27. Amorette #2
I wasn’t fooled into thinking he suddenly trusted me. In his shoes, I wouldn’t trust me at all if my siblings’ lives were on the line. But when I wasn’t actively trying to escape, he seemed…unbothered by my presence.
We weren't friends, but we weren’t enemies in this space either.
“Get dressed. I’m going to a meeting, and I’m taking you with me.” Parker appeared from his bedroom dressed in casual business attire.
I didn’t need any additional encouragement. The opportunity to leave these four walls was highly welcome. He didn’t offer any details as I rushed through dressing in a white button-down and black pencil skirt.
There were other more casual options, but if I went into the meeting with him, I wanted to blend in as much as possible. That was one thing I learned from Grace. Clothes were as much armor as they were for accentuating our best features.
Whoever picked out my sizes did an excellent job, even down to the bra and shoe size. I slipped on ballet flats just in case running was necessary.
Grinning to myself, I left my room to join Parker, who waited by the door. If he thought I was cracking under pressure, he wasn’t far off. All I could think about right then was how much my mindset had changed. How I was planning for worst-case scenarios that didn’t involve escaping.
His gaze dropped to take in the outfit, but he didn’t say anything. No assurance I’d dressed appropriately or mocking that I’d been too presumptuous. If anything, he had an air of impatient indifference as he held the door open for me to walk through.
We silently walked down the hallway toward the commons.
He must have been confident I wouldn’t try to run because his strides were twice as long as mine, and I had to hustle to keep up.
Not only were my legs much shorter than his, but the skirt was also tight around my knees, preventing me from opening my steps.
Why would he have doubted my compliance? He discovered the one thing in life that meant something to me. Bitterness threatened to creep in, but I forced it out. There was no room for that kind of emotion when I was trying so hard to let go of my previous life.
Sweat had begun to bead around my forehead as he opened the door to his right and pointed at a few chairs around a table. “Sit there. I’ll be an hour. Maybe two.”
Then he left me there as he went through another door that resembled an office, as far as I could tell from the quick glimpse.
What the fuck?
He brought me so I could sit in a quasi-lobby? If this was his plan, I would have rather sat in the apartment than here. Was he laughing at me when I came out dressed for a business meeting?
Irritation and embarrassment fought for control inside my chest. Just when I started to forget that he was the bad guy in this scenario, he did something assholish.
The door to the hallway opened, and Grey stepped in.
Like almost every other time I’d seen him, he was dressed in gym shorts and a black sleeveless shirt.
Except for when he’d taken me to the fights, his wardrobe consisted of one outfit and two colors, white and black.
His steps faltered when he noticed me, then he moved toward the door Parker had gone through.
“Wait.” I stood, but he shut the door, effectively closing me out.
I sat down in a huff.
The entire time I’d been with Lafe, I’d gone over what I’d say to him. The questions I’d have. I had a chance to speak to him now, and he acted like I wasn’t worth the time.
About twenty minutes passed when the door opened, and Grey stepped back out. I didn’t waste my chance.
I jumped in front of the exit, spreading my arms to block his way. He could easily move me if he wanted to, but I hoped he would hear me out.
“Grey…” I started, losing my train of thought as he glared down at me. An unruly lock of dirty blond hair fell in his eyes as his lips curled away from his teeth. The warmth that had been there previously was absent, hurting something I didn’t want to identify in my chest.
“I have to train.” He motioned for me to step aside.
“Can we talk? Please?” My voice cracked over the plea. I rarely begged, and that I was doing it here, with him. That hurt too.
The more he studied me with that blank-faced stare, the more my stomach sank. He wasn’t going to humor me. After the stunt I pulled, he really was done with me.
Lowering my arms, I started to move. When he sighed, I stopped. That was a resigned sigh. Like he was considering talking with me. This was it. My chance. Anticipation or maybe adrenaline shot through me as he pulled out his phone and typed a quick message.
Was he giving in? Was he going to take me back with him?
I winced, hating the vulnerable, needy turn my thoughts had taken. I didn’t need these men. I didn’t even like them. They were a means to an end, that end being a long life.
And answers. He had answers to things that had plagued me for the last two weeks.
