The Lost Souls (The Holy Trinity #2.5)(31)

“Stop acting like…like…like the Jankovics!” she sputtered.

Nostrils flaring, he glared down at her. The Jankovic brothers, both dead now, had been strong supporters of the old ways. Marcell, after his first wife had died in childbirth, had taken a second, a thirteen-year-old named Edina. The entire camp had heard her nightly screams as Marcell repeatedly forced himself on her. It wasn’t something Nico would have done personally, but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand why Marcell had done it. It was the way of their world, and certain things were expected from a wife.

There were certain expectations Nico should be more forceful about with his own wife.

“Maybe I should be more like the Jankovics,” he gritted out. “Maybe I’ve been giving you too many liberties!”

Becki’s mouth fell open. “What?”

“You heard me!” he shouted. “I’ve been preparing us food, bringing it to you, helping with your chores around camp. I’ve even had to do laundry! And f*ck, Becki, you deny me sex all the time! I feel like half the time I’m raping you!”

“I don’t have to do what you tell me!” she screamed. “You forced this marriage on me! You did this!”

“I didn’t force you onto my dick!” he bellowed. “You came to me for sex!”

“That’s just it!” she continued screaming. “Sex! That’s all it was! That’s all it ever was!”

Her words were like a fist to his gut. Releasing her, he staggered backward.

“You still love Hockey,” he said. “Don’t you? Or is it Tobar you love? Is it Tobar you always wanted, then? Did Hockey force an unwanted marriage on you, too?”

Becki glared at him, saying nothing, but she didn’t have to. He knew everything he needed to know from the look on her face. She would never love him. In fact, she looked disgusted by him. Everything he thought they’d shared, everything he’d done out of love for her, it had all been for nothing.

“Fuck you,” he growled, feeling sick and furious. “Fuck you.”

Before he did something he would regret, like slap her, he spun away from her.

Nico stalked off without a destination, cursing, glaring at anyone who looked his way. His body was humming with rage, his stomach growing more and more nauseous with each step.

He’d been damn stupid to think he could make her love him, to think he could just sweep her off her feet, literally, and take her home with him, expecting her to be happy about it. She’d fought him every step of the way, every single one, and yet he’d continued thinking it would work. It had to work. Because he felt so much for her, he’d thought that this couldn’t be wrong, that she would realize she felt the same.

He was such an idiot.

Rounding a row of trailers, he glanced to his left and found Magdolna standing outside her trailer, hanging up her freshly laundered clothing to dry in the sun.

Brushing a few tears from her cheeks, still upset over her sister Fifi’s departure, she waved at him and tried to smile.

Nico stared at her, his anger still at the forefront of his mind. He needed to punch something, someone, Hockey or Tobar, he didn’t know which, maybe both, or maybe Becki. Maybe he should knock her the hell out for coming to him in the first place, for making him fall for her, for giving him false hope that they could actually have a family together.

It was all that anger, anger and pain, that had him heading in Magdolna’s direction.

“What the—” She squealed as he grabbed her waist and lifted her up over his shoulder. “Nico, what the hell are you doing?”

Ignoring her, he carried her inside her trailer and straight into her tiny bedroom. Slamming the door behind them, he set her down.

Magdolna’s hands went to her hips. “Bad behavior for a married man, Nico,” she scolded.

“I’m not married,” he spat, already pulling up his shirt. “I never f*cking was.”

“Nico,” she said slowly, backing away from him. “I like Becki. I don’t want to hurt her. And after everything she’s gone through—”

“Trust me, fat?,” he growled, grabbing her wrist and tugging her forward. He yanked open the side buttons on her tiered skirt; the soft material fell down her legs and pooled around her feet. “Becki won’t give a shit.”

There would be no going back from what he was about to do. Becki would never speak to him again. And maybe that’s what Nico wanted, for her to cut him off entirely, so he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life in love with a woman who wouldn’t love him back.





Chapter Seventeen


“I can’t believe it,” Mira muttered. “We were barely a mile away.”

Hockey glanced up at the warehouse and swallowed back a stomach-churning wave of foreboding. Having no idea what would greet them, he didn’t want to go inside.

“Are you coming or what?” Mira snapped.

She was upset with him, and he was well aware of it. She’d been upset with him for what felt like a lifetime. After what had happened between them, he could barely look at her, let alone talk to her. He felt like the biggest piece of shit, like he’d betrayed his wife, his wife, and most importantly, God. Mira had been frustrated with him at first, but eventually had retreated into herself when he’d refused to acknowledge her. After that, time began to pass by at a snail’s pace.