Wife's Fury, Dynasty To Ashes

arley

a seamless unit of loyalty and violence I had cultivated for years. Holden' s body ten

wl. The calm strategist was gone, replaced b

ad been a mountain, solid and immovable for two deca

s me, his hand outstret

e. "Don't you dare put your hands on me," I

wn eyes swimming with tears. She looked terrified,

rds tasting like acid. "This, us, the

ty to look shocked. "A div

er hidden inside my coat. The cold metal was a familiar comfort in my hand. I didn't aim it at him. I aime

weapons drawn, a standoff at the gates of our ru

he way, Holde

muscle and fury, shielding her compl

t tem

zed the

r. I wasn't trying to. The bullet slammed into the wooden do

set my teeth on edge. She collapsed again

e between us in two long strides, his hand clamping down on my wrist, forcing my arm down.

His eyes, the same dark eyes that used to look at me

ck in my mind' s eye, the one he got for me. This hand, the one now causing me so much pain,

rying from the pain in my arm, but from the unbearable agony in my chest. Seeing t

the openi

my body, using his own momentum against him, and brought my knee up hard

my gaze was locked on him. He straightened up, his breath coming

, taking a step towar

ing to fix my hurts. The same way he' d clean and bandage

me," I snarle

ering in the air between

o my throbbing wrist, "is nothing. This can be fixed. What you did

eyes was replaced by a familiar, weary resignation. He knew m

ing into her hands on the porch. Then I looked

d from my soul. I turned my back on him, on the cabin, on the twenty years we

, opened the door for

asked, hi

aid, my voice crack

tanding there, watching me go. He hadn't moved to stop me. He was letting m

made hi