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Andre
I KNOW THAT Paisley suspects what I am.
But I’m still not sure she understands the full scope of the kind of man I had to become.
At some point she will, there’s no way around it.
One day she will look at me the way everyone else does.
But today is not that day.
“Come on.” I force myself away from her. “It’s cold.” I put my hand out and she immediately takes it, the other one staying gripped in the front of the jacket I wrapped her in, holding it close as we walk through the garage and step into the elevator.
She shivers as the doors close, offering me the opportunity to do what I would if Paisley was more to me than just a convenient way to maintain my position in The Association. I pull her close. Wrapping my arms around her shaking body as the elevator slowly climbs the floors.
I rub my hands up and down her back and over her slumped shoulders. “I’m sorry for what happened.”
Paisley barely shrugs. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not.” I saw the look on her face when it happened. The shock. The humiliation.
The shame.
It brings along a fresh wave of anger and the need to dish out well-deserved retribution.
Paisley chews her lower lip for a second before lifting her eyes to mine. “Are you going to kill him?”
I study her face, looking for any hint of the answer she’s hoping I’ll offer, but there’s nothing to find, so all I can give her is the truth. “Not today.”
She purses her lips, rocking them to one side like she’s considering what I said. “You don’t have to kill everyone who pisses you off.”
It shows how innocent she really is.
How sheltered of a life she’s lived.
How much she doesn’t belong here in mine.
I reach out to smooth the backs of my fingers along the side of her face. “I do.”
Her eyes stay on mine, searching me like I did her. “Why?”
I’ve never had to explain the way this world works to anyone. How the only thing that keeps order here is the fine line between respect and fear. “There are people who want what’s mine. They’ll try to take it from me the second they think they can.” My fingers slide over her jaw before continuing down her neck, dragging all my focus along with them. “They have to know what will happen to them if they try.”
Paisley swallows, a movement I feel under my hand. “But you didn’t kill the other man who bid on me at the auction.”
My eyes jump to hers. “How do you know?”
She licks her lips. “Because I’ve seen him.”
I curve my hand around the back of her neck, fisting my fingers in her hair. “Where?”
Her pupils dilate as she stares up at me, the flush of her cheeks threatening to distract me. “Platinum.”
“Tonight?”
Her eyes widen. “Was he there tonight?”
The elevator doors slide open, forcing me to breathe through the rage biting at my heels as I pull Paisley out and lead her through my home, flipping on lights so she doesn’t bump into anything as we move toward my bedroom. “Yes, he was there tonight.”
