“You knew this whole fucking time?” Realization takes over as his flaming eyes narrow on me. “This is why you nearly castrated me the day your mother came…you found out I was keeping secrets. It was the day after…” he turns to Julien and then back to me.
I nod. “I got so angry when you didn’t tell me about your run-in with Julien, who was reporting to me the whole time—by the way, nice photos—and when you didn’t come clean, I was furious. So I used your past secrets and our issues as an excuse to yell at you for it. That anger wasn’t fake. And the longer you didn’t tell me, the angrier I got. Because…”
“I promised no more secrets,” he finishes, hanging his head briefly, his eyes filled with apology when he lifts them. “Cecelia—”
“Shut up, King. And try to keep up,” I scold as I run my hand along his jaw. “My next step was all about picking the size of the spoon.”
“The spoon?” I stroke his face with my palm and lift to press a brief kiss to his lips before I look him right in the eye. “To get that medicine down. Checkmate, my love.”
Complete and utter disbelief. The look on his face is priceless, making this moment one hundred percent worth the effort.
“So, Palo?”
“Not dead,” he replies from where he stands feet away, and I can’t help my giggle.
“Clearly,” Tobias snaps, turning his head to look up at him catching his smirk.
“Sean can be convincing,” he shrugs, his lips lifting briefly.
Tobias narrows his eyes at Palo. “What’s in it for you?”
“A wife. Antoine’s wife, to be exact,” I answer for him. Antoine’s face turns beet red due to the evident restraint from the guns trained on him.
The house starts to go quiet as the rest of Antoine’s men are taken away, zip ties securing their wrists as they struggle, cursing in French and promising retribution. Tobias looks down at me, his old world tilted on its axis as his new world comes into focus.
“You’re exhausting. You know that? Between the secret meetings I held with David, Oz, and Julien, working with Sean and Tyler to get Greg to lure Antoine here, and persuading the rest of the boys to jump on board so they wouldn’t face your wrath, I’ve barely had a moment’s rest to make sure you got your vacation.”
“Tyler, Russell, they all knew?”
“We all agreed it was the only way you would ever fully trust me.”
“All of this was a setup?”
“Aside from Greg, every bit. We even anticipated you dismissing the two birds that day Julien purposefully drew you in and played incompetent. Tyler had backup birds ready. He knew you wouldn’t let a fuck-up like that slide.”
“How did you know about Antoine?”
“Ask Sean.”
He shakes his head in retrospect. “This is why you went to work every fucking day?”
“I had a big job to do. My part was to distract you by playing wounded, pissed-off, jaded ex-girlfriend, which honestly was no big stretch. I thought you might be onto me a couple of times, especially that day you stormed into the café after deciding to play Rambo. The café was the only place I could keep in regular contact with the boys without you catching on. For the first time ever, I was in on it, and you weren’t. My blueprint, my plan.” I can’t help my pride-filled smile. “Now swallow that medicine, King, and let it settle in.”
After a few lingering moments, he rests his forearms on the floor and lifts my head, cradling it with both hands. “My God, woman,” he shakes his head, nothing but awe in his expression. “That was brilliant.”