Page 36 of Nemesis

My brows knitted in confusion.Did something happen?

“You seem bored. Let’s go,” he whispered in my ear, low enough for only me to hear.

I stood up, grabbing my purse. “Duty calls.” I smiled tightly at the women, whose attention was now fully on Theo, hungry gazes roaming over his frame.

“We’ll see you next week,” they said in unison as Theo pulled my chair away, making way for me to exit. He followed closely behind and I muttered a thank you as we waited for the valet to bring the car around.

“Home?” he asked once we were both seated inside.

I shook my head slightly. “Could you take me to this address?”

He didn’t ask questions, simply put the car in motion and drove to the destination.

Soon after I’d moved in with Victor and integrated into his world, I’d invested in this community center and taught computer programming here as often as I could, despite Victor’s heavy reluctance toward it.

I hadn’t been here in months since my dearhusbandforbade me from coming, but I obviously didn’t listen. I needed this today.

These kids reminded me of myself. And in the world I’d created, where anger and vengeance suffocated everything else, I needed to find something that anchored the smallest amount of humanity I had left.

I couldn’t let Victor take that away from me, not if I wanted to go after the missing piece of my soul after all of this was over.

Theo parked in front of the building and I peeled my suit jacket off and threw it in the back seat. Reaching for the small compartment under the floor of the back, I grabbed a pair of white sneakers, exchanging my black heels for them.

I felt him watching and turned to look at him. “What?” I asked, irritated.

He held both his hands up, a low chuckle escaping him. “Nothing.”

“Good.” I opened the door, shut it behind me, and walked into the glass building.

The staff was surprised to see me again after my long hiatus but put me to work immediately. I got lost in each kid’s curiosity, the soft buzz of computers taking over my mind, calming my thoughts. A feeling of contentment replaced the incessant raging anger for just a few hours.

I heard one of the kids, Amina, huff under her breath as she furiously typed on her keyboard, trying different codes to solve the assignment I’d given them.

I walked over to her and dropped into the chair next to hers. “What’s wrong?” I questioned her.

“Nothing’s working.” She turned, her brows bunched into a severe frown. My thumb traced her forehead, smoothing it.

I spent the next few minutes guiding her. She was almost there but kept hitting a wall in the coding sequence. I chuckled under my breath when she finally cracked it and yelled a “gotcha.”

I knew he'd been watching me intently since we’d walked in, surprise etching his features at seeing me so at ease here. I was tired of constantly playing a role. This was mine. I didn’t want to be Olivia Morales for just a few hours.

I wanted to let Sofia out for a little while, even if that meant letting Theo see a small side of the real me.

The burn of his stare was becoming unbearable, so I glanced up at him. Our gazes collided. My breath caught in my throat. Hailey hadn’t been wrong. Theo did havesomethingglimmering in his eyes, the intensity in his gaze scaring me.

I could feel him getting too close, could feel my armor slowly crumbling.

Which was why I needed to create a distraction.

CHAPTER16

THEO

When I bailed her out of her Wednesday weekly gathering with the wives of some of Morales's associates, I thought she’d want to go back home or spend the rest of the day shopping, but she did the complete opposite of what I would have expected her to, catching me off guard.

Volunteering her afternoon to teach these kids how to use computers was the last thing on my mind.

Not only did they all look like they’d known her well, but it seemed they’d even missed her and her lessons.