“What you were,” Drake emphasized. “Even then, it wasn’t you, Elijah. That was never you.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Drake. It’s me. It will always be me. Whatever I could have been was gone the moment I was born into that family. I am what they made me. And I chose to do this work, believing in it. I didn’t know the gods were going to hand me Siena. She’s my miracle and my punishment all rolled into one. I can’t let her go and I have to live with the knowledge of what I am, what she has in her bed, every fucking minute.”

He didn’t give a damn if he sounded bitter. Siena deserved a normal life and she wasn’t going to get it.

“You knew when you made the decision there was no getting out. You laid that out for Joshua, and you emphasized that. More than once. This kind of thing, Elijah, the only way out is death. They would hunt you to the ends of the earth. I’d try to protect you, but sooner or later, they’d get you. Your best protection is to be stronger than anyone else, have enough allies. We’re building that. We’re almost there.”

“I know that,” Elijah said. “Doesn’t make it any easier when she’s looking at the monster and not seeing the man.”

“She still in your bed?”

Elijah’s gaze hit Drake’s. He nodded slowly.

“Then she saw the man. She’s not going anywhere.”

“She did, I’d go after her,” Elijah admitted. His voice was dark. Ugly. The killer, not the man. He wanted Drake to see the worst of him. “I’d drag her ass back home so fast she wouldn’t know what hit her. That woman has no idea what’s in her fucking bed.”

“Yeah, she does,” Drake said. “She knows. She climbed into it with her eyes open, Elijah. She’s smart, that one. Like Emma. Like Catarina. They know what they got. They love their men and accept them.”

“Jake’s clean.”

Drake burst out laughing. “You know better than that.”

“He’s clean to the rest of the world.”

“He’s dangerous. Eli’s dangerous. Their women know.”

“Lot of difference between being dangerous and dirty, Drake. Siena lives with knowing her man heads a crime family. Her man beat the shit out of other men to force them back into line. Her man killed. She doesn’t just get to pretend we’re living clean, because the neighbors are always going to look at her like she’s filth.”

“Siena is in your bed, Elijah. Right now. She knew your reputation before she ever made that choice.”

Elijah shook his head, his eyes going pure cat. “Did I give her a choice? A real choice? I forced her to come home with me . . .”