Out on the balcony, I turned on the patio heaters and we shivered as we waited for them to warm up. Morgan groaned. "Really? The balcony? It's freezing. Why don't we just drink inside like normal people?"

  Lance cut my sister a glance. "I didn't invite you out here."

  Morgan rolled her eyes. "You know what? I forgot you have a ball sack. I'll be inside."

  I frowned at him. "What's with you? Sure, you and Morgan snipe at each other, but you're never mean."

  "She's mean to me all the time."

  I rolled my eyes. "Okay, what is going on with you, Lance?" I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered as we stood under the warming light. "You’ve been acting odd ever since we moved to Pendragon a couple days ago. I know it's an adjustment, but come on."

  He winced. "There's something I need to talk to you about that I've been holding back on because I didn't know how to tell you, and now I'm out of time."

  "Whatever it is, you can tell me. Are you in trouble?"

  He shook his head. "No. I just—" He swallowed hard. "I'm leaving for London tomorrow."

  I blinked at him. "You have a vacation coming? Fuck, how did I miss that? I'm so sorry. Obviously, I assume you have your work covered. I know things are in transition with Pendragon, but anything you need, I'll cover. Why didn't you remind me? I've had my head kind of buried up my ass lately."

  His expression softened. "Only you would think that somehow you forgot. And let me remind you, you were busy saving all of us. And it's why I love you the most."

  "Well, I love you too. But I should not have my head buried up my ass. Hopefully now things will ease up a little bit. I mean, the whole move is going to be in adjustment, but if things calm down, I can be more present for you instead of you constantly running after me trying to save me from myself."

  He chuckled softly. "You always say you never need any saving."

  "And I don't," I mumbled.

  "Well, you did this time, and Price managed to do it."

  A warmth started in my chest and as it spread, I tried to bite back the smile. “He has been instrumental in making our lives a little easier.”

  Lance nodded. "Right. What I'm saying is I'm going to London tomorrow to start a job at Pendragon Tech's London office."

  I blinked. And when that didn't work to bring my life into focus, I blinked again. "What?"

  "Yeah, I took the job a couple of days ago, and it's been a whirlwind trying to get everything ready. Luckily, there's housing and everything. So I leave tomorrow, but I didn't know how to tell you. I knew I had to, so I figured I'd do it tonight, and here we are."

  "You're going to London? You're moving? You're my right hand for the love of fuck."

  "You're adorable when you swear."

  My brow furrowed. "Don't you patronize me. You knew two days ago. My husband offered you a job?"

  He swallowed hard. "Actually, I asked him for it."

  I rocked back on my heels. "You what?"

  "It's a great opportunity, Gwen. I'll be a VP in Technology. It'll be just like R&D but with my own projects. Things I'm curious about."

  "But why? Did you feel like I wasn't allowing you to spread your wings? I have always encouraged you to take on new projects."

  "I know you have. And you've been the greatest boss, and partner, and best friend I could ever ask for. I wish I could have done more for you. I wish I could have saved you from all of this."

  I shook my head. "Is that why you're leaving? Because you couldn't save me? Did you have twenty mil sitting around?"

  He winced. "You know what I mean."

  "Look, it's been a harrowing month or so. And you know, this isn’t what we expected, but it didn't turn out half bad. I can't believe you're running away."

  "I'm not running. I just need a fresh start. You don't need me anymore. It'll be nice to do something different."

  "Fucking hell, Lance. You're serious about this."

  "Yeah, I am."

  I chugged the rest of my margarita and put the glass down. "I feel like you're not telling me something."

  He shook his head. "I'm not hiding anything. I just need some separation. That's it. And I need a new opportunity. I'm excited. It's London, for the love of God."

  "It is London. I just didn't know you were really interested in going away."

  "I am. You can visit me anytime of course."

  "Yeah, of course. I mean, it'll be kind of a pain in the ass for you to come back for the wedding though."

  His gaze shifted from mine. "Yeah, about that. I won't be coming back."

  And that's when a thought sliced through my heart. "What?"

  "Come on, you’ve got Morgan and Macy,” he said. “You don't even need me."

  "Fuck that, I want you. You are my best friend. So, what? I'll just get married without my best friend?"

  He squeezed his eyes shut and then let out a long breath. "I'm sorry."

  I didn't even realize the tears had welled until they started to spill. "I'm happy for you, Lance. Honestly, I am. If this is what you want, then this is what I want for you. But it's just so rushed. And you didn't tell me. And⁠—"

  Morgan opened the screen door. "Oh my God, you two, if you just…" She took one look at my face and scowled at Lance. "For fuck's sake, what did you say to her?”

  I frowned at her. "What? Morgan, no. Lance is moving to London tomorrow."

  Her brows lifted. "What? You're running away?"

  I was happy I wasn't the only one who thought that. Lance just rolled his eyes. "Oh my God. No, I'm not running away. I got this fucking job at Pendragon, for the love of Christ. It's a good opportunity, so I'm taking it."

  “And he’s not coming to the wedding,” I ask.

  He shook his head sadly.

  Morgan, ever ready to slander him, pursed her lips. "Well, at least I don't have to see your ugly face anymore."

