It seemed that always where the girls were, the men weren’t far behind. Or at least that was the way it used to be for her. Now, she barely saw Duncan.

  So many things pointed to the fact that he no longer wanted her, and she didn’t know what to do.

  While she wanted to talk to her sisters, she was embarrassed. She saw her sisters and Beth with their men and was so envious. Their men loved them deeply, and she wanted that same devotion, but she didn’t know how to get it.

  She thought of asking her mother, but she didn’t want to worry her.

  Angelica stepped back and bumped into someone. She turned to see the maid, Larissa. “I’m sorry,” she said automatically.

  Larissa just snorted.

  “I thought you got fired,” Angelica said. Duncan had promised her after she caught the woman coming out of his office a few weeks ago, and she smiled smugly and then looked like she was wiping something off her lips with her fingers before she turned and walked off.

  That night when she said something to him, he told her he hadn’t even been in his office that afternoon. He also said he’d take care of it.

  “Now, why would he fire someone he needed all the time?” Larissa said with a superior smile.

  She felt bile slide up her throat. “I don’t believe you.”

  Larissa rolled her eyes. “I don’t fucking care. You’re a goody-two-shoes princess, and men have needs. Needs you can’t fulfill.”

  Oh, God. Was she right? Were there other things she could do to make Duncan happy? “Get out of my sight, now.”

  A smirk crossed Larissa’s face before she turned and strolled out of the room.

  Angelica stood and stared out the window.

  Faith came up behind her a few minutes later and wrapped her arm around her. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Duncan is already sleeping with other women.”

  Faith’s mouth dropped open. “Why do you think that?”

  “Because he was supposed to fire the maid he slept with before we were married, but she’s still here. I’ve seen her coming out of his office, and she just insinuated that they were still fucking.”

  “I just can’t believe that. I can tell he loves you so much.”

  Angelica shrugged. “I don’t think it’s love. I think he cares for me but not enough to keep it in his pants.”

  “God, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to move home and file for a divorce. I can’t be with a man who doesn’t want me and is blatantly having an affair in the same house.”

  Faith hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “When will you go?”

  “I’m going to leave now, but I’ll see you when you come to visit Mama and the guys.”

  Faith looked at her. “I’m not so sure he’s not going to fight you.”

  “Why in the hell would he do that? He can have any woman he wants, so why stay with someone like me?”

  “What’s going on?” Hope said as she and Beth walked into the room.

  “I’m moving back home and filing for a divorce.”

  Both women’s mouths dropped open.

  “Why?” Beth said.

  “Because he’s sleeping with one of the maids, and I won’t be with a man like my father. I deserve better.”

  “I can’t imagine it,” Beth said. “I would have sworn he loved you deeply. The Maclean men will go overboard to make a woman they love happy.”

  “I’m not saying this to hurt you, Beth, but if Alastair loved you enough, don’t you think he’d marry you? We’ve talked about this before. We all prayed that watching another of his brothers marry would get him to finally marry you. Has he said anything?”

  Beth blinked a few times and shook her head. “No. I know you’re not trying to hurt me. It’s true, and it’s something I’ve said to myself a hundred times. But I always come back to the realization that I love the man more than anything, and that I’ll take him any way I can. I know that probably makes me sound pathetic…”

  “No,” Angelica said and hugged her. “I get it. If it wasn’t another woman, I could probably handle anything.”

  “What do you want me to say to him?” Faith said.

  “Tell him I’m out of his hair. I’ll file and have my lawyer send him the divorce papers.”

  “What if he doesn’t want a divorce?” Hope asked.

  “I can’t imagine he’d want to stay with someone he doesn’t like.”

  “Besides the woman, what else is he doing?” Faith asked.

  “He hasn’t touched me in over a week. When we married, he had me in bed a few times a day. When I try to talk to him, he turns and walks away. I waited for him last night, hoping we could talk, but he never came to bed at all. His side was still smoothed. He was with her.”

  “Damn him,” Faith said.

  “I want to leave,” Angelica said. “I’ll call you guys later.”

  “Okay. I love you,” Hope said.

  “I love all three of you.” She turned to Beth. “If you ever want to get away, you always have a room at my house, and you can stay there as long as you want.”

  “Thank you. It’s nice to know I’ve got somewhere else to go,” Beth said.

  “We’ll always be sisters, Beth. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” Beth said.

  “I need to go. I’ll talk to you all soon.” Angelica walked out of the house and stopped the first guard. “Do you know where Jamison is?”

  “He took Alastair and Duncan somewhere.”

  “Is there anyone else that can drive me to my house?”

  “Does Duncan know you’re going?”

  God, she hated to lie to the man. “Yes, of course.”

  “Then I can take you.”

  “Thank you.” She stayed silent on the way to her house, and the guard, Terry, didn’t say anything. They pulled up, and he parked and came around to open her door.

  “Here you go, miss.”

  “Thank you, Terry.”

  “If you need a ride home, just call and ask for me.”

  “Thank you again.”

