Page 24 of Promise of Destruction (Destruction & Vengeance Duet #1)

twenty-four

Declan

Soren is late again. I’d ask if she overslept, but I know she didn’t sleep at all. Unlike me, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

After my last message, I watched her on the camera as she hurled her phone across her house.

It landed off camera, but the force she used left me without any doubt that it was shattered into a dozen pieces.

After that, she stood and closed the curtains in every room except for one, a room which she never enters.

But she didn’t turn off the light, so I could still see the shape of her pacing her room until I was sure she’d wear a hole in the floor just by doing so.

When she finally calmed, it was to dim the lights and slip in bed. She left the TV on, however, and the flashes of different colored light illuminated her throughout the night sitting, then laying, tossing and turning.

She’s beautiful, even with dark circles under her eyes that make her look a little haunted. Maybe even more beautiful because of them. I take them as a small victory, proof that I’ve infiltrated her thoughts. I’ve stolen her security.

It’s a good first step, considering she nearly outed my secrets to the entire world.

Luckily for me, nobody bothers listening to the truth when it’s not the status quo.

Politician got a little handsy with his intern?

Gross, but did you see the latest Hollywood scandal about the feuding B-list celebrities? Awful!

The article Soren wrote was surely meant to get my attention. She had to know that nobody would believe that the benefactor of Covington Illinois was actually involved in the sorts of things she suggested.

Maybe if she’d come out and said it without hiding behind euphemisms, someone may have believed her… a fringe group prone to believing everything certainly would have.

Of course, it wouldn’t have amounted to anything. insulated by nature of my position in the company. The legal system will protect me until its dying breath, because I have leverage over every one of them.

“You’re late, Miss Palmer.” I tell her when she slinks into our office warily.

Avoiding my gaze, Soren sets her laptop on her desk and pretends she didn’t hear me. I might even think she didn’t if her jaw weren’t clenched so tightly that she may shatter her teeth.

She can’t ignore me forever, but it’s cute to watch her try like a petulant child, so I let her play like she’s doing something.

I watch her sweep her hair off her shoulder and take a sip from her coffee.

Her dress is red today—the exact shade of a candied apple.

The fabric of this one is a little loose, like she was between sizes when she bought it.

Though she looks nice and clearly took some time putting herself together this morning, I favor the form-fitting garment from yesterday.

I’m willing to bet that the electric blue she was wearing when I first laid eyes on her will forever make any other clothing pale in comparison.

She stills her fidgeting when I stand and step in front of her desk.

Her eyes shoot up to mine, but I don’t get to enjoy her hatred because it turns quickly to confusion when I set the phone in front of her.

“What is this?”

“A phone.” I shrug. “We use them to get in touch with people we want to talk to. It’s a bit faster than sending a fax. You can even take pictures with them.”

Ah, there it is. Didn’t take very long to coax the hatred back into her gaze.

I suppress a smirk.

“I have a phone.”

“Do you?” I laugh. “I figured it was broken after last night.”

There’s no surprise on her face, and the confusion disappears, too.

“So, you are stalking me.”

“Excuse me?”

“That was you outside my bathroom window two nights ago.” She shakes her head, and her face contorts like she’s trying to look disgusted, but it doesn’t quite get there.

Part of me wonders why she’s trying so hard to deny how much she wants the attention.

She seems to be a woman used to getting plenty of it. “Admit it.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Miss Palmer.”

I think I can hear her teeth grind together as she snaps her jaw closed and stares angrily at me.

“You want to play innocent?” Soren laughs, bracing her hands on the desk and using it to push herself to a standing position.

It’s rather cute, how serious she looks, trying to go toe to toe with someone who she has already called a monster. I enjoy a slow glance at the cleavage being pushed together by her position, making no attempt to pretend I’m not doing exactly that.

She does a remarkable job of acting like she doesn’t care, but I see the anger in her eyes, the slight narrowing and how she pulls her lip back in a snarl.

“You’re not innocent, Evers. You’re as corrupt as they come. I’ve been looking into you for months. I know what you do. I know who you are, and I won’t let you get away with it.”

I arch an eyebrow, unable to keep from smirking despite my best effort to look serious. “Who’s stalking whom, Miss Palmer?”

“It’s Soren!” She snaps, slamming her hands against the desk like that will get my attention any more than I’ve already given it to her.

“Okay,” I nod. “Soren. You’ve been looking into me for months, huh? Did you find what you were looking for?”

Her face tells me what her article already did. She has nothing on me. Her accusation is baseless, her hatred for me is obvious, but her reason for putting herself on my radar is non-existent.

“No.” I say for her, planting my hands on her desk in a mirror of her position.

I use the leverage to push myself closer to her until I can smell the strawberry scent that clings to her.

I imagine that’s her shampoo; It was far stronger when she ran into me the other day, her round ass aligned perfectly with my needy cock.

“Because you have no idea what you’re up against. If you think you truly know who I am, if you think you really know what I do, you’re even more vapid than your article first suggested. ”

“I know who you are.” She says without batting an eyelash. “You’re a murderer.”