Page 59 of Devoured
“What?” I asked, my voice low. I offered her a hand to help her up, but she got up herself and went to the door, forgetting about her clothes in a pile on the floor.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
The door slammed shut behind her. I waited for a second, thinking it over. If I followed her, it would show her that she had won, that I did care about her. And it would give her a chance to explain. But if I stayed here, then I could call off the bet. I could make changes to the Dahlia District and move the fuck on with my life.
To hell with it.
I zipped up my pants, still shirtless, and grabbed her pile of clothes, then stormed down the hallway to the elevator. The cart before me stopped three floors below, so I got off there too and saw a door swinging shut to the stairwell. The fucking stairwell. But the elevator would be faster. I took it down, racing Iris to the ground, and when I came out to the open air, she was nowhere to be seen. I waited by the door.
Nothing.
Fuck it. I swung open the door to the stairwell, and a man was holding her, a ski mask over his head, holding a knife to Iris’s throat. Another masked man. A different one this time.
I raced towards him. “Let go of her!”
The man’s button eyes widened, seeing the rage swell in my body as I came closer. He let go of Iris, but not before cutting her cheek, the knife slicing right into her skin, right below where she had scratched herself trying to escape from my belt. She held her face, and the man raced through the back exit.
I couldn’t leave Iris now; I grabbed my phone and dialed the Adlers. “Some asshole attacked Iris,” I said. “Where the hell are your men?”
“We were following your specific orders. You didn’t say to protect her. You said to watch her,” the lead guard said. “She’s in the building, right? That was another rule. You said if you were in the building with her—”
“He went out the back,” I said. “Deal with it.”
I scooped Iris up in my arms and she writhed out of my grasp.
“Don’t you dare fucking touch me,” she said.
“Iris,” I said, suddenly at a loss for words. “I—”
“I don’t know what the hell your problem was back there, but you’re high right now.” She glared at me, judging me, more than she ever had before. “Your eyes are dilated. Your skin is hot. You’re acting weird. I don’t know what happened just now, but I can tell you that you’re not any better than that masked killer. No better than my foster dad.” Her chin bobbed frantically. “I will not put up with you trying to kill me because you’re too high to notice what you’re doing.” She straightened, then grabbed the clothes from where I had dropped them on the floor, holding the shirt to her bleeding face. “You can strip away my power, but you are not going to kill me in the process.”
So Iris didn’t trust me. Hell, I didn’t trust me either.
Perhaps she was right. The addiction. The avoidance. How could I have done that, let my guard down, and in the process, let her get attacked?
“Let me walk you to your car,” I said. “Make sure the security detail follows you.”And actually does their fucking job, I thought. She turned her shoulder to me but didn’t reject my help, walking out to the parking lot in that now filthy baby doll.
As I followed her, I realized I had forgotten about being attacked by that couple in the woods. There were more pressing matters now, questions warring for attention in my brain: Did Iris have a stalker? Who the hell had attacked her? What did that person want? As soon as I was sober, I would call my security contacts, have them investigate the incident. But most of all, I knew one thing was true: Iris wasn’t trying to take over my empire, like Lexi had. She was simply trying to survive. Iris wasn’t the enemy.I was. And I had almost taken her life. With the belt, then with neglect, throwing her into the danger of that ski-mask man.
No matter what, we had to work together, to learn to trust each other, at least until we decided what to do with the Dahlia District.
No… UntilIdecided.
