Chapter Nineteen
I froze. Then my wings unfurled yet again as I spun around. The front door of the hotel’s penthouse skidded to a stop just meters away. When Adam stepped through, followed by three of his men with their firearms raised, I couldn’t help but gape.
“Adam,” I breathed. My chest compressed, every cell buzzing in his presence. I hated that he still made me feel anything, yet relief warred with resentment as I stared at him.
Part of me had always wanted him to come for me again, to prove I mattered, that I meant anything at all to him, even if it was nothing more than a fucked-up need to have his asset back. Another part hated that he wouldn’t let me go, wouldn’t give me the freedom I craved.
He really was just as merciless, just as much my captor as Reuben.
Adam’s gaze locked onto me, his face growing tight, his stare even tighter as he took in my swollen eye, my bloodied face. And finally, my bared breasts.
I drew my wings around me, covering up from Adam and his staring men.
“Bella,” he croaked. His next words verged on a growl. “So not only have you kissed Reuben—twice, now—I see you’ve done more.”
There’d been no cameras at the fight, but he obviously had friends, or spies, who’d infiltrated the underground fight ring. I almost ground my teeth together. I should have known nothing would escape his attention, not when it came to his asset.
So why did guilt pulse through me? He might have paid an exorbitant amount of money for me, but he didn’t own me, not anymore.
The moment I’d ran away I’d become free.
I made my own choices now, and that had included having sex with Reuben to finally feel complete after Adam had left me high and dry.
Too bad I kept making the wrong choices. I lifted my chin. They were still mine to make and to learn from. “That’s none of your business,” I said coldly.
Reuben snorted, breaking my stand-off with Adam. “Please, does anyone here really think I’d have sex with a GM?” He looked at Adam. “Some men, like you, might have a fetish for things like her, but I’m not one of them.”
Adam’s men exchanged a smirk. But if Adam noticed he didn’t seem to care. All his attention was centered on me. “Tell me you’re all right.”
I exhaled sharply. “Never better.”
He turned to Reuben and snarled, “You’re going to pay for hurting her.”
Reuben was still on his knees when he curled his lip. “Whatever. Don’t pretend you haven’t done worse.”
Adam stepped forward, his entire body drawn tighter than a spring. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”
I shook my head. “No. No more killing. Please.”
Reuben didn’t seem to hear my voice. He was focused on Adam, his jeering laugh directed at him.
“Oh, please. You’ve hurt her far worse than I ever have.
You and all the other scientists who bred her and other things like her.
” He finally turned to me. “Did you know the imperfect ones are either left to slowly die, or sold to people like me? To underground fighting rings, where their brawn or their powers are exploited.”
A cold shiver snaked down my spine. I didn’t want to believe him, but the truth had been staring me in the face ever since I’d seen Taurus. It was staring me in the face right now, Adam’s guilt pronounced by his tight ashen features, his lips thinning with restraint.
“Bella, there are some things I can’t stop, no matter how much I wished I could.”
“Like profiting off your discarded experiments?” Reuben scoffed.
Adam’s face hardened as he stepped closer to the other man. “I couldn’t save everyone in the facility, but I did save Bella.”
“Bravo, one saved out of how many?” Reuben asked. “Hundreds? Thousands. More?” He snorted. “I guess all of them meant nothing to you when Bella meant everything.”
Adam didn’t deny it, though his jaw clenched as he stared at Reuben. When his men moved forward, their weapons raised once again, Adam lifted a hand. “No. He’s mine.” He jerked his chin toward me without breaking eye contact with Reuben. “Make sure she doesn’t escape this time.”
My heart lurched. This time. As if I was still his prisoner. As if nothing had changed.
Adam’s three men immediately flanked me, their expressions blank but their intent clear. I was trapped again. Not that I was willing to try and escape just yet. I was learning more now than I ever had in the twelve months I’d lived with Adam.
“That’s not necessary,” I said, but he was already moving toward Reuben with the controlled precision of someone trained to kill.
I’d always known he was more than just a scientist. Military?
Special forces? I’d seen him practice in his dojo, easily taking down three or more men at a time.
