Chapter 33 Devon
DEVON
“What are you going to do?”
Despite Kairo’s apparently unbelievable understanding, the way he speaks is unsettling.
There’s pain swimming in his eyes, tension in his stature, and despite the softness in his voice, there’s a subtle tremble.
Like he’s struggling to hold it together.
“I need you to stay here.”
“What?” Gazing up at him, I reach for Kairo’s hand but he steps out of reach before I make contact. “Where are you going?”
“I need to fix this.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Just stay here, Devon. Okay? Don’t call anyone, don’t talk to anyone, just stay here.”
I know he speaks from a place of concern, but each command for me to stay here fuels my urge to leave. “I should go home.”
“No.” Kairo spins to face me, blocking the entranceway to the door. “You’re to stay here, understand? You can’t leave. I’ll sort this.”
“Kairo—”
“Stay!” he barks at me like it’s some kind of order, and I freeze as a pulse of alarm shoots down my spine.
“You can’t keep me here,” I snap back, heat licking at my words. “You have to tell me what you’re going to do. Kairo, please. Wait, Kairo, what are you…?”
He’s two steps ahead of me.
While I’m talking, he strides down the hall, opens the door, and then firmly closes it behind him.
I reach it just as the lock clicks into place.
“Kairo! You can’t lock me in here! What the fuck are you doing?”
“It’s for your own good.” His voice drifts through the door. “This way, I know you’ll be safe. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“Kairo! Don’t you dare! Kairo! Kairo, open the door! Kairo!”
My words fall into the silence on the other side of the door.
The hinges rattle and the doorknob squeaks slightly, but other than a slight shift in the wood when I put my whole weight against the door, it doesn’t budge.
What the hell is he thinking?
Locking me up like some kind of prisoner as if what I’ve done deserves that kind of treatment.
Backing away from the door, I clutch my chest as the air grows thin and in a blink, I’m back in my old L.A. apartment with Axel on the other side of the locked bedroom door telling me he won’t let me out until I apologize, despite the numerous apologies I’d already given him.
This can’t be happening.
I’m supposed to be past this.
A new life.
A new me.
But Kairo’s just the same, apparently.
Locking me up because he knows best?
My fingers rake through my hair, tugging on the ends as I pace back through the lounge and wrestle with the nausea churning in my gut.
Two days ago, life was perfect.
I’ve managed to ruin the only good thing I had going for me.
I need to get out of here. I need to get out.
Diving for the couch, I rummage through my purse and locate my phone.
Scrolling through my contacts, I’m about to call my dad when the screen lights up with an unknown number.
My heart jumps as I cautiously answer. “Hello?”
“You used to pick up faster,” Axel replies. “You’re getting sloppy.”
My legs wobble and I sink down onto the couch. “Haven’t you done enough?”
“Oh, baby, I’m just getting started.” His cold voice snakes through my mind, unlocking every suppressed memory I buried as deeply as I could.
“I’m not your baby.”
“Are you sure? I don’t think your fancy rich boy toy is going to be yours much longer now that the truth is out. Have you looked online recently?”
Switching to speaker, I tap my news app and the first story is a headline about Kairo and Silver Canopy.
How Many Companies Have Fallen Due to Kairo Sycamore’s Insatiable Sex Drive?
Like Father, Like Son? Did Bernard Sycamore Also Sleep his Way to the Top?
Kairo Sycamore Assaults the Industry Like he Assaults Unsuspecting Business Owners.
The Ethical Implications of Trading Sex for Land.
Headline after headline pours at me as the gossiping news sites run with whatever rumors Axel has given them, and my heart sinks.
They make it sound like Kairo intentionally pursued me to take control of the bakery, but that wasn’t the case.
They have it all wrong.
“You see?” Axel’s bitter voice breaks through my thoughts. “I made one phone call, by the way. Just one. Those leeches are always eager for a titan to fall. Who knew it would get so big?”
“What do you want, Axel?” I choke out, staring at the constant churning headlines until my eyes blur. “He doesn’t deserve this. He hasn’t done anything wrong!”
“I don’t know the ins and outs of this whole thing, but something tells me he has.
Look at you, my poor darling wife caught up in the clutches of a brilliant monster that only cares about security property, manipulating you and putting our marriage on the rocks.
Can you imagine the insane ethical panic that’s just woken up in the heart of every businessman who’s ever flirted during a deal? ”
“I’m not your wife,” I snarl.
“You’re not his either, bitch,” Axel snaps back, and then a request comes through to FaceTime.
I reject it, fighting the tears flooding my eyes.
“Answer the call, cunt,” Axel snaps. “Or do you really want to push me over the fucking edge?”
The invitation comes through again and my trembling thumb acts on its own, pressing the accept button before I’m finished thinking.
Instead of Axel’s face filling the screen, though, it’s my parents’ house.
A bone-deep chill suddenly floods through my body from head to toe as I stare at the neatly decorated house framed with the night sky.
“Axel… where are you?” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s just a similar house.
“Can’t you tell?” he sneers. “Or has it really been that long since you came home?”
“No… no, wait, Axel what are you going to do?”
