The next two days, Kael doesn't return at night. When she wakes up, his side of the bed feels cold and untouched.

Catalina looks at herself in the mirror on top of the bed. She has never looked so pathetic in her entire life.

Her anger has barely simmered and her hurt, even more so. She doesn't know if she can continue on like this—her husband blatantly leaving her in their room to follow another woman and not coming back.

Merlot probably owns the toiletries in their bathroom.

Catalina washes her face, her skin blotched with dry tears. Before she goes downstairs, she calls Frankie, and her complaints about their father and Aires being a pain in her ass make her feel the slightest bit better.

"Has he hurt you?" her sister asks quietly, as if she's nervous to hear the answer. "Aires says he won't, but I want to hear it from you."

"No," Catalina says. "Don't worry about me and focus on school, okay?"

Frankie promises to visit soon if their father allows it. Catalina hangs up with a smile and goes down the steps, hearing movement in the kitchen along with the smell of pancakes.

She stops at the landing of the stairs when she sees Kael on the couch with his legs spread, talking on the phone. He doesn't raise his eyes to glance at her, and she doesn't acknowledge him, either.

He looks freshly-showered. He's been sleeping somewhere else.

Catalina heads to the kitchen and smiles, relaxing a bit, when Chuck greets her with a mug and a wink. "Morning."

"Thank you." She takes the coffee and sits down, furrowing her eyebrows at the man next to Chuck, standing stiffly. He's not looking at her, the vein in his neck prominent.

"Catalina, this is Trent, one of our men," Chuck tells her, wrapping an arm around him that makes him tense. "Trent, Catalina, the Fourth's wife."

He regards her with a look that makes her feel uncomfortable. "It's an honor to meet you, Ma'am."

That, however, makes her snort. "Please, it's Catalina."

"No, it's Ma'am," Chuck says, clapping a hand on his shoulder before he turns back to the pancakes. "Trent and Merlot will be guarding you today as Polo and I are needed by the Fourth."

At her look, Chuck explains apologetically, "We're still in the middle of a crucial reshuffle. Sorry I can't stay and watch your cool surgeries, blondie."

Ah, the shift in power from the Third to the Fourth. They're probably making 'courtesy calls' all around the districts to make sure they get a fourth vertical line at the back of their necks.

Catalina glances at Trent. He looks tough and big, highly skilled. She nods tersely and sips her coffee.

"Here." Chuck slides a plate toward her.

Catalina bursts out laughing. "What the hell is that?"

He puts a hand on his chest, defensive at her sudden guffawing, throwing her head back and everything. "Hey, you have no right to judge Ms. I Can't Even Cook Rice."

Catalina shuts up immediately and takes a piece of the poor excuse of a pancake into her mouth. "Shut up."

Chuck chuckles and grabs the syrup for her.

"Thanks."

He leans forward, eyebrows furrowed, and whispers, "You know, I'm worried about your husband. He's had a stick up his ass for a while."

"Hope it punctures a vital organ. Hey, is there a guest room here?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Uh, just through here." He points to a door beside the pantry. "But no one really stays there. If we need to crash, we do it on the sofa. Why?"

Catalina sighs. "When was the last time it was used?"

Chuck scratches the back of his neck. "Uh...I don't know, Sue changes the sheets every two weeks but it's been years since someone lied down there."

She nods. "Thanks. I'm moving my things there."

Kael doesn't need to go somewhere else for his sexcapades. He can use his old room.

"You're the Fourth's wife," Chuck says, frowning and confused. "You can't stay in a measly guest room, you don't belong there. Kael won't like it, either."

"You said this is my house now. Jae said the same thing," Catalina reminds him, raising an eyebrow.

Chuck scowls. "Yeah, but—"

"Then I'm allowed to stay wherever I want." She smiles sweetly at him. "Keep quiet and let me eat this ugly pancake."

He looks like he doesn't want to let it go, but he prioritizes the insult. "It's not ugly and stop calling it that, it has feelings—"

"Chuck."

His voice makes the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. She looks down at her plate.

"Boss." He grins at him, sitting up straight.

"Don't breathe on my fucking kitchen island," Kael bites out. "It's expensive."

Chuck holds his breath and stands up, nodding. To Catalina, he waves a goodbye before heading to the elevator, face reddening.

When the doors close, Kael takes out his gun, and Catalina notices he's wearing his ring. Does he have that on when he's in bed with other women, too?

