wife would help, I guess. My duty to him was to make sure I always looked perfect and stayed by his side whenever we went somewhere. But he never wanted me to make conversation. He didn’t see me as a person at all. I was pretty much just a possession.”
“What an asshole,” I cursed.
I couldn’t imagine a guy having a wife like Skye and not treating her like she mattered.
“Luckily, he kind of lost interest in showing me off after a year or two,” she answered without any discernable emotion. “And I was glad. I got to spend more time with Maya instead of twisting myself in knots trying to make him happy.”
“When did you know what he really was?” I asked.
She was silent for a few moments before she answered. “I think I always knew something wasn’t right. He was out more at night than he was during the day, and it seemed strange that he could conduct a legitimate business that way. The first thing I realized was that his so-called church wasn’t exactly a safe haven. His family used the church to find victims for human trafficking. They promised runaways the world, and then enslaved them. Some of them were just teenagers. Once I realized that, I was able to look at everything he was doing and figure out that there was drug running, money laundering, and a myriad of other illegal activities happening, too. I never saw any of the murders, but they happened. If somebody got ready to rat them out or betray anyone in the family, they conveniently disappeared.”
“Fuck, Skye! Why in the hell didn’t you leave?” It made me half-crazy thinking about Skye and Maya being in that atmosphere.
“Because leaving would have been more dangerous than staying,” she informed me. “People don’t leave the mob. Those are the ones that just . . . disappear.”
She was probably right. She’d had nowhere to go with Maya. Which made me feel even shittier than I already did.
“Did he ever touch you?” I questioned.
“In what way?”
“Any way,” I grumbled. I didn’t want to hear about her sex life with another guy, exactly, but I was curious what her life had been like.
“Having sex with him was horrible,” she said honestly. “He was brutal, and all I wanted every single time was for it to be over. He didn’t give a damn if he hurt me. And yes, he got irritated with me and slapped me around plenty of times. But I gladly took it because I’d rather he vented his anger on me than on my daughter.”
“Son of a bitch,” I rasped, furious that anyone would touch her in anger.
If the bastard wasn’t already in prison, I’d be tempted to go after him and teach him a lesson about how a man treats a woman.
“It’s over, Aiden. I lived through it,” she said gently.
“No wonder you don’t want to get married again,” I said.
“That’s why,” she replied. “Nobody is ever going to own me again. No one is ever going to tell me how to live.”
Well, hell, I kind of did want to own her, but not in the way that Marco had.
Mine!
I’d always had a visceral, primal reaction to Skye, but it was because I wanted her to be safe and protected. I didn’t want to tell her what to do. All I’d ever wanted was for her to be happy after the shitty childhood she’d had.
“Not every man is going to be like that,” I told her.
“I know. But you’re already trying to get me to give up my restaurant.”
“I don’t want you to give it up,” I denied. “I want you to take some time to relax. I want to see you less exhausted. And I thought you wanted to spend more time with Maya.”
“I do,” she said in a harsh whisper. “And I have to admit that I’m tired. But you can’t just order me to do things, Aiden.”
“I’m kind of used to giving orders,” I admitted. “I was a senior crew member when I was out on fishing jobs. And when I came home, I was parenting my siblings.”
“I’m not a kid anymore,” she reminded me.
Didn’t I fucking know that! Skye had gone from a pretty young woman to a mature gorgeous female who had my dick perpetually hard.
“I’ll try to ask more often rather than telling you what to do,” I agreed reluctantly, knowing that when it came to Skye and my daughter, it wouldn’t be easy not to insist