Page 7 of Of Mercury and Mist

He nudged my rear with his leather shoe. “Get up, you disgusting thief,” he growled at me. “Before I make you.”

My head spun and as much as I wanted to tell him to get it over with, whatever he was going to say or do, I wouldn’t give him the pleasure. There was certainly no escape, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for him. I rolled over again, getting on all fours before pushing myself up.

The contracts I’d signed when they on-boarded me mentioned instant termination for the theft of product. Any mention of anything havinganythingto do with the company was described the same. There was nothing I could legally do to help myself.

It was comprehensive and left no room for error, and not one, single ounce of grace. Right now, I had the sneaking suspicion “termination” may very well have been literally translated.

“What are you going to do to me? I’m not going to just roll over and die.” I sure as hell wouldn’t give the asshole that satisfaction.

He chuckled, his laugh low and dark, and eyes glittering silver. “Oh, trust I have plans for you. You’ll die if I say so—without hesitation.”

What the actualfuck? He couldn’t be serious. He had to have been joking. “You can’t just go around killing people. What about your company? What about Josiah? He’d never let you do that.”

“Josiah would never let anything happen to his company. Who do you think cleans up after him?”

Micha stepped closer and closer to me, but I stood my ground. I’m not sure how, but I didn’t move. Every cell of my body screamed at me to run, to flee as far away as fast as I could. For whatever reason, I didn’t listen to my survival instinct.

“Josiah kills people.” I muttered under my breath. It was too crazy to believe though the more I thought about it, with their ruthlessness, the more it made sense. People were fired all the time, and we never saw them again.

“I need my cell phone! You have it, don’t you?” I accused him. “Give it to me.”

The stranger who’d interrupted me downstairs had to have turned in all my items. Making a run for his desk if I ever got out of this room was the only way I’d get it back. It was probably in the same drawer as the key card. It had to be.

“Della is safer than anyone else on this planet. You, on the other hand, are not,” Micha told me, before sliding his tongue along his teeth.

The room we were in looked like an expensive apartment, all gray, black, and with wooden accents. If I hadn’t been here under duress, I would’ve been eager to poke around and admire the space. For now, I just needed an escape route.

He walked behind me, placing one hand on my shoulder while the other moved my hair away from my neck. He dipped his head down and I felt his forehead move against me until his hot breath hit the sensitive skin below my ear.

He stilled for a moment, and then I felt his lips. Goosebumps broke out across my body, and I shivered when he nipped at me. Like a light switch, he’d flipped from threatening to kill me to nuzzling me affectionately. It confounded me to the point I couldn’t even think anymore. My breath slowed while my heart raced, my eyes slowly closing as I let my guard down.

I felt him inhale the same time he squeezed my shoulders and pulled me flush against him. I was supposed to scream, to fight, but instead, my head lolled back, as a warmth flushed through me like I’d been drugged. No sooner had he assaulted me than he broke the contact, leaving me feeling oddly bereft and smartly fearful at the same time.

Dazed, I reached out for something to steady me and was met with empty air. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought he'd catch me. Collapsing to my knees, I just sat on the floor and waited, completely confused over my reaction to him. For some godforsaken reason, I’d wanted more.

Micha tapped the side of my leg with his foot and motioned for me to stand up. “I need to show you something,” he said.

I didn’t want to go anywhere with him and kept searching for a nonexistent way out as we moved deeper into the apartment. He’d all but threatened to kill me and then treated me almost like a lover would. I had no idea what he was playing at, but I knew I needed to leave as soon as possible.

We went through a hallway lined with paintings and gilded mirrors before stopping at a door. Micha punched a code into a small keypad and soundlessly, a panel slid into the wall. He went inside, not waiting for me, expecting me to follow. All it took was one look at the massive king-sized bed and I spun on my heel.

He was on me before I could blink, both arms around me and holding me like a pile of firewood. I was going to burn for my transgressions, I had no doubt. This wasn’t Netflix and chill. Whatever he had planned it wasn’t going to be pretty or entertaining. Visions of being raped and murdered danced in my head. My body seemed to want him, but my heart and brain most assuredly did not.

He deposited me on his bed and turned around, reaching for a small box on top of his dresser while I examined him closely, waiting to make my move.

Micha was incredibly strong and fast. He wasn’t overly muscular, in fact he was quite lean and tall, reminding me of a fashion model from a magazine. I’d felt his arms around me more than once at this point, and knew he had an impressive physique. There was no way I could fight him off.

None of this helped the unreasonable pull I felt toward him, not after he’d played with my neck. It was the worst feeling, having this attraction to the one person who hated me more than anyone else. I’d always been attracted to him, if I were to be honest with myself, but it was easy to dismiss when his behavior was so awful. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, I wasn’t supposed to feel compelled toward him.

He was perfect in many ways. Except for the unfortunate personality and morals.

I scooted back on the comforter when he approached, his fancy watch dinging against the box he held in his fist. He opened it as if he were presenting me with a piece of jewelry. “Look inside,” he ordered me.

Hesitating, I squeezed my eyes shut. This wasn’t the kind of excitement I had in mind when I thought about my life being boring, having a psychotic boss terrorize me.

“Open your eyes, thief,” he demanded.

THREE

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