Page 175 of Alphas Like Us

There’s noway.

There’s no way, I think over and over again. I start layering my demeanor, my features, with brick and brick, mortaring down for the storm to come. “Farrow,” I say, voice strict. I have to see this guy. I can’t be in the darkanymore.

Farrowknows.

It’s why he doesn’t argue. He just yanks the door wider to allow me a better view. But he fills the doorway with his six-foot-three frame and muscular MMA build. Whoever is on the other side would have to barrel through Farrow to reachme.

Fivepeople.

Five peoplestand outside our villa, cypress trees landscaping the private front yard and pebbled parking spot. The ratio blares in my brain: five totwo.

We’reoutnumbered.

Two heftier men in the back carry bulky cameras, and two taller guys have black duffel bags slung across their chests. Lighting equipment of somekind.

But the late-twenty-something guy out in front, wearing a baby blue suit and yellow pocket square, steals most of my attention. I zero in on his ashy-brown hair, a quarterback build and gunmetaleyes.

Familiarity creeps into me, but I can’t quite place him. The picture is lost in the cobwebs of mybrain.

Who areyou?

My boyfriend white-knuckles the doorframe, one second from slamming it shut. “You’re full of shit,” Farrow sneers. “Get your camera crew off our front steps. This is privateproperty.”

The gunmetal-eyed guy ignores him. “Maximoff,” he says quickly. “We weren’t properly introduced. I’m AceSteel—”

“What,” I snap heatedly.FuckingChrist.

This is the porn star. I wonder how much the company is paying him to be here. To try to convince me to work forthem.

He starts again, “I—”

“No,” I cut in. “Whatever you want from me,no.” Anger gnaws at me, clawing to take hold and destroy before I’m destroyed. I breathe and turn to my boyfriend. “Farrow.” I want him to shut the door. His earlier instincts were spot on. Get this fucking guy out ofhere.

“I’ll leak the nudes!” Ace yells before Farrow can doanything.

He’s notserious.

I charge and Farrow actually blocks me from bombarding the door, his arm across mychest.

“You’re blackmailing me?” I growl. “To myface?!”

“It’s not blackmail.” Ace glances cautiously to the four men around him, then back to me, “I just want to talk. Give me five minutes. Do you understand what I had to go through to get a face-to-face withyou?”

Yeah…he had to bid two million dollars on me at an auction, and he still couldn’t get that time with me. I don’t even want to know what he did to track us downhere.

I don’t want toknow.

I don’t want to feel even more violated than I do rightnow.

“You don’t have nudes,” I say like it’s a real fact. It has to be. Anything else feelswrong.

Farrow has reached back and wrapped an arm around my waist, all while facing forward and keeping his focus on Ace. He’s trying to protect me, but I want to raise our armies for him. I want to tear this guy to fuckingpieces.

“I do have them.” Ace stares unblinkingly atme.

He’s bluffing.“Do you even understand the legal ramifications of you admitting that right now?” I ask, dumbfounded. “I’ll buryyou.”

The Hales have dug graves for weaker transgressions than what he’s confessing. My dad, my grandfather, have ruined countlessmen.