God, Catalina, stop it. Get used to it. Stop overreacting, you have no right to be this butthurt.

She swallows and watches him step close to her babysitter for the day. Trent's face pales while Kael mutters quietly to him, gun pressed to his throat, and he answers shakily under his breath.

To her, he only says, "Stay here. Merlot is on the way. We'll be back for dinner."

Hah. As if she's going to play prisoner while the rest of them add to their kill count.

Kael is gone when Catalina trudges down the stairs with her bags. The guest room isn't even 'measly.' It's empty and way smaller than the master bedroom, sure, and there's no walk-in closet or shoe cabinets, but there's a bed and places to put her stuff. The bathroom has a shower, toilet, and sink. It's all she needs.

Unpacking doesn't take a lot of time. After, she takes a quick shower and change. She puts on light makeup and steps outside.

Trent stands up from his spot on the sofa. Catalina ignores how he looks over her body. "I'm going to the city. Can you drive?"

He raises an eyebrow. "The Fourth ordered us to stay here, Ma'am. And the captain—"

"Kael and I just spoke on the phone," she lies through her teeth. "And he gave me permission to go out."

 "Ma'am, we should wait for the captain—"

Merlot could care less about her. "Then you'd rather stay here and explain to him why I'm not around?"

Trent drives the black BMW in silence. She doesn't know where she's going, but anywhere away from the penthouse is good.

Trent is an uncomfortable and rigid presence behind her, watching their surroundings. It is humiliating her to walk around like this. She would've wanted to spend the day with Chuck or Jae instead—at least they talk to her and treat her like a human being instead of a three-year-old.

When he goes to follow her inside the second store, Catalina whips around and snaps, "No. Stay here."

Trent's eyes harden. "I have to guard you, Mrs. Kincaid."

The name stuns her for a bit, then she remembers that she's not a Di Angelo anymore. It's hard to remind herself of it when her husband is hardly around.

"From what? Dresses?" She scowls, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm sure I'll be fine. If I need help, I'll scream, okay?"

Trent begins to shake his head. "The Fourth—"

Can go fuck himself. "Will not be happy you're making me unhappy." Lie. Kael couldn't care less, but Trent doesn't need to know that. "If you follow me inside, I'll walk out naked and if you get a hard-on, I'll make the Fourth cut off your dick."

Trent's jaw clenches. "Yes, Ma'am."

As if she would ever do that. As if Kael cares. Catalina rolls her eyes and heads inside.

She looks at the racks and brings some dresses inside the dressing room. When she's alone, she says to the saleslady, "Hi. Someone's stalking me outside and I really need a back door. Do you have a safe exit?"

A minute later and Catalina is free.

She feels a little bad for Trent, but she'll be back in ten minutes. She just needs fresh air—away from his suffocating and anxiety-inducing presence.

Catalina feels more comfortable with Chuck and Jae, and it's not his fault. Still, she needs a break.

Walking around the streets by herself makes her feel like she's her own person again.

That is, until two minutes in and she feels footsteps behind her.

Two people. They keep a distance—enough for her not to panic yet. They may just be walking the same direction as her and move past.

But when she turns a corner, they follow her there, too.

Damn it.

She fumbles for her phone, casually speeding up her steps, and calls Chuck. Kael has way more important things to do than deal with this inconvenience.

"Catalina?" He sounds confused. "What is it?"

"I think I'm being followed," she whispers, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "Two men. I don't know if they're armed."

"Where the fuck are Trent and Merlot?" Chuck grits out, and his anger shocks her for a nanosecond.

She shuts her eyes. "I don't know, I ran off."

"You ran—"

"Keep walking."

The new voice almost makes her feet stop. Kael's white-hot fury down the line makes her shudder, but she does as he says.

"Turn right. Do you have anything with you? Pepper spray, scissors, needle?"

Catalina sucks in a shaky breath. She doesn't know how he knows where she is, but now is not the time. "Keys."

"Straight ahead, two more blocks. Turn right to the first bar you see," Kael tells her quietly, but there's rustle in the background, too. As if he's moving. "Go inside. If they start running, sprint. Close your hand around your keys and clock them in the face—"

Catalina sprints the second the steps become faster, breath catching in her throat in absolute terror.

