Chapter 9
Remi felt almost weightless as she turned onto the quiet road leading home.
It was foolish. Dangerous, even. But she couldn’t stop replaying the brief exchange with Everett.
The look in his eyes had lingered long after she walked away, stirring something inside her that had been dead for so long she barely trusted it.
A flicker. A pulse. A whisper of arousal so brief she might have imagined it.
Might have.
But the way he looked at her had not been her imagination.
There had been no mistaking that.
Everett had looked at her the way no man ever should look at another man’s wife.
Like he still loved her.
Like he always would.
That thought should have filled her with shame.
Instead, it wrapped around the hollow places inside her, making them ache less.
She had spent years trying to accept what remained between them.
A love too broken to live. A history too painful to survive.
What he had done for her had saved her and destroyed him.
She would never stop loving him for it.
Even if loving him had become the quietest betrayal of her life.
She turned onto the winding road that led into The Bluffs, the exclusive neighborhood perched on the rugged cliffs of the North Shore on the island of St. Basil.
The familiar gates came into view, and beyond them, the sprawling homes bathed in silver moonlight.
She should feel safe and peaceful. Remi slowed as she turned on her street, and that was when the guilt hit.
Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
She glanced down at her left hand and froze.
Her ring was gone.
“Damn it.”
She sucked in a breath and looked again as if the band might appear if she stared hard enough. It didn’t. Of course it didn’t.
She’d taken it off at her father’s farm that morning before she’d helped deliver the baby goat. She hadn’t wanted it to get in the way of wrangling the baby out of its mother.
Her stomach tightened.
Had Everett noticed?
The thought rose uninvited and impossible to ignore. Had he seen her bare hand and wondered if it meant something? Wondered if there was a rift between her and Bobby? Had he let himself imagine, even for a second, that she could still be his?
She could never let that happen.
Not because she didn’t want Everett.
God help her, she still did.
In the quietest, deepest place inside her, she always would.
But Bobby had been there when she was shattered. He had been her rock while she tried to piece herself back together. Her shoulder to cry on. Her safe place. Her steady companion. The man who gave her a home and a life and unwavering commitment when she had almost nothing left to give.
He deserved more than what she had given him in return.
More than her gratitude. More than her companionship. More than a marriage stitched together with obligation, and a tenderness that refused to become the kind of love he needed from her.
She had believed it would happen eventually. Believed that if she stayed, if she tried, if she let enough time pass, something inside her would wake up and meet him fully. That one day the warmth she felt for him would deepen into the real thing.
She was still waiting.
And so was he.
Her throat tightened.
She accepted that Bobby slept with other women.
Welcomed it for taking the pressure off what her body couldn’t give him.
Not since Jamaica had carved something essential out of her and left a marred and grotesque shell behind.
Bobby had never shamed her for that. Never pushed harder than she could bear.
Never made her feel like less than a wife, even when she knew that was exactly what she was.
And she wouldn’t make him feel less for his infidelity.
What good would it do to confront him?
It was better to let him have his secrets.
The truth would hurt him too much.
Knowing that she knew and didn’t care would be like a knife twisting in his gut.
Bobby loved her.
And at least she loved him enough not to cause him pain.
That’s why she needed to get her ring back before she walked into their home. Bobby would notice and wonder. His thoughts might bring him too close to the truth. A truth she might not be able to hide from him.
Remi reached for her phone and dialed her father’s number.
He answered before the first ring had fully ended. “Baby girl, where are you?”
His voice stopped her cold. He sounded wrong. Worried, but also furious, shaken, and too close to … panic.
Her pulse skipped. “Dad … what’s wrong?” She straightened in her seat. “Did something happen to the twins? Mom?”
He ignored her questions and followed with one of his own. “Are you still in St. Killian?”
“I’m about to turn into my driveway?—”
“Bobby with you?”
“No.”
“Good.” His voice dropped, every word clipped with tension. “I need you to listen to me very carefully, baby girl. This is important.”
Fear slithered through her chest. “Dad, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“You need to stay away from Bobby. Starting now.”
Remi laughed, but there was no humor in it. Only nerves. “He’s my husband. Why would I need to stay away from him?”
“Because I’m not going to let you get hurt because of another fucking man in your life.” His voice turned rough with emotion. “You hear me, baby girl? I won’t let the past repeat itself. Not this time.”
Her breath lodged in her throat.
“Wait.” Her fingers tightened on the phone. “Is Bobby in some kind of trouble?”
