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Maybe because seeing him again petrified you, that calm voice inside her said.
Yes, he had terrified and petrified her with his appearance. So much that her emotions had burned away at the logic.
But nowshefelt more in control. Her legs didn’t feel like lead weights, and even the water around her seemed warmer. She could breathe again.
A slow smile bloomed on her face as she met Richard’s gaze again.
“You’re scared,” she said.
Richard barked a laugh. “Of what?You?”
“Maybe. Because I know things you don’t want others to find out. And because I’m smart and can use all of my potential now.” Darcy shrugged. “But you came because Alien Inc. is here.Realcompetition, for the first time in Archam Tech’s history. And that scares you.”
Darcy began to swim toward the ladder. She’d finally found her courage. If Richard had truly been this impressive guy he so desperately wanted everyone to believe he was, he would have just kept on ignoring the Forum and doing his own thing.
But he was here–and he didn’t have the guts to admit that.
Why the hell would Darcy be scared of someone like that? She had many faults–naivety, wasn’t super great with confrontation, had too many doubts to count, and was clumsy to the point of endangering her life–but she was not a coward.
Richard was.
He wandered toward the ladder and stopped right next to it. “I’m not scared.”
“Scared, intimidated, it’s all the same to me.” Darcy gripped the metal and pulled herself out of the pool. She didn’t bother to look Richard’s way.
For the first time since they’d known each other, Darcy finally felt like she had the upper hand. And she didn’t want to use it.
She wanted Richard out of her life for good.
She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself.
“You were a crappy boyfriend, but an even worsefirstboyfriend. You realized I had zero experience and you took advantage of that,” she said. “Don’t bother me anymore. I don’t want to start talking about what really happened. And you both know I could.”
As she stepped toward the exit, Richard grabbed her hand and yanked her back.
Darcy cowered from the blaze in his eyes. He looked deranged, veins popping on his forehead, teeth bared.
“You will say nothing to no one,” he hissed in that same menacing voice he’d used the night she’d broken up with him. His fingers dug painfully into her arm.
Breathing heavily, Darcy tilted her chin up. He would no longer intimidate her. Not now, not ever. “Leave me alone and I won’t.”
Richard’s sneer turned more vicious. He opened his mouth, but nothing good could come out of it.
Nothing came.
Because the door behind them banged open and a silver blur yanked Richard away from her.
Nazyn had come to save her. Again.
18
NAZYN
Nazyn gripped the man by the throat and only stopped running once he reached the perimeter of the pool. He tilted the human back so that only the tips of his toes clung desperately on the edge, the rest of his body at Nazyn’s mercy.
Richard clawed fiercely at Nazyn’s hands. It felt like a light brush to him.
The human’s face got red. His lips flapped open and closed, no sound coming out but a wheeze.