  Lance gave her the kind of smirk Atticus sometimes gave me. The one that said he knew how pretty he was. "And you remain as beautiful and poisonous as ever."

  My sister came to my side and wiped my cheeks. "We don't need him at the wedding. It'll be better without him, honestly, because he was driving the wedding planner up the wall."

  His smile was soft. "Look out for her for me, would you, Morgan?"

  Morgan rolled her eyes. "I was looking out for her long before you were."

  "I know. But add on a little extra for me."

  "I can't believe you're leaving,” I said.

  Lance reached out and smoothed a tear off my cheek with his thumb. "It's not like you’re never going to see me again. Anytime you need me, I'll be right here, okay?"

  And then while my heart was breaking in two, I wondered why on earth my husband-to-be hadn't shared this tidbit of news.

  Chapter 35

  Atticus

  Was it bad that I'd made sure Gwen had an alibi tonight? Maybe. Hell, Lance too. I may not have wanted him sniffing around Gwen, but he'd kept her safe when I couldn't. So I felt like I owed him.

  Next to me, Gavin inclined his head at the dance floor. Bronson had strolled in with a pair of leggy blondes. When he took them to the bar, they were giggling as he ordered them drinks. In my earpiece, Micah's voice was low. "What are we doing with the girls?"

  Gavin's voice was terse. "I’ll handle them."

  Pierce just watched me. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

  "Yeah, I need to take him off the board."

  "We can make it cleaner. Hire a specialist."

  "No,” I said firmly. “I need to do this one myself."

  He sighed. "Right. Have it your way."

  My brother, it seemed, had the best sleight of hand. When he joined Gavin at the bar, he accidentally bumped Bronson. During that quick exchange, he spiked Bronson's drink. It happened so quickly. If I hadn't been looking, I never would have seen it. Just a little reach, and there it was.

  My brother, as it turned out, was terrifying.

  I suddenly wondered about that boyfriend his mom had several years ago. The asshole died of a heart attack. Granted, he'd been knocking around Micah's mother, and then he'd started on Micah eventually. Two months after they met, ‘the old geezer had a heart attack,’ as Micah liked to say it.

  Pierce sat back. "And now we watch."

  Gavin was already on the dance floor with the blondes as Bronson started to nod off in the booth.

  "Let's go scope him out."

  The girls were so happy with Gavin they didn't notice that Micah, Pierce, and I had taken their date out the back door.

  The bouncer was one of Pierce's guys, and he nodded as we carried Bronson out the back where there were no security cameras and shoved him in the back of the car. We drove around the corner, and five minutes later, Gavin joined us and climbed in.

  "That was almost too easy. Good thing this isn't a habit of ours," I muttered.

  An hour later, at a warehouse in Long Island, I sat back on the table as Pierce shook Bronson repeatedly to wake him up. His head lolled back, and he blinked rapidly and said, "Son of a bitch."

  I tsked and shook my head. "His mother is not a bitch. She's lovely."

  Pierce just grinned at me. "Thanks. She adores you too."

  Bronson's head snapped to alertness. Then he realized his hands were secured. "What the fuck?"

  "Easy does it, Jacobson. The way I figure it, you're going to walk out of here, provided some things happen the way I want them to."

  He narrowed his gaze as his brain finally fired and came back online.

  "What the fuck, Price?"

  "Yeah, it's me."

  "Are you insane? I will fucking end you over this."

  "Oh, will you now? Who's to say that you'll be talking when this is over?"

  For dramatic effect, Pierce had set up a whole bunch of tools of the trade that his much scarier friends over at Blake Security knew how to use.

  When he told me what their old job was, it turned my insides just a little. I could have hired them. They would have dealt with Bronson, but this felt too personal.

  Micah stepped forward with the syringes. "You want these? None of them will kill him, but he's not going to feel good. I took them from my mother a few months ago."

  "Thanks, but I don't think we'll be needing them."

  My brother almost looked disappointed.

  "Don't worry, I'll leave some for you when I’m done."

  Micah grinned, and it lit up his face. "Thanks. I consider Gwen a friend. I mean, she has an alarming gummy bear habit, but otherwise, she's a mate.” He turned to Jacobson. “So if he lets you live, you have me to look forward to."

  Bronson began sputtering. "I don't know what that bitch told you."

  "That's the thing; you keep using that word referring to my future wife, and it’s offensive."

  "She's a bitch. A whore too."

  Gavin wasn't going to let that one stand. He landed a devastating blow that I was sure cracked Jacobson's jaw. The idiot's head lulled to the side as he gasped, "Fuck you."

  I grinned. "No thanks. Oh, but that's right. You have a problem with the word no."

  Bronson lifted his head then, his gaze searching the room. "Is that what she told you? She's lying. The same deal you got, I got first. I didn't do anything she didn't want."

  I pulled in a deep breath, trying to rein in my control, because if I didn't, I knew I was going to kill him. And that was not the objective.

  I stepped forward and Micah frowned and said, "Maybe we just move on to part two."

  I shook my head and leaned into Jacobson's face. "First, you called my future wife a bitch. And then you called her a whore. And you don't seem sorry for what you did to her, so I'm going to make you really sorry."