She doesn't get a chance to hang up the call. She fumbles for her keys while she runs, and two blocks have never seemed so far. Her chest aches with the cold gulps of air she's getting into her lungs as she pushes her body as fast as she can, but a scream rips itself out of her mouth when big arms come around her waist. Catalina swings her hand back, and she manages to cut one in the face. But they're far bigger and stronger, and the one she managed to injure backhands her so hard she stumbles.

"So." The voice is gravelly, laced with sick excitement. He kneels over her and grins sickeningly. "This is the Di Angelo whore."

"Pretty," the other one says, leering down at her. "Sorry, darling, all business." To his partner, he says, "I thought the Fourth would keep a tighter leash on her. Left his prize all alone."

She wasn't left alone, but maybe they're right. Maybe he's not coming, he has better things to do.

"Bet he's regretting it now." A scoff. "No matter," the first one, the bald one mutters. He reaches out and grips her chin. "But maybe we can have our fun with you first."

Catalina fights the terror that grips her whole body.

"Shit, I can't believe our luck," one of them cheers with a sinister laugh. "You can pay for what the Fourth did to our family. Right, pretty lady?"

The other one starts grabbing her legs and Catalina kicks him off, her face stained with fear-stricken tears, but her fight doesn't get her anywhere because she's being hauled up and dragged, the cold barrel of a gun pressed against her side.

Catalina hears a shot pierce the gun, disarming her attacker. Another shot goes through his leg before the gun falls to the ground, and he goes down with a cry, bringing her down with him. Her other attacker barely gets three steps in when two shots ring out, perfectly hitting the back of his knee—side by side.

She's yanked up, met with Merlot's furious face. "You fucking idiot!"

She flinches when two more shots ring out—more cries from her attackers who are bleeding on the floor.

"Cerberus!" Merlot shouts, turning abruptly towards the sniper. "The Fourth wants them alive."

"They're alive."

Catalina's lips part. Jae is stalking towards them in a striped polo shirt and slacks, face blank and empty. He's loading his gun, slouched, like he's bored.

But then he clicks his tongue, looks at Merlot in the eye, and says, "Good thing hyung kept me near."

The insinuation is not lost in his words.

"I was coming," Merlot barks. "Fucking bitch ran off—"

"I'll get her inside," Jae interrupts curtly, taking Catalina's forearm and leading her somewhere.

She finds herself on the sofa in a basement with an office. Must be the club Kael was talking about.

Catalina's swirling head mixed with the churning nausea at the pit of her stomach gets worse when Jae drags the two bodies and dumps them on the floor, like he's carrying annoying baggage. Merlot keeps her gun pointed at them while they beg incoherently, lying on the floor.

Jae sits on the edge of the table, playing with his weapon in his fingers, eyes trained on the attackers. He looks nothing like the kid drinking banana milk in the morning and stuttering his way to conversation with her.

Jae is Cerberus. The Fourth's killer prodigy.

When Kael walks in about twenty minutes later, twenty minutes of pure terror, flanked by his left and right, Catalina can't help the shiver that runs through her body.

He looks every bit as powerful and terrifying as he did when Catalina had realized who he was. He unfastens the button of his suit jacket as he walks over to them, the promise of torture in the set of his jaw and in the white-hot fury in his eyes.

"I'll take her to the car," Chuck says, hands going to grab her.

"No."

That one deep and low word scares her more than when she was attacked.

Kael cocks his head to the side as he eyes her attackers, hands smoothly going inside the pockets of his pants. "Hmm. Murder wasn't on today's agenda."

"It's not on anyone's," Chuck snorts.

"It wasn't on mine until next Tuesday."

"Mine's on Thursday," Jae chimes in, grinning.

Kael comes closer and sits down next to Catalina, crossing his legs. He turns his head, eyes locked to hers, calm and dangerous. "Why did you call Chuck?"

What—they're really going to do this now?

Catalina glances at the two bodies on the floor.

"Look at me."

The quiet demand makes her shrivel up in fear. She digs her nails into her palms when she meets his eyes again. "Because I was scared," she manages to whisper.

"And you just so happened to forget you're married to me?" he asks quietly, tilting his head to the side.

Her mouth trembles. She doesn't answer.

Kael's eyes narrow suddenly. He leans forward, hand reaching out. Catalina can't help her flinch.

His hand pauses mid-air, but then he moves her head to the side with his fingers on her chin. His eyes go to her very red cheek.

Kael lets her go. He stands up abruptly, takes two knives from the inside of his jacket, leans down, and stabs them into the gunshot wounds in each of her attacker's legs.

