Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Adeline
“That document. You’re under contract for the natural term of your life,” Cyrus says, flicking to a page and pointing to it.
I read it: “The signee of this contract will hereby work exclusively for Mr. Cyrus and Elijah Colten indefinitely. In case of failure or breach of this contract, the signee relinquishes all assets to the company.”
I gasp. I would never have signed this. What person in their right mind would?
“I will fight it in court. No judge would agree to this being upheld,” I tell them.
“With what money? We will clean you out long before it ever gets before a judge. We own you now, you belong to us, and we can do whatever we want with you. If you fail to comply, Adeline, I will ruin your family’s life,” Cyrus threatens me.
I look between them, shocked that they could be so cruel.
“Not to mention, I will make sure you are unemployable in the future,” Eli says, sitting on the edge of his desk and folding his arms across his chest.
“Why are you doing this? What have I done to you?” I ask with tears filling my eyes.
“Nothing. You are ours, and I won’t allow you to leave us,” Eli says.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It will in time. You will eventually come around to the idea once the mate bond kicks in,” Cyrus tells me, making me furrow my brows.
“MATE BOND?” I scream. What the fuck is a mate bond? I make a mental note to google it when I get home.
“You will understand in time. None of that matters right now. What matters is you are not quitting, and you will continue to work for us,” Eli tells me.
My tears spill over at his words, and Cyrus takes a step forward, reaching out his hand. None of this made sense; what they are doing makes no sense.
“Don’t touch me,” I tell him when he tries to grab my hand.
“Addie?” Eli says. His voice softens before he walks over to me. I flinch back from him when he suddenly pulls me against his chest, hugging me.
“Don’t cry,” he whispers soothingly.
They are crazy. Both of them are. How can they expect anyone to be alright with this? I push him away.
“We will take care of you, Addie. You will be good with us. You’ll see in time,” Cyrus says when it hits me. This has to be Eli’s way of getting back at me for kissing his husband.
“Is this because of last night? I told you I didn’t mean to do that. Please, Eli, don’t do this. That is not my house. It’s my mother’s.”
“It has nothing to do with last night. I told you I don’t care about him kissing you,” Eli says.
Cyrus smirks beside him, making me look over at him.
“Well, obviously you do because now you’re pulling this shit,” I tell him, holding up the folder.
He takes the folder, dumping it on the desk before gripping my wrists and pulling me to him.
He grabs my face before kissing me, his tongue tracing my bottom lip, wanting access, but I refuse.
I shake my head when he bites down on my lip, sucking it in his mouth.
My lips part slightly, and he uses that opportunity to force his tongue into my mouth.
I try shoving him back, but it is like shoving a brick wall.
His mouth is hot against mine as he tastes every inch of my mouth while I try to shove him away.
“He won’t stop till you kiss him back, Addie,” Cyrus says behind me as I struggle against him, trying to pry my face away from his lips that are assaulting me before giving up.
My body goes stiff, yet he doesn’t stop, and I give in to what Cyrus has said, and I kiss him back before biting his lip hard, hard enough to make it bleed.
He lets go, gripping my hair and making me yelp in pain.
He yanks my head back; his lip is bleeding, and a trickle of blood runs down his chin before he wipes it away with his hand.
His face is close to mine as he glares at me, his lips pulling back over his perfectly straight teeth, and his grip on my hair tightens, making my eyes water, and I cry out.
“Do that again, and I will fucking hurt you,” he says before letting me go and shoving me back.
I bump into Cyrus, who steadies me with his hand on my elbow.
“Get out,” he bellows at me. I grab my bag, running out the door, Cyrus following after me. I repeatedly press the elevator button.
“Don’t be late tomorrow,” Cyrus says before turning and walking back to Eli’s office.
As soon as I am in the safety of the elevator, I crack. Coming apart at the seams as I slide down the wall, tears running down my cheeks at everything that has happened. When the door pings, I stand up just before it opens, wiping my tears as I head for the glass doors.
I walk to the train station, finding a cab. I realize I have left my suitcase in their car. I catch a cab home. Unlocking the door to the house, I rush to my room, dumping my things and grabbing my towel before rushing to the bathroom.
“Addie, is that you?” my mother calls out from Maya’s room.
“Yeah, Ma, it’s just me, having a shower,” I call back before walking and closing the door.
I need to clean myself up before she starts asking questions. My entire life is falling apart, and I don’t know how to fix it or what to do. The worst part is that I can’t tell anyone without the worry of being sued. I don’t want to go back to them; the thought scares me.
