“Let’s just say you don’t intimidate me the same as your Swedish friend here,” Troy replies.
“He’s Finnish, asshole,” Jake snaps. “Get it right.”
Now it’s Caleb putting a hand on Jake’s shoulder, even as his eyes don’t leave Troy’s face. “You’re right. Ilmari has the look of a Viking god who will snap you in half. And he will if you take even one step closer to our wife. But I am the fucking darkness,” he says, stepping closer to Troy. “I am where your nightmares go to multiply. And I am telling you now that if you even look in my wife’s direction again, I will knock every single jib from your mouth and make you choke on them.”
Troy crosses his arms. “Threatening a lawyer, Mr. Sanford? Bad move.”
“It’s Price,” Caleb corrects. “And I’m threatening a coward and a menace. An abuser of women—”
“Tess is a dirty fucking liar—”
“Tess is mine. She left you and found herself a real man. Real men. Forget about Langley. He’s not your threat. It’s me. She’s mine now. And unlike you, I don’t lose the things that are mine. I protect them. You will not look at Tess, you will not speak to her, you will not so much as breathe her fucking air. I will give you this warning only once: Get lost and stay lost. Forever.”
Jake steps in to stand shoulder to shoulder with Caleb. “My husband told you to go. Don’t make him say it again.”
At the same time, Ilmari steps to the right, placing himself in front of Rachel and me, blocking us from Troy’s view. Heart racing, my hand takes hold of Ilmari’s arm. Next to me, Rachel does the same. I can’t help myself, and I peek around him to look at Troy.
“Tess is ours now,” Ilmari intones. “It’s time to let go.”
After a painfully long moment, Troy huffs a laugh and takes a step back. “You all present a united front. Very impressive.” He lifts his hands in surrender and takes another step back. “Tess, I’m going,” he says at me, peering around Ilmari to flash me a wink. “I never wanted to see you anyway. That’s not why I came tonight.”
My heart drops from my chest. “Then why are you here?”
He just smiles. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he pulls out a folded check. “Do I leave the donations with you?”
None of us move.
Stepping forward, he dares to reach out and slip the check into the pocket of Ilmari’s tux. Then he gives me one last knowing look. “I’ll see you around, Tess.”
“No, you won’t,” I say, finding my voice at last.
His smirk turns into a glower.
“This is the end, Troy. From this moment, I will never see or speak to you again. Even as you stand before me, I do not see you. There is nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Take this as the last word you ever hear from my lips: goodbye.”
I’ve said the words, but I know his narcissism won’t let him absorb them. So, I’m not surprised when he just smirks and says, “We’ll see.”
With that, he turns and walks away, taking all my air with him. He hardly clears the glass doors before Jake lets out an exasperated groan. “Ohmygod, what an awful fucking piece of human garbage! Tess, you’re seriously still married to that guy?”
“I have never wanted to kill someone so much in my life,” Caleb says, his arms going around Rachel as he pulls her closer. She clings to him, one hand still clasped in Ilmari’s large hand.
“Fuck, I know, right?” Jake cries. “We are fixing that pronto. Your divorce is my new life’s mission, I swear to fucking God.”
Rachel turns to me, slipping away from her men. Hands shaking, she cups my face, tears in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
I just shake my head, holding back my tears. No, I’m not okay. In this moment, okay feels like an impossibility.
“You will be,” she says, kissing my cheek. “Tess, he will never hurt you again.”
But I don’t care about me right now. There’s only one person on my mind. “Ryan.” I say the word with the only air left in my lungs.
“Yeah, we’ll find him. Okay, honey? Right now. We’ll all look.” She nods at her men, giving them a silent order, and they scatter, set on their mission. “We’ll find him,” she says again.
But I know the truth. Troy already did.
64
I stand there in Rachel’s arms, heart pounding. Her men are all on the hunt for Ryan. Other Rays in the room have taken notice of us.