Page 28

I feel sick with regret and so much pain, but I refuse to let myself process it right now because it’s too much. The weight of everything threatens to make my knees buckle, but I won’t go down with these assholes. So I lock my legs and glare at the rock.

Without thinking twice, I slip both the puck and the rock into the inner pocket of my jacket, pressing them tight to my chest. It feels satisfying to know I won something, that I beat them at the game they set me up to lose.

They thought I was a subservient girl who would fall in line, but they didn’t look deeper.

Avery Castle isn’t someone to be messed with.

With determination pumping through my veins and a rejuvenated sense of purpose, I turn toward the door just as a soft ding breaks the silence. A sharp sense of deja vu runs through me. Same room, same sound—and sure enough, same voice.

"We’ve really gotta quit meeting like this, Little Devil," Aidric says, sweat gleaming around his hairline.

He stands in the doorway in all black compression wear, chest rising like he ripped off all his hockey gear and ran straight from the arena just to catch me in the act.

"Something I can help you with?" he asks casually.

"Nope," I say, lifting my chin.

They told me multiple times that we're in this together, but Aidric is the only one who's been clear from the start about not really wanting me here. With him I know I can show no fear or he'll use it against me. So I slip on my mask that says, "don’t fuck with me" and move forward.

"Move," I snap, brushing past him. My shoulder knocks into his, but he only smirks, falling in step beside me.

"You tripped the alarm."

"Huh?"

I look up, and now I see them. Damnit. How could I have been so blind? There are cameras mounted in every corner that weren't there the last time I was down here.

"Wasn’t doing anything wrong," I lie, schooling my face.

Aidric steps forward, slamming the tunnel room door shut with his foot, then circles me slowly. "Funny, because it looks like you took something." He stops behind me, fingers grazing the curve of my hip. "You really need to get better at hiding your sins, Little Devil."

His hand slides inside my jacket and I freeze.

He won’t understand my plan and out of all of them, he is the least likely to ever trust me.

But when he pulls out the rock by itself, I try not to look too relieved.

The weight of the puck is still pressed against my ribs, and I let out a short breath of relief he doesn’t pick up on.

I almost laugh at him for being the worst detective ever because he totally missed the second half of the evidence.

He holds the rock up, inspecting it like he can’t place where he knows it from when we both know that’s a load of bullshit. "What have we got here?"

I shrug causally. "That would be the rock you used to threaten me. The one Detective Klein had. But apparently he didn’t, and you’ve been lying to me this whole fucking time."

"Not lying," he croons, bending down so he can chuckle right in the crease of my neck, his breath hot against my skin.

"Got this gem back last night. Question is…

" He moves his hand below the waistband of my leggings and presses the stone between my legs, rubbing it forcefully against me. "Why the hell do you want it?"

The rock is cold against my skin, a stark contrast to the heat in my flesh, but I don’t flinch. I just lift my chin and smirk.

"Spite," I say coolly. "Proof that we’re not a team and you bastards are still pulling strings behind my back."

His hand presses harder, grinding the stone with deliberate cruelty against my clit as he steps in so close his breath grazes my lips.

"I’ve got a fucking game to win," he growls, voice low and lethal. "So why don’t you take your smart little mouth and that tight little ass upstairs and stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong."

I click my tongue and tilt my head, pretending to be unfazed even as my legs open a little wider.

"Is that a confession, Aidric? Do you want to repent for your sins," I whisper, eyes narrowed. "We’re really not on the same side, are we?"

In one swift, unapologetic motion, his thumb drives into my pussy, forcing a broken gasp from my mouth. At the same time, he holds the cold rock against my clit, grinding it with slow, punishing pressure.

"I don’t have any sins down here, Little Devil. Wanna know why?"

I shake my head, my jaw locked so tight I don’t think I could form words. My body is at war—stuck between being angry and wanting to close my eyes and just fall into the pleasure of the moment because everything feels so fucking bad all the time right now.

"Because here, in this room, I’m a god."

I laugh out loud, startling him a bit. "I thought you were a Lord ," I say mockingly.

"You and I both know that’s the same thing." He swirls his finger around my entrance, the wetness obvious as he spreads it.

"Look at you," Aidric murmurs, his breath ghosting across my cheek. "Breaking rules and stealing relics like you’re immune to consequences."

I hold my chin up, but my eyes fall closed as he gets impossibly closer, his lips touching mine when he exhales long and slow.

"You can’t help yourself, can you? This is the part that’s thrilling for you." He bites my neck, pushing his finger in deeper, and I gasp. "You’re dripping down my hand like you want to be punished for it."

I try to move, but he cages me in, chest to chest, his free hand curling around the back of my neck.

"You want this, don’t you?" he taunts, rotating his finger in maddening circles inside me. "You act like you hate us but your body doesn’t lie."

His grin twists, devilish and amused as his voice dips to a growl. "Tell me, Avery, were you hoping this little rock might give you some kind of power over us?"

He pushes deeper, adding another finger. "You already have it. Every goddamn one of us is watching you, and here you are, looking to get punished, soaking my hand for stealing what was never yours."

The shame should be burning through me right now, but it isn’t. Aidric wants to push my buttons and if how he and Sebastian dealt with me before on the altar is any indication, he thinks this is the way to do it.

So I’ll let him take what he wants because I still have what I really came for.

I roll my hips into his movements, shamelessly grinding into him. If he wants to make me feel good, who am I to stop him? He says I deserve a punishment, but this is far from punishing.

"Still think you’re not one of us?" he whispers darkly. "Because if this is how you fight back, I’d say you’ve already been initiated."

I can’t stop the tremble in my legs or the way my breath comes out in ragged bursts. My back hits the stone wall as Aidric steps into my space like he owns it, like he owns me .

The rock presses harder against me, and he pushes two more fingers in until I… fuck .

My body jerks, coming undone under his touch. And even though I hate him with every fiber of my being, I can’t deny how good he makes me feel.

I gasp, lips parting, fingers clawing the wall behind me as if it might ground me, but nothing could prepare me for the moment he presses his mouth to my neck and bites down like a savage.

Pleasure rips through me, my sounds echoing off the walls around us.

I squeeze my eyes shut, refusing to look at the way his large body towers over me.

When he’s done and I'm nothing but jelly, he steps back, just enough for air to fill my lungs again, and when I finally open my eyes, he’s watching me with that satisfied smirk he wears so well.

Slipping his hand out of my pants, he lifts the rock to his nose and inhales it like the sadistic asshole he is.

His gaze stays locked on mine as a dark laugh rumbles low in his chest. "Would’ve let you keep it," he says. "But I think I like watching you come on it more."

Then he flings it in the air and it spins under the lights before landing perfectly in his palm.

My lips are still parted when he turns his back and starts to walk away, slow and unhurried, like he didn’t just wreck me in five minutes flat.

"See you at the game," he tosses over his shoulder.

The Chamber door slams shut behind him and silence swells in the space he left behind. My heart is still slamming against my ribs, my skin flushed.

I press a hand to my chest, fingers brushing the inside pocket of my jacket. Sighing in relief when I feel that the puck is still there. I bite down on my bottom lip, tasting blood and fury."

See you at the game, asshole," I whisper.