I am in the shower for a while, lost in my thoughts.
My mother knocks on the door. “Adeline, is everything alright? You have been in there a while,” she asks.
I shut the taps off, grabbing my towel.
“Yes, everything is fine. My back is sore, is all,” I tell her, not wanting to open the door while she is on the other side. My mother has this ability to read me like an open book and will instantly know something is up.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” she asks again.
I am not alright. I am far from alright, and now I have to go back to them and endure them again tomorrow.
“Yep, everything is great,” I lie, glad she can’t see me.
Getting up in the morning, I get dressed. My mother is still feeling sick with the flu, so she says she will drop Maya off at school for me. The doorbell rings as I walk downstairs, grabbing my handbag.
I hear my mother’s startled voice as she answers the door, my heart skipping a beat when I walk down the hall to see Eli standing there.
“I’m her boss,” Eli explains with his eyes going to me, walking toward him. My mother turns around to look at me, her nose red and eyes puffy as she motions toward him.
“Your boss is here, honey,” she says.
I nod, wondering why the hell he is here; they start after me usually.
My mother sends him a smile, and I walk past her, closing the door behind me. I look down the driveway and don’t see his car.
“Why are you here?” I ask, walking toward my car and hitting the button to unlock it.
My headlights flash, signaling it is now unlocked. I climb into the driver’s seat.
“Cyrus dropped me off here on his way. I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to try to skip town,” he says, opening the passenger door. He stops, looking down the side of my car at the huge scrape.
“Should I be worried about getting in a car with you?” he asks, a silly grin on his face before he gets in.
“No, my car had a fight with a bollard in your parking lot,” I tell him.
“What did the bollard do to you?” he asks with a smile on his lips, and I realize that is the first time I have seen him actually smile.
“It got in my way when I was running late,” I tell him, backing out of my driveway.
I pull onto the street, driving toward work. Traffic is painfully slow, and I see Eli fiddling with his phone. He looks squished sitting in the front of my little car.
“The seat goes further back. There is a lever under the seat,” I tell him.
He looks down and pulls it, adjusting the seat, giving himself more room.
“Coffee?” I ask as I pull up at the café I stop at every morning on the way to work.
Eli nods, and I get out, expecting him to wait when he gets out of the car, too, following me inside.
I order coffee, knowing already what he drinks, considering I am their coffee bitch in the office.
I go to hand him some cash when Eli hands the man his card and orders Cyrus one. We wait for my name to be called.
“You over your tantrum?” Eli asks, typing away on his screen.
“Don’t think someone having their house held as ransom and being upset over it could be classed as a tantrum,” I tell him.
“Regardless, it’s in the past. You just need to come around to the idea of being ours,” Eli says, putting his phone in his pocket.
“I’m not anyone’s. Why do you keep saying that?”
“You are and always will be. We want you, Addie. In every way possible,” he says, confusing me.
“What do you mean? Stop being so cryptic,” I tell him, and he chuckles. He steps closer and grabs my hand. Sparks move across my palm, and I try to pull my hand away from him.
“You two really need to get checked over. Both of you keep bloody electrocuting me,” I tell him, giving up on trying to get him to release my hand.
He laughs, and my name gets called. He lets go of my hand while I retrieve the coffees in their cardboard cups on a little tray.
I walk back toward the car, propping the tray on the roof of my car, unlocking the door, and placing my bag inside.
Standing back up, I notice Eli isn’t in his seat before jumping when his hand touches my lower back, making me spin around.
“I don’t think you understand when I say we want you,” he says, making goosebumps rise on my skin, and I spin around. His hand is on the top of my door, the other now on my hip.
“Oh, I understand perfectly well, and it’s not going to happen. I am not sleeping with you. I am not some prostitute,” I tell him before sitting in my seat.
He looks down at me with a smile on his lips before handing me the cup tray.
I place it on the dash as he closes my door.
He walks around the other side, and I hand him the tray before starting up the car and driving to work.
Eli takes me to a different elevator, one I haven’t been on before; I haven’t even been on this level of the parking lot before.
He presses a button, and I find it leads straight to the top floor, a private elevator, making me wonder why they used the other one the day I’d met them.
Eli answers my thoughts. “It was down the day we met you. Only got repaired this morning,” he says, and I nod, wondering why he thought he needed to explain himself. When we get to our floor, I step out. Cyrus is sitting on my desk, waiting for us.