Chapter 5
NOAH
Despite their reluctance, Skye and Minho ended up leaving my place only an hour after we got in, largely due to the fact that I started falling asleep in the middle of a sentence as exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was tired enough that I gave them my spare keys and parking remote, then stumbled my ass off to sleep in my own bed for the first time in months.
It was heavenly, being able to sprawl out across the enormous super--king mattress with my familiar bedding and comfy pillows, and I fell asleep before even hearing the guys leave.
My restful sleep was tragically short--lived, as I woke up gasping and sweating from a nightmare some time later, only to discover I’d barely slept three hours.
“Shit,” I breathed, swiping a hand over my face as I flopped back against my pillows once more. I couldn’t even put a finger on what the nightmare had been, just that my heart was racing and my whole body seemed to be coated in cold sweat.
For a few minutes, I lay there with my eyes shut, trying to convince myself to fall back asleep, but it was too quiet. I’d grown weirdly used to hearing Skye’s deep breathing in our shared room, or the faint sound of music coming from Z’s studio when he worked late nights.
Here in my own apartment, the more I focused on the silence, the thicker it grew, until it nearly suffocated me.
Maybe alone time wasn’t what I needed after all.
Giving up on sleep, I painfully crawled out of my bed and made my way into the bathroom.
I’d fallen asleep fully dressed in my heavy teal hoodie, and now I was massively overheated, so I stripped out of everything and hopped in the shower.
For the first time in two months, I could take my time with no fear of someone bursting in and catching me naked.
Not that the guys ever did that, but the fear was always present while showering at Mount Olympus.
So I tried really hard to convince myself I didn’t need to rush as I thoroughly washed my hair and applied a conditioning treatment.
It was growing faster than I’d expected, so I’d need to get it cut before going back to the team.
When I was done, I wrapped up in a fluffy peach--colored towel and wandered back through to my bedroom with my mind a million miles away.
The guy who’d attacked me and Ace was dead; Jared had told me the day I woke up.
So technically that should ease the feeling of paranoia clinging to my skin, but being alone for the first time… it was hard not to jump at shadows.
Fear tightened my throat as I peered around the pitch--blackness of my bedroom—-since I hadn’t turned on any lights when I woke—-and a shudder ran down my spine. I was alone, so no one was here to judge me for needing a night--light.
Huffing a small laugh at myself for being silly, I flicked on my bedside lamp, then nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized I wasn’t alone at all.
“What the fuck? ” I screamed, nearly tripping over my feet as I stumbled.
Ace just stared back at me from his casually comfortable position leaning against my headboard, his eyes cold and pale in the soft lamplight. “Hi, Noah, did I scare you?”
Noah. Not Eight. Ouch.
“Yes, you fucking did,” I growled, tucking my towel tighter around my naked body. “But I guess that was your intention. How’d you get in here? My door was locked and security—-”
“Security and locks are fairly pointless when you have the keys, don’t you think?” He held up my spare key set that I’d given Minho. I frowned, and Ace rolled his eyes. “Minnie didn’t give them to me. I took his car and checked recent GPS locations.”
That was both smart and scary; I needed to be more cautious. We all did. Then again, I doubt me or Minho expected one of our own team to be a sneaky thief.
“I see.” I pursed my lips and held his gaze for an uncomfortably long time. When he said nothing, I sighed and ducked my gaze away. “What do you want, Ace? Couldn’t this wait until morning?”
“You mean until Tor and Skye are here playing interference? Or until your manager can come up with some wild spin story for why Percy Donavon accused you of being a woman the night he nearly killed us both?” His body language didn’t change, and his expression remained cold and hard, like I was a stranger to him, and technically I guess I was.
“Percy Donavon,” I repeated, my mouth dry. “That was his name?”
Ace frowned like he was confused by my question, then he puffed out a sharp breath. “I forget that you only woke up a few days ago. I’ve had a whole ten days to marinate on this information, and honestly, Noah, I nearly believed the whole thing was just a hallucination caused by my head injury.”
My head whirled at a million miles, trying to come up with the right response.
Trouble was that I couldn’t decide the best course of action—-take the high road and come clean on everything since the damage was already done?
