But it was my fault Will was angry. I didn’t want him taking it out on Tori. “Blame me. I had an emergency last night that I needed her for.”
His angry gaze turned on me. “An emergency? Is that what you’re calling it now? This lifestyle you’ve chosen where you sleep around with half a dozen men? Just call it what it is, Mae. It’s an orgy.” He spat the word out like it offended him to even think it.
Liam pushed to his feet, a possessive growl in the back of his throat. “Watch your mouth.”
But I was angrier than Liam. I got off my seat quicker than he did and put my hand on his shoulder. I could fight my own battles. “While I sleep around? How dare you? Don’t come at me with your narrow views, especially not in my own home. If you don’t like what I’m doing here, that’s fine. Nobody asked you to come out here.”
He glared at me. “You didn’t leave me much choice when you lured my wife into your sick game.”
My mouth dropped open. He made me sound like a complete predator. “Lured? She’s not a kid at the park taking candy from a stranger, Will. I didn’t lure her anywhere.”
He ignored me, storming around me and over to Tori. “This is over. Get in the car. I’m taking you back to the hospital.” He wrapped his hand around her upper arm and yanked her.
She stumbled a step toward him, shock in her eyes. “Ow, Will! No, stop! You’re hurting me.”
He whirled on her. “Get. In. The car!”
Rowe was on him in seconds, putting himself between Tori and Will, breaking the grip Will had on her arm. The two men went chest to chest as Rowe shoved him back. “What the fuck, man? Get your hands off her.”
“Oh, here he is,” Will drawled sarcastically. “Tori’s savior and protector, jumping in again to save the day just like you did during the riot. How many weeks will I have to hear about how fucking wonderful you are? How you saved her life? Are you fucking her, too?” He turned to Liam. “How about you?” But his last question was directed at Tori. “You going to tell me all about that as well, wife?”
I ran to Tori’s side, wrapping an arm around her while silent tears fell down her cheeks. Her voice broke. “Why are you doing this?”
Her words fell on deaf ears. Will didn’t even give Liam time to say anything before he hurled his accusations at me. “And you, too, I suppose.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Are you all fucking my wife behind my back?”
“Will!” Tori’s shout was full of pain. “Stop it! I’m not sleeping with anyone!”
But Will wasn’t even close to done. His eyes were wide, and sweat beaded across his forehead. Dark circles lined his bloodshot eyes. “You’re such a liar. What about Jayela?”
“We talked about that. I made a mistake.”
“One you promised you would never do again and yet look at you and Mae now. All wrapped up in each other, her hands all over you.” His eyes blazed. “She’s just like her sister. You both make me sick. I can’t even stand to look at you.”
“He’s drunk,” Rowe said beneath his breath. “Fucking hell. It’s barely eight in the morning.”
Will laughed bitterly, obviously hearing Rowe’s comment. “Can you blame me? I’m at home, raising our son to be a man of God while his mother is out here acting like a whore! Did you drop your clothes for him the minute my back was turned, Tori? Did you get down on your slut knees and suck his cock the way you never would for me?”
I was so shocked I couldn’t even get a word out. I felt like I was staring at a stranger. And yet, Will had always been so reserved. So shoved into the box his parents, his church, and community created for him. He’d been raised so strictly, rules and values and morals all shoved down his throat at every opportunity.
When you bottled all that up and shook it around, was it any real surprise if it exploded once the top was off?
Liam and Rowe seemed to be in stunned silence as well.
It was only Tori who had control over her tongue. “How dare you? I’m your wife!” She seethed. “You drove here drunk with our child in the back? What were you thinking!” She tried to get around him to Isaac still crying in car, but he blocked her every attempt.
Will tugged at his hair, his fingers raking through the dark strands. “I don’t even know you anymore. You’re not the woman I married. The Tori I knew believed in God and faith and marriage.”
“I still do!”
“And yet here you are, surrounded by other men. What do I have to do, Tori? Do I have to soil myself by allowing other people into our bedroom just to satisfy you? I thought this would end when Jayela was out of the picture. I took care of that so that you could come back to me. But it’s never going to end, is it? Nothing I do is ever going to be good enough. Because it’s not them, it’s you!”
My heart stalled.
“What do you mean, ‘with Jayela out of the picture’?” Tori asked quietly.
But Will kept going like she hadn’t spoken. “You deceived me. You promised me a wife who would love, honor, and obey, and yet all you are is a filthy slut. It should have been you. It should have been your throat I slit and you who I watched bleed out on the bed. But I wanted to believe it was Jayela who had the Devil in her, not you. But oh, wasn’t I wrong. It was you all along. You did this. All of this.”
The world spun around me. If Liam hadn’t stepped in behind me, wrapping an arm around me and moving me behind the shield he and Rowe made standing side by side, I would have toppled over.
Tori flew at him, pummeling her fists on his chest. “No!” The agonized cry ripped from her chest over and over. “No!” Her pain turned to sobs as she slumped against him. “How could you? How could you, Will? I loved her.”
He pried her off him, shoving her away like she was tainted and dirty. “I did it for you! So you wouldn’t be tempted. So you’d be the woman I married again!”
Tori glanced down at Will’s hand and stepped back. Her gaze fixed on whatever he held, and her postured stiffened. Her voice went calm and her sobs abruptly stopped. “Will. Look at me. I’m still her.”