Page 56 of Cruel Possession

I give her a sarcastic smile, stepping to the side and brushing by her. “Who wouldn’t like you? You had my cock in your mouth.”

I wait by the doors for her to stomp by me and back into the hospital. Not another word passes between us as she heads into Gia’s room with Royce, shutting the door behind her.

Skyla looks at me from where she sits in the hallway. “I don’t trust her.”

Sighing, I sit beside her, not wanting to go through another round of this. “You don’t have to trust her. Trusting her isn’t part of the plan.”

“Then why are you letting her walk around like you think she won’t screw you over in the end?”

I tilt my head back against the wall, arms crossed over my chest and leg bouncing up and down. “Because I need her to trust me. I need her to think that she’s being given some freedom, and then I need information from her once her guard is down.”

“Because good old-fashioned torture wasn’t working?” Skyla scoffs and elbows me in the side. “Aiden, I know you’re getting involved with her. The others don’t, and I’m not about to tell them, but this is a horrible idea. She’s only going to screw you over.”

“She’s not going to screw me over. I know her. I know what she’s like, and I know the way her mind works. You’re worrying about nothing.”

“Oh yeah?” Skyla sits up, twisting to face me, leaning in a little. “Did you know that she was in your office and taking pictures of something?”

Ice runs through my veins as I sit taller, my leg stilling.

What the hell would she be doing in my office?

She has no reason to be in there.

If Skyla is right, does that mean that the concern Zoe was showing outside was all faked?

My hands curl into fists as I glare at the door. If she thinks it’s so easy to play me, then she’s got a rude awakening coming.

I could kill her now. Torture her for the hell of it and get nothing from her.

Or I could play her game. Lean into the person she thinks she’s trying to mold me into. Pretend that she’s more trusted than she is.

And when the moment is right, I’m going to slit that pretty little throat.

Chapter Eighteen

ZOE

The screams.All I can hear is the screams.

It sounds like an animal is dying.

My heart leaps out of my chest as I look upright in bed, reaching down between the mattress and the bed frame only to come up empty. This isn’t my bed, and there’s no gun waiting for me to pull on whoever the hell is attacking right now.

The screaming gets louder, and it’s only then that I realize the source of the screams is in the room with me.

I hold my breath and ease back the sheets, getting out of bed and crossing the room to where Aiden sleeps on the couch.

He thrashes, falling to the ground with a heavy thud, but even that doesn’t wake him.

I crouch down beside him only to be rewarded with a hand shooting out and wrapping around my ankle.

He hauls it out from beneath me, sending me sprawling to the ground.

“Holy fuck! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He mumbles something I can’t make out before his body goes still.

I wrench my ankle from the relaxing grip and scramble backward, looking around for something I might be able to use to wake him up.