Page 90 of Cruel Possession

She shakes her head. “No. There’s someone who wants to see you.”

As she stands and goes to the door, my heart drops.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ZOE

It’s not too late.I can send Aiden out the back. He can get out of here.

Each step I take toward the door feels like I’m wading through molasses. Time seems to slow down around me.

He’s never going to forgive me for this. I’m fucking up the best thing in my life.

As I reach for the doorknob, my fingers tremble, and my heart pounds. Bile rises in the back of my throat as Aiden’s footsteps echo behind me.

“Zoe, what the hell is going on?” Aiden takes me by the wrist and tries to pull me back to him, but I shake him off. “Zoe, come on. Talk to me.”

I should apologize now, before our lives implode.

I turn to tell him to run, but one glimpse at the look in his eyes has tears springing to mine.

There is no way out of this. I have to do this.

Aiden is just a casualty in this mess. I just have to keep reminding myself that he knew what he was getting into. He knows what this life is.

But he didn’t know I’d betray him.

He should’ve.

I don’t have another choice. Biting the inside of my cheek does little to hold the tears back, but I do it anyway, reaching for the knob and twisting it.

Please understand.

Aiden hovers close to me, too close, the warmth of his body making me regret turning the handle and opening the door.

My heart leaps into my throat and time comes to a standstill, but there’s nothing I can do now. It’s too late.

Noah walks in with a smug smirk, a long scar tracing along his jaw. “Miss me, Lynde?”

Aiden stiffens. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Noah tucks his hands into his pockets and sidesteps me. “Bet you thought my death was the last you were ever going to see of me. Tragic, really, that I’ve had to sit out of our little game for this long. I’ve missed you.”

“Fuck off.” Aiden reaches for a gun even though there isn’t one on him.

I know there isn’t. He wasn’t wearing one when he came in, and I couldn’t find one on him when we were making out.

Aiden’s gaze cuts to me. “You did this.”

“I had to.” My voice breaks as I look down, not able to meet his gaze when it feels like my heart is being ripped from my chest. “I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. He was going to kill Gia.”

Aiden looks at me like he doesn’t know who I am.

There’s disgust in his eyes, but his attention shifts to Noah. “Going to kill me now?”

“That’d be too easy.” Noah lunges fast, his arm wrapping around my neck as he hauls me back against his body.

I claw at his arm, trying to get free, but the moment the cool metal of a gun presses against my temple, I stop fighting.