Page 23 of Ruthless Commander

Her touch was a balm for my scarred soul.

Her lips lulled me to oblivion, letting me drift away.

Just like I drifted now.

Seven days. Seven days of watching her from a distance, watching her find happiness in anything she could. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe seeing her laughing and smiling would finally sever this claim she had over me. Maybe a little more pain was exactly what I needed.

Move the fuck on.

That’s what I needed to do.

9

Xael

This place was supposed to be fun. Supposed to be exciting. By the way my brother talked to his buddies about it, it was supposed to be full of sex and violence, dark and dangerous crammed with debauchery. Maybe I'd come to the wrong fucking island?Figured.

This island was none of that. Only filled with blue skies and chumps playing the part of wannabe gangsters. They were boys, really…boys messing around, and I wasn't interested in the least in any of that. The only one who had an ounce of potential was Finley Salvatore. I thought about fucking him…but then, he was a little too much like family, wasn’t he? And that just turned me right off.

Besides, he seemed to have his eye on another, some brunette that arrived last night with some of the others, apparently in a hail of bullets. One of them had bitten Marcus Baldeon in the shoulder. He was alive, and screaming. But it was her arrival others were talking about, and it wasn’t just the way she'd tripped, falling flat on her face. It was the way Finley Salvatore had reacted when some others had laughed. Apparently he'd gone savage, threatening to shatter his cool, calm, and controlled exterior. Not only had she fallen, but then she'd been humiliated. Poor bitch. Not a way you wanted to make a first impression.

Maybe I should reach out to her?

I pushed the door to Building Two open and strode out into the sunlight. God knows you needed friends in this fucking cesspool of male dominance and power. But it wouldn’t be like that forever, would it? The corners of my lips twitched. The famous Evan Valachi was sharing my apartment, even if I hadn’t seen her for longer than a damn second. The only female heir to someone who sat on the Commission. I knew that alone was huge.

Made me feel a little jealous.

Maybe if I was an heir, I would’ve been in control of my own destiny.

Could've fucked who I wanted.Loved them, as well.

I was tired of it being out of my control.

Pain flared across my chest as I headed for the towering building in the distance. The class was bullshit, a boring waste of my fucking time. Who gave a shit about interrogation techniques? To care about that meant you weren’t planning shit right.

It didn’t matter what I’d do…I didn’t plan on getting caught.

A blur of movement came around the corner of the building. I glanced behind me to Rhys. “Wait for me in the foyer.”

He just scowled, then glanced ahead to the glimpse of blue. “I’ll just stand outside,” he answered. “Call out if you need me.”

“I’m sure I’ll survive five goddamn minutes without being watched, Rhys.”

He just gave a nod and headed for the automatic doors of the building, leaving me to step around the corner and walk toward the view of the water.

“Hi there.”

I flinched at the words and wrenched my gaze to a guy standing behind my building staring out at the water.

“Jesus.” I pressed my hand to my chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” He turned toward me. “Oh, it’s you.”

I scowled and fixed my gaze on him before recognition dawned. “The blind guy from the terminal.”

He just grinned and lowered those aviator sunglasses. “Yeah, that’s me.” He held out his hand. “Damien…Damien Blake.”

“Xael,” I answered, tucking his name into my mind.