Page 32 of His Asset
She’d gotten neither.
“I know you hate me,” Adam said, his voice sliding into my ears through the headset, low, calm and familiar.Too familiar.“But you have no idea—”
“Don’t,” I cut in starkly.I jerked my eyes open and turned toward him, my voice trembling, but not from fear.“Don’t pretend you’re something you’re not.”I held his gaze.“I lived with the people you and the others created.I listened as they screamed through their pain.I watched their bodies break down, one cell at a time.”My lips curled into a sneer.“I saw what was done to them.”
“Bella, I—“
My breath caught.“Ifeltwhat was being done.”
Even as my words fell on him, another part of me, buried deep, where logic couldn’t reach, whispered that I wanted to stay.
Stay with Adam.
I wanted to see this—us—through even if it broke me.
Whatever this was between us, it had to finish.No matter how twisted.
He didn’t respond again.Not right away.
Not even when the metal bird began its descent, dipping toward the rooftop of a building in a far richer part of the city, glass and steel gleaming beneath us like polished teeth.
I looked out the window again, resisting a sudden, desperate urge to fling open the door and tear off my leather jacket.To unfold my wings tucked tight against my spine and soar far away.
The helicopter continued its descent when another guilty thought slid in.
Reuben.
Where was he now?
Had he driven away, as I’d asked, or was he watching the sky even now, his fists clenched and fury burning through him?
I was certain any other woman would be flattered to be wanted by two such powerful men.My lip curled.What was that proverb I’d read in one of my one-hourly screen sessions?Be careful what you wish for.
I rubbed my brow yet again.Instead of being solo and free, my mind was laser-focused on Adam.Yet it’d been Reuben who’d shown me kindness.
Until the moment you tried to leave him at the fight.
My breath hitched, and the metal bird touched the rooftop with a jolt.I was no longer in Reuben’s world.I was in Adam’s.
He stayed silent as he opened the door and stepped out, though he vibrated with barely restrained emotions, ones I could almost reach out and touch.
Jealousy.Possessiveness.Fury.
I swallowed back an outraged shriek as adrenaline surged and I followed him onto the landing pad.The wind whipped at us, pulling more of my hair free, and carrying the sharp scent of fuel and smog as we moved quickly across the rooftop toward a sleek, glass-paneled door.
It scanned him, then unlocked with a click.
The luxury penthouse we entered gleamed like something out of a magazine.White marble floors clicked under my boots, large gray rugs softening its hardness.Pale walls climbed toward vaulted ceilings, a height that was tempered slightly by ambient lighting.But beneath the beauty, it was a fortress.Steel-lined windows and blinking cameras with no obvious exit, except the one we came through.
The balcony drew my gaze, with its floor-to-ceiling windows just beyond the lounge.It was locked tight, of course.I didn’t even need to try the handle.I also had no doubt its windows were bullet-proof and impenetrable, my echolocation ability rendered useless.
Adam drew me further inside.He was still silent, still storming on the inside.
I could feel the weight of it, the way his hands flexed, the stiffness in his jaw.Then finally, his harsh and brittle voice broke the silence as he turned to me.“Do you want to know the kind of man Reuben really is?”
I didn’t answer.What was the point?Despite everything, Reuben was still a stranger to me in many ways.
Adam stepped closer.“There are rumors...about some of his fights.”He shook his head, as if to clear it.“Never mind.Just know he’snota good man.He sleeps with women and discards them like they’re nothing.Nobody.Just a release.A convenience.After a fight, after a win, he wants more, and he gets it.He doesn’t care who with.He doesn’t even remember their names.He just needs a body.”