Why, oh why couldn’t he trust me?
“Well, well, well,” Adam swaggers up to the bar. No, I want to scream. Can’t he see Logan’s unpredictable? Maybe even dangerous? “Love the mask. But you missed the memo. This is a private event. And you aren’t invited.”
Logan’s lip curls. He looms over Adam, stripping him down with a gaze. “You told me once I’d be your best man, Archer. Then again, that was before you stole my work and tried to kill me.”
I gasp and take a step back. Of course I’ve known for a while about Logan’s accusations and vendetta but the fact that he’s using this venue, this moment, to air his grievances and confront Adam, after all these years—
Around us, the party rolls on. The DJ is inviting people to dance. Some of Adam’s groupies have noticed the tense showdown though.
For the first time tonight, Adam Archer looks unsure. Then he brays a laugh. His sycophants chuckle nervously along with him. “Oh, this is too good. Logan Wulfe. Back from the dead. I have to say, man, you look like shit. Didn’t you have a run in with flesh-eating bacteria a while back?”
“No thanks to you,” Logan rasps, but his neck flushes dark red.
He’s not even looking at me.
All he can see is Adam. And his revenge.
Adam rolls his eyes, playing to the crowd. “You were always obsessed with me. You’d think you’d take a hint when I filed a restraining order. We were friends once, but you can’t ride the coattails of my success forever. A grown man, still doing the professional equivalent of cheating off his best friend’s homework? It was pathetic. I did you a favor when I cut you loose.”
“I cheated off you? That’s not how I remember it.”
I watch it all play out in front of me like a train wreck.
“The evidence says otherwise,” Adam’s voice is sharp as a knife. He might be outmatched in a fist fight, but he’s a powerful enemy.
“You stole the company, my reputation, and my research. And then you tried to kill me.” Logan’s giant fist closes around the whiskey glass until it cracks. Adam and I wince. “Did you think I would just lay down and take it?”
Adam shrugs, but he’s taken several steps back and signaled to security. “You always were a dog.”
“And you always were a worm,” Logan booms loud enough to overpower the MC. The guests around us gasp. “You stole from me. Left me for dead. Left me to plan your downfall.”
Adam’s face is a grotesque mask, a hideous smile fixed to his lips that doesn’t touch his eyes.
“Now I steal your fiancée.” And Logan holds out his hand to me. “Daphne, come.”
As if I’m a dog. Or more like the bone between two dogs. Just another kind of trophy. In this moment, I feel like an object Logan wants just for bragging rights over his rival. Was that what this was always about? Did he only seek me out me now because Adam was showing an interest in me? How dare he make me feel so small?
I don’t move.
“Daphne,” Adam says silkily. I shoot him a furious glare and he stops in his tracks. He knows if he pushes me, I’ll announce the end of our engagement in front of everyone. That’s what Logan wants me to do, but fuck him. Fuck all of them.
I shake my head. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I was supposed to be free to choose. Free. I was supposed to be free. But once again, Logan took away all my choices. And why? To make me a pawn in his stupid game.
Because it was never about me.
It was always about his revenge.
The music has stopped. The whole ballroom is focused on us. The reporters don’t know what’s going on, but half of them are on their phones. They’ll get private detectives to dig, and it’ll be six hours before the whole mess breaks as news on the internet.
My hands are fisted at my sides. I raise my chin. Fuck you, Logan. He wants to force me to choose him or Adam? I’m done playing this game.
I choose myself.
Without a word, I turn on my heel and walk out of the ballroom.
Twenty-Six
Present Day
Logan
She. Left. Me. The ballroom tilts and the colors spin.
I was sitting back at the castle, planning to stay out of it like I said I would. But then all the old memories came back. As much as I trust her, I sure as hell don’t trust Adam Archer. He’s tricked and manipulated everyone around him his whole life.
He’s dangerous. The son of a bitch almost killed me.
