Page 40 of Ruthless Commander
I was already gone as I stepped into the elevator.
Already in the air and far away from here.
All I needed was to get there.
16
Mateo
Go after her…the howl rose in my head as she strode away.Fuck them… Fuck them all.Let Besnik come. Let them all come. I’d kill them. I’d wipe them from the face of this earth just to be free of them…to be free of this. I clenched my fists as that darkness inside me grew.
The price was too great. But it wasn't just my price, was it?
It was hers.
Xael Davies, the one perfect fucking thing in my goddamn life.
Her hurt hit me a thousandfold and all of a sudden, I was back there in that apartment, staring at her while I tore her life apart.
"Sir." The call came from behind me.
I didn't want to turn. I didn't want to be the man they demanded me to be anymore. I wanted to be the mansheneeded me to be. The one who put her before everyone else, including my brother. I’d leave him behind if it came to her. I’d walk away and never look back.
Because my heart beat outside my chest…and right now it was running away, hating me all over again.
I can’t get you out of my head,she cried inside mine.
I couldn’t get her out of mine either. Or my dreams. Or my veins.
I’d tried…I really had, and if she hadn’t turned up in that airport looking just as fucking wild and stunning as she always had, I might’ve been able to continue living this shadowed existence…for a little while longer, at least.
"The party, sir," the guard called, drawing me away from her.
I turned and took two steps, then glanced over my shoulder, finding her as she disappeared into the night. But as I turned back, I found her own bodyguard striding toward me.
"You piece of shit," he growled as he passed. "Just stay the fuck away from her."
But that was it, wasn't it? It didn't matter where I was, or where she was.
Something had changed inside me, intrinsically changed, all the way down to my DNA. I wanted to burn this all to the ground just to be with her. I lifted my gaze to the party that’d spilled out into the foyer of Bernardi's building and knew I couldn't stay away from her. Not a second longer.
That wounded sound that had torn from her lips filled my head. All I could see was that pain in her eyes and the way she'd pressed her fist to the agony in her chest. The agony that consumed her, just as it consumed me.
Get this over.I strode toward the building. Then I was done. I was done with the lying to her and myself, and I was done with staying away from her.
The wind howled, thrashing the palms outside the building as I stepped through the automatic doors and into the foyer.
“Commander?” one of the rich assholes called as they laughed and stumbled, slamming into the bodyguards who were there to protect them, but instead were fucking babysitters.
I stepped into the elevator and waited for the doors to close.After this job, I’m done.I folded my arms in front of my body. I’d leave this island…and take Xael Davies with me.
17
Xael
The howling gusts of wind slammed into the walls of the hangar, making them boom, shudder, and shake. I jerked my gaze toward the sound, my heart racing before turning back to my bodyguard.
Rhys stood in the distance, talking to the pilot. But there was a lot of head shaking and pointing toward the jet. I didn't need to hear what they were saying to understand what that meant. There was no way I was flying off this island tonight.
