Page 74 of Ruthless Commander

Through the long panel of glass in the middle of the door, I watched as he punched the door from the other side. “Open the fucking door, Xael!”

His face was a mask of rage, making me stumble backwards. My breaths came hard and fast as I turned my head, scanning the room. It was a weapons room…with no goddamn weapons.

Open cases sat bare, apart from a few loaded clips. I stumbled toward them, yanking open the doors to the cabinets and searching the empty racks.

Boom!

I jerked my gaze to the door, my heat jumping into the back of my throat as Damien shot at the lock.

“I’m going to fuckingkill you!”he bellowed.

Boom!

The door shuddered and the glass panel cracked before he reached through. I jerked my gaze back, frantically searching through the cabinets, and found a switchblade knife…it was better than nothing. I gripped the blade in my shaking hand and spun as he flicked the lock and shoved open the door.

“All you’ve done is piss me off, Xael.” He stepped inside, his arm bleeding from the glass.

“You stay the fuck away from me.” I gripped the knife and stepped backwards. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” He came closer, glancing at the knife in my hand, then lifted that savage stare to me. “I’m the only way you’re going to make it out alive.”

He kept on walking, as though he wasdaring me to stab him.

The need to protect myself battled with that part of me that knew killing another was wrong. But in that moment, survival was all I could think of.

“Put the knife down, Xael. We both know you won’t hurt me,” he said carefully, coming cIoser.

I flinched at his words, the knife slipping in my grasp. He reached out, his fingers splayed to capture my wrist, until that howling need to stay alive kicked inside me.

I swung, but not with the knife, with my fist instead. He wasn’t ready for the blow, jerking his focus toward my fist as he automatically blocked. But I was already moving, driving the knife in my other hand through the air to impale his side.

He stiffened, jerked away from me, and looked down.

A trickle of blood seeped out from around the knife. He looked stunned, as though somehow, he hadn’t fully expected me to do it. As though he fucking knew me.

But he didn’t know me…

There was only one man who truly did.

Only one man I’d let inside the waIl I'd built. I glanced at the phone in his hand, then lunged, tearing it from his grasp, and stumbled backwards. “I warned you,” I gasped as I looked down at the screen and pressed the button.

But it was locked, the screen glaring, waiting. “The code.”

“Fuck you.” He pressed his hand against the blade and wince.

I lunged, that savagery tearing free from inside me as I smacked the knife hard, making him groan. “Iwillfucking kill you!Now give me the goddamn code.”

He lifted his gaze, his face paling as he smiled. “Five, five, six, nine, three.”

My fingers trembled as I punched in the digits. I expected it to be a fucking lie, because everything else about him was…but the code wasn’t. The screen unlocked with ablink.I punched the same icon I’d seen on Mateo’s phone and waited as the screen from the CCTVs loaded.

But there was nothing, just a blank screen.

“It’s gone,” he said almost happily.

I jerked my gaze up, to find a smile creeping across his lips. ‘What do you meangone?”

“Press replay. It’ll show you the last recording.”