How could I let her walk into the wolf’s den all alone? Who knows what he might have done to her when she rejected him? She was in physical danger. I couldn’t stay back. I’m the only one who knows what he’s truly capable of. I had to protect her.
But then everything got so out of control. I finally unmasked Adam but it didn’t go like I always planned.
She didn’t rush into my arms.
No, she ran the other way.
You’re a monster. Of course she ran, especially when others were looking on.
In front of me, Adam is shouting something. A phalanx of security guards in penguin suits rush me. I push them off, heading to the door. But she’s already gone. Gone, gone, gone.
This foyer is covered in roses. Red and white and rose, but all I see is green. The color of emeralds. Of absinthe. Of poison.
The color of her eyes. Daphne, the goddess in a green dress. She was so lovely—and untouchable.
I wanted to kneel at her feet. I don’t deserve her. The son of a strung out mother and a father who never claimed me. A bastard in every sense of the word.
Cruel hands grab me and I fight on autopilot. There are too many, and they drag me down the stairs. The basement air is full of mold. Of course. A beautiful building, rotting from the inside. New Olympus in a nutshell.
A shadow steps in front of me. This is going to hurt.
A punch to the face. Another. They want me to pay for breathing their air. For existing. I smile through aching teeth, dripping blood.
“Hit him again.” Adam says, excited. He sounds like he has a hard-on from seeing me bleed.
I throw off the men holding me. Four on one, and they can’t keep me down.
“You,” I snarl in Adam’s direction. He doesn’t look scared. He holds all the cards. He always did. Fucker’s been playing me since he met me. A poor, scrawny kid on scholarship.
I played the cards I had and...I dealt wrong. Daphne’s gone. Have I lost her for good this time?
“Logan,” Adam says. “You came back.”
“I never left.”
“I always wondered what happened to you. The hospital told me you disappeared, but I didn’t follow up.”
“This isn’t over,” I promise, and head for the back door. I’ll find Daphne, get her back. Keep her safe while I destroy her father and Adam, my enemies.
The battle is lost, but the war? The war has just begun.
Twenty-Seven
Present Day
Daphne
I’m shaking as the cab pulls away from the curb. No one spills out of the ballroom to follow me. Not even Logan.
I half expect him to burst out of the building and chase down the car like a monster in a movie. Part of me wants him to. The other part of me is pissed. I’d cross my arms over my chest, but I don’t want to chafe my nipples. Although, I laughed bitterly, what do the piercings even matter anymore?
The cab turns the corner, heading to my apartment at the heart of the city, and suddenly I’m super cold.
The ring is gone, and with it a huge weight. If tonight had gone as planned, I’d be heading back to the castle. Back to Logan, my Master. Why did he have to ruin everything? I was his. The big stupid dominant nerd.
I. Was. His. Did I have to brand his initials on my butt for him to know it?
The woman reflected in the cab window smiles sadly. She’s stunningly beautiful, but looks so alone. I fought hard and have come so far, only to end up alone.
“It’s not fair,” I growl at her.
“
Excuse me, miss?” the cabbie asks.
“Um, nothing.” I duck my head. Great, now I’m a crazy woman, talking to herself in the backseat of a hired car.
If only Logan had trusted me. Now he thinks I left him, when really I was trying to return to him with no strings attached. Completely free. It’s not fair that he chased me down, but when is life fair? Love is not just give and take. The more I give, the more I own his heart.
I sit up straight on the tattered backseat. Maybe that’s it.
Maybe I’ve done all I can do and it’s up to him. All I can do is control my own actions and continue down this path, wherever it leads me.
What do I want? What do I really want? Not my father, not the board, not Adam, and not even Logan?
What do I want and what am I willing to sacrifice to get it? The gods won’t accept a small sacrifice, my father once told me. They want everything. He was old and tired after my mother’s last relapse. Her disease was taking its toll, taking it all, but he was willing to give up everything for love.
He was even willing to sacrifice me, his daughter.
But he’s no role model and I’m not him. I won’t abandon my soul so that love contorts until it looks nothing like love.
