“You know, if you want to murder people because they make me cry, you should already be six feet under.”
“I didn’t mean to make you cry.” I pause in the hallway. “Do I make you cry often?”
“No.” She waves her hand. “I was trying to lighten the mood.” Tova’s bottom lip puffs out. “You think she used me?” Fuck, I want to tell her no so badly, but I’m not sure. She’s joking because she’s worried about being hurt. Marks is the one that should be worried. I’ll dismantle her whole world.
“There is a possibility she didn’t. I can understand wanting to be close to you. It’s why I brought you here. So no one else would take you.”
“Wait, what?” Tova tilts her head to the side, her nose scrunching. “I know you mentioned you wanted me here, but you did that because you didn’t want to share me?”
I could share her with her family and, I suppose, girlfriends. “If I wanted you so badly, I was positive so would others. If I had you here, then no one could try and take you.”
“Except you.” She lifts a brow, and I know she’s teasing me again.
“I’ll do whatever I need to.”
“I know.” Tova goes up on her tiptoes. I lean down to press my mouth to hers. When her lips part, I greedily slip my tongue inside to get a taste of her sweetness. My fix, really. Each one of her kisses soothes something inside of me.
“Do you guys have to do this outside my bedroom?” Z asks, leaning up against the doorframe.
“My wife wants to know about Marks.”
“Right.” Z shakes his head, turning to go back into his bedroom. He leaves the door open for us to follow him in. “You’re not the only one who wants to know who she is.”
“How do you know her?” Tova’s eyes go to the wall of computer screens while Z’s go to me.
I give him a nod. “She’s my wife now.”
“Marks and I play in the same world. We have even worked on a few projects together.”
“But you don’t know who she is?” I ask.
“Don’t know who a lot of people are in my world. People don’t know who the fuck I am. I don’t actually exist. I’m Zero to them.”
Z isn’t wrong. Technically he doesn’t even exist. What feels like another lifetime ago, our father brought him home. Z was presumed to have died when his parents were murdered. My father said it was best if people thought that he had met his death so they wouldn’t come looking for him. We never asked my father questions. What he said was law, and we all accepted Z into our family.
Who Z’s parents were, I’m not sure we’ll ever know. If my parents know, they have kept that secret close. The rest of the world believes Zenzo is my parents’ son. My mother said it was for the best. That we must pretend. It was to protect him. I don’t see him any differently than I do Ronan. I actually might be closer with Z.
“But if she befriended me because of you guys, then maybe Marks does know who you are.”
Z’s eyes lock with mine, and I hear his unspoken words that nobody knows who he truly is.
‘She doesn’t know who I am in her world, but she does know who the Marino family is. That much is clear from the messages she’s been sending you.’
‘What’s she been saying?’ Tova asks.
‘I have the phone.’ I turned it off and put it in the safe.
‘I know. It took me all night, but I locked in on the messages, chasing them down. I spent fucking hours, and I got them, but I couldn’t get a trace on her.’ Z shakes his head. ‘She’s fucking good, I’ll give her that. It wasn’t something she did for me to get them. That was on the Signal app.’
‘So now what? I just can’t be her friend?’ Tova stares up at me with watery eyes. ‘Can we call her?’
‘Z?’
‘I don’t see why not. The only thing that was an issue is Tova’s phone.’ Z walks over to his computer. ‘Which is why I got her a new one.’ He holds it out to me, but Tova grabs it quickly. Z’s eyes bounce between the two of us, and I’m sure he’s waiting to see what my reaction is going to be.
“Why was my phone an issue?”
“She could hack it. Listen in on anything. There is a lot she could do if she wanted.”
“Really?” Tova’s face turns to one of panic.
“What?” I ask.
“I let her fix my laptop once,” she admits to Z. “It was being weird, and she remoted in and fixed it.”
“Bring it to me and I can check it over,” Z tells her.
“Wait, like you can check to see if she’s done something? That could clue us in?”