I never told him anything about my parents, not where they lived or who they were.
When we were together, I acted like we were estranged because I was so determined to forget my shitty life here.
“What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to speak to my in-laws since you never introduced us.”
The camera flips and his face fills the screen.
He’s so close that the whites of his eyes appear almost translucent. “Want to come with me?”
“Axel, Axel please don’t hurt them. Please, they’re not a part of this. Tell me what you want, please just tell me and I’ll do it!”
“I’ve missed hearing you beg.” He smirks. “You’ve got thirty minutes. If you’re not here by the time my timer ends, I’m introducing myself. Your parents are old, right? I can’t imagine what a scare might do to them.”
“I’m at least an hour away! Don’t you dare, don’t you— I’m coming. I’m on my way, just don’t hurt them, don’t you dare!”
“Fine. An hour.”
Axel ends the call without a word and I’m frozen in the silence of the apartment, my mind racing with thoughts that clash and tumble over themselves.
Nothing makes sense other than the urgent need to get out of here and get home.
I need to get out of here.
After ten minutes of searching, I locate a spare key in Kairo’s bedroom and manage to escape the penthouse.
By the time I make it down to the snow-covered street, I’m out of breath and running out of time.
Hailing a taxi wastes precious seconds, but luckily, the driver sees me in distress and doesn’t ask twice when I reel off my parents’ address.
It’s the longest drive of my life.
Unable to sit still, I rock in my seat, shuffle around, and bounce my legs until my thighs ache.
Every threat Axel has ever made to me plays on a loop in my mind while sickness builds in my gut.
I’m going to be too late.
I’m going to get there and he’ll already be there.
What if he hurts them?
What if he does worse?
How can I calm him down and get him away?
Plan after plan forms and crumbles in my mind as I struggle to settle on a way forward.
Axel consumes my mind and nothing else exists.
Until the taxi gets caught in traffic five minutes from my parents’ place.
I escape the cab with a flurry of apologies for not paying and start running.
Snow whips past me, stinging my cheeks and turning my skin raw as I run without much thought other than forward.
Without my coat and only wearing sneakers, I’m slipping and sliding all over the icy pavement as I run down one street, around a corner, over a crossroads, and finally onto the winding road that leads toward the edge of the woods and my parents’ place.
My heart punches violently against my ribs.
I’m panting so hard that the taste of iron coats the back of my tongue and my vision is fuzzy around the edges.
But I see him.
Axel stands at the top of the hill leaning against a streetlight, smoking.
Clouds escape past his lips and carry on up to the fuzz of light spreading out from the bulb as the snow falls thicker.
He sees me and immediately bursts out laughing. “Holy shit, you’re a fucking mess.”
As I stumble to a stop, desperately gasping for air, he checks his phone and wrinkles his nose.
“Huh. You actually made it. Should I be impressed?”
Seeing him without Kairo next to me is a whole different level of fear.
At a glance, he’s not completely intimidating, but those hands have hurt me more times than I can count.
But that’s not the most terrifying thing. As he pushes off the streetlight and faces me, metal glints in his other hand and my chest seizes.
A gun.
He has a gun.
“I’m here,” I gasp after catching my breath. “What do you want?”
“I only want one thing, Devon. I’ve only ever wanted one thing.” He steps toward me. “You.”
“I’m n–not yours anymore.”
My hammering heart causes my voice to tremble.
He takes another step forward and I’m locked, like I’ve frozen to the ground the second I stopped walking.
“You think this is a fucking joke?” he snarls. “You think I liked having my wife up and disappear in the night? To travel across fucking Europe to look for you?”
He actually searched Europe for me? It would be funny if I weren’t so scared.
“I thought you were dead, and then to go to Colorado and see those fucking pictures because the Sycamore galas are all anyone can talk about. You on the arm of that prick? I took the first flight out here and instead of welcoming me with open arms, you treat me like I’m a stranger?”
Closer and closer he walks, and I can’t take my eyes off the gun.
“Don’t you miss me? Don’t you want to come home? Don’t I deserve some thanks for coming all this way to get you?”
“You hated me,” I whisper hoarsely. “You cheated on me. You hurt me.”
“Because you wouldn’t put out! A husband needs sex and you were fucking useless, so you can’t blame me for that. All I asked is that you lose a few pounds, and you couldn’t even do that!” His eyes rake down me. “Gained a few, if you ask me.”
“I’m not yours anymore, Axel. I’m sorry I lied to you, but think about it, you deserve to move on! You deserve someone better than me.”
“Shut up!” He lifts his hand and the gun glints once more in the light. “Get in the car.”
“What?” I blink and my eyes burn. The vehicle I never noticed before suddenly sits next to the curb.
“Get in the car, Devon.”
“No.” The word escapes me like a reflex, and Axel’s face darkens.
“No? You’re saying no to me after—you know what, I came here to see my in-laws and I’m going to do just that.”
“No!” I suddenly reconnect with my body and lunge forward as Axel starts toward the house, grabbing his arm. “Don’t! I’ll come with you, I’ll come! Just leave them alone!”