Page 19 of Destroyed

Surely not. Right?

As we drive to the restaurant Riley is quiet but she’s texting furiously on her phone. I scoot a little closer to her and hold her hand like we’re kids again. I don’t think it’s the time to talk to ourparents about the savage man who is after her and now possibly, me, but I need to find out more about all of this.

Chapter 13

Xavier

It's 11:00 pm when we finally return to our office. Sebastian sits back nonchalantly in his chair, messaging on his phone with a smirk on his face. No doubt he is texting Riley. Probably something scandalous, from the way he keeps licking his lips. It’s about time that stiff fucker found someone to loosen him up. They really are perfect together.

I had that once upon a time. Love like that doesn’t come around often. It's exactly why I never searched for it again after my first accident. So why, I wonder, did I suddenly have a change of heart when it came to Riley’s sister?

I wish I could remember something, anything, at this point. It took years of therapy and medication from my first accident until I could even let a woman touch me and now I feel like I’m back to square one. When Corrine touched me at the hospital, and even again at the club, it was different. It was like a spark trying to ignite a fire in my cold body. Every other sound and sight around me had disappeared for a split second. The world fucking stopped and it was like nothing else existed.

It fucking scares the shit out of me if I’m being honest.

What did that green-eyed goddess do to me in the span of only a few months that no other woman has been able to do since…since… Fuck I can’t keep thinking about this shit. A hand lands on my shoulder, making me jump and I look up to see Jonathan with a look of worry on his face.

“You ok, man?” he asks me.

I look around, realizing everyone in the meeting room is currently staring at me in silence. I chuckle and attempt to lean back in my chair casually.

“Yeah man, I’m fine. I just got distracted from all the beautiful shit I got to watch in The Cellar.” I instantly cringe at my poor choice of humor when I see Jonathan tense up.

“Fuck, Jonathan I’m sorry,” I try to turn back to him to apologize but he’s already out the door and when I look back I find Jamison glaring at me.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sure,” Jamison responds. “Sounds like you had quite an eventful night.”

“Andre had a better night than me getting his dick wet and you came out looking pretty content yourself.” I spit back. I’m aware I’m deflecting at this point. I shouldn’t have said what I said, but I still feel a bit defensive when everyone looks at me like I am a terrible human being.

Andre scoffs next to me. “I don’t know what the fuck you are getting at right now but I think we need to get back to the original point.”

I roll my eyes. Typical Heir to a Don finding the perfect way to sound political while changing the subject so it is off of him. I don’t know why I care anyway so I don’t bother responding at all.

After a few minutes of quiet, Andre starts, “I couldn’t get a lot out of Sasha. She seemed extremely scared. Honestly, I’m not sure if it was fear of me or Lockhart. She kept telling me I shouldn’t be there. At one point, she said, “You have no idea what my uncle is capable of. You have no idea what any of them are capable of.”

“Why would that make you think she was scared of you too?” Sebastian cuts in.

“Because, when I told her I would try to help her get out of there once we figured out what was going on, she freaked out. She told me I would be worse one day and to stay away from her.”

My eyebrows crinkle in confusion along with Jamison’s and Sebastian’s.

“Have we hit a dead end, boys?” Sebastian asks.

“We can’t just hang around like sitting ducks waiting for Lockhart to pick us off. We have to figure out why. There has to be something more going on. A man like him doesn’t come after people just because of one potential case of laundering with an associate.” I say with a sigh.

“We are missing something but we are not going to figure it out tonight. I’m going to check on my brother,” Jamison says before getting up and walking out of the room.

Sebastian’s phone rings and he answers it immediately while sliding his chair back and standing up. “Little Mouse, you're going to pay for that text earlier. He pauses and chuckles from whatever response Riley gives him before covering the phone and mouthing a quick “gotta go.”

Both Andre and I nod goodbye to him before pushing our chairs out as well. I don’t really want to be alone tonight in my feelings. “You want to go get a drink or something?” I ask.

Andre looks at me with a blank face. “No Xavier, I’m not in the mood to get a drink with you. Wouldn’t want to get my dick too wet and piss you off.” The sarcasm in his voice is apparent but he doesn't give me a chance to respond before turning and strolling out the door.

“What the fuck ever,” I mutter to myself. It's not my fault he spent his time fucking Sasha instead of getting the much-needed info that we could actually utilize. I mean it’s not like Sebstian would give a shit who fucked her. He never cared for her anyway, and we all shared a random girl here or there at some point intime. I do, however, think that he would care if it was interfering with us figuring out what is going on with Lockhart.

“Next time he can learn to keep his dick in his pants,” I mutter out loud before heading out of the office on my own. There’s one place I can go right now for a drink, so I head to my favorite little hole in the wall.

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