Page 52 of His Asset
They both deserved whatever fate awaited them.
Adam mightn’t have created me, he was too young, but he’d created other creatures just like me, emulated what had been done to me.Whether he’d been a spy or a willing participant at first didn’t erase what had been done under his watch, in his labs.And Reuben had used us, fought us, hurt us for entertainment and profit.
The guards flanking me shifted closer as I swayed.My face throbbed, my eye now completely swollen shut while somewhere deep inside, something was breaking apart and reforming into something harder.
Neither man had clean hands.Neither deserved my loyalty, my protection, or my tears.
I knew I had to escape from them both, yet something held me there.
A deep need to watch the scene play out between the two men who were my enemies even as they’d been something else entirely.Men who’d claimed me and given me pleasure.Men who’d gotten under my skin and who’d meant something to me.
Reuben spat out blood onto the marble floor, then laughed as Adam stepped around him, silent and predatory.“I think our woman wants to see us beat each other up.”
“She’s not your woman,” Adam ground out.
“What, you think she’s yours?”Reuben’s laugh darkened.“You can’t keep what doesn’t want to stay.”
Adam didn’t answer, not with words.He drove forward, landing a brutal combination, kidney shot, solar plexus, then an elbow to Reuben's temple that sent him reeling.
But Reuben recovered fast, using his street-fighter instincts.He grabbed a lamp and swung it like a club.Adam blocked it easily, but didn’t see the kick coming for his knee.
Thud.He growled low in his throat, his face blazing with pain as he slumped low.Despite my epiphany, I stupidly itched to defend the man who’d supposedly looked out for me, who’d kept me in a cell and then in his home like a sacred pet.
I locked onto Reuben’s glittering stare.“I don’t belong to anyone.Including you.”
Reuben swiped a hand over his face.“That’s where you’re wrong.You and me, we’re the same inside.”
My wings fluttered, their hooked tips gleaming thanks to the exterior lights.The three men surrounding me cast each other nervous looks, before stepping back, just out of range.I sent Reuben a hard smile.“Not on the outside, and clearly that’s all you care about.”
I glanced at Adam’s security.They were the same men who’d tracked me with their dogs.“Not so tough without your mutts, huh?”I sneered.
Adam hobbled now as he circled Reuben, but he managed to glower at his men as he snarled, “No matter what happens, don’t hurt her, and don’t let her go.”
My heart sank.Despite everything we’d shared, I was still the prize in this war.
Chapter Twenty