“What the fuck does that mean? You can’t just take off,” Todd snarled. “What did you do?”

  From the doorway behind her, Winston lashed out. “Roger, Cynthia, we’ve never once asked you to do a responsible thing. Agatha and I let you party your way through your twenties and thirties, and we paid for everything, making sure Todd had the best child care possible. You’ve never held jobs, never needed to be productive members of society, and never had to parent. That ends today. Unless you can get your son under control immediately, I’m cutting you off.”

  At his proclamation, the couple gaped like fish on a shoreline, slowly suffocating as reality set in. They turned identical glares on her, black with hatred. Madison refused to give them a single moment of her energy. She focused on Matt beside her and the millions of questions breaking across his face as she marched to the door, Ethan in tow.

  The last thing she heard was pure music to her ears.

  “Todd!” Winston shouted. “Get in here, you overprivileged brat. You’re going to change your behavior right now. Or I will fucking put you down.”

  Chapter Nine

  Matt chomped at the bit the entire forty-five-minute limo ride back to Alexandria. Madison had some explaining to do, but he couldn’t demand answers in the back of the Pershings’ limo, where every word would be recorded, replayed, and scrutinized.

  The ride seemed like the longest three-quarters of an hour of his life. Finally, they reached Todd’s penthouse in tense silence. Ethan paused to pick up something from the floor, but Matt couldn’t spare him a glance. He swiped Madison’s purse off her shoulder, tossed it onto the sofa, then seized her arm in his grip. He dragged her through the open living space and outside, shutting the door in the kid’s questioning face.

  “What the fuck was that tonight?” Matt demanded when he finally released her near the railing.

  She shushed him, scanning the balcony as if searching for surveillance equipment.

  Matt saved her the trouble. “I figured out a week and a half ago that Todd doesn’t have this area wired.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do, and don’t change the fucking subject. What the hell happened at the Pershings’ and why didn’t you tell me first?”

  Madison bit her lip, not like she was nervous but feeling guilty. And she hesitated a long damn time. As if it was taking her a minute to craft a believable story?

  “Explain now,” he demanded. “Or I’ll punish you until you think better of lying and keeping me out of the loop again. Do you understand?”

  “I let you control me in the bedroom because I like it. But do I need to remind you that the ring on my finger doesn’t belong to you?” She flashed Todd’s heirloom rock on her left hand. “I’m my own woman.”

  Her words felt like a slap.

  Was she fucking kidding right now? “Todd’s ring is meaningless. You’re mine. You agreed. Nothing has changed. That means you tell me about things that concern your safety. You’re tangling with fucking dangerous people, and it’s damn hard to protect you when you leave me completely in the dark like you did tonight. Why? What is going on? And why the fuck did Ethan know what was happening before I did?”

  “I figured out a way to use yesterday to our advantage, okay? I needed some leverage against Todd and his family, and I had to do it while he was asleep. Ethan happened to be awake, so he helped me. I was never in danger. And from now on, we’ll have more privacy because I bought us some breathing room until the midterms are over. You’re welcome.”

  “You should have waited for me. I would have helped you. You’re the only fucking reason I’m here.”

  “I couldn’t stand feeling pressed under Todd’s thumb anymore. It’s smothering. After yesterday, I was afraid he would be able to kill us and make it look like an accident, so I found some leverage and used it against him.”

  Matt scrubbed a hand down his face, feeling stunned and stupid for not realizing how she felt sooner. Of course she was afraid. Her husband had fucking drugged her. Her heart had stopped. Todd could have killed her right under the noses of both her bodyguards. And Matt hadn’t anticipated that she’d do anything about it.

  He’d underestimated her.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I feel like I’ve failed you. Keeping you safe is my responsibility. But I wish you’d told me you needed more protection. Or at least what the hell you were up to. Keeping me in the dark won’t add to your security. And I’m working some angles to guarantee our safety⁠—”

  “Wait. Angles? What?” She gasped in shock, laced with sarcasm. “You never told me about those. So…it’s okay for you to keep your plans secret, but I can’t?”

