Chapter Nineteen #3
“He was sentenced to five years in prison with parole. He had an excellent legal team and no criminal record. All he had to do was stay alive. But then three of his inmates murdered him for winning a poker game and not wanting to give up his earnings.” Tate’s lips flattened, steel eyes clouding.
“It was barely forty bucks, but Dad was always serious about his gambling. They were Irish Mafia. The Callaghan clan.”
The pieces clicked together all at once.
I swallowed down bile, biting down on a scream.
Tate continued speaking. “My father, the only person I have ever cared about, the only person who showed me love, sympathy, and devotion, was taken away from me. And it all happened because of a nameless foreign student who witnessed the so-called killing in an alleyway and decided to call the cops.”
A loaded beat of silence passed. I closed my eyes. A tear slid along my cheek.
“That person was you, Gia.”
I was violently nauseous.
“The police had no idea who you were, but I pulled every string possible and found your name.” Tate’s tone was businesslike.
“ Gia Bennett . Honor student. Gifted tennis player. Goody Two-Shoes. Perfect but not enough to step forward and testify at the time of the trial. I guess you had more pressing issues than helping my father not get thrown into prison.”
I’d returned to England at the time.
To be with Mum.
I was trying to take care of her and not fall apart.
I was never subpoenaed.
This explained why he first saw me in a snowstorm. The timeline put it a few weeks after Daniel’s sentence.
It explained why he orchestrated an entire scenario where he’d meet and hire me on the spot.
Why he loathed me with every fiber of his body.
“You knew they searched for you,” Tate said metallically. “Why didn’t you make yourself known?”
“I was scared,” I admitted, my voice scratchy. “I didn’t want to get into trouble.”
He gave me a smile so cold my body temperature dropped below zero. “No. God forbid perfect Gia would get herself into trouble. How’s that been working for you, by the way?”
I looked down at my fingers, which were splayed across the margarita’s base.
It all made sense. Why he insisted on marrying me. Why he did insane things that put my life in danger. I tried to avoid consequences, so he brought them to my doorstep, the fucked-up teacher that he was.
“At first, I wanted my payback quickly.” Tate crossed his long legs, puffing on his cigarette.
“Get you deported as soon as you arrived back in the States from your summer break. Maybe let the Ferrantes teach you a few lessons. But then you returned, and I drove to your dorms when your new school year started. Saw you for the first time. And you were beautiful. So infuriatingly beautiful.” He closed his eyes, jaw tight as his throat worked around a swallow.
“ Pure . With your wide smile and dimples and knee-length pastel dresses. And I decided to take my revenge slowly. Really relish it. This is why I scouted you.” He tapped his cigarette on the ashtray.
“Why I never let you go. I wanted to prolong your suffering. To ensure you were as miserable as I was.”
“But…” I licked my lips, frowning. “My…I…the man I met that night. His last name wasn’t Blackthorn.”
I remembered Daniel Hastings. He occupied my thoughts more often than I cared to admit.
“He let me choose my full name.” Tate sent a ring of smoke skyward, exhaling an arrow through it. “Said in order to put my past behind me, I must independently reinvent my future.”
My heart ached. Tate didn’t even know the truth. Not all of it anyway. The real story behind what happened that day would make him hate me even more.
I reached across the table and grabbed his hand. He slid it away, tapping his fingers on the side of his leg.
“I’m so sorry.” I let tears run freely down my cheeks.
“There hasn’t been one day I haven’t thought about your father.
It wasn’t me who called the police. I swear it.
I wish I could turn back time. I wish I could change the way things happened that night.
If it’s any consolation, I am already in my own personal inferno. I always think about that day.”
He stubbed his cigarette into an ashtray, scowling at it. “Sorry doesn’t cut it. Paying with your life, however, might.”
Still, I could feel an invisible wall breaking between us. Fog had lingered around our animosity. Around how we ended up in each other’s sphere. Now it cleared, and all that was left was the ugly truth of what brought us together.
I hadn’t known Daniel died in prison. Not until now. Fresh grief filled me. It wasn’t that I didn’t care what happened to him, but I’d been too frightened to check, knowing the truth could destroy me.
