaim his body was something I couldn’t live with. I didn’t want to hurt Astrid, but I didn’t want to betray my own family and my butler for a woman I could never have. And even if I did have her, it wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t last because I was irrevocably broken and had nothing to offer. “Fine.”
“Good.” He set the gun next to the ashtray. “I want this done first thing tomorrow. She will know nothing of this conversation.”
“Even with me out of the way, she won’t go back to you.”
“I disagree.” He helped himself to a glass of scotch he poured for himself.
“If you didn’t want your wife fucking other people, then you shouldn’t have asked to fuck other people.”
He took another drink and ignored me.
“I didn’t do it out of revenge. I did it because I wanted to. Because Astrid is a beautiful woman—who deserves better than you.”
“If she deserves better than me, then she deserves better than you.”
I couldn’t disagree with that.
“Dump her, Theo.” He got to his feet and stuffed his gun into the back of his jeans. “And I’ll keep my word to you.”
“What happened to your plan to kill me?”
He stared down at me for a second. “My wife is a smart woman. If you drop dead, she’ll know it was me. And then she really will leave. But if you hurt her, her confidence will be crushed, and she’ll run right back into my arms—where she belongs.”
Sickness entered my chest, picturing her with him again now that she’d been mine, even if it was only for a couple of hours.
“Once the job is done, we’ll get to work.” He grabbed his scotch and finished it off before he moved toward me. “I’m a man of my word, Theo. And you better be a man of yours—otherwise, your other brother will suffer the consequences.”
17
ASTRID
New beginnings were always scary.