Darkest Deception (Deception Series)

4

Every single day for the next week, Aurora’s words echo in my head.

Never come back here again.

Didn’t my mother say the same thing to her when she came to console us after Dad died, while I stood there watching? Didn’t I stay there, unmoving, not even letting her talk to us?

Now the situation has flipped, and I am the one who is being thrown out. Left helpless…

What I would give to turn back time. But it’s not possible. It’s the one thing humanity cannot manipulate. I need to keep moving forward.

Aurora is a better person than me, to even listen to what I had to say, to let me be assured that I would have a job and will not lose it.

I have been at the mercy of Helia for the past two weeks, ever since I started my new role.

He tried to kill me in warning that night. He had me pinned against the wall, squeezing my throat. My life flashed before my eyes in those seconds. I never hated anyone more than I did him at that moment.

Helia doesn’t come out to taunt me, but the tasks he gives me are a joke. What he is doing is a slow torture that will drive me insane. I really want to scream, then slit his throat with a knife. He keeps giving me tasks that require me to deliver and retrieve files and things to and from each department. Lucky for me, the elevator has been out of order for days. So. Many. Stairs.

I have been sending physical files to the staff downstairs, collecting photocopies, delivering them to Helia, and bringing him black coffee with no sugar—just like his dead heart—at least three times a day. And that coffee… He can’t just have it from the twenty-grand coffee machine in the office. No, it has to be from the coffee shop two roads away. A good twenty-minute walk for me.

I don’t complain.

Not once.

But it’s getting too much for someone who loves working with numbers. I know it’s a matter of time before I explode. Sure, I organise his schedule and accept calls and emails, but that is where it stops.

It’s like he just doesn’t want me to be involved in anything to do with the actual company.

He doesn’t look up at me when I go into his office to give him the items.

At least there is peace in that.

He seems busy, constantly calling in the new finance manager he hired.

Soon enough, it’s time for the first shoot for Glamorous under new management, and I have been given the task to oversee this new volume.

I hold my iPad and my bag, ready to head out, when the door in front of me opens and out walks my tormentor.

Energy lights with electrifying sparks. My heart quivers at the sight of him, knowing what hides beneath those ruthless eyes of his. They are a fortune teller’s globe; the moment you look inside them, the only future you will see is your death. Helia doesn’t look like the forgiving type.

I don’t even want to look him in the eyes, but I need to keep up my fight.

He wears another black suit and a dark green dress shirt. Helia towers over me despite my height. Ever since I met him, he has constantly been in my personal space. His lean yet muscular body makes me feel like a small woman, even though I am five foot nine.

I’m not sure how, but we ended up matching today.

My black skirt hugs my hips and the flowy top is a deep emerald colour, just like his. Even my black heels match the exact shade of his dress shoes.

For the first time in days, Helia glances up at me. His tousled jet-black hair covers the scar on his eye today. My eyes trace his smooth sharp jaw and the muscles highlighted under his suit. My stomach dips for some unfathomable reason.

“My favourite assistant.”

I frown at him and his stupid grin. He keeps acting like he didn’t threaten me, and it’s making me want to claw at him, to ruin that grin that he is always sporting around others.

“I’m your only assistant,” I grumble back. I shoot a quick glance over my shoulder in my office to see if I missed anything, then follow Helia towards the… broken elevator?

“It’s broken. Are you stupid or…” I trail off when the doors do in fact open.

Helia strides in, and I am left frozen in my spot.

“No. The only stupid one is you. You keep running up and down the steps, not realising the sign is fake.” He leans against the back of the elevator, dropping his head back, his eyes lazily on me.

The elevator… wasn’t it broken?

And I have been going up and down hundreds of steps for two weeks?

Like a damn fool? In my own company?

“Hurry up, or I will leave you here.”

I blink, then quickly get into the elevator.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” I say with a gasp, still unable to believe my own stupidity. And here I was, calling him stupid.

“Seems so to me.”

My eyes catch his in the mirroring elevator doors, and he is still in the same position, but the way his hands are in his pocket and his laid-back posture feels familiar.

“You did this to make my life more difficult. As if those useless tasks weren’t enough to make me go crazy, you did this, too? You’re doing this to make me quit, aren’t you?”

He raises his hand to his heart.

“What will you do if the answer is a yes?”

He keeps his eyes on me as he steps closer. My hands turn clammy, and my breathing stutters.

His hot breath fans my shoulder, the heat searing through my shirt, and my grasp on the iPad tightens. My nails on my other hand dig into my bag. My heartbeat drums in my ears at his close proximity, and nerves twist my stomach.

Will he choke me again and look at me in that same antagonising way?

“You can’t ruin me, Ambrose.” His tone is mocking.

My head snaps to face him, only to be met with the sight of lush lips that are too close for my comfort.

“Fuck you, Helia,” I spit.

His eyes narrow.

“You’re staring too much.” Helia’s voice wraps around me tightly like a hot blanket that leaves me sweating.