Or deny everything and gaslight him into thinking it was all bullshit, despite the fact there was only a towel standing between him and the truth?
“But it wasn’t, was it?” he whispered, his voice low and angry as his eyes flicked down to where I clutched the towel around my body in a decidedly feminine kind of way.
“Percy was telling the truth. You lied to us from day one, tricked us into welcoming you into our team, weaseled your way into our family, and all for what? Revenge?”
Well…that decided things. There was no putting the toothpaste back into this clusterfuck tube now. But he’d entirely missed the point and jumped to wildly wrong conclusions, which pissed me off.
“What? No. Ace, I understand that you and the guys have a pretty inflated sense of self--worth, but, and I mean this in the nicest possible way…the whole world doesn’t revolve around you.
Not everything is about you.” The irritation at his accusation snapped me out of my panicked state, and I stormed over to my dresser to pull out a T--shirt and sleep shorts.
“Can you wait in the living room so I can put clothes on, please?”
“Why?” he challenged, his chin tilting up stubbornly.
“You’re comfortable baring it all online as Peaches, why act shy now?
Or do I need to pay a subscription fee first?
” He pulled a couple of hundred dollar notes from his pocket and tossed them onto the floor while I stared at him in shock and hurt.
Then the reality slapped me straight in the face, and it took all my willpower not to fall to pieces as he glared at me with disgust.
“Get out,” I said in a weak whisper, barely holding on to my tears. Ace didn’t deserve to see me cry. “Get the fuck out of my home, Ace, and leave the keys. You’re not welcome here.”
His brow creased, his eyes narrowing, but then he slowly stood up from his position on my bed and took a few steps toward me.
I clenched my jaw, my fists balled up in the T--shirt I held, my whole body thrumming with tension while I waited for him to leave…
but he didn’t. He crossed the space between my bed and the dresser where I stood, then stopped barely a foot away. Close enough to tower over me.
“Ace,” I growled. “I said leave.”
He leaned in closer still, bracing his hands on the dresser top on either side of me and placing his lips right next to my ear. “Make me.”
I sucked a startled breath, fear flooding through me, but it was quickly chased by something else. Something warmer and tingly and…fucking hell, was I getting turned on by Ace trying to scare me? What the fuck was wrong with me?
Swallowing hard, I tried to muster up a little more strength, reminding myself what he’d literally just said about Peaches and how hurtful that insult was. But at the same time…make me? What the fuck was he implying?
“What do you want from me, Ace?” I tried a different approach. “If you need someone to vent your anger on, take it to Olympus headquarters. You think this was my doing? Think again.”
This must have been news to him because he jerked back a short distance. Not far enough to remove his hands, which kept me caged in, but enough that I could see his bewildered expression.
“You want me to believe that management knew about this?” he scoffed. “That Leight knew and never told me? Bullshit. You’re a pathological liar, Noah, and this whole charade is sick. You need help if you’re seriously still holding a grudge all these years later.”
I wrinkled my nose. “What the hell are you talking about? Yes, your management knew. Yes, Leight knew. From before day one. They are the ones who came up with the insane plan in the first place because they fucked up in signing me to your team without realizing I wasn’t a thirst--trapping dude bro. ”
Confusion flickered across his face for the briefest of moments before anger and resentment returned. “You must think I’m really stupid if that’s the best excuse you’ve got. What was your whole plan, Noah? Was this revenge for my little threat at the gala party, or was it payback on Z?”
Now I was really confused and getting angry all over again at the implication that somehow I concocted this insanity for my own gratification. He really was delusional if he believed that.
Planting my hands against his chest, I shoved him with all my strength and made him stumble backward. I was no weakling, but he was a whole stack of solid muscle, so that was better than I’d expected.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated again as clearly as I could.
“Why the hell would this have anything to do with you? Or Z? The first time I ever met any of you guys was at the introduction filming, but it’s my understanding that you were the one who demanded I join your team.
You were the one who asked your management to track me down and make an offer I literally couldn’t refuse.
It’s entirely your fault that I’m on your team, Ace.
I just had to make the best of a shitty blackmail situation. ”