Page 100 of Celestial Combat

Zane let out a dry, humorless laugh, shaking his head. “That what you’re really mad about, huh?”

My jaw tensed.

He stepped closer until my chest almost brushed his muscular torso, voice dropping just enough to make my pulse spike. “That I didn’t touch you after you dropped your towel.”

I refused to take a step back, even with the heat radiating off him like a threat. Instead, I arched a brow, ignoring the way my pulse betrayed me. “That what you think?”

“It’s what I know.” Zane’s tipped his head down so I felt his voice more than heard it. “I remember how you looked at me.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “How you didn’t move.How you waited.”

A slow exhale left my lips, sharp and controlled. “I wasn’t thinking straight that night.”

Zane chuckled, but there was no humor in it. He leaned in, leaving nothing but an inch of charged air between us. “You don’t lie very well, Kali.”

“I don’t waste my time on things that don’t matter.”

His smirk faded. “Is that what that was? Something that didn’t matter?”

“Yes.” I said it too quickly. Too sharply.

No hesitation.

And I saw just how much that pissed him off.

Zane’s eyes darkened, and something in his jaw clenched before he let out a slow breath through his nose. He studied me, and for a moment, I swore he could see straight through the bullshit.

“Boss?” A distant voice asked, though neither Zane nor I looked away.

Then, just when I thought he might push it further, he took a step back. “Then it won’t be a problem if it never happens again.”

“Won’t be a problem at all.” I kept my face blank, even as something inside me twisted.

“Miss Su?”

Zane held my gaze for a long second. Then, finally, he turned to look at the soldier awaiting my recognition.

I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and turned to the member of the crew.

He shifted on his feet, glancing between the two of us before speaking. “One of the guys found something in the water.”

I arched a brow. Without another word, I followed the soldier toward the edge of the dock, Zane behind me.

The soldier leading us stopped a few feet from the railing. Another crew member stood by the edge, holding a flashlight, its harsh beam bouncing off the dark water.

I stepped closer. At first, it just looked like debris – some forgotten piece of a wreck, a discarded trash bag, something that didn’t belong but wasn’t worth a second glance. The water shifted, pushing it closer.

A hand broke the surface.

Then a face.

Dull, lifeless eyes.

Aoi.

A strange, cold stillness settled over me. I exhaled through my nose, staring down at the body of a man who, just earlier tonight, had been overseeing the shipment, moving crates, giving orders. Aoi had been solid – one of the few men in this business who didn’t just work for us but believed in it. Aoi had been careful. Methodical. Loyal. To Trevor and the Su Family.

And now he was dead, his face pale and waxy under the glow of the flashlight, the river cradling him like a sick joke.

Zane closed in, his body a solid wall of heat at my back.