Page 32 of Ruthless Commander
I was alone…staring at my failure.
Something dangerous moved through me. Something that hadn’t stirred since that night. I’d killed before, beaten and stabbed. I’d strangled with my own hands as I stared into panicked eyes…but this…this felt different.
This felt like war…
Luckily, war was what I did best.
I turned away. “Get the body to the refrigerator,” I demanded, and turned my gaze to the man standing in the shadows. “Get him ready to ship back home. His father will want to see the body.”
“I’ll do my best,” Doctor Grey murmured, his eyes riveted on mine.
There were no demands from him in that moment, lucky for him. I might just have rammed them down his fucking throat. A nod, and I turned away, leaving him to deal with the body. “Two of you stay with the doctor in case they come back, the others are with me.”
“Yes, Commander,” they answered in unison.
I strode for the elevator, then out into the night. The calls would come…and when they did, there’d be no more hiding, no more appeasing the dangerous men I worked for…they’d want blood, one way another. If not the men who'd done this…then they’d be after mine.
13
Xael
I couldn’t believe it. No one could. Baldeon was dead and the island was in chaos. The kind of chaos that made me terrified. The moment the news broke out, the party was invaded by a swarm of bodyguards, Rhys being one of them. He gripped me by the arm, his gun in his other hand, and ushered me down the stairs and out of the building.
I’d been locked in the apartment ever since. I looked over at him, sitting on the sofa, his head resting on the back, his eyes closed. But I knew as soon as there was even a hint of a door opening or the elevator stopping, he’d be on his feet in an instant, the gun aimed at whoever was coming through that entrance.
He wouldn't let anyone get to us. I scowled and glanced along the hallway to my quiet roommate's room. For all the power she held, Evan Valachi had come to the island without even a bodyguard to keep watch over her. I wanted to ask her if everything was okay, but she was…weird, to put it nicely. The few interactions we’d had had left me confused as hell.
She was weird…weirder than weird. Maybe the Valachis were like that, how the hell did I know? Even Kat VanHalen had texted me saying the exact same thing after bringing her roommate, Anna, the perfectly delightful klutz from the boat, to meet her.
Now, Anna was the kind of roomie you wanted. She was shy, cute as hell, and goddamn scrumptious as she avoided every probing question about Finley Salvatore. I'd told Kat I wanted us to hang out more, desperate for at leastsomefucking interaction in this place. But that was before…
Before everything changed.
Before one of us was murdered.
The stories that circulated about what had happened to Marcus were terrifying. But they were only rumors. I had no way to find out the real story. If Rhys knew what happened, he wasn’t telling me. No one was telling me jack shit. Now we were guarded twenty-four/seven.
The one person I wanted to ask, I also wanted to stab in the fucking eye with my stiletto.Because I knew he didn’t have a heart.
“You need to stop pacing,” Rhys muttered, his eyes still closed. “You’re making me jumpy.”
“I need…”to get out of here.The words lingered on the tip of my tongue. One mention of leaving and I’d be packed up and hauled off in the next second. I knew that, I’d ready fielded half a dozen calls from my father demanding just that.
But I wasn’t leaving, and I sure as hell wasn’t running with my tail between my legs. If I did, then I’d be always seen as the female who couldn’t handle her shit. Forever the Davies that fled when things got a little rough.
“You’re making me nervous, Xael.”
I dragged my hand through my hair. “I need to get out of here, I feel like I’m going stir-crazy.”
Without even a sigh, he opened his eyes and pushed up from the sofa. His eyes were red, his shoulders slumped.
“No, Rhys.” I shook my head. “You haven't slept for two fucking days.”
“I’m not letting you go out on your own, Xael,” he insisted.
“Then I’ll just get another escort.” I lifted my hand. “Look, I know one of the Commander’s men. I’ll just ask him.”
He scowled, his gaze growing darker.
