Page 52 of Ivory's Ruin Romance

Him.

Jace threw another punch, but this time, Adrian moved faster. He took a minor hit to the side of his face and his own fist collided with Jace’s front teeth. He hissed, lungs filled with frigid air.

That felt good.

They both took a step back before swinging again. With every punch, Adrian made sure to hit harder than the last. But Jace refused to back down, as he’d expected. Hot blood dripped from his nose, the metallic taste settling in his mouth as they exchanged blow for blow. Soon, both were panting, pain radiating up his fingers to his arm. Adrian tightened his fist and went for an uppercut.

Using the shadows as cover, Jace twisted and grabbed Adrian’s arm before the hit could connect.

The air got knocked from his lungs as Jace threw him to the ground. A flurry of snow scattered at the impact, the cold biting into his neck and back. Another searing pain exploded in his abdomen, and he struggled to regain his bearing.

“Pathetic fucker,” Jace growled, unleashing another brutal kick. “Know your damn place.”

Adrian coughed up blood and turned on his side, fingers clawing into the ground. He had enough strength to stand but didn’t waste the energy. This was the perfect time to get the information he came for, right when Jace thought he had the advantage. Men became their weakest when they thought they’d won.

“Your ring,” he rasped, forcing one knee underneath his body and moving a hand closer to the top of his boot, where he kept his blade. He didn’t intend to use it and would rather walk away like last time, but he didn’t have to worry about Ivory getting hurt and wasn’t about to take any chances if things got ugly. “Where’d you get it?”

Jace snorted, inspecting the silver that decorated his hand. “Can’t help but grovel for what you’ll never have, I suppose.”

“Who gave it to you?” Adrian demanded, earning him another kick to the side. He grunted as he dug the heel of his boot into the dirt, bracing against an exposed tree root.

“Shut up,” Jace ordered. “You want to know about the ring?” He bent down, sneering as he waved the silver dragon in front of Adrian’s face. “It’s a symbol of who I am, of my family, and what we’ve done—what we can do. Our rule is ordained, and anyone who gets in our way will pay with blood. It means I could kill you right now, and no one would know. No one would care. I bet they wouldn’t even find the body.”

So that’s what the ring meant—a family emblem. The killer hadn’t been just a Red Dragon. They’d been a Yu.

Adrian’s fingers brushed the handle of the knife, but he had to hold back. Better to let Jace think he won. Lose the battle, win the war—pride was a small price to pay for knowledge.

“Too bad you’re not worth my time.” Jace tsked and stood up. “Freeze to death for all I care, but the next time you try to fuck with me” —another hard kick came toward his face, but Adrian moved his arm to block just in time— “will be your last.”

Snow crunched as Jace walked away, then the bike rattled as Jace set it upright, and finally, the back door opened and shut.

Steam curled from Adrian’s cracked lips and melted the ice crystals in front of his face. After another minute, he got up and brushed himself off, then turned to walk back to his bike. Pain shot through every cell in his body. He let out a gruff laugh.

Fuck.

Everything hurt.

One thing was certain—when Ivory found out about this, she might beat him up worse than Jace had.

TWENTY-FIVE

She wasn’t going to chicken out again.

Homework had been a priority last night, but today she had no more excuses. Time to hold up her end of the deal.

She hated to admit it, but thinking about Adrian had become a nightly occurrence. Not that all her thoughts were explicit, but after their most recent conversations…a lot of explicit things had been on her mind.

As he’d said, Adrian didn't reach out again after their mid-morning texts. But that hadn’t stopped her from picking up her phone the whole day, then promptly putting it down. The goal wasn’t to disturb him, even though she felt the need to ask if he was okay.

She didn’t want to bring up his lack of cigarettes if he’d purposely kept himself busy. Then there was how he mentioned putting her in danger. It’d been floating in the back of her thoughts since yesterday. Did that mean he was in danger? What kind?

Whatever it was, he could handle it. Or so she hoped.

Ivory sighed, closing out all the open apps on her phone and set it aside. Enough lazing around. Using some of this pent-up energy to pick out a good outfit might help. If she wanted to send an actual, sexy photo, it would take a little forethought.

Her current choice of clothing, sleep shorts and a tank top, didn’t look bad, but they didn’t have the wow factor she wanted.

This couldn’t be just any photo. It had to be the photo. The one he looked at if…if…

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