  Angelica walked into her house to see her mother head her way with her brows pinched together in concern.

  “Baby, what are you doing here?”

  Angelica wrapped her arms around her and started crying. “Oh, Mama.”

  Aria’s arms came around her and hugged her tightly. “Let’s go up to my room, where it’s private, so we can talk.”

  Angelica sniffed, took her mother’s hand, and let her lead her up the stairs. The door shut behind them, and her mother pulled her over to the bed. “Sit, baby. Now tell me, what’s going on?”

  “I’m getting a divorce.”

  Her mother’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why?”

  “He’s sleeping with one of the maids, and he’s not even coming to bed anymore.” She started sobbing against her mother’s shoulder.

  “Oh, baby. Are you sure? Have you talked to him at all?”

  “I’ve tried to, but he says he’s always busy. I stayed up waiting for him last night, but he never even came to bed. What am I going to do, Mama?”

  “Things are going on that the Macleans are helping us with. Maybe that’s why he’s not around.”

  “He hasn’t … touched me in over a week. Before, he couldn’t get enough of me.”

  Her mother sighed. “You look so tired, baby. How about you lie down and take a nap? We’ll talk more about this when you feel more rested.”

  “Yes, I think I’d like that.” She could feel that she was at the end of her energy for the moment and couldn’t think straight.

  Aria slipped an arm around her and led her to her room. She helped her to bed, covered her up, and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be here if you need me, baby.”

  “Thank you, Mama. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Duncan walked into his room later that afternoon and started pulling off his clothing as he headed to the shower. He groaned when the hot water pounded down on his shoulders. Fuck, he was tired. They’d been involved in stopping a shipment of women the last few days and hardly gotten any sleep.

  The human trafficking business Angelica’s father was involved in was much larger than any of them realized, and it was taking them longer than they first thought.

  After he and a few of his brothers had rescued the girls that had been abducted, they were sent to an organization that specialized in getting the women the help they needed and then home when they were ready. The men involved with the trafficking were just put in the ground after being questioned because he and his brothers knew it would be next to impossible to prosecute the men and get a conviction. The men didn’t deserve to draw breath because all the harm they’d done to women and men like that would never change.

  They’d just go back to it when they got out of prison, and then more women would suffer.

  He didn’t enjoy killing for the sake of killing, but he also had no conscience when putting a monster in the ground.

  He dried off and dressed before leaving his room to find Angel. He looked everywhere and finally found the other women in the back garden planting flowers.

  “Where’s Angelica?” he asked.

  They all froze and looked at him with different degrees of hostility.

  Faith stood and wiped off her hands with a towel. “Why do you want to know?”

  His mouth almost dropped open. “Because she’s my wife.”

  They looked at each other again.

  “Tell me what the hell is going on?” he yelled.

  “She’s gone.”

  “Gone? Where? When will she be back?” Duncan asked.

  “She’ll never be back, and she said to tell you that you should expect divorce papers in the mail soon.”

  He almost thought he was having a heart attack because his chest felt tight. His breath stalled in his throat long enough for black dots to appear in his vision. Jesus, was another woman going to tear him apart? He couldn’t take it again. No, Angelica wasn’t like that. He would have never thought his Angel would ever deceive him.

  What the fuck were they talking about? Where had all this come from? There was never a day that went by that he didn’t thank God for her, and she didn’t want him anymore. God, just thinking that made him crazy.

  He cleared his throat. “What was her reason?” he asked.

  Hope lifted her chin, and she looked so much like his angel that it made him want to howl.

  “She thinks you don’t want her, so why stay?”

  “Not want her? Jesus, I’m obsessed with her,” he yelled.

  “You have a funny way of showing it,” Faith said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “You haven’t given her any attention for days, and you wouldn’t even talk to her when she tried. But the worst is the fact you think it’s okay to have a mistress right under her nose and in the same house,” Faith said.

  “Mistress? What the fuck?” He looked at Beth, who had stood a few feet away, looking down at her feet. “Beth, you know me. What do you think?”

  He hated to see the bleakness in her eyes when she lifted her head.

  “I know that men have needs, and sometimes they don’t care where the sex comes from, and it doesn’t have to mean anything to them. Not like it does women.”

  “You think this way about every man, even your own?” Duncan asked.

  Beth nodded. “Yes. I will stay with Alastair for as long as he’ll have me or until I know he’s taken another mistress, and then I’ll be gone.”

  What the fuck did she mean by another mistress? Fuck, he felt like the whole world was going crazy.

  “Beth.”

  They all turned to see Alastair standing there staring at Beth. Hell, by the look in his brother’s eyes, he knew Beth would be busy the rest of the day.

  “Did I just hear you, right? If I take a mistress, you will leave me?”

  Beth shrugged. “Of course. A man doesn’t need two, do they?”

  “You think of yourself as a mistress?” he asked her. The dark low tone of his voice told Duncan his brother was pissed.

  Beth exhaled. “I think of myself as Alastair’s woman until he’s done with me.”

