Vengeful Secret (The Burkes Mafia #3)

32. Gray

32

GRAY

Sutton walks into the bedroom, and I’m sitting on the bed, looking at her.

“Something happened today,” I say, and it’s not quite a question, but Sutton nods nonetheless.

I swallow hard and stand up, walking toward her.

She doesn’t back away, looking down at her hands.

“Talk to me,” I order. “Look at me, a ghrá . I’ve got you. Whatever happened, I’ll take care of it.”

She slowly pulls a business card out of her pocket. All it has is a phone number on it, in white letters. The rest of it is black.

“What’s this?” I look down at it in my hand, frowning.

“One of Murphy’s men.” Her voice is low and calm, but her eyes are swimming with tears as she looks up at me.

“When did you talk to one of Murphy’s men?” My nostrils flare. “I’ll kill those guards, they were supposed to keep an eye on you.”

“They did,” she says quickly, putting a hand on my arm. “It was only for a moment. He just wanted to talk.”

I scoff. “Talk about what?”

Sutton looks away, and then back at me. “He wanted me to give you up. Give them information to lead to them taking you down.”

“ What ?” My nostrils flare again, heat from my hot Irish blood raising to my skin.

I’m not the hothead that Declan is, but something like this? Murphy trying to turn my own girl against me?

She wouldn’t, though. She couldn’t. Right?

“I told them no,” she says finally, searching my face as if I won’t believe her.

“Of course, you did, a ghrá ,” I soften my voice, getting closer to her.

She backs up against the wall, and I put an arm above her head, looking down at her.

“Sutton. You never have to be afraid of me.”

“They said they’d keep us safe. Put us in a house out of state, leave us alone forever. They said we’d be out of this life. I was… I was tempted, Gray.”

I rub a hand across my face, stepping back a couple of steps. “It’d be crazy if you weren’t.”

She blinks. “You think so?”

“You left me all those years ago to stay safe. To keep Ciara safe.” I pause. “But you didn’t tell them anything?”

“Of course not.”

“Why not?” I step closer to her again, pushing her against the wall with my body.

Her arms slowly go around my neck.

“Because… because I wouldn’t betray you like that. Not for anything.”

“Not even for Ciara?”

“How can I trust a Murphy to keep her safe when they tried to take me?”

“That’s a good point. But you were tempted.”

It’s a tiny arrow through my heart that she admitted she thought about it, but I also can’t blame her.

I wish there was a way to keep Ciara and Sutton out of my lifestyle, too, but I’m not willing to part with them to do it.

They’re everything to me.

“Just for a second,” she whispers. “Just… part of me thinks I should have never come here. I’ve caused you trouble, and they’re still after us…”

“Not for long,” I say firmly. “I’m going to kill the sonofabitch who asked you to betray me?—”

Sutton squeezes her arms around my neck. “No, Gray. We can’t. They didn’t try to harm me. They didn’t try to take me. We need to take the high road.”

“Why, it’s not like they’re taking the high road,” I snort. “They’re trying to get you to turn on me.”

“And I didn’t. But I took their card to make them think that I might. To make them go away, not try to take me.” She trembles in my arms, and I soften, hugging her with my arms around her waist.

“You did the right thing, Sutton. You did the only thing that you could. You kept yourself safe, and in doing that, you kept Ciara safe, too. I know that you wouldn’t betray me.”

“I was worried you'd think I did."

I gape at her. “Why would I think that, Sutton? I trust you.”

I love you .

I want to say it, but the words just won’t come out.

She left me once before, and I can’t be sure she won’t do it again.

“I trust you, too, Gray. I trust you to keep us safe.”

I press my forehead to hers, sighing. “Things aren’t going to get any easier, a ghrá . They’ll only get more dangerous. We’re at war.”

“I know,” she says, so quietly I can barely hear her.

“And you’ll stay?” I wanted it to come out aloof, but instead, it sounds like a plea.

