AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adrik makes an amused sound. “I volunteer as a test subject.”
I’m so lost in thought, imagining the possibilities, that his next sentence jolts me.
“I want you to start picking up some of the shipments with Jasper.”
“What?” I say, sitting up, leaning on one elbow. “Why?”
“I know you want to be involved in more than just the manufacturing side.”
I scan his face in the pale moonlight leaking in through the window.
“You’re just trying to make Jasper talk to me.”
Adrik chuckles. “Yeah, maybe.”
“It’s not gonna work. He can sit in silence for hours. I’ve timed him.”
“It’s not for you,” Adrik says. “It’s for him.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s lonely. Depressed.” Adrik trails his fingers lightly up and down my forearm. “You’re my yellow sun. Jasper needs a little of that light.”
“But … he fucking hates me.”
“It doesn’t matter. You shine on him and it will warm him up. Whether he wants it or not.”
I consider this, at last saying, “Yeah, alright. I’ll do it. As a favor to you.”
He kisses me. “Thank you, baby girl.”
I smile. “I thought that was my stripper name.”
“Youaremy baby girl … I’ll always take care of you.”
I never wanted to be taken care of. It’s not a nickname I would have liked. But everything is different with Adrik. Black becomes white, wrong becomes right. He’s so powerful … it means something to be protected by him.
I lay back down on his chest. Each breath in his lungs raises and lowers me by several inches.
“Jasper’s whole family is dead,” Adrik says.
“I didn’t know that.”
“They were killed when he was eight. His father’s lawyer took custody of him. He shipped Jasper off to boarding school.”
“Oh yeah … same school as Chay Wagner, right? And Rocco Prince.”
“Yeah. When I met Jasper at Kingmakers, I was a Senior, he was a Freshman. He was a fucking mess. Angry, aggressive. Drinking too much. Getting in fights every week. It was like he wanted everyone to hate him. But I saw something in him.”
“Like you did in me,” I say quietly.
“Exactly. I was his friend. I protected him. But then I graduated, and he fell in with Rocco and the rest of those assholes.”
“Half of them are dead now,” I tell Adrik. “Did you know that? Wade Dyer by accident—Rocco Prince on purpose.”
“Yeah, I heard. I don’t think it was good for Jasper. When I saw him in Moscow again, he was so fucked up I thought he’d been sick or something. He was skin and bones.”
I know he’s trying to make me feel sympathy for Jasper. Unfortunately, it’s working.
