A punch to the face. Another. They want me to pay for breathing their air. For existing. I smile through aching teeth, dripping blood.
“Hit him again.” Adam says, excited. He sounds like he has a hard-on from seeing me bleed.
I throw off the men holding me. Four on one, and they can’t keep me down.
“You,” I snarl in Adam’s direction. He doesn’t look scared. He holds all the cards. He always did. Fucker’s been playing me since he met me. A poor, scrawny kid on scholarship.
I played the cards I had and...I dealt wrong. Daphne’s gone. Have I lost her for good this time?
“Logan,” Adam says. “You came back.”
“I never left.”
“I always wondered what happened to you. The hospital told me you disappeared, but I didn’t follow up.”
“This isn’t over,” I promise, and head for the back door. I’ll find Daphne, get her back. Keep her safe while I destroy her father and Adam, my enemies.
The battle is lost, but the war? The war has just begun.
Twenty-Seven
Present Day
Daphne
I’m shaking as the cab pulls away from the curb. No one spills out of the ballroom to follow me. Not even Logan.
I half expect him to burst out of the building and chase down the car like a monster in a movie. Part of me wants him to. The other part of me is pissed. I’d cross my arms over my chest, but I don’t want to chafe my nipples. Although, I laughed bitterly, what do the piercings even matter anymore?
The cab turns the corner, heading to my apartment at the heart of the city, and suddenly I’m super cold.
The ring is gone, and with it a huge weight. If tonight had gone as planned, I’d be heading back to the castle. Back to Logan, my Master. Why did he have to ruin everything? I was his. The big stupid dominant nerd.
I. Was. His. Did I have to brand his initials on my butt for him to know it?
The woman reflected in the cab window smiles sadly. She’s stunningly beautiful, but looks so alone. I fought hard and have come so far, only to end up alone.
“It’s not fair,” I growl at her.
“Excuse me, miss?” the cabbie asks.
“Um, nothing.” I duck my head. Great, now I’m a crazy woman, talking to herself in the backseat of a hired car.
If only Logan had trusted me. Now he thinks I left him, when really I was trying to return to him with no strings attached. Completely free. It’s not fair that he chased me down, but when is life fair? Love is not just give and take. The more I give, the more I own his heart.
I sit up straight on the tattered backseat. Maybe that’s it.
Maybe I’ve done all I can do and it’s up to him. All I can do is control my own actions and continue down this path, wherever it leads me.
What do I want? What do I really want? Not my father, not the board, not Adam, and not even Logan?
What do I want and what am I willing to sacrifice to get it? The gods won’t accept a small sacrifice, my father once told me. They want everything. He was old and tired after my mother’s last relapse. Her disease was taking its toll, taking it all, but he was willing to give up everything for love.
He was even willing to sacrifice me, his daughter.
But he’s no role model and I’m not him. I won’t abandon my soul so that love contorts until it looks nothing like love.
Who am I, Daphne? What is core to what makes up me and what will I sacrifice for that true self I’m only just discovering?
The past month has shown that I’m willing to give up a lot of external things I thought defined me and only then have I been stripped down enough to discover who I really am. Maybe I need to sacrifice it all if Logan and I are really going to have a chance. Because it’s ultimately what I’m asking of him, isn’t it? To choose me over his revenge.
“Miss? We’re here.”
I pay the driver and tumble from the cab. I’m still shaking with adrenaline and cold, but I don’t feel so empty.
Maybe that’s the answer. The ultimate sacrifice to the gods. I can give up everything. And be completely free.
I skip up the stairs and put the key in the lock of my apartment door, ready for a long, hot soak in my bathtub.
But when I push my door open, my apartment is…empty.
And I mean, completely freaking empty. We’re talking bare walls and bare floors. There’s not even a living room rug left. Or a lamp. It’s all gone.
“What the f