Chapter 20 Sloane
Sloane
I wake up in a bed that isn’t mine. I curl my toes and flex my fingers, reaching my arms over my head in a satisfying stretch. My body hums, like I went really hard at the gym yesterday, but I couldn’t have. I was at the hospital all day and then I—
Oh.
No.
I freeze, suddenly remembering where the hell I am.
His place. His bed. His sweat all over my body.
And… and ohmygod. Some random woman’s sweat, too.
What the… what the hell was I thinking? I sit up, ready to lay into the man who’s put me in this position (along with many others last night), but he isn’t there.
I’m alone in a bed, in a sterile, empty room.
Weak sunlight pours in through the windows, and Zeth is nowhere to be seen.
“Motherfucker.”
I hurtle out of bed, already half inside my dress before I realize he must have gone and fetched it from the other room.
My stockings and garter belt are folded carefully on the chest of drawers at the end of the bed, and my medical bag sits on the floor by the door.
I stuff the stockings and belt inside the bag.
Where the hell are my bra and panties? Gone forever, probably.
I hurry out of the room in a fit of rage.
The apartment is a bombsite. Lipstick-smeared glassware decorates every available surface. Abandoned clothing litters the floor down the corridor. I kick at something sparkly and golden on my way to the open-plan living space, muttering under my breath.
“Stupid… so fucking dumb. Hate him so much…”
The apartment is empty besides the figure standing at the huge bay of windows overlooking the city.
Zeth. His back is to me, but oh, he’s heard me coming.
I pick up the first thing that comes to hand and launch it at him.
The champagne flute narrowly misses him, shattering against the support beam beside his head. He recoils like a bomb just went off.
A dark fire burns in his eyes when he turns around, hands turned into fists. “What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You?”
I pick up another glass and I chuck it, aiming more carefully this time.
Zeth ducks, avoiding some serious facial injuries.
“Last night! That’s what’s wrong with me!
” I turn… I need another glass. I find a discarded black patent pump instead.
The heel on it looks lethal. I hurl it, grunting with the effort, and it hits him square in the chest.
Zeth is a dark thundercloud, seething, growing angrier by the second. “What about last night?” he hisses.
“The bed? The restraints? The knife. The…” I shut my eyes, shaking my head. I can’t believe that happened. “The girl.”
The corner of his mouth twitches, like my freak-out is entertaining to him.
He still looks like he’s going to brutally murder me, though.
He stalks forward, lethal, a dangerous predator, and I snatch up another glass—a rocks glass this time.
Heavier in the base. More sharp corners.
I throw it at him as hard as I can, but he ducks out of the way, still coming for me.
“Were you drunk?”
“What?”
“Last night. Were you drunk?”
“No.”
“Were you high?”
“No!”
“Then stop throwing shit at me. And stop pretending like you didn’t enjoy every second of it!”
“I—” My cheeks flood with heat. He’s right. He’s so right I want to cry, but I can’t let him see that. I need to get the hell out of here. “Where’s my underwear, Zeth?”
He’s three feet away now, slowly closing the distance between us. In a complete about-turn from last night, he’s wearing some low-slung jeans and a plain white T-shirt. Somehow, I just assumed he would always wear black no matter what. Black, in keeping with the color of his soul.
“I’ll be keeping those,” he informs me.
“Uh… I don’t think so. They were Provocateur.” I shift to the left as he inches closer, putting a narrow ornament stand in between us.
A cold smile unfurls across his face. “Are you denying that you wore them for me?”
He has me there. I shrug my shoulders, trying to remember how nonchalant people act. “So?”
“So when a girl wears something for me, it becomes mine, Sloane.”
“Wow. You must have wardrobes full of women’s underwear, then.”
“Multiple wardrobes,” he says. “Many. Full to bursting.”
I feel sick. “Forget it. You know what? Keep them. I’m too tired, and sore, and freaked out to be doing this with you right now.
I need to go home.” I suddenly remember I’m on shift later, and my spirits plummet even further.
I’m going to have to spend twelve hours walking around the hospital, reliving every second of last night while Zeth brags to his sick cronies about bagging me again. I’m such an idiot.
“Fucking typical,” Zeth breathes.
“What is?”
“You, deflecting your shit onto me. All I did last night was show you who you really are. You can’t be mad at me for that.”
I can be, and I am mad at him. “You’re seeing what you want to see.
I’m not looking for some sexual awakening.
I’m just looking for my sister. I’m done wasting my breath asking you what you know, and I’m done playing these little games with you.
Maybe one day, if you suddenly develop a conscience, you’ll come and tell me what you know about Lex because it’s the right thing to do. ”
I storm toward the apartment door, betting that he won’t follow. He doesn’t, but he does manage to get the last word in. “A conscience will get you killed in my line of work, Sloane. Doing the right thing often has the same effect.”