Page 17 of Ambition

I freeze, the music screaming around us and the man still doesn’t smile.

“Don’t worry though. You’ll be okay. Your friend though…” He shrugs, sighing as he straightens. “I don’t think he will.”

Then the bastard turns his back to me.

Because he thinks I’m safe.

Because he doesn’t know I’m going to kill him.

Using me as a pawn is one thing.

But Von…

Last night he grabbed my wrist so gently, tried to tug me away from London. “Isa, you don’t evenknowthis guy,” he said, gestured with his free hand toward the bathroom. “Not in a hotel. Not here—”

“It’s a five-star suite, Von.” I snatched my hand back. I watched his eyes go round and sad.

I turned my back on him.

I left him there.

Now, I tear my eyes away from the guard, scanning the space between the erected wall and the concrete floor.

And I see something glinting under the red lights.

I see metal prongs.

Sharp.

A pitchfork. How fitting.

I emergefrom the bathroom to find Von sitting on the floor of the opposite wall, spine pressed to it, knees bent, forearms resting atop them.

I clutch the towel around me with one hand and my other drifts instinctively to my shower caps, fingers fluttering over the waterproof material of two, because one isn’t enough for the sheer amount of my hair even when it’s clipped up like now. I take pride in my curls and my routine is extensive, but I don’t wash it every day, hence the caps.

Steam billows out behind me and I frown in the darkness of the hall.

“What are you doing?” I ask, my pulse drumming harder as he lifts his head, gray eyes that make me feel like falling peering into mine.

He’s still in his navy blue sweats and socks, and nothing else. His abs are tense, tight lines, muscles in his shoulders rigid. He looks like he’s a statue. A gorgeous one at my feet. “I know why he wants you there tomorrow,” he says quietly, his voice raspy like he hasn’t slept much in the past twenty-four hours either.

Or maybe Karia made him moan so loudly while I was showering he’s just lost his voice. Perhaps Cosmo watched and got off on both of them.

I frown, then wrap my arms around myself, keeping the deep red towel in place on my body, water gliding down my thighs, over my knees, my calves. I step further into the hall, the chill of the place drifting over my collarbone, marble flooring like ice against my soles. An upscale apartment in Alexandria has nice touches like that, but only one shared bathroom, of course. Which is why I thought he was out here; waiting for it or something before he ran back to Karia.

“Why? And how did you find out? And where’s Karia and Cosmo?” I already relayed most of what Cain said to Von when we met up in the hallway at Nox, before our drive, and he had little to say.

The mask was back in place.

Even now, as he studies me with frigid gray eyes, sitting on the floor like a guardian outside of the bathroom door, I see his detachment, so different from how he kissed me in the training room. I liked that kiss, aggressive as it was. He wouldn’t usually do something like that and I liked how he did, even if, like I told him, it didn’t change anything.

Even if he invited our friends over immediately after to prove a point.

“Dad came by. Before his little ceremony, you know.”

My stomach swoops. So I missed Mads, who ismyadviser for this job. If I had known he was coming, of course, I would have waited. But as it was, jumping into the shower as soon as I disentangled myself from Karia and Von and Cosmo was first on my list of things to do today. Taking a nap and ensuring dark circles didn’t deepen under my eyes was another. Now, I’m not sure I’ll get around to that one, depending on Von’s words.

“And he didn’t wait for me?” I ask, not bothering to hide the annoyance slipping into my tone.

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