“Come on,” he sighed. He took in my outfit and shook his head. “I do need to train, and you’ll just have to keep me company. You can’t do anything in there.”
I was also still recovering, although I was much better than I was when Lafe rescued me.
“You let Parker know?” I didn’t need Parker or Andre searching the place for me. Andre’s form of greeting was all too fresh in my mind.
“I did.”
We were a few doors down from the gym, and I was impressed I recognized where we were before he opened the door.
This place was like a giant x. Four branches intersecting in the middle to create the common areas.
One wing for “guests,” one for business, and one for residential.
I hadn’t been down the other wing, but as soon as I was allowed to roam, I’d check it out.
Cautiously.
The gym was empty inside, much like the other time I’d been in here. I searched for signs of blood on the mats, but it was so mottled with brown splotches the entire floor had probably been covered in blood at one time or another.
Grey walked around the room, flicking on lights and turning on music. His effort to avoid looking at me was overtly obvious, except his eyes met mine through the mirror every few minutes, like he couldn’t not drink me in when he thought I wouldn’t notice.
Suddenly, I wasn’t so alone in my feelings—
“Are you enjoying my brother?” he asked as he pulled his shirt over his head and draped it over a metal chair by the mirrors.
“What?” I barked. Squeezing my hands into tight fists, I tried to remind myself why I wanted to talk with Grey. But he was reminding me that he was a bastard.
“You’re staying with Parker now, yes? You haven't fucked him yet?” He glanced over his shoulder as he started stretching his arms and back. Muscles rippled from the movement, drawing my eye to his long-cut form.
Pressing the sides of my fists to my forehead, I fought the urge to scream at him. But that wouldn’t get the answers I wanted. Desperately needed so I could understand what happened that night.
“No,” I forced out. “I haven’t.”
He grunted as he continued to move his body through stretches. I stood there, awkwardly drinking him in, waiting to see what bastard comment was going to come out next.
“Good. Why did you want to talk?” Grey asked, like there was nothing to say.
“You killed that man,” I accused. Fuck, this wasn’t the way I needed to approach this at all. And yet, I couldn’t help myself. “You enjoyed it.”
He shrugged while walking over to a cabinet and pulling tape out of the drawer. “I hated Ramos. He needed to die. He signed his death warrant when he led you to believe he’d help you.”
“Why did you hate him?” I needed assurance that I hadn’t gotten an innocent man killed. Lafe had intimated as much, but I needed to hear it from Grey’s lips.
“He was a cruel fucker. He enjoyed doing Vicente’s bidding too much. He enjoyed causing pain. Should I have let him take you?” He smirked as he flicked his gaze to mine, then focused on wrapping his hands.
“No, I…I—” The words stuck in my throat. I couldn’t thank Grey the way I had Lafe. Not when I’d watched him beat a man to death. Because I was the catalyst.
He had saved me. I was grateful. But I also struggled with the fact that the man died because of me.
Did it diminish the guilt to know Ramos was a bad man? I didn’t know. But I was grasping at the details in hopes it did.
“What did he do? Tell me why he was cruel.” I needed specifics, not just Grey’s word that he was evil.
Dropping the tape, he sauntered over to stand toe to toe with me. I had to tip my head back to look him in the eyes. The heady, masculine scent that was all Grey swirled around me, bringing back sharp memories of how it felt to have his hands on my body, inside me…
“You don’t trust me? My wicked love is okay with getting finger-fucked in the club but not with the death of a bad man? A man who would have done unspeakable things to you once he had you alone?” he taunted me.
“Tell me. What did he do,” I whispered, itching to touch him, to feel the one person I’d allowed to touch me in this hell hole. It didn’t matter that he was a bastard.
“You want me to tell you how he whips the soldiers who get on Vicente’s bad side?
Or what about how he took the daughter of his nemesis because he could?
Do you want me to give you the gory details about how he delivered her abused, mutilated body back to him when the man had given up hope of ever seeing his daughter again?
Because, unlike so many in this institution, that man actually loved her.
” He raised a hand to capture a lock of my hair, twirling it around his finger.
“It’s worse to see the abuse your loved one went through before death, rather than to imagine it.
Did you know that? Something broke inside him that day.
” Grey’s words were so soft even as he shuffled closer.