Page 122 of Power

Another step. Another from him.

“Jace, listen to me,” I pleaded, placing both hands on his chest now. “Marcus is more dangerous than I realized, and now he has everything to lose.”

His eyes finally focused fully on me.

“I wanted to believe he was partly bluffing, but he’s not. He threatened me and everyone you care about.” I swallowed hard. “He’s dangerous, Jace. More than either of us knows.”

I’d hoped my words would stop him. But it looked like it had the opposite effect, fueling his fury even more, because Jace pivoted and finally made it past me, storming down the hallway with predatory intent.

“Jace, wait! He’s not just dangerous; he’s unstable. He told me he’d destroy everything you love if I said anything!”

He paused, turning back to me with such dark intensity, it made my breath catch.

“Not half as dangerous as I am when someone touches what’s mine.” The possessive growl in his voice sent a fresh wave of ice water over my body. “When I see him …”

And with that, Jace’s footsteps thundered against thefloor.

I bolted after him, heart hammering against my ribs. “Jace!”

He didn’t slow, didn’t turn. A missile locked on its target. The employees scattered in his wake, pressing themselves against walls, as if they could sense the violence radiating from him.

“Don’t try to stop me, Scarlett.” His voice was dangerously quiet, the calm before a Category 5 hurricane.

The muscles in his forearms corded while his hands curled into white-knuckled fists as he approached the elevator.

“He thinks I’m still that twenty-year-old kid,” Jace said, slamming the elevator’s button. “He thinks I’m still afraid.” His eyes met mine. “But he’s about to find out he’s the one who should be afraid. He’s about to learn what happens to anyone who hurts a hair on your head.”

The elevator arrived with a soft ding that seemed obscenely normal amid the tension.

When Jace stepped inside, I tried to follow him, but he held his hand to my stomach. Gently. But firmly.

“Stay here,” Jace ordered, his eyes finding mine as the doors began to close. There was something in them: a flash of tenderness amid the storm, a silent promise that cut straight to my soul.

He pressed the Close Door button, trapping me out before I could stop him from whatever he was about to do.

63

JACE

I knew my only focus right now should be saving my company, salvaging what remained of my position to ensure my employees were protected.

Instead, an assault of images flashed through my mind.

Marcus’s hand sliding up Scarlett’s thigh. Him following her home like some deranged stalker. Intimidating her. Threatening her. Escalating until the violent confrontation last night.

The way she had put her palm up, backing away from him, her eyes wide with fear. And the way that he pursued her like an arrogant man drunk on power he had stolen.

How dare he touch her? How dare he hurt her? So help me, the next time I saw him?—

Only one floor up from Scarlett’s office, the elevator doors slid open with a soft ding. And there, standing alone, was Marcus, eyes glued to his phone.

Time immediately froze.

What he was doing on this floor—a meeting, a quick conference—I didn’t care. All I cared was that he stepped inside. Alone. With me. The walls of the elevator were large panes of mirrors, cleaned to such perfection that every pore on his traitorous skin reflected back in high definition.

Here I was, dressed in dark gray, and he in cream, almost white. But the colors should have been reversed. Evil wearing white. How poetic.

When he lifted his attention from his screen, our gazes locked. The moment recognition flickered in his eyes—the instant he realized Iknew—all pretenses crumbled away. His lips curled into a smug, knowing smile.