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CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

THE DOOR SHUT behind Kain with a final, echoing thud.

He was so easy. One well placed threat and all that tightly wound control unraveled. Like always. Predictable. Desperate.

I took a breath, steadying myself for a new battle, and my gaze landed on the man still standing in the room. Measured. Unhurried.

Adly.

He and Calder still shadowed Kain like some sainted fucking protectors. Still pretending he was above it all. I let my eyes sweep over him with the kind of smile that always made men stumble. “Didn’t think you still followed him around. Or do you just like cleaning up his messes?”

He didn’t answer. Didn’t blink. Didn’t even breathe. Still cold. Still unreadable.

I’d always had a thing for Adly. God, he was so fucking sexy I used to nearly drool every time he was near. But Adly wasn’t Kain and I couldn’t let my guard down.

“You know,” I said, voice light as I ran my tongue over my lip, “I used to wonder what would’ve happened if you’d just let yourself feel something back then. Instead of always worrying about Kain.”

His gaze didn’t waver. Not even a flicker.

“Adly,” I breathed, leaning in like the memory still had heat. “You used to look at me when you thought no one was watching. I saw it. I always saw it.”

Still nothing.

God, he was good at pretending. Always had been. There was no way he didn’t notice me back then.

“You didn’t say a word when I hinted. Didn’t tell Kain. But I know you felt it. There was always something between us.”

His face stayed stone. But the room shifted, went colder.

“You tried to get with me behind his back,” he said finally, calm as winter. “I didn’t bite. And now you’re rewriting the story because you can’t stand the idea that someone looked at you and saw right through to the manipulative bitch you are.”

That hit harder than I wanted it to. For a second, I almost believed him. But I knew I was damn attractive. I forced a smirk. “You think you’re above me now, Adly?”

His eyes turned deadly.

I didn’t back up. Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. But the way he looked at me—not like prey, not even like a threat, but like a problem he was about to erase—sent a cold shiver curling down my spine.

“You were never anything but a lying whore,” he said, voice sharp and final. “Just a delusional bitch.”

I scoffed, lifted my chin, refusing to let him see he’d gotten under my skin. “You here to drag me out? Throw your little threats around like you’re king of more than that biker gang?”

“No,” he said, pulling a pen from his cut. “I’m here to watch you sign the papers.”

I arched a brow. “And if I don’t?”

He leaned in close— too close. I could feel the heat of his breath. See the dead calm in his eyes. “Then I end this a different way.”

I laughed, until I saw his expression hadn’t changed. Not even a twitch.

“I’m not Mystic,” he said, his smile thinning into something dangerous, all teeth and no warmth. “You don’t make me feel anything. You don’t shake me. You don’t matter. And if you so much as try to fuck with his life again—”

He let it hang there. The threat behind it said enough.

Then he stepped in even closer. Lowered his voice until it was pure death. “I’ve already lost the one person who made me give a damn about living. That means I don’t care what happens to me. So if you think, for even a second, I won’t put you in the ground just to stop you from poisoning his life again…” His hand shot out. Grabbed the framed photo of me and Kain from the side table, and shattered it against the floor. Glass sprayed. Wood cracked. “I fucking dare you to test me.”

My breath caught. For the first time in years… I didn’t know what to say. I looked at him— really looked—and realized I wasn’t standing in front of the man I remembered. Adly had always been strong. Controlled. Confident. But this man…this was the Devil.

And he wasn’t bluffing.

He held the pen out like it was a loaded gun.

And I… I took it.

My hand trembled. Just slightly. But it did.

I signed.

He took the papers back, folded them with that same quiet calm. Didn’t thank me. Didn’t speak. Just turned and walked out, and I stood there, cold, breath shallow, hands shaking over nothing.

It wasn’t supposed to go like that.

I was supposed to win.

I was always supposed to win.