Chapter Fifty-eight
The steady thump of my shoes is the only thing that keeps me sane. It’s the rhythmic tap of them against the hard wood flooring that keeps my pace the way it is.
I’ll know who tried to hurt my wife in less than five minutes, I’ll have the name and the details, and I’ll be plotting my revenge.
I didn’t come straight here when we got home, instead I spent the time with Olivia, touching her, holding her, just to make sure she is still with me even though we are home.
She is, her kisses are just as passionate, her touch just as soft. She is now mine completely.
I push open the door to the drawing room, finding the guys waiting for me immediately. Dean sits with a laptop open and resting on his knees, while Bast nurses a whiskey – from my fucking stash – and Killian scrolls on his cell.
“Name.” I demand the moment I close the door.
“Hank.”
I nod, having known it all along.
“Give me the details,” I take a seat behind my desk, opening the laptop.
“I’ve sent all files to you,” Dean advises, “Voicemails, texts, it’s all on there.”
I look up to see Dean looking a little nervous.
“What else.”
“There are more people involved but we don’t have their names. I can’t find their details anywhere. Hank is the one who hired the hitmen to attack Olivia but it’s obvious in the message it was more than just him.”
My nostrils flare, “It’s okay.”
“How is this okay?” Bast bursts, suddenly standing, feeling just as slighted as I am. “These fucking members answer to you. You lead this whole fucking thing, and they think they can do this?”
“It’s okay,” I answer, opening the text log Dean managed to get hold of. “Because the things I am going to do to Hank will have him singing like a canary. We will know who is involved and when we do, the purge can begin.”
“It’s about time the council changes,” Killian says, “We adapt, or we’ll be dead.”
I nod in agreement, eyes scanning over every text that was sent and received.
They had been trying to get Olivia for weeks, never finding the right moment until Hank spotted her wandering off alone at the event at the hotel. The hitmen were on standby, close always, in case an opportunity presented itself. And it did when she decided to take a minute for herself.
I click out of the message and open the voicemails.
“What the fuck am I paying you for!?” Hank’s distinctive voice sounds through the speakers. “Why hasn’t the girl been acquired yet!?”
Acquired. Like she’s some object to be used as a pawn.
Hank sighs, “Be on standby. An opportunity will arise where she is alone. We need her alive.”
He hangs up and I flick to the next message.
“Olivia has just walked from the event hall. Follow her, you know what you need to do. I don’t care what you do to her, just keep her alive.”
That’s the only two messages available so I go back to the texts, trying to dig through them to see if there is anything Dean may have missed, a hint at another name or names that may have been involved.
It’s just a lot of us and we but no names. That’s enough to tell me there are others but not enough to say who.
I’ll get him to confirm them all.
I can guess at least two, but it could be more. The council is riddled with snakes and thieves which have been allowed to continue for too long. The leader before me turned a blind eye to all the traitorous ways the council has been allowed to work but with me, I will not let it stand. I’ve needed a reason to purge, and this is it.
I just fucking hate that it’s my wife they’re targeting.
Why?
Why Olivia?
What are they hoping to gain by going after her?
I close down the messages and shut the laptop, steepling my fingers beneath my chin.
“Call a council meeting,” I order, “I’m not sitting on this.”
“When?”
“For right now.” I get up, turning toward the window. Olivia is upstairs right now and the threat against her is present, it’s right fucking there. I want it done. Over with. “I want them in the council room within the hour.”
“What’s the plan Malakai?” Sebastian asks.
So, I tell them, knowing they won’t question me. It won’t be easy, getting Hank to talk but talk he will.
While they call in for the meeting, I leave them, heading through the house to satisfy the craving deep within me.
I find Olivia soaking in the tub in the room across from ours, music on so loud she doesn’t hear me enter. She sings along while bubbles come up to her chin, eyes closed and head bobbing to the music. The girl cannot sing but I’d listen to that voice every minute of the day.
I creep into the bathroom, leaning on the wall across from her, waiting until she notices me.
The song changes to a new one, and she sits up, the water sluicing down her body. The fine hair at the nape of her neck sticks to her skin and sweat rolls down her brow, her mess of dark hair pulled into a bun that wobbles on top of her head.
“Olivia,” I growl out her name.
She lets out a scream, water splashing over the rim of the tub to soak the floor. Her wide eyes find mine immediately, the fear washing away to show her agitation.
“You could have knocked!” She snaps.
“Why would I knock?” I stroll toward the tub, “You belong to me, wherever and whenever.”
With a roll of her eyes, she leans back into the water, watching me approach.
“Have we not learned what rolling our eyes will get us?” I crouch at the edge, dipping my hand into the scalding water. How she can sit in a tub with water hotter than the depths of hell is beyond me, no wonder she is sweating.
“Will you spank me?” She flutters her lashes, innocence, and filth colliding.
“So fucking hard, you won’t be able to sit.”
“Don’t tempt me with a good time,” She grins, lowering herself until her mouth is submerged in the water.
My own smile pulls at my mouth, despite what is about to go down.
“You tease me, wife,” I dip my hand further into the water, finding her body.
Her eyes heat but she grins mischievously, “You’re so easy, Kai.”
I stop moving, “What?”
“I have you wrapped round my little finger.” To show her point, she wiggles her pinky, “Who knew the big bad man could be so easily tamed?”
She’s so fucking right.
Grinning like a damn maniac, I grip the edges of the tub and then I hop inside, splashing scalding water over the edges as the added body pushes the water level up. I’m dressed, shoes and all but that doesn’t stop me. She squeals, moving to let me in.
I cradle the back of her head as I drop myself closer to her, nose brushing hers, “Let’s get a few things clear.”
“You’re dressed!” She tries pushing at me, but I don’t budge.
“There’s only one person who owns me,” I capture her bottom lip between my teeth before I let it go, “And she’s currently naked and wet beneath me. You want to tame me, Olivia, consider me tamed. I’m yours.”
“No one can tame you,” She breathes.
“You can.” I admit.
“I don’t want to,” she shakes her head, running her hands over me, the sopping clothes clinging to my skin, “I want you how you are.”
There’s water in my shoes, so hot it’s almost unbearable, “How can you sit in this?” I shove out, pushing the water from my face as I sit on the edge of the tub and then climb back out. “It’s fucking hotter than hell in there.”
I begin to strip out of the wet clothes, watching her settle back in the tub.
“It’s not hot enough,” She sighs, “But this is the hottest I could get it.”
“She devil,” I mutter as I strip completely down to my boxers, them soaked through too and clinging to me. Her eyes drop to the outline of my cock, clearly defined by the wet material. I shake my head with a grin.
But she just beams at me, and I leave her to soak in the tub while I go dry off and get ready for the meeting with the council.