“Possibly.”
“I’ll be right back!” Tova takes off.
“Don’t run,” I shout after her. She can be pretty clumsy, especially when she’s in a rush.
“No running in the house.” Z chuckles. “That a new house rule?” If it were, it would be the purest rule to ever exist around here.
“She trips walking.”
“You really are protective of her.” Z drops down in his chair.
“You think this girl is using her?” I ignore his comment because it doesn’t matter. My wife and how I handle her is my business.
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “If she was trying to get to us, it wouldn’t be for herself. Someone would have had to hire her, but that would be a long con, and for what? No one knew Dad was going to force your hand to marry Tova,” I begin to protest, but Z puts his hand up to stop me. “Plus, wives are never involved in our bigger dealings.”
“What if it was to take her? To use her against me.” That would be my worst fucking fear coming to reality.
“Like Mom?” I nod. “Again, that’s a long con, and I don’t think Marks does that shit. The few projects that I know we were both on were government jobs. I poked around about her, and she’s a ball-busting jokester. Young too. Obviously not fully on the up and up, but from what I could dig up, she runs pretty clean.”
I don’t get into all the details of the things Z does, but I know he’s worked with the government more than once. He’s also done jobs for other big families on the West Coast. He’s never given me a reason not to trust him, and he’s saved our asses before we even knew things were happening. We each have our part in the family. That’s why it runs as smoothly as it does.
‘I got it.’ Tova comes rushing back in, pink laptop in hand. She starts to hand it to Z but pulls back. ‘Don’t access my Kindle library. Pinky promise.” I can’t help the smile that breaks out on my face at the look on Z’s face.
“She’s not going to back down,” I warn him.
‘I promise I won’t.’ Z lifts his right arm, holding up three fingers.
‘You were a Boy Scout?’ Tova says dryly. A bark of laughter leaves me.
‘A Boy Scout.’ I shake my head. Z might be better with people than Ronan is, but that doesn’t mean he wants to hang out in a club with others. He’s not big on the outdoors either unless it’s on his motorcycle.
‘Give me the laptop.’
Tova hands it over to him, and he takes it back over to his mountain of computers.
‘Think Z bugged my phone?’ Tova whispers to me.
‘I didn’t.’
‘He’s got really good fucking hearing,’ I inform her. Creepy good. There’s no getting shit past him around here.
‘Maybe Z is a robot.’ Tova snickers.
‘Oh, I’m the robot.’ He levels a stare at me, making Tova laugh harder.
‘Fair point.’
“Don’t be a brat, little mouse.” I grab her sides.
“Ah! That tickles.” Tova wiggles all around.
“Maybe this is how I’ll get you to obey.”
“I give, I give.” Tova falls into me. I tug her close. When I glance back up, Z is watching us with an expression of longing. When he notices I’m watching him back, he turns his attention to Tova’s laptop.
“I’ll get you a new one.”
Tova shrugs. “I don’t use it much.”
Z opens the laptop, and a half second later, a voice comes from it. “Tova!” My wife jumps.
“Marks.” Tova tries to rush over to the laptop, but I keep my hold on her.
“Marks isn’t coming through the laptop.” Z smirks. “Plus, I’ve got it locked down.”
“Tova, are you okay?” The Marks girl ignores us, continuing to try to get to Tova.
“I’m fine,” Tova responds, her fingers digging into the front of my shirt.
“How can I know for sure? What’s your favorite paranormal read?”
“Bear shifter!” Tova fires back. Aren’t we supposed to be questioning Marks?
‘Tova! I’m going to freaking murder you.’ My wife’s eyes go round like saucers, realizing I’m not going to like that Marks has threatened her.
‘She didn’t mean it!’ Tova shifts her whole body in front of me, thinking I’m going to destroy the laptop. She thought right.
‘I have been so freaking worried!’ The girl keeps shouting through the computer.
‘I’m sorry.’ Tova’s shoulders drop.