“I won’t report you to the police.” I swallowed thickly. “For…for what you did to that man. I’ve done enough to hurt you.”
He said nothing. Something in him knew I wasn’t capable of handing him over to the authorities.
This knowledge frightened me. What else did he see that I didn’t?
“Is marrying me a part of punishing me?” I asked.
“Knowing you’d hate yourself each time I made you come is definitely alluring.
” He tucked his hands into his front pockets.
“But it isn’t just that. My relationship with my father was both manufactured and successful.
I believe we can replicate that.” He scowled.
“With the exception that I didn’t want to fuck Daniel, of course. ”
My cheeks heated. I nodded, feeling oddly triumphant for managing to win this man over at some point, considering he’d lost his father because of me.
And if he knew to what extent…
But I was too much of a coward to tell him.
“I will never love you.” His gaze caressed mine, almost soft in contrast with his harsh promise.
“But I won’t abuse you. Knowing you’d be stuck in a loveless marriage is enough of a punishment.
And you will be free and pampered. I will give you money and clothes and vacations.
Jewelry and beautiful, well-bred children. You’ll never want for anything.”
“Yes, I will,” I said, smiling sadly. “I will want love. And you’ll never give it to me.”
“This is your penalty, Apricity.” He arched a brow. “You took away my only parent. Despite that, I am now saving yours.”
I was willing to go a long way to atone for my sins. But there’d be plenty of time to discuss that. Tate was uncharacteristically open with me. And I needed to squeeze more information out of him before he clammed up.
“And the person I saw you with today?” I cleared my throat. “What was his sin?”
“He was one of the three men who killed my father in prison. The Ferrantes are hunting them down for me.”
This explained his affiliation with the crime family.
“I have one more person to kill.” He swirled the amber liquid in his tumbler. “The one you saw today, Duffy, he was the second guy.”
“You can’t kill anyone else, Tate. The Irish are already after us.”
“I do not negotiate with terrorists. The way you react to your enemy teaches them how to behave and what to expect. If I stopped now, they’d think they could extort me. If I finish the job, they’d see they have no leverage on me.”
“You said I’d be safe,” I pointed out.
“And you will be. As soon as I eliminate killer number three,” he said calmly. “Shouldn’t take long. I’ll sit down with the Callaghans and tell them I consider our feud over.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I cried out. “We could be spending months in hiding.”
“We’d make good use of it if you drop that saintly charade of yours and do what we’ve both been itching to do for half a decade.”
“Which is?”
“Sit on my face.” That patronizing, devil-may-care smirk returned to his elegant face.
I opened my mouth to chide him. He stopped me with a wave of a hand.
“You can cut the bullshit about not being attracted to me. Our kiss told me a different story. And no, the fact that I killed Duffy won’t deter you either.
” His eyes bore into mine. “You’ve been let down by humanity before.
You love the idea that your husband doesn’t abide by the rules of society.
That I would kill to protect you. The fact that you’ll never have my heart sets your soul on fire.
You’ve never failed at anything, Gia, but you will fail at making me love you. ”
I swallowed.
“But you’ll still scream my name as I feed you my cock and my tongue. Settle for whatever scraps I’m willing to give you.”
I didn’t answer.
My face was aflame.
My knickers were drenched .
This wasn’t me. I was the girl who needed proper foreplay. A certain mood. A good bloody meal and candlelight.
Tate continued, his voice soft as velvet.
“You secretly love that I am obsessed with you, don’t you, Gia?
That my need for you is dirty and inappropriate, filthy in nature.
A part of you has always wanted to spread those legs for me.
Now the only question is whether you’re going to deprive both of us much longer.
” He stood up, finishing his drink and slamming the empty tumbler on the table.
I remained woodenly seated, struggling to breathe properly.
“If you want to know what a six-thousand-dollar bottle of whiskey tastes like, I’ll be in my study until midnight. All this chasing you around in a forest opened my appetite.” He left, his knuckles brushing my shoulder ever so fleetingly, leaving little tremors across my skin. “For your pussy.”