  Bronson struggled. "No. I'll never talk to her again. I don't even like her. You know, darkies aren't⁠—"

  I popped him in the nose, fast, quick, and efficient, and it immediately gushed blood.

  "See? The problem is you can't help being a pejorative racist cunt."

  "Fuck. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn’t even want her."

  "That's right. You're on the right track now, see, because Gwen isn't dumb. And she could see that a partnership with you wasn't going to be right."

  “I chose to back out. She was so god damned prude⁠—"

  I hit him again. This time with my left hand. My trainer gave me equal practice on either side, so I was just as deadly.

  He spat out blood, and was that… Oh fuck. Look, a tooth.

  "Fuck. Fuck. I'll never touch her again. I won't even talk to her. Ever."

  I nodded. "Of course you're not going to touch her because she is mine to protect."

  I stood up straight, rolling up my sleeves.

  Pierce and Gavin weren't even fazed. Micah was watching me closely though. He knew my temper and how hard it was to contain sometimes. And how much I hated a bully. The lengths I would go to in order to teach a bully a lesson.

  "I won't tell anyone about this. I won't. Just please fucking let me go," Jacobson begged.

  "Well, for starters, the next time you see her, and you will see her because I’ll make sure of it, you are going to issue her an apology. A lovely one about how you were wrong. You are going to donate five million dollars to Hearts & Hope because it’s her mother’s charity. And then you're going to donate two million dollars to the Violence Against Women Coalition just because I say so."

  He gasped. "Are you fucking serious? Seven fucking million? Fuck that. She was going to be a shitty lay anyway."

  Micah sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, and I glanced up at my brother. "Go for it,” Micah said. “He deserves it."

  And for once, I let loose my temper.

  The next twenty minutes were a blur of unleashed rage and fury as I leveled blow after blow on Jacobson.

  I had him by the hair and had knocked his chair over, when Micah stepped in and put a hand on my chest. "That's enough. We need him conscious enough to do the rest."

  The haze of red over my eyes didn't fade quickly enough, and I struggled against Micah's hold. My brother held strong though. "That is enough, Atticus. He has to do the other part. Otherwise, there's no fucking point. He'll just go after her again."

  That was it. Those words pulled me back.

  Gavin and Pierce picked Bronson up. And with his bruised and bloody face, he still somehow managed to glower at me. "Fuck you,” he said, though with swollen, bleeding lips and several missing teeth, it was barely coherent.

  Pierce brought the laptop. "So, Bronson, we've been doing a little research on you, and we have discovered several complaints by various women. So you're going to drop another ten million to be distributed to several battered women’s organizations to soothe the ache of what you've done to those women."

  He gasped. "No."

  "And one more thing. You are also going to sell me"—I looked up at Micah—"How many shares was it, brother? Oh yes, ten thousand shares of Jacobson Inc. stock."

  "What the fuck?"

  "That's right. I'm buying in with enough shares to cause a little trouble."

  He shook his head. "That'll be more than I have. No, I'm not letting you have my company."

  "Oh, you don't have a choice. You see, you're sloppy. Very sloppy. You leave evidence of yourself everywhere."

  Pierce hit a button on the laptop and a photo appeared of Maria Klaus. She held the hand of a little girl who looked just like Bronson Jacobson. "See? Maria has evidence of what you did to her. She was more than happy to talk to us. That evidence keeps you paying child support and maintenance. We have a copy of it, and we're not afraid to release it, so you'll do as you're told."

  His eyes went wide. "I'm going to make you pay for this."

  "No, Bronson, you are the one who's paying. Go ahead, hit the buttons here and enter your account numbers."

  He shook his head.

  Gavin unclipped his right wrist. "Let me make it easy for you."

  Bronson glowered at me. "Fuck you. You are a dead man."

  "Then you should know that at my untimely death, all my shares in Jacobson Inc. will go to my wife, and then she will have you by the balls.” I couldn't really tell if he paled, but his hand shook and he finally typed in the account numbers as I’d expected him to. Then Gavin unclipped his other hand and his feet.

  I looked at Micah, and he nodded as he checked the accounts. "Yep, we have everything we need. The donations have been made to Hearts & Hope and VAW."

  Bronson slumped in his seat. "I'm coming for you."

  "You're welcome to try. If you ever think of going near my wife again, next time I'll stick you with whatever chemical compound Micah has got in those syringes, and I'll let Gwen kick the shit out of you."

  Pierce had men outside the door. They were going to take Bronson, clean him up, and put him in his apartment. A ploy like this was going to make me a permanent enemy.

  I didn't care though. He had put his hands on Gwen. And while she didn't know what I was doing, I wanted to make sure that she got something out of it. Those donations would make her happy. As for Maria, I'd already set up a trust fund for her kid. She’d be able to go to school wherever she wanted. Bronson was a true piece of shit. And without someone willing to step forward with evidence, actionable evidence that we didn't steal, this would have to do, at least temporarily.

  Now all I wanted to do was get home to my wife and wash off the stink of asshole.

  Chapter 36

  Gwen

  I was slightly tipsy.