“Yeah,” he snapped. “The absolute worst kind. Stupid bastard. His arrogance and greed are going to get his ass killed. Literally.”
“You’re not making sense.” She shook her head at once, rejecting the words before they could take hold. “Bobby’s not in that world anymore. There has to be some kind of mistake.”
“No mistake, baby girl.” The rage drained out of him, leaving behind weariness. “Remember that photo I sent you?”
Her stomach dropped.
“Ianthe set him up. Arranged some hookers to meet him at his office. I told you he was fucking around on you.”
Remi said nothing.
The triplets.
She’d seen them herself. Seen enough to know what kind of night Bobby had planned. But that part didn’t bother her the way it should have. Her father would never understand that.
“But those bitches weren’t there for sex,” her father continued. “They were there to get intel and proof that he betrayed the PC-5.”
Remi straightened so fast her seat belt dug into her shoulder. “What?”
“They’re voting on the death list tonight.”
The words crashed into her.
“He has the votes.” His voice cracked. “You know what that means.”
Her mouth went dry.
She knew what it meant.
The death list was no rumor. Not a bluff. Not the kind of story that island parents told reckless children to make them behave. It was real. Everyone knew what it meant when a name made it onto that list. The hunt. The disappearance. The families left with questions they’d never ask.
“Can’t you do something?” she asked, her voice breaking. “Make them stop. Change their minds.”
“I am doing something. I’m protecting you.
” Anger crackled through the line again.
“I don’t owe Bobby shit. I never wanted you to marry him in the first place.
” His voice sharpened, growing louder. “I knew he hadn’t changed, but couldn’t prove it until now.
Baby girl, you need to get away from him. ”
She stared through the windshield at the driveway ahead, the outline of the house beyond the hedges, and felt the world tilt. Remi pressed her lips together, fighting the tears already burning her eyes.
That couldn’t be true.
Bobby had promised her. He swore that he was done with the PC-5. That whatever he had been before her, before Stingray, before the life they built together, was over. No more side jobs for men tied to organized crime.
He knew what that world had already cost her.
He knew better than almost anyone, except Everett.
“Dad …” Her voice shook.
“That was the world I ruled for too long.” His words were quiet and grave. “Getting the target by any means necessary is the rule. Strike the name off the list with the target’s blood.”
A shiver rolled through her.
And her father had once been the best at it.
Better than the monsters people knew by name.
Better than the infamous Josue Chartres, whose identity had been exposed and crimes had landed him in Tiverton maximum security prison.
Her father had done everything from the shadows, allowing nothing to come to light. Smarter, cleaner, and more calculating than the PC-5 knew, he’d forced his way out of the cartel without leaving behind so much as a thread of evidence from the men he murdered.
Ace Spade.
Mr. Goodnight.
The name still carried a mythic dread across the islands.
He’d inspired a new generation of PC-5 killers, and soon they’d be setting their sights on Bobby.
“This can’t be happening.” A tear slid down her face. “He’s not involved with them. They’ve made a mistake?—”
“The PC-5 doesn’t make mistakes when it comes to the death list. You know that. Every person on that list signed their own death warrant with their actions.” His voice was hard and cold.
The indictment of Bobby felt final.
She knew better than to keep arguing with him.
There was only one thing left to do.
Warn Bobby.
The Stingray guys would know what to do.
They had all spent years operating in the places where danger moved faster than law.
If Bobby could disappear before dawn, maybe the list wouldn’t matter.
The PC-5 couldn’t kill those they couldn’t find.
Her husband could be long gone before the vote turned into bloodshed.
Hope flared sharp and painful inside her.
She had a chance to save him.
Just like he had saved her.
“I only care about your safety, baby girl.” Her father’s voice turned cold with certainty. “If you’re not at the farm by the time I get back to St. Basil tonight, I’m coming to get you myself. Understood.”
Remi stared at the house ahead of her.
The home Bobby had given her.
The life he had built around her.
The man who had held her together when everything inside her had come undone.
She forced herself to answer. “Understood.”
“Say it like you mean it.”
Another pause.
She could hear him weighing whether to trust her. Whether she sounded too calm. Too compliant. Too much like his daughter when she was about to do the opposite of what she’d been told.
“I’ll be there,” Remi said, swiping away her tears.
But not until after she helped get Bobby to safety.
He hadn’t let the Jamaican cartel thugs kill her.
And she wouldn’t let the PC-5 kill him.