"Take your hands off my husband."
Maya froze on the step.
Two guards had Adrian by the arms,his suitcase on its side on the floor by the gate,one wheel still spinning.
Her father stood at the entrance to the mansion,in a navy suit,as if he'd known the cameras would be rolling.
"Your husband has been asked to leave," Richard Quinn said.
Maya marched up the rest of the steps. "By who?"
"By me."
"Tell them to take their hands off him."
Richard's jaw tightened.
Adrian said nothing.
That was the thing about Adrian.Three years of marriage,three years of her family picking at him, and he could still stand there,like it hadn't touched him at all.
She studied his face closely and stopped dead.
A fresh cut,right above his eyebrow.
"Did they hit you?"
"No," he said.
"Adrian."
"They pushed me," he said.
One of the guards looked at his shoes.
She turned on him. "Did they hit you, too?"
He didn't answer.
Richard exhaled sharply. "Maya,this is not about Adrian."
"It's exactly about Adrian," she said. "You had him thrown out of your house."
"Our house," Richard said. "Ask me why."
"I know why."
"Say it, then."
"You think he's dead weight."
There was a pause.
Maya looked at Adrian,who was wearing the same black shirt he'd had on that morning,sleeves pushed to his elbows,no watch,nothing that had ever made her father take notice.Her father had spent three years making sure she took notice.
He doesn't work.He doesn't contribute.He lives in your house.How long are you going to carry him?
She looked at her father again."He's my husband. You can't throw him out because he doesn't look good on paper."
Richard chuckled. "His job?"
"He has a job."
"Doing what?"
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Adrian's eyes flicked to her,and it hurt more than anything her father had just said.
She didn't actually know.
Adrian left every morning early,disappeared for days at a time with no questions asked,came home bruised and bloodied and tired,and answered every inquiry with "It's handled."
She'd stopped asking a year ago because she was tired of the answer.
Richard saw the hesitation in her eyes and knew exactly what it meant. "Exactly."
She turned on him."That doesn't make him dead weight."
"No,it makes him a liar."
"Richard." Adrian's voice, low. "Leave her out of this."
Maya turned sharply to her father. "Don't do that. Don't tell him to leave me out of my own marriage."
Something passed across his face,gone too quickly for her to place.
Richard withdrew a thick envelope from his jacket pocket and thrust it out at her. "Open it."
She hesitated. "What is it?"
"Divorce papers."
The words struck her harder than she expected.
"You've lost your mind."Your marriage is over."
"No."
"The Quinn Group is six weeks away from losing its largest contract," Richard said."The bank is calling in its credit.Investors are pulling out.I've been doing everything I can to keep this family together."
"And that's Adrian's fault?"
"No.But he hasn't exactly been helping."
She turned to Adrian."Did you know about this?"
He hesitated.
"You knew."
"I knew the company was in trouble."
"For how long?"
"Maya - " His jaw tightened. "For months."
She stepped forward. "My family's falling apart and you said nothing?"
"I was looking into it."
That stopped her cold. "Into what?"
He turned his eyes away from her,to Richard. Richard's face had gone pale,the color drained from it as if he'd seen something truly frightening.
Then she heard the engines.
One, then two,then more, rolling up the street in a slow procession.Six black SUVs pulled up to the gate,which was still open,and the men who stepped out weren't her father's security detail.They wore dark suits,tiny silver things in their ears,and matching lapel pins.They moved with the practiced ease of people who knew exactly what to do.
One of them came directly to Adrian,and Maya found herself stepping in front of him,blocking his view. The man stopped,about a foot away from her, and dropped to one knee.
"Alpha."
Behind him,the rest of his men followed suit,one after another,until there was a line of kneeling soldiers in front of Adrian.The few people who'd been on the steps didn't say a word.The guards let go of Adrian's arms as if they'd forgotten they were there.
Richard took a step back. "Adrian."
Adrian's face was an unreadable mask.The man she knew was still there,but beneath it was something else,something colder. "Get up," he told the men.
They did, immediately.
Maya turned from the sight of them,her heart hammering. "What is this?"
"Nothing," Adrian said.
"Adrian."
He turned to her. "I need you to trust me."
She let out a short,humorless laugh. "Trust you?" She gestured at the men,who were still standing at attention. "They just knelt for you.You have a company my father's never even heard of. Don't tell me to trust you."
His eyes moved,very slightly,and she caught the flicker of something else in them.
"You do own something, don't you."
He didn't answer.
"Who are you?"
"Maya,go inside," Richard said.
"No."
"Maya."
"No.Everybody in my life has spent three years deciding what I get to know.I'm done letting that happen."
She turned to Adrian. "I mean it. I'm done."
For the first time that morning, something like surprise crossed his face, but it wasn't anger. It was something colder,something like fear.He crossed the distance between them,and she held her ground.
"I wanted to tell you."
"When?"
"Soon."
"You've said soon for three years."
His voice dropped. "I know."
She almost hated him for it,for the way it made her feel.Almost.
Then one of the men leaned in and said something to him,and his whole body went rigid.
"What?" Maya said.
The man's eyes were on her.She turned to Adrian.
"Nothing," he said.
"That was not nothing."
He turned to the men. "Secure the house."
"Adrian,tell me what's happening."
He reached for her hand.She pulled it away.
His jaw tightened. "Please."
Three years of marriage,and she'd never heard him say that word to her.
Before she could answer,one of the men checked his phone. His face changed as he looked at the screen.
"Alpha."
Adrian looked at him. "What."
"We found the vehicle.Two streets over."
"What was in it?"
The man's throat moved. "A rifle."
The silence that followed had weight to it.
Adrian turned to her,and whatever was left of his carefully constructed mask was gone.
"You're coming with me."
"Why?"
He looked down the street,where the car had been. "Because whoever left that rifle wasn't here for your father."
His eyes came back to hers.
"They were waiting for you."
