Sparrow - L.J. Shen Page 0,77

my neck, his hot lips landing on spots I didn’t even know were sensitive.

Calm washed over me. Realization, too.

This was retaliation.

Not business…but the sweetest form of comfort. Revenge.

“Six hundred thousand dollars.” His voice sounded like it was coming from far away.

I like him. I like him and I hate it.

“In the form of a check,” he continued. “Yours to cash, whenever you’re ready.”

I let it sink in, processing the meaning of it. He’d forced Rowan into signing over everything he had to me. More than half a million dollar. The kind of money I’d never even dreamed about. And it was for me to take.

“It’s dirty money,” I said on auto-pilot.

“This whole world is filthy,” Troy shot back. “You deserve it after what he’s done. Hell, the only reason I let him live is because it’s so much more fun to know every day is a Russian roulette of live or die for him.”

Deep down, I already knew I wasn’t going to turn the money down. Not out of greed, but because the check had my name on it. Literally and figuratively. I didn’t want Rowan’s money to find its way back to something or someone he cared about. He sure as hell hadn’t cared about nine-year-old me.

Six hundred thousand dollars. Fuck. Was I supposed to thank my husband?

Before I had a chance to decide, Troy’s palm found the small of my back and he pulled me into his body. Hard. “Nobody fucks with what’s mine. Even my late dad’s friend. Upstairs,” he demanded sharply. “Now.”

I couldn’t believe he flew us all the way to Miami to avenge my pain.

My legs found their way out of the guest room. I stared at my feet as I climbed up the stairs, him ascending behind me in perfect rhythm.

I felt his eyes on my ass. “When I was a kid,” he said, “my mother had lovebirds. She used to clip their wings so when she let them out of their cage, they wouldn’t fly away. The lovebirds always tried, but they never got far with their short, fucked-up wings.”

I inched the bedroom door open and stepped into the pool of warm light spilling from the street outside.

He moved behind me, tucking my hair behind my right ear aside, pressing his face to it. “Until one day, one managed to escape. My mother forgot to clip her wings. A moment of distraction cost her her favorite lovebird.”

I knew why he was telling me this, and the happiness in my gut swirled with a shot of sudden pain.

“Failure is inevitable,” he continued in a flat tone that didn’t hold much emotion or hope, “and heartache is unstoppable. One day, I’ll forget to clip your wings. When that day arrives, when you run away, I guess I’d be happy to know you’ll still have some money and the means to make it in this wild, tough world.”

Was it wrong that I adored the way the word lovebird rolled off his tongue? I knew he hadn’t told me that he loved me, but I still enjoyed the warm buzz in my chest when he said it. The truth about Miami had changed a lot. His visiting Paddy was not only forgivable but redeeming.

“It was more than a solid,” I whispered, averting my gaze from the window to the bed. Still not daring to turn back and look at his face. “What you did for me.”

“Sparrow,” he warned. “Don’t get any ideas into that pretty head of yours. I told you how things will play out. This…” He took a step back and walked deeper into the room, spinning around so that we faced each other. “This doesn’t have a happy ending.”

“Maybe I won’t run away.” I swallowed hard. “If you came clean about everything, about why you married me, maybe I’d stay. Break the lock to my cage, Troy.” I took a deep breath. “What are you hiding? Who are ‘they’? What did they do to ‘us’?”

“Can’t. It’s illegal. I won’t chance you running to the police with it, and I certainly won’t chance the police finding about it through other sources and questioning you about it. You’d be considered my partner in crime for not notifying them. And risking your ass...” He shook his head. “Not gonna happen. Sit.”

He patted the expensive mattress I kind of missed. Or maybe it wasn’t the mattress. Maybe it was the smell that clung to it. Of the person it belonged to. My shoulders fell and I lowered my