Page 2 of Ruled By Wizard

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

She sighed. “You never do. That’s your problem. You thought if you wrapped Sienna in cotton wool, stayed constantly by her side, and basically revolved your whole life around hers, you’d be able to protect her. As much as it hurts, you have to accept that you were never going to be able to fix what was wrong with her.”

“Shut up!” He jerked his arm away. “She needed me, and I wasn’t there for her!” he yelled.

“You weren’t there for her?” she yelled back incredulously. “She tried to take you out with her!”

“I said, shut the fuck up!” he shouted.

Dena stared at him gravely, falling silent.

After evening out his breathing, he managed to get his emotions under control. “I know my limits.” Staring at the only person left on Earth he gave a damn about, he gave her a glimpse of the hell he lived in. “I can’t lose another person I love. Sienna wouldn’t listen when I warned her she was putting herself in high-risk situations. She refused to listen to reason, just like you—”

“Sienna was a self-centered egomaniac,” Dena cut him off. “She didn’t take precautions. She disregarded safeguards and orders. I won’t. I promise.”

“She made the same promise to me. Ask me how well that worked out.” His voice broke. “I’m begging you not to do this. I have one of my feelings about you joining. I don’t have it in me to bury you. It was bad enough going through that with Sienna. It’s always been us against the world. Please, don’t leave me alone.”

Compassion filled her expression. Then Wizard saw her chin tilt at a stubborn angle he recognized.

“You big goober! You almost had me believing that act!” Punching him in the shoulder, she glared at him. “When are you going to get it through your big head that I’m not ten years old anymore? You can’t trick me into doing what you want anymore.”

“Fine,” he snapped angrily. “Do what you’re going to do! You always do. Just don’t fucking call me when shit gets real and you need me to come save your ass.”

“Don’t worry!” she shouted. “I wouldn’t call if my life depended on it!”

“Good!” he yelled back, storming out and slamming the door behind him.

Wizard stared stoically through the windshield of Rider’s truck as The Last Riders watched their children sled down a steep hill. The sound of everyone’s laughter and happiness made him want to punch his fist through the windshield.

His sister should have been there, watching her and Knox’s children slide down the slope. Not Diamond. If Dena hadn’t been killed in the service, she would have been there with the other wives. He would have been out there, too, standing beside her as they cheered on his nephew or niece, who would glide down the hill with the same exuberant joy Dena had shown as a child.

Bleakly, he drew himself out of the imaginary world he had created and turned his gaze away, unable to watch any longer.

His eyes caught on Diamond as she climbed the rise of a smaller hill. Why was Knox’s wife going to the private cemetery where her husband’s first wife was buried? To rub it in that she was alive while Dena lay six feet underground?

Clenching his teeth, Wizard knew that wasn’t why. As much as he wanted to dislike her, he couldn’t. The woman was lucky to be alive after being attacked and was still dealing with the psychological aftermath. No, he couldn’t hate her.

He should visit Dena’s grave after Diamond came back down and spend some time there, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Dena had been such a vibrant, fun-loving free spirit. She should be running after a brood of children, not buried beneath the frozen ground.

Sitting in the cold truck, he didn’t bother starting the engine. He let the cold sink into his skin. Why did he deserve to be warm when Dena wasn’t?

He should have tried harder to convince her not to join the military. Instead of letting his anger become the driving force, he should have responded to her attempts to heal the breach that had developed between them—a breach of his own making.

There hadn’t been a day since their argument that he hadn’t lived with regret. He regretted blocking her texts and emails. He regretted refusing her phone calls and leaving her letters unopened.

So many regrets. He hadn’t even said goodbye.

The day he had left the service, he’d tried to call her but couldn’t reach her. Thinking she was paying him back, he’d given it a couple of days before contacting someone to find out where she was living and whether she was still in the Navy.

His contact had come back with only an address. All other information remained classified.

It took him nine hours to drive to Kentucky. He had almost missed the turn onto the property and had been about to turn around when he’d seen a house partly hidden by trees. When he knocked, a man opened the door and looked at him curiously when Wizard asked for Dena.

Introducing himself as Cash, the man had told him to wait on the porch because someone would be coming to talk to him. Then he’d closed the door.

Wizard watched the door shut, anger burning through him. Was Dena sending someone to tell him to fuck off?

Raking a hand through his hair, he promised himself that if she wouldn’t speak to him, he would keep his distance until she was ready to forgive him. Even as he told himself that, he knew he would park his ass on the front porch until she came out.