Page 102 of Inked Adonis

I have no room in my heart for weakness.

“Do we have a game plan?” Myles asks as my building comes into view. “We have to clear Nova again, obviously, but do you want to lay out an approach to make sure we?—?”

“We talk to her. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.”

But as the elevator doors slide open, soft music from the living room speakers and her perfume wafting in the air, an ugly truth rears its head in my face: this shit is already way too fucking complicated.

It’s been too complicated since the day we stripped each other bare in that cramped apartment of hers. I made mistakes out of lust, out of simple-minded desire to fucking ruin her with my mouth, my hands, my cock. I saw what I wanted and took it, same as I’ve always done.

How could I have known that the sweet little fruit was all poison inside?

Myles hangs back next to the elevators as I charge down the hall. I see the next few minutes playing out in my head as vividly as Ilya’s candid camera footage did this morning.

I’ll force Nova down and ask her the last time she saw Kat. I’ll give her the opportunity to come clean about the burner phone, and, when she does, Myles and I can figure out how deep this plot goes.

The steps are laid out in front of me. I see the path I should take.

Then I turn the corner and see her.

She’s curled in the corner of the couch that she’s wordlessly claimed as hers over the last few weeks, a bottle of nail polish resting on the arm. The music is loud enough that she doesn’t notice me right away.

So I pause.

And I watch.

I search her for signs that she’s trespassed into my life to fuck me over. I monitor the pinch of her lip between her teeth, the tapping of her toes to the music. I trace the outline of her body in her leggings and tank top like the clues are hidden there somewhere.

But if they were, I would’ve found them. Last night or the night before or the night before. I would’ve tasted them the very first time I lifted her onto her bathroom sink.

But I didn’t notice a goddamn thing.

Finally, Rufus spots me and leaps off the couch to weasel between my legs. Nova jolts in surprise at first. But when she sees who it is, she grins, reaching with wet nails for the remote to turn off the speakers.

That joy, that hope, that light in her eyes as she recognizes me—it all does something, some unholy fucking thing to the gaping hole in my chest where most people have a heart. It’s like a living creature in me that’s been dormant since the day my father showed me that video comes to life again.

Then I picture Katerina slipping the burner phone into Nova’s hand.

And I put two bullets in the skull of that living creature.

There is no room in my life for it.

“Hey! You’re back early.” She closes the nail polish and places it on the fireplace mantle, jabbering mindlessly all the while. “Both of my morning appointments got neutered today. Isn’t that weird? A dachshund and a German Shepherd lost their manhood, and I got a surprise slow morning. No complaints from me, but I won’t speak for the doggos. Poor guys.”

She beams across the room at me. As if me standing in front of her is the best thing that could’ve happened to her day. Like she doesn’t have a damn thing to hide.

And just like that, the straight, simple path ahead of me explodes.

My voice is barely restrained when I ask, “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” She’s still smiling. Still waving her wet nails in the air to dry them. Still standing in front of me like everything is fine even as I feel our last few weeks together fracture into a thousand unfixable little pieces.

“Where the fuck is it?” I storm towards our bedroom. “I know you have it. I saw you take it from her.”

“Sam?”

A crazed, delirious laugh tears out of me at the confused sound of my name on her lips. It shouldn’t sound so good and pure. Doesn’t she know I’m a violent man?

“Your boss would be pleased with your performance. You’re really selling the innocent confusion. I’d almost believe it if I didn’t know better.”

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