Page 107 of Tempest

I curl my upper lip, wishing for the strength to dominate her in the purest form by sinking my dick inside her and reminding Ardyn, who is in control of this situation, but unfortunately, I cannot.

Because she’s more in control than anyone has ever achieved over me, and that shakes me to my core.

“You can’t keep me here forever,” she says, her unblinking, ethereally bright eyes boring into mine.

“True. I can move you into the basement permanently.”

Her gaze shutters exactly like I predicted. What I didn’t expect was a dried clump of shame to fall from my heart at the sight of her fear. Fear that I’m supposed to be heartlessly causing.

“You don’t need to do that,” she says.

“No?” I angle my head. “You’re an unfortunate witness to an underground crime ring you had no business unveiling. I don’t leave any loose ends. Ever.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

Ardyn rises to her elbows, signaling for me to move off her and doing it with a deadened stare, indicating she’s not about to run.

I was not confident when I started to read her so well, but now is the best time as any to test that theory. Carefully, I maneuver off her so she can sit.

“Two people were brutally killed by my friends and me,” I say as I watch her drag up her pants and come to a curled-up position, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Tell me, why shouldn’t I worry about you flipping out and telling the next person you see?”

“I’m not reliable.” She ticks off her fingers. “I have a history of instability. I’m constantly medicated. My one alibi is your sister, who, as far as I know, has no idea where I am and can’t—or won’t—back up my story because of her relation to you, and I thought I saw a ghost right before you strangled a man and Rio shot a woman.”

I raise my brows at that last part, then decide to address the points I can. “Clover has no idea what I do. What I’ve done. I’ve protected her for most of my life.” The mention of my sister draws me into a past I’d rather not visit. I detest Ardyn’s ability to take me there. Raising hardened eyes, I say to her, “Congratulations, princess, you’ve brought up the one bargaining chip you have. Are you sure you want to use it now?”

“Would it even be possible to barter for my life, or have you already determined I should die?”

Ardyn asks it without a tremor.

“I’d rather not kill you,” I say honestly, though I’m not about to get into the reasons. Because you intrigue me because I’d miss you because no other woman will have your scent, your sound, your presence. “But my men will expect me to take care of this. Rio saw you.”

“Professor Morgan didn’t.”

I arch a brow at her point.

“He seems to be the one who’d expect you to get rid of me. Riordan, he’d follow you to the ends of the Earth. I don’t … you probably don’t know this or care, but I’ve watched you and your friends for a long time. You didn’t come home much, but when you did, you always brought a friend. Chase, or Riordan. You’re relaxed with them, more at ease than you were with your own family.”

Not once did it ever occur to me that Ardyn could read me as well as I could read her. It irks me, and I snap, “I have a lot of trouble believing that a recently ransomed ten-year-old would have any idea what was expected of me or what I endured.”

Ardyn continues undeterred as if she’s experienced a thousand insults regarding her kidnapping and now they no longer stick. “Clover and I would sneak under the table when you hung out with them in your drawing room. Did you know that? We’d discuss who was the cutest of your friends and listen in on the one we liked the most. I never admitted to her that it was you, always you, who I wanted to understand. You started off bright.”

My tone lowers in warning. “Excuse me?”

“Like me,” she says. “You were handsome, and enjoyed the world, and loved every second of sunlight. Then you were sent off to boarding school, and I was … well, taken, and when we both returned to each other’s lives, we had a greyness. It’s most prevalent behind your stare. When you look at people from a certain angle, I can see it. It matches mine. I don’t know what you went through when you enrolled at Briarcliff or what happened after to make you come here and do this, but I do understand what it’s like to become a person you never wanted to be.”

“Stop.” My throat has become thick. “You have no fucking clue what I’ve done. If you did, you’d—”

“What? Hate you?” She moves until she’s sitting back on her calves, tucking her feet beneath her. “Don’t you think that should’ve already happened? You killed innocent people.”

“They weren’t innocent.”

Ardyn cocks her head, her gaze turning wizened. I’m growing uncomfortable under her owl’s stare. “Whatever they were, they probably didn’t deserve to die.”

“None of my victims do if you boil it down.”

“Then why do you do it?”

The muscles in my cheek tick under her scrutiny. “Because I was trained to. What was it like being held against your will?”

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