Who am I, Daphne? What is core to what makes up me and what will I sacrifice for that true self I’m only just discovering?
The past month has shown that I’m willing to give up a lot of external things I thought defined me and only then have I been stripped down enough to discover who I really am. Maybe I need to sacrifice it all if Logan and I are really going to have a chance. Because it’s ultimately what I’m asking of him, isn’t it? To choose me over his revenge.
“Miss? We’re here.”
I pay the driver and tumble from the cab. I’m still shaking with adrenaline and cold, but I don’t feel so empty.
Maybe that’s the answer. The ultimate sacrifice to the gods. I can give up everything. And be completely free.
I skip up the stairs and put the key in the lock of my apartment door, ready for a long, hot soak in my bathtub.
But when I push my door open, my apartment is…empty.
And I mean, completely freaking empty. We’re talking bare walls and bare floors. There’s not even a living room rug left. Or a lamp. It’s all gone.
“What the f—”
“I tried to tell you before you left the ball.”
I spin around, mouth open, to find Rachel standing behind me, her cheeks flushed and chest heaving. Her normally perfect bun askew. “I chased after you but you’d already gotten in the taxi.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before? We spent hours together while I was getting ready!”
She drops her eyes. “I don’t know. I guess I thought maybe you and Adam would work it out and it wouldn’t matter.”
“What does Adam have to do with this?”
“He’s the one who moved all your stuff into his place. As like, a surprise engagement present.”
Adam fucking Archer. What the hell is up with him? Did he always just stampede over people and then pretend it was a ‘present’ or a ‘surprise’ or was it only with women he was supposedly engaged to?
The gods want everything. But Adam isn’t a god. He’s a spoiled rich boy.
My hands are in my hair as if I’m about to rip it out by the roots. I force myself to let go, lower my hands and huff out a long breath. “This is so not okay. Where am I going to sleep tonight?” There’s zero furniture left in my townhouse. Just a dust outline of where my pictures used to hang on the wall. Fucking Adam Archer.
“You know what? Fuck this. I’m going to sleep in my own damn apartment. Come on. Let’s go get my stuff from Adam’s. You game?”
Rachel looks uncertain. “I don’t know. It’s so late already.”
I pull my phone out of my small clutch. “It’s only nine forty-five. And I don’t even have pajamas to change into here!”
Rachel bites her lip. “I’d say you could come back to my place but the guy I’ve been seeing has been staying over a lot and he’ll be there tonight…”
And now I feel like crap. “Oh Rachel.” I grab her hands. “I’m such a shit. You’ve got your whole life going on and a new guy and I haven’t even asked you about it. I swear I’m going to start being a better friend.”
She squeezes my hand and smiles wanly. “It’s okay. Really. Don’t worry about it. The new guy isn’t that serious.”
“But he’s staying at your place all the time?”
She waves it away. “Let’s go get your stuff. One drama at a time.”
I frown at my friend. Usually whenever she’s got a new man I can barely shut her up, she wants to analyze and dissect every single thing he’s said and done. But she’s bailing me out big time helping me tonight so I won’t push it.
“Come on,” she says, “I’ll told my cabbie to wait for me. I didn’t think you’d want to stay here.”
I nod and we hurry downstairs. I feel a little ridiculous running around town in my elaborate ballgown and updo, but whatever.
I’m taking back my life, dammit, and it starts now. With me sleeping on my own bed, with my own sheets and my own pillows.
Rachel’s quiet on the ride over. And again I feel like a crappy friend for monopolizing our friendship lately and not paying more attention to what’s going on in her life lately. I’ve been taking her for granted, and if there’s one thing I want to do better in my new life, it’s to value the people in life who matter.
Adam’s high-rise is next to the Crown hotel, and built to match the hotel’s famous white and gold style. All the Who’s Who of New Olympus have a permanent residence here.
“Wait for us, we won’t be long,” I start to tell the cabbie, but then Rachel jolts and says, “No, don’t wait.”