“Yeah, people tend to stare at strange things for prolonged periods of time.” I roll my eyes, trying to keep my cool.

I promised myself I wouldn’t snap. I step back, away from him, fixing a disgusted expression on my face so he knows I hate his close proximity.

“I am strange?” He chuckles, and, God, I tried, but my eyes still betray me and hook onto the wide stretch of his mouth, the faint smile line at the corner of his lips as he grins.

My stomach dips for a completely different reason. A reason too dangerous to contemplate.

“Yes. You are the literal definition of a strange, rude, arrogant, and unapologetic man,” I snap, my eyes narrowing at the way his cheeks lift higher and higher into a smile at each word I use to describe him.

And I notice it. I notice the shift in his eyes, like a sunrise behind the mass of a forest.

We don’t like each other.

End of story.

“And you have a disgusting personality and no respect for others. You are selfish and a spoiled little princess whose tower I will destroy.”

My mouth drops open, but I bite back my reply, and my hands clench into fists at my side.

Grabbing the front of his shirt in a tight hold, I lean towards him.

I ignore the masculine musk that fills the air around me and focus on extinguishing that light in his eyes.

“I. Hate. You,” I grit out.

Helia gets in my face too, crowding my vision.

He grabs my hand holding his shirt, tears it away, then twists it behind my back. Pain sears through my shoulder, and I bite my lip to hold in a cry.

“Same. Here.” His eyes harden. He looks very much like he’d like to kill me. And I hope he sees the exact same emotion in my own eyes.

“I want to kill you and bury your body in a forest,” I bite back.

Helia pulls me closer to him, my chest mashed against his, and the pain in my shoulder pinches me harder.

“Is that all you’ve got?” His words make me want to scream in his face.

I thrash in his hold, trying my best to escape, but I know I have no chance against this man. He really is all strong muscles, taunting smiles, and menacing looks.

“If you try hard enough, you might actually make it.” He smiles, his pearly white teeth on display.

Why the fuck are his teeth so perfect?

Why the fuck am I even thinking about his teeth?

What is wrong with me?

“The moment you let me go, I will claw at your face, Helia,” I threaten.

His eyebrows rise as if he is really interested in finding out if I’ll follow through. This fucker.

He pushes me away. The moment my hands are free, I carefully place my iPad in my bag, place it on the floor, then launch myself at him.

I grab his neck, wrapping both my hands around it, my nails digging into his boiling hot skin. His back is pressed against the elevator, but he doesn’t fight me. His cocky smile as he watches me threaten him makes me want to press harder.

I hate him so much.

His twisted personality, his sick smile, and this hot-and-cold attitude he has.

“Didn’t know you had this kink.”

A frown twists at my face.

“Harder,” he moans with an amused smile.

“You prick!”

“What does that make you? A masochist?”

“What?” My mind swims in confusion.

What the actual fuck is wrong with this man?

I apply pressure on his neck, but it seems to make no difference to his face. I even feel a drop of blood fall on my hand where I’ve pierced his skin. Guilt hits me, and I instantly reel back. No. I wasn’t supposed to hurt another person like this.

Shaking my head, I think of something else so the voices in my head don’t haunt me.

I never said I was giving up because of some small guilt.

I’m searching every small corner of my house for any evidence that could lead me to build a case against him in hopes of winning the rights to my company back.

Helia will suffer. He will suffer a big loss and I will come out to be the winner. I will get the last laugh in the end.

“I hate you, Helia Nashwood. I’m glad you wear black all the time. When I do manage to kill you, I won’t have so much cleaning to do or blood to hide.”

He laughs, throwing his head back.

The next moment, Helia’s own hand is around my neck. He walks me backward until my back hits the elevator doors.

My eyes widen.

We are about to reach the ground floor. The doors could open at any moment, and I could fall right in front of everyone. That is just asking for humiliation.

The elevator dings, and my heart races.

No.

“Not before I make you beg at my feet. There is no ending this before I am done with you, Miss Torre.”

The doors slowly slide open against my back. My heart is in my throat. I grab for his shirt.

“No…” My voice trails off.

The doors fully open and so does Helia’s hold on my neck.

A small push and I stagger back. My heels catch in between the doors, and I go falling back.

A scream climbs up my throat, and my eyes widen as I fall back.

My eyes shut, but a jolt snaps them open.

Helia’s glaring eyes are above me, and he holds me just a couple of inches above the ground.

“For all that barking you did, you sure are a coward.”

He pulls me up with so much force that I get thrown against the wall of the elevator, effectively saving me the embarrassment of falling. I hate that his throwing me around like a rag doll just proves he is much stronger than me.

I don’t care that he is. I want my company back, and he has made my life a living hell ever since he stepped into my life.

With my thirty-eight per cent of shares compared to his fifty-two per cent, it’s a lot less, but the remainder are sold publicly. I have more than enough money to file a lawsuit against him.

I just need enough evidence that I should be the CEO of Glamorous. Not just the CEO but the owner. After all, I am the rightful heir to this company.