Page 13 of Vicious Rule

He runs behind me to catch me before I start harassing his hotel guests, catching me at the elevator as I jam my fingertip into the up button. “Alex, stop! I can’t have you bothering my guests.”

I impatiently wait for the goddamned elevator to get to the lobby and snap, “Then get her or that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Your choice, baby brother.”

Knowing I will knock on every door on every fucking floor of this hotel, he finally gives in. “Fine. Go wait in my office, and I’ll bring her down.”

“You have five minutes. If she’s not standing in front of me in five fucking minutes, I’m going to start searching, and I don’t give a damn how much it upsets anyone.”

As the elevator doors open, he starts to guide me back toward his office. “Fine. Just go and try to relax. Jesus, you’re going to have a heart attack or something. Maybe have a drink and realize this is probably the reason she needs some time off.”

I throw him a nasty look and yank my arm from his hold. “Nice try, Dr. Phil. Now go get her, or I’m going to raise hell in this beautiful hotel of yours. Five minutes. Not a second more. Got it?”

Without waiting to hear him say he understands, I march into his office again. This time I’ll take that drink. Not that I want to calm down, but I want something to take the edge off because if I see Sasha like I am now, I’m going to want to kill her.

I pour myself a glass of scotch and gulp the first few mouthfuls down. Damn good stuff. Gideon is a grade-A asshole, but he does know good booze. I’ll give him that.

As the seconds tick by, I take a few deep breaths and wish I could stop thinking about how Sasha ran back to my brother. She had the entire world to go to, and she chose here.

She chose Gideon.

Fuck. I hate that. She told me a million times that she never felt love for him, yet here she is hiding out in his hotel acting like he’s her goddamned savior or something.

This is why I never tried to make anything happen with her. Somewhere deep inside, I knew she felt something for my brother.

I stand up to pace, needing to burn off some of this enraged energy before she comes down to talk. Gideon better not be playing any fucking games this time because I’m not kidding. I will kick down every fucking hotel room door in this place to find her.

On one of my passes in front of the bar, I hear the office door open. Turning around, I see my brother escort Sasha in, his arm around her waist like she belongs to him.

Are these people trying to make me lose my mind?

She stares into my eyes, not afraid of how enraged I might be. Typical Sasha. I’ve never met a woman with nerve like her. Any other woman I’ve ever met would walk in her with her eyes lowered, but not her.

Nope. She stares me dead in the eyes like I’m the one who should be sorry.

“I’ll leave you two alone. If you need anything, Sasha, I’ll be right outside in the lobby.”

She smiles at him in that sweet way that tells me she still cares for him and nods. “Okay. Thank you, Gideon.”

When the door closes behind him, the two of us stand there looking at each other like neither of us knows what to say. That’s not true, though. I know exactly what I came here to say. I rehearsed it more than a dozen times on my ride here.

“You need to come back to the villa,” I say to begin, expecting her to agree.

But she doesn’t.

Instead, she shakes her head no. “If that’s what you had your brother interrupt my appointment at the spa for, I’ll be leaving now so the masseuse can continue.”

There’s not a hint of fear or intimidation in her voice. She’s calm and cool, and I want to drag her out of here whether she likes it or not.

Since I doubt I’d get away with that because my brother would have his guards and the authorities on me before I reached the door, I guess I have to try another tactic to get her to do what I want.

“Why did you leave? I told you to give me a list, and instead you had Andre give me a note telling me you were gone and would be back in a few days.”

“And yet, here you are. You have no respect for me, Alex. None at all. I say I need time away, and you say no. And then when I go away to get some peace, you come looking for me. No doubt you threatened your brother with his life if he didn’t bring me down here to talk to you, didn’t you?”

Her faith in my temper makes me smile. “In fact, I didn’t threaten his life.”

Just his livelihood.

But Sasha isn’t moved. “I’m sure. I know you did something because he looked upset like he used to get whenever you or your father came around here.”

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