Their cries echo around the room and it makes her flinch, turn away, and slap a hand to her mouth at the sight.

Kael stands up again, hands in his pockets. He looks at her with blank eyes. "Why did you run off without protection? Without waiting for Merlot?"

Catalina can't answer him. She feels like throwing up.

At that second, the door throws open and Merlot pushes Trent down to his knees, head bowed.

Oh, no. Oh, no, no. "Kael."

He takes out his gun, and without taking his eyes off Catalina, presses it directly at Trent's temple. "Why did you run off without protection?" he asks again, impatient.

"Because I was uncomfortable," Catalina rushes out, fear wrapping itself around her heart and throat. She would be responsible for three lives tonight for her recklessness. "I just wanted a few minutes to myself—"

She gasps loudly when Kael pulls the trigger and shoots him in the leg. Then he grips the knives lodged into the thighs of the two attackers and twists those, making them cry out in pain.

Catalina turns her head, unable to watch.

"Clearly," Kael starts lowly, "Trent has a...questionable memory. Remember what we talked about this morning, buddy?"

He grunts out, "Yes, Sir."

"I asked what you were here for," Kael says quietly. "And what did you say?"

"Protect your wife, Sir." His breaths come out uneven.

The laugh Kael makes is chilling. "Mm, that's right. And what did you say when I asked what I was going to do if something happened to her?"

Three beats pass. "You'll cut off my ears, Sir."

Oh, Jesus.

"And?" Kael prompts quietly.

"Blow my head off with a smile on my face."

"Kael, please," Catalina whimpers. "Please, it's not his fault, I made him drive me, I threatened him—"

"Why did you move your things to the guest room?" Kael asks her, blinking. "I won't kill him if you answer me honestly."

Her stomach churns. Trent raises his head to look at her with anger, but Kael kicks him and steps on his thigh, right where his gunshot wound is. He cries out. "You dare look at my wife?" Kael asks quietly.

"Stop!" Catalina gasps out. "I—I wanted a space of my own."

Kael stares at her. "I said honestly." He steps further into Trent's leg and his cries puncture her heart.

"Because the bed is too big," she finally chokes out, crying. "Because you haven't been sleeping there anyway."

Kael doesn't ease his foot. He looks at her blankly.

"She thinks she's an inconvenience to your other women," Jae says, completely focused on his gun. "She's getting out of the way so you don't have to screw those other women elsewhere."

What the...fuck.

Kael is still looking at her blankly.

Catalina looks away, humiliated.

A smile makes its way to Kael's mouth. "Well." He points to her and himself. "We have a lot to talk about. They do say that the first year of marriage is the hardest."

Chuck takes her wrist. "I'll take her to the car."

"Drop her fucking hand." Kael's voice is low and deep but it reverberates across the room with such power and authority and fear. Chuck does as he says. "She stays and watches. I want to know who slapped her."

Catalina is shaken enough. She doesn't understand how cruel he's being—making her watch all this.

"Tell me and I'll spare you."

One of the bodies on the floor makes incoherent noises.

Kael's mouth curls into the most dangerous smile she's ever seen. Then his gun moves at lightning speed and he shoots her attacker's hand. The bullet pierces through skin.

Oh, God.

And then, with the coldest expression Catalina has ever seen on him, he aims it at their heads. Two consecutive gunshots to her attackers ring loudly in her ears.

She shuts her eyes tightly, her nails digging into her palms, breaths shaky and uncontrolled.

"That could've been you," Kael tells her, and the anger and worry in his voice barely registers. She's standing in a room with two lifeless bodies, heaps of blood pooling on the floor. "Understand, Catalina?"

She nods once, eyes screwed closed.

Because he's right. They weren't taking her because they wanted to play cards or have tea. They were intending to hurt her and ultimately, kill her. To get to the Fourth.

Wet fingers—blood-coated—grip her chin gently. "Look at me."

Catalina opens her eyes.

Kael's eyes are cold. Ruthless. "I'm not good, Catalina. Don't forget who you married."

The Fourth. The leader of the most powerful crime syndicate in the country.

He stands up and buttons his suit jacket. "Chuck, mail the heads to Croce. Let him know we're coming for them if they don't kneel."

His left gives a nod.

With a motion of Kael's chin, Merlot has Trent upright. He groans, face twisted in pain.

Catalina barely has the scream out of her throat when Kael slashes one of his ears.

Then kills him.

*

#ReignTheFourthWP