  “This is my job. My responsibility. This is what I do.”

  “But no one knows these people better than me.”

  Point taken. They should both be communicating more. “You’re right. Do you have any idea what Todd might be hiding in his bedroom?”

  “No. I haven’t set foot in there in…” She shuddered. “It wasn’t long enough ago for me to have forgotten. Or gotten over it.”

  Madison didn’t even have to tell him what Todd had done to her on his throne of a bed for him to want to kill the bastard. And Matt felt like shit for drowning in anger and pussy for three years instead of listening to his heart and coming after her like he’d fucking wanted to all along.

  He clutched her shoulders. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “Is that your angle? You think he’s hiding something we can use in there?”

  “I know he is. I just need time to search.” Todd was gone…but for safekeeping Matt had stashed the ring at the dungeon. And after everything that happened the last couple of days, he didn’t want to leave Madison’s side. First, getting answers about what she’d done so he could adjust her protection was more important than chasing fuck-face Pershing. And second, when Todd returned, he would be furious. He would lash out. “But later. Now that you’ve followed through with your plan, you going to tell me everything?”

  She did, and even if he was pissed she hadn’t communicated with him, he was damn proud of her ingenuity and courage.

  “I wish I could have seen Winston’s and Agatha’s faces.”

  She grinned. “It was priceless.”

  “Your ploy was smart. It took a lot of balls to pull that off,” he praised her, cupping her face and kissing her forehead.

  He’d love to touch her all over, but he didn’t dare. Anyone with a telephoto lens and an axe to grind could be capturing their every move.

  “I was terrified.”

  Reluctantly, he stepped away. “You did great. Just…next time, tell me what’s up.”

  Her face softened as did her voice. “Yes, Matt.”

  Fuck, when she answered him in that submissive tone, the urge to strip her, take her, put his stamp of ownership on her while he reaffirmed their love threatened to overtake him. He dragged in a rough breath. “I have plans for you tomorrow, honey.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh, yeah. Just wait. I’m going to shock you down to your pretty toes…”

  Ethan strolled onto the balcony like he was completely welcome in their private moment. “Everything okay?”

  “Way better before you interrupted,” Matt quipped.

  Why couldn’t this dipshit just go away? Every time he started not hating the kid, Ethan did something to annoy Matt again.

  “Tough shit. I’m not worried about your little feelings.” He focused on Madison. “You all right?”

  She nodded. “Nothing that a good night’s sleep won’t cure.”

  “You need some food, too,” Ethan pointed out. “You didn’t have any dinner. I ordered a pizza a few minutes ago.”

  “Thanks. Pizza sounds divine.”

  “Good. I guessed. The lobby will buzz you when it arrives, but I can’t let them up.”

  “Yeah. The security in the building is great, but it’s a pain that Todd or I have to approve everyone. I’ll plop on the sofa while I wait for the front desk to buzz. I hope it’s not long. I’m so tired, I could sleep for a week,” Madison groaned as she headed into the apartment, closing the door behind her.

  Matt studied Ethan, thinking not for the first time that maybe he’d underestimated his fellow operative. “Slick way of getting rid of her. What are you up to?”

  Garrison wandered to the railing of the balcony beside him and overlooked the glassy Potomac. “Look, I know you don’t like me.”

  They were going to do this now? “I don’t like you coming onto my woman. It fucking pisses me off, especially since I’m beginning to suspect that you only do it to get under my skin. Because I know Madison. If you were hitting on her to hook up all the time, she’d be fucking annoyed with you. So I’m guessing that your bullshit is for my benefit?”

  Ethan laughed. “You know when I first met you, I thought you were a dumb cowboy with a few skills and enough ass-licking ability to make the bosses think you’re special. I was a little jealous because, despite what I thought were your obvious shortcomings⁠—”

  “My lack of intelligence?”