I frown at her but she says quickly, “We’ll just catch another cab. It might take awhile to gather your stuff together.”
Okay, fair enough. And cabs aren’t too hard to find in this part of town so we pay the cabbie and then walk into the lush white marble-lined lobby. My steps falter at the line of beefy security guards blocking the elevator. But Rachel knows just what to do.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” the doorman asks.
“We need apartment 32D,” Rachel leans in and flutters her lashes. “Adam Archer’s residence. He’s expecting us.”
“Of course, ma’am. One moment.” The doorman puts a phone to his ear. If he’s wondering why we’re in ballgowns with opera gloves, he doesn’t comment.
I sidle up to Rachel. “What are you doing?”
“Buzzing Adam. He’ll let us in.” She seems so confident.
“Is he here?”
“The party broke up soon after you left.” I can see she wants to ask me more questions, but the doorman interrupts.
“Apartment 32D. Right this way,” he escorts us past security to the elevators and types in a code with a white-gloved finger. Rachel thanks him prettily, but I’ve fallen silent. The mirrored elevator wall shows two disheveled debutantes.
I gnaw on my lip for thirty one of the thirty two floors. Will this send the wrong message to Adam, me coming here right after I broke off the engagement? Whatever, I’ll set him straight soon enough. He’s pulled multiple dick moves and it’s time to start setting things straight. Or rather, continue setting things straight. I started things off right at the ball and it’s time to continue taking back my own life.
Besides, Rachel’s here so it’s not like he can try anything funny. I shake my head even at the thought. Adam’s harmless. I know Logan hates him and has the elaborate conspiracy theory about him having some part in Logan’s terrible accident, but Adam’s like a tamed house cat—all the lion has been domesticated out of him through millennia of careful cultivation.
Adam opens the door with a wide smile on his face that doesn’t even dim when he sees Rachel beside me. “Ladies, welcome.” He gestures us into his apartment.
I steel my spine. “Adam, I’m just here to
get my stuff back. It wasn’t cool that you moved it without even telling me.”
He nods but just keeps gesturing us inside. “I understand. I was just trying to make everything special for you when you were under so much stress, but I can see how it could be considered overstepping. I’m sorry. Look, Daphne, I’m sorry for everything. Please. Come in.”
I blink. Okaaaaaaaay, wow. I didn’t expect a genuine apology. For the first time all night, the plastic mask of his boyish good looks has cracked and I feel like there’s genuine emotion shining through his eyes.
I nod slowly and step inside Adam’s apartment.
My stuff is everywhere, mixed in with his. My lamps are artfully nested amongst his modern, angular furniture, giving a softening, feminine touch to the place. My art is mounted along the walls.
I don’t know whether to be flattered or creeped out.
Maybe if we were a real couple, genuinely in love… But we never were. Never even close. Did Adam think that was real love? A real relationship?
Compared to the intimacy I’ve found with Logan, that’s sad if he did.
Logan. Even thinking his name makes my chest clench. He hurt me tonight by not believing in me when he said he would. If he can’t trust me, then how can we ever—
“Here, let me get you a drink, and then I’ll help you gather your stuff together.”
“No, really, Adam, you don’t have to—” I start, but he’s already disappeared into the kitchen. But he doesn’t come back with champagne or anything like that, just two glasses of ice water, one for Rachel and one for me.
It’s thoughtful and I actually am really thirsty, so I take a long, deep sip. “Thanks, Adam.”
“Here’s the suitcase with your clothes. You can change while we start packing.”
Wow. He’s actually being decent about this. I nod and roll the suitcase he pointed out to the guestroom. As I close the door, I hear him and Rachel start to make small talk.
Unzipping the suitcase, I sort through the clothes, frowning when I see all my underthings among the other clothes. Good gods, did he pack this? The brief image of him in my apartment, hands in my underwear drawer sends a creepy chill down the back of my neck.
Billionaire’s Captive: A Beauty and the Rose Box Set Page 30