When he’d hurtled down a rope through the treetops, the helicopter above making him sway precariously, I’d wondered even back then how much of what I knew about him had been real.
“You want to beat up women?” Adam’s voice was cold as he focused on Reuben. “Let’s see how you do against someone who can fight back.”
Reuben struggled to his feet, still clutching his groin but managing a pained grin. “The white knight routine is touching. But we both know you’re just as bad as me. Worse, maybe. At least I don’t pretend to care about the things you create.”
“I disposed of six bodies for her,” Adam said quietly, circling. “Made sure there was no evidence, no investigation that could be traced back to her. What have you done except try to use her?”
My stomach twisted. He’d covered up my kills. Protected me. But was it protection, or was it controlling the evidence? Keeping me dependent, grateful?
“So noble,” Reuben mocked, though his breathing was labored. “But what about the others you sold like cattle? Or the ones who died in your experiments before you developed a conscience?”
Adam’s face went rigid. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“Bullshit.” Reuben wobbled, then shook his head as if to clear it. “Your facility. Your organization. Your name on half the transport documents.”
“Because I was investigating them,” Adam bit out, his usual control slipping. “Tracking every shipment, every contact. Building a case—“
“How convenient,” Reuben sneered. “The scientist claiming he’s the hero.”
My head spun. Investigating? Adam was a spy? Or was this just another lie, another manipulation to keep me compliant?
Adam’s fist connected with Reuben’s jaw before I even saw him move. The crack echoed through the penthouse.
I’d once been terrified of the thought of these two men confronting one another. Terrified of choosing between them, of losing the one connection that felt real. Now, watching them trade blows like animals fighting over territory, I realized something both freeing and devastating.
They both deserved whatever fate awaited them.
Adam mightn’t have created me, he was too young, but he’d created other creatures just like me, emulated what had been done to me.
Whether he’d been a spy or a willing participant at first didn’t erase what had been done under his watch, in his labs.
And Reuben had used us, fought us, hurt us for entertainment and profit.
The guards flanking me shifted closer as I swayed. My face throbbed, my eye now completely swollen shut while somewhere deep inside, something was breaking apart and reforming into something harder.
Neither man had clean hands. Neither deserved my loyalty, my protection, or my tears.
I knew I had to escape from them both, yet something held me there.
A deep need to watch the scene play out between the two men who were my enemies even as they’d been something else entirely. Men who’d claimed me and given me pleasure. Men who’d gotten under my skin and who’d meant something to me.
Reuben spat out blood onto the marble floor, then laughed as Adam stepped around him, silent and predatory. “I think our woman wants to see us beat each other up.”
“She’s not your woman,” Adam ground out.
“What, you think she’s yours?” Reuben’s laugh darkened. “You can’t keep what doesn’t want to stay.”
Adam didn’t answer, not with words. He drove forward, landing a brutal combination, kidney shot, solar plexus, then an elbow to Reuben's temple that sent him reeling.
But Reuben recovered fast, using his street-fighter instincts. He grabbed a lamp and swung it like a club. Adam blocked it easily, but didn’t see the kick coming for his knee.
Thud. He growled low in his throat, his face blazing with pain as he slumped low. Despite my epiphany, I stupidly itched to defend the man who’d supposedly looked out for me, who’d kept me in a cell and then in his home like a sacred pet.
I locked onto Reuben’s glittering stare. “I don’t belong to anyone. Including you.”
Reuben swiped a hand over his face. “That’s where you’re wrong. You and me, we’re the same inside.”
My wings fluttered, their hooked tips gleaming thanks to the exterior lights. The three men surrounding me cast each other nervous looks, before stepping back, just out of range. I sent Reuben a hard smile. “Not on the outside, and clearly that’s all you care about.”
I glanced at Adam’s security. They were the same men who’d tracked me with their dogs. “Not so tough without your mutts, huh?” I sneered.
Adam hobbled now as he circled Reuben, but he managed to glower at his men as he snarled, “No matter what happens, don’t hurt her, and don’t let her go.”
My heart sank. Despite everything we’d shared, I was still the prize in this war.