Page 32

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jade’s office reflected her obsessive discipline and taste. She’d spent almost two decades curating and displaying her art collection, selecting pieces that echoed her values: clarity, control, structure.

Each sculpture felt like the still form of a fallen comrade, and her hands moved with the reverence of someone preparing them for rest. Wrapping and sealing them in a box was the quiet ceremony she held for the end of this life chapter. It was a final admission she wasn’t ready to make.

Not yet.

In her decluttering spree, she’d made a pile for Trina, and a much larger stack of documents for Niko.

Obnoxiously large, it dwarfed the other pile by a long shot.

As with any change in position, she assumed Niko would gladly accept them, put them in archival storage, and then either forget about them completely or throw them all into a dumpster several months later.

Every leader was unique, but Jade had enough experience to know that very few CEOs took the path their predecessor had walked. She was under no pretense of believing Niko would heed her every advice. Or any advice she gave him, for that matter.

The knock startled her out of sorrow. Very few people managed to surprise her. The fact that her supernatural senses picked up no indicator of life outside her door meant it could only be one person.

“Come in.”

He’d discarded his suit jacket somewhere during the day, and rolled up the sleeves of his white button up just past his elbows. A flare of heat raced across her skin at the sight.

She refocused, her attention going back to the papers. “Will this be the office you take?”

“Probably.” He casually shrugged. “I like the view.”

But he wasn’t looking out the windows.

As Jade studied him, she noticed he’d gone back to his green contacts.

Now that she’d seen the truth, the lie he wore made her feel like she was looking at another person.

It felt as though she’d disconnected from him in some way.

She loathed the distance growing between them in this world, when their mating bubble kept tightening around them in the labyrinth.

Fated mates were meant for each other, their nature complementing the other. Being in his presence and not giving in to the impulse to soothe and cherish was tearing at her.

“Where do these papers go?”

Jade regarded them ruefully. “This entire stack, as well as that one in the corner, are all for you. Most of it’s digitized, but you know me—I can’t pitch something that might prove useful for future reference.”

Instead of leaving, he picked up the pile and placed it on another stack on her desk. It leaned precariously toward the edge, but instead of righting it, Jade intentionally looked away.

Sensing her melancholy, Niko grabbed something close by and began to wrap it in paper. Whether it was because he needed an excuse to stay or a chivalrous gesture, she couldn’t determine, but in either case, Jade appreciated it.

The companionable silence was punctuated by the crunch of paper and the tearing of tape.

Curiously, his presence didn’t feel like an invasion in her solitary farewell.

The proximity settled the frenetic anxiety of her snow leopard, and the big cat curled up happily in a corner of Jade’s mind and went to sleep.

Niko picked up something from her now-cluttered desk. “Are you sure you don’t want this in the trash?”

Looking up, Jade focused on the object he held. It was the cardinal he’d made for her. Swiftly plucking the gorgeous creation from his grip, she possessively cradled it between her hands.

A tickle of fear splashed through her veins. “I’m never separating from this, Niko. I don’t know why you’d think I would want to.”

“It’s an object with no use,” he replied. “All it does is sit on a shelf and look pretty. There’s no value to it.”

“Not everything weighs its worth by what it can accomplish. Some of the most valuable things in the world don’t do anything but simply exist.” Straightening, she simply stated, “I’m keeping it.”

They were no longer talking about art.

Niko’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t immediately reply. Instead, he grabbed more wrapping paper and started helping her pack.

So quiet she almost didn’t hear it, he murmured, “You can’t keep me, Jade.”

“What if I want to?”

A knock interrupted them. Turning away from Niko, she beckoned the woman inside. “What do you need, Trina?”

“I was looking for Niko, actually. Thought I might find him here.” As ever, her protégée’s assumptions were spot on.

“Wanted to run through the numbers for the accounts merger again. Caleb and I have run up against a few discriminatory laws that we wanted to discuss before putting in place a plan of action.”

Niko nodded. “I’ll find you tomorrow morning. We’ll touch base then.”

Slightly bemused at the dismissal, Trina retreated.

Jade spoke her mind. “Trina is a good businesswoman. Keep her around; she’ll show you her worth quickly.”

“She already has.”

Her shoulders visibly relaxed. Across from her, he shifted on his feet, glancing at his watch. She assessed him with a keen eye, her leopard prowling below her skin. Did his moodiness have another reason?

“Are you fully healed?”

“Yes.” Almost spitefully, he added, “thanks in large part to the mender you brought in once I went under.”

“Quinn.”

“So you’ve said.”

The tone of his reply zeroed in on his issue. “Quinn is a friend—one my closest friends. He’d never betray our bond.”

“No?” He had the audacity to feign shock. “And do you trust most men the way you trust him? Because from where I’m standing, that trust isn’t liberally applied.”

Niko set a box down hard on the desk. “How is Quinn any different than me?”

“For one thing, I’ve known Quinn nearly my entire life. I’ve known you for a matter of weeks. The real you, for even less,” she retorted, taking pride in the way that her remark hit home and his lip curled. “You said—in this very office—that respect is earned. Is trust not the same in your book?”

Niko’s features darkened. “I expected you to trust my word, Jade, not cast doubt over every detail I give you. Hell,” his exaggerated shrug coincided with the word, “you could’ve asked Roman when I was down and out—he could’ve confirmed that my mother was coerced.”

“By whom?” came the pointed question. “You failed to tell me that Roman’s mother, the very one you say is imprisoned, also had the gift of being able to manipulate minds. She could’ve easily done it to Yelena for the betterment of her son.”

Disbelief was written all over Niko’s face. “Is that what Julian’s told you? Is this the lie he’s spun?”

Jade scoffed. “Why must I take everything you say as truth and everything from Julian as deceit? Do you not realize how biased you sound?”

As they’d argued, they’d drawn closer, two marionettes on a string, failing to realize how tightly they’d been wound. Less than a foot stood between them now, and they both panted at their predicament.

Niko’s hooded gaze told her he was influenced by the same lust, thinking the same thing. Lust, dark and heavy, swelled within the mating bubble that’d tied them together in the labyrinth.

But it was yet he drew away again. He took a step back, straightening both his spine and his button-down shirt. “There’s only one truth here, Jade. You’re the only one who thinks she can play both sides. Julian killed my parents. End of story.”

Truth rang against her gift.

“Reject the bond, Jade, like you said you were going to. I don’t want to mate with you.”

Without another word, he stalked out of her office. As she belatedly realized he’d taken his sculpture with him, another, more pressing certainty trifled with her mind.

None of it was true. Niko had been lying about not wanting to mate with her.