She looks into my eyes. “I’ll never leave you again, Gray. Not ever.”

I crush my mouth to hers, needing to know she’s safe, that she’s here in my arms, and she responds in kind, parting her lips.

I slide my tongue between them, rubbing my tongue against hers.

I grunt, picking her up by her ass and thighs, then pinning her with my body.

She’s wearing a skirt, and I bunch it around her hips, needing her right now.

She’s kissing me back like she’s starving for it, so I know she feels the same way, and when I slide a hand between her legs, she’s already slick through her panties.

I rip them on one side and then the other, and Sutton gasps as they fall in pieces to the floor.

I kiss her again, deeper this time, tasting mint on her tongue, and she moans into my mouth.

I’m already hard as diamond when she fumbles with my pants, finally freeing me. I hiss as the cool air hits my erection, but she whines and guides me into her.

God, she’s so hot and slick, and I’m not going to last long like this, thrusting up into her against the wall.

Her ass slides up the wall and back down again, and she gasps against my throat, kissing and sucking marks there.

I smile, knowing it’s her way of marking me, and I thrust into her deeper, harder.

“Gray, I’m going to come,” she pants, and I hum, pulling back from her.

“Come for me, a ghrá .”

As if my words trigger her orgasm, she gasps and writhes, rolling her hips, and she clenches around me, and I let out a growl, wanting to slam into her and chase my orgasm.

But I hold myself back, carrying her to the bed and lying her down, covering her with my body.

I slide back into her easily as she lies there, ragdoll, and she moans weakly.

“Sutton,” I whisper. “You’re so beautiful. You know that? You know how much I want you?”

She nods, looking up at me with wide blue-gray eyes, and I groan as I thrust into her harder, deeper, sliding her up the bed.

She whines out a moan as she comes again, and this time it’s like she’s milking me, and I start to spill inside her, coming and coming until she’s full of me.

Slowly, I pull out of her, plopping down next to her.

“Gray?” she calls, and I hum. “I would never betray you. You know that, right?”

“Of course, I do, a ghrá ,” I say easily, but I have to admit, at least to myself, that some small part of me worried that she would. Not because she wanted to, but because she had a mighty need to keep Ciara safe.

The same need that I had to protect both Ciara and Sutton.

“You don’t have to worry,” I tell her, my voice firm and even. “Not about the Murphys. I’m going to protect you from all of it. Protect both my girls.”

Sutton smiles at me, the corner of her mouth ticking up. “I’m your girl, then?”

I look over at her, smiling back. “You always have been.”

I close my eyes, and it’s only a few moments before I’m asleep.

I wake up and immediately know that something is wrong. Sutton isn’t in bed, and it looks like she hasn’t been there all night.

Did I just dream the night we had together?

When I sit up, there’s a note on the pillow in her loopy handwriting.

“Sorry” is all it says, signed simply “S.”

My heart pounds out of my chest, and I stand up, adjusting my clothes and going into the hallway to peer into Ciara’s room.

Gone. Her things, her toys, her clothes—all gone.

I roar and drop to my knees.

She left me. Again.

I wake up with that roar in my throat, and Sutton startles awake.

“Are you all right? You were making all kinds of sounds in your sleep.”

“Fine,” I mutter, pulling her close, so close that our cheeks are touching.

Sutton breathes evenly, and I think she’s asleep when she finally speaks. “Nightmare?”

I loosen my grip so she can pull away and look at me.

“Just a little one.”

“You should talk about it. It’ll make it better.”

I look over at her, licking my lips. “You left me. You took Ciara and left me.”

She makes a displeased noise in the back of her throat, stroking my face with one hand. “I’m not going to do that again, Gray. You have to trust me.”

Trust is something that has never come easily to me. Outside of my family and Thomas, there’s really no one that I trust.

Except for Sutton. Of course, I’m always worried in the back of my head that I’ll lose her, but I don’t believe she’ll leave again.

Even if my subconscious does.