  “That, yeah.” Ethan smiled wryly. “But every one of the guys on that team really admires you, and the fact you’re basically besties with One-Mile… That’s pretty fucking awesome, you know? But no matter how I tried to win you over when I started the team, you just didn’t like me.”

  Was that the reason the kid had been poking him for weeks? “I didn’t know you. And I’ve been in a really shitty mood for a while.”

  “How long?”

  Matt pulled at the back of his neck. “About the last three years. Losing Madison was the worst thing that ever happened to me, and our split was way more my fault than hers. It took me a while to see that, and once I did…I lived in anger. And I didn’t give many shits about anything else. I just wanted to stew in my rage.” He shrugged. “Then you showed up, all loud and cocky and full of yourself. It rubbed me the wrong way. But you’ve done all right since we’ve been here, and I appreciate you taking care of Madison today. She needed some power over the Pershings. You helped her get that. I’m grateful.”

  “Bullshit. You wanted to be the one to help her.”

  “I did.” He wasn’t going to lie. “But if it couldn’t be me…”

  “We ever going to be friends?”

  Instead of seeing the cocky, tattoo-laden, Vegas-bred son of a supposed Mafia assassin, he saw a kid who’d left everything familiar, done a stint as a marine, moved across the country, and started over—not merely in a new city, but embracing a new culture, job, and dangerous life. He was trying to find his way after planting himself among a bunch of strangers…and he didn’t feel secure in his place.

  “Is that what you want?” Matt asked, then couldn’t resist ribbing Garrison. “Or should I give you One-Mile’s number you so can hit on him?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Pass.” Matt laughed. “Yeah, we’re going to be friends. Hopefully, you can appreciate that being here and Madison being constantly in danger doesn’t bring out the best in me.”

  “I get it, and I’m glad we’re going to be bros, because someday I want you to look back on this moment and not hate the way this is unfolding.”

  “What are you talking about? What ‘moment’?”

  Ethan grimaced. “Fuck. You really should be sitting.”

  That alarmed Matt. “What the hell is going on?”

  He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Straight up? I like your girl.” Matt glowered, ready to bust the guy’s balls, but Ethan waved him off. “Not like that. As a friend. So she’ll probably be pissed as hell when she realizes I chose honoring bro-code over the secret she’s keeping.”

  “She told me everything, that you found Todd’s personal porn-star stash, that she arranged her conversation with the senator and his wife⁠—”

  “Madison is pregnant.”

  Matt’s heart stopped. Shock stole his breath. He couldn’t possibly have heard that right. “No.”

  “She is.” Ethan clapped him on the back. “Congratulations, Daddy.”

  The certainty on Ethan’s face crushed Matt’s doubt. “Fuck. Why the hell did she tell you and not me?”

  “She didn’t say a word. I figured it out just now. When we came in from the limo ride, I noticed a paper bag in the corner, next to the water feature. I investigated it, wondering⁠—”

  “If it was an explosive? Hazardous chemicals? Something else dangerous?” Matt leaned on the railing and clenched his fists. There had been a bag he hadn’t seen, and he’d been too wrapped up in Madison to even notice something potentially lethal. “Shit.”

  He was compromised—no question. Motherfucking son of a bitch. His carelessness could have cost Madison her life.

  He couldn’t run that risk again.

  “Thankfully, the bag contained prenatal vitamins.”

  “That doesn’t mean⁠—”

  “So I went on a little fishing expedition while you two were out here.” Ethan pulled some paperwork from under his shirt and passed it to Matt. “I confirmed. These are her discharge instructions from the hospital.”

  With shaking hands, Matt scanned them until, under the follow-up section, he read: Consult an obstetrician and schedule an early pregnancy exam.

  The papers nearly fell from his numb fingers. Some primal part of him was thrilled as fuck that she was having his child and that they would be tied together forever. The realistic side of him was terrified that a baby was a weapon the Pershings could use against them. “Fuck. I don’t know when she got pregnant.”

  Ethan shot him an incredulous stare. “Any of the billion times you two banged in the last month.”