‘We are not fucking sorry,’ I bark right back. Maybe I should have growled instead. Now I have to be jealous of imaginary things. A fucking bear shifter.
‘Oh, you shut up. You’re the one who went to the strip club and made her cry, asshole!’ Marks doesn’t hesitate to try to put me in my place.
“He was working.” My wife is quick to defend me. Tova brushes one of her curls out of her face, reminding me of her hair tie that I’m still wearing around my wrist. I reach down and snap it hard to try and keep my anger in check. Tova doesn’t care for when I’m mean to people she likes.
“Tova.” Marks sighs loudly.
“I know it sounds lame, but it’s true.” Tova glances around. “We’ll ah, talk about that later.”
“How are we going to talk when the warden took your phone?”
“I got a new one.” Tova pulls it out like she is going to show it to her.
“Little mouse,” I say gently to her.
“Oh right, how did you know Warren was at the strip club?” I snap the band again.
“I told you I went poking around after I found out you were marrying Warren Marino.”
“But how long have you known about the Marino family? I never said that name to you before.” Good girl, she was protecting us before she was one of us. Marks is quiet for a long moment, knowing my little mouse has caught her.
“I’ve known from almost the start,” she finally admits.
“Almost the start?” Tova repeats.
“I’m nosy, you know that.” Tova nods her head. “So once we started talking all the time, I looked into you to make sure you weren’t a weirdo. Once I saw your location, the rest came together.” The line goes quiet again. “Tova?”
“I’m here.” Tova shifts on her feet. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“What was I going to say? Hey, I know you live on the Marino compound when you never say that name?”
“It’s a farm.”
“Fine, a farm.” I didn’t know you could hear an eye roll till now. “I didn’t snoop until you told me you were marrying Warren. There isn’t a ton online about him, and…” She pauses.
‘You’re welcome.’ Z smirks at a job well done by him.
‘I was worried. Everything seemed to be happening so fast.”
‘You tried to talk her out of marrying me,’ I cut in.
‘Yeah, I did, dickhead. Chilling at the strip club while Tova over here has been crushing on you for years!’
‘Marks!’ Tova hisses.
‘Sorry, I’m mad. He’s a douche canoe, and then he took your phone. Oh, and let’s not forget how he is now trying to find me. Good luck, dipshit.’
‘Told you. Ball buster.’
‘Who is that?’ Marks asks. “One of the brothers?” Tova looks at me, and I nod.
“Yes,” Tova answers her. “See, we were friends first, and Marks only peeked into you out of concern for me. That’s why she was going to help me run if I needed to.”
Peeked?
“But she wouldn’t run because you’re holding her parents over her head.” I can’t deny that.
“Warren isn’t great with talking things out. He wouldn’t hurt my parents.” Tova gives me a hard stare while nodding, indicating that I should verbally agree. I cannot.
“He’ll kill your parents if they try to take you from him. Might as well get that straight.”
“Warren?” Tova’s expression changes, becoming harder to read, so I tread lightly.
“I told you never to put anyone between us.” Tova’s brows lift. I gave her that warning very clearly. “But I would not have killed your parents if you refused to marry me.”
“Nah, War doesn’t need a marriage license. He’ll just keep you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I bark at my brother.
‘Is that true?’ Tova’s lips pull up on one side.
‘You’re mine, and you’re not going anywhere.’ That’s as much as I’m going to say. My wife and I are in a good place. I don’t need anyone fucking that up.
‘As long as she wants to be there, I can’t make her leave. That said, if I were you, I’d mind my p’s and q’s because if she does want to run, I will help her. So it would behoove you to be a very good boy.’
‘Good boy!’ Z bursts into laughter. Tova covers her mouth with her hand, trying to hide her giggles as well.
I’m not sure what to make of this. Her friend is loyal, which is a good thing, but could she help my wife leave me? I’m not so sure about that.
‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Tova rubs circles with her hand on my chest, trying to soothe me. It might be working.
