Page 79 of Hell Breaks Loose

Leaving me a hot mess on the cot.

Fucking. Hot.

“Miss Michaels, call for you,” one of her minions clips over the mic.

“Be right there,” she replies, turning back toward me and looking for her clothes.

Before she can lay a hand on her skirt, I’m off the bed, pinning her to the door. “One last time…”

“One last kiss, maybe. I gotta go.”

“I guess I’ll settle for what I can get.”

The kiss is slow, searching, soft and mingled with the taste of our sex.

I definitely understand why those junkies are wild for more Devo. I feel the same way about her.

A quick clean-up later, we’re stepping into the much cooler office. And her walls go right back up, that icy façade she wore when I arrived locking back into place.

“From now on, you’ll report back to me. We’ll get you a room in the guesthouse.” Hellena touches up her makeup in a hand mirror.

“What are you playing at here, Hellena?” I sniff, feeling dismissed. A little cheap, suddenly.

“I’m not playing at anything.”

“Feels like a game. One where I don’t know the rules, and you are going to get yourself killed.”

“If it is a game, the stakes are just that high.”

“Don’t you think I know that? Marco. The Ghosts. They’re all trying to kill us.”

“And I am in this to the death, Gav. I am doing the best I can to find a way through, to keep all of us alive. So I need…”

“You need to get away from this?—”

“No! I need you to fucking trust me.”

It slaps me in the face and cuts deep. Mostly, the look on her face, like I hurt her so much worse by not giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“Hell, I’m sorry. I do.”

“I know you do, in theory. But you need to live it. Now.”

Just like that, I see it. The sharp, confident woman I’ve always known is there.

And the unwavering resolve that she got from her dad.

She’s taking the lead.

Truly.

To make the calls that no one else can, from a position that she sacrificed way too much to get into.

Exactly what we encouraged her to do before.

Just not how I saw it playing out.

“Just… be careful not to push the people you love past the breaking point.” I look at the door, insinuating her spat with Ora.

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