  “We were careful.”

  Except that morning in the fucking motel, after he’d been crazy with worry following Nash’s stabbing and Madison’s disappearance. He hadn’t been inside her in three years, and he’d lost all semblance of sanity. He’d gone in bare.

  He’d gotten her pregnant and changed their lives forever.

  Surreal didn’t even begin to cover how Matt felt.

  “Shit happens.” Ethan shrugged.

  Yep. And Matt took responsibility. After all, Madison hadn’t gotten pregnant on her own. The question was, why hadn’t she told him? But that seemed obvious, too. She wanted this divorce. She wanted a life free from the Pershings, and if he’d wanted to yank her from this dangerous situation after Todd’s stunt at the rally, Matt felt even more compelled to closet her somewhere safe now that he was protecting two lives.

  He also knew damn well he couldn’t force her to give up on regaining her freedom.

  That meant he had to change tactics and find some way to give her the outcome she needed while ensuring she and the baby stayed safe. He didn’t see many avenues for that. Just one, and she would hate him for it.

  “I have to make some phone calls.” Matt would start with the bosses and work his way around them if they left him no choice, but he hoped it didn’t come to that. “Will you stay with Madison? Protect her?”

  Ethan seemed to understand that he alluded to more than this moment. “As long as you need me to.”

  “Thanks…friend.”

  Thirty minutes later, Matt had conferred with his bosses. They all agreed with his assessment. Madison stood a better chance of surviving the Pershings if he forfeited his role as her bodyguard. He couldn’t be distracted by her, and he couldn’t be a distraction for her.

  With plans in place, Madison and the baby should soon be safe. Nothing else mattered, not his fear that he’d made all the wrong choices, which was raging. Not his worries about the future he might not get to share with her, which were growing. And especially not his heart, which was already fucking breaking.

  Of course, he would sit Madison down and explain his rationale. She was smart, and normally he’d be optimistic that she would agree with his decision. But her history with past hookups ghosting her and the resulting insecurities left Matt less sure. And if she read his attempts to protect her as him skipping out, would he ever convince her to trust him again?

  He didn’t know, and it was killing him.

  The patio door snicked shut, and he whirled to find Ethan. “Pizza is here.”

  “I’ll eat later.” Food wasn’t important. He had one more crucial phone call to make.

  “Madison is wondering why you’re hanging outside. If I had to guess, she’s worried you’re avoiding her.”

  Not intentionally, but he’d rather not explain his decision until all the plans were in place. She’d balk, and he fully understood why. And Matt couldn’t deny that he was acting before conveying his plans—exactly what he’d reproached her for less than an hour ago. But her safety was more important than her feelings. Than his, too. He wouldn’t be able to breathe and stop worrying until he solidified her protection. “I’ll be there in a few.”

  “What the hell are you up to?”

  “I’m making some…alternate arrangements.”

  “What kind?”

  Matt considered his options, then shook his head. “I’ll fill you in soon. Go eat pizza. Make sure Madison gets enough and stays hydrated.”

  “What the fuck? An hour ago, you didn’t want me to take care of your woman in any way. Now, if I’m reading you right, you want me to take care of her and your baby for the foreseeable future? Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you’re not doing something stupid.”

  “I’m doing something necessary. I’m too close. I’m compromised. We both know it.”

  “But—”

  “No. I’m making the problem worse. Think about it. If I wasn’t around, would Todd have drugged Madison at that rally? Probably not. Badgered and bullied her in private? Yeah, at least for a while. But if I wasn’t here, she wouldn’t have traipsed home looking well-pleasured, which set off the asshole. In fact, if she’d avoided him, like she did for months before she demanded a divorce, he probably would have written her off as the usual thorn in his side and ignored her. But because I’m here, she risked herself to break into his penthouse and find dirt. Without me around, she would have hated the prick stifling her, but she wouldn’t have felt compelled to find leverage so she could spend more time with me. You see that, right?”