Keiran
T HREE YEARS AGO
The pretentious laughter of Harbour Locke's wealthiest residents filled the dining room, but only had eyes for his wife. Cadence sat beside him, looking almost tragically beautiful in her luminous blue dress.
She looked as if she was about to shatter any moment, and it was all because of her half-drunk father, who had spent the past forty minutes doing his best to make feel humiliated.
"So there he was, fixing the cabinets in the club's old warehouse—you should've seen the dust all over him—and he has the audacity to ask about my daughter!" Marvin chuckled, swirling his expensive wine. "Can you imagine? The help thinking he had a chance with my daughter?"
didn't flinch. Let the bastard think what he wanted. But what pissed him off was how Cadence looked close to tears, her hands twisting nervously under the table, caught between loyalty to her father and her secret husband.
What kind of father was so willing to hurt his daughter just to put another man in his place?
"Dad, please," Cadence whispered.
"Oh, I'm just teasing," Marvin said with a dismissive wave. "Besides, I'm sure knows his place now, don't you, son?"
's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Absolutely, sir."
His place was beside Cadence, whether her father liked it or not. But for her sake, he'd play along with this charade a while longer. His hunt for Onesimus' abductors was coming to an end. He could feel it in his bones. And once that was done...
Marvin would be the first to have the pleasure of being acquainted with who truly was.
As they walked out of the club later that evening, noticed Grant-Whatever-His-Last-Name-Was eyeing Cadence like she was a prize he'd been denied. Marvin had made no secret of his preference for Grant as a son-in-law, and when and Cadence had told them the truth about their marriage, Marvin had demanded they keep it a secret if they wanted his blessing.
'I need time to accept this' was how Cadence's father had put it, which of course Cadence had believed to be true.
But it wasn't.
Because even to this day, Marvin was still shamelessly feeding Grant's hopes about eventually winning over Cadence's heart. And the time he asked for was time for Marvin to figure out how to tear and his daughter apart.
Jealous rage simmered in 's blood as he watched Marvin jovially throw one arm around his daughter's shoulders and another one over Grant's...before pulling the two close for a group hug that also happened to cause Cadence's body to press closely against the other man's.
Damn him.
had seen enough. But just as he was about to give both Marvin and Grant a taste of reality, and have them fucking enjoy a glimpse of the monster inside of him—-
We found him.
It was a text from Viktor's messenger, and tension gripped 's frame.
Finally.
He pulled Cadence to the side, saying quietly, "I'm sorry about this, but do you think you can sleep over at your parents' place for now?"
"I...I could, but...why?"
"Just some business to attend to."
A weak laugh escaped her. "At ten in the evening?"
He kissed her forehead, thinking she was just being cute. "I'll make it up to you, I promise." With his mind already on what could possibly be his last mission before he could safely reveal the truth to his wife, missed the devastated look on his wife's face as she watched him drive away.