  “Jesus, woman. Why haven’t we talked about this?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m happy with the way things are, and I don’t want them to change. That’s all you need to know. My inner thoughts and insecurities are my own.”

  “Insecurities? With us?”

  “Not so much. Mostly about what I’ll do after we’re done.”

  “Woman, we’ll never be done,” Alastair said.

  “Then I’ll stay happy. Besides, I don’t know why we’re talking about me. Duncan and Angelica are having problems.”

  “We’re talking about you because of what you said. I think we need to go to our rooms. Duncan will take care of his woman.”

  Beth shook her head. “No. I’m fine, really. Go back to work. I know you had a lot to do today.”

  “Nothing is more important than you.”

  “But—”

  Alastair held a hand out. “Now, Beth.”

  Duncan heard her sigh, and she walked over to his brother.

  The devastating emotion in his brother’s eyes made him grit his teeth. He waited until they left before he turned back to Angelica’s sisters.

  “Now, tell me about this mistress I supposedly have,” he said.

  “Angelica has seen Larissa coming out of your office wiping her mouth like she just … you know,” Faith said.

  “Larissa, the maid?”

  “Yes. The one you slept with and was supposed to fire but didn’t,” Hope said.

  “Jesus Christ, I fucked up once several months ago. You two weren’t even here then. It was right after the shit Freya caused. I was drunker than I’ve ever been.”

  “You haven’t touched her since?” Hope asked.

  “Fuck no. In fact, she’s not even supposed to be here. When did Angel see her?”

  “A few days ago, and then today, Angelica ran into her and asked what she was doing here. The whore asked her why you would fire someone you needed all the time.”

  Duncan gritted his teeth. That fucking bitch was going to pay. “I’ll take care of her later. Right now, I need to get to my angel.” He knew exactly where to look. “I’ll be back with her.”

  On the way out, he stopped one of his men. “Find Larissa and put her in the shed for me.”

  “Do you want her tied up, sir?”

  “Yes, and gag her. She fucked with my woman, and she’s not even supposed to be here. I fired her a week ago.”

  “I’ll find her.”

  “Thank you.” Now, he needed to concentrate on finding his angel and getting her home where she belonged.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Duncan’s driver drove up to the Moretti mansion and parked. “Thank you,” he said to the driver.

  “You’re welcome, sir.”

  “We shouldn’t be too long.”

  “Very good, sir. I’ll be here.”

  The front door opened before he got to it.

  “We expected you,” Trent said. “Come on into the office.”

  Duncan didn’t think the man looked upset. “Where is Angelica?”

  “We’ll tell you after we talk to you,” Trent said.

  Duncan gritted his teeth but followed the man. Trent closed the door behind them, and Duncan stopped a few feet from Aria’s desk. Her men were in the room. Trent sat on the corner of her desk, and Mateo leaned against the wall behind her with his arms crossed.

  He stood waiting as she finished a call. When she hung up, her attention went to him. “Are you having an affair?” she asked.

  “Fuck no.”

  “Then explain to me why my daughter thinks you are.”

  He told her about Larissa, and she nodded a few times.

  “I figured that might be the case. Some women can be vindictive.”

  “No shit.”

  “Now, about ignoring her? She said you won’t talk to her.” Aria asked.

  “You know why I’ve been gone, Aria. We finally got the last of the girls early this morning and dropped them off at the center.”

  “Yes, we guessed that was what the problem was, but I needed to make sure that was all that was happening.”

  “Then why the third degree?” Duncan asked.

  “Because she’s my daughter.” Her voice turned harder than he had ever heard before.

  “I understand that. But she’s my wife.”

  “But she’ll always be my daughter, Duncan.”

  “And she’ll always be my wife.”

  Aria studied him. “She’s hurting badly. Worse than I’ve ever seen. Do you know what that means?”

  “What?”

  “That she cares deeply for you.”

  “Good, because I love her with my whole heart.”

  The men finally smiled. Aria didn’t look one hundred percent convinced, but she finally nodded. “She’s up in her bedroom napping.”

  He turned to leave.

  “Duncan,” Aria called out.

  He turned back to her at the doorway.

  “Don’t hurt my baby. Not ever. Do you understand?”

  Jesus, the deadly tone of her voice made the hairs on the back of his neck stand out. The mama bear was coming out, and you didn’t mess with one of those.

  “I understand, and I accept it. I’ll be taking her home.”

  “All right. I’ll call her in a few days.”

  Duncan nodded. “That’s fine.” He flew up the stairs and down the hall. When he got to her room, he took a deep breath, opened the door, and closed it behind him.

  The room was dim because the shades were down. He could plainly see his angel on the bed, facing away from him. He slipped off his shoes and crawled into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her.

  “Hey, Angel.”

  “Mmmm.” She cuddled against him.

  “Do you know how much I love you?”

  “Mmm, maybe as much as I love you.”

  The knot in his stomach loosened. If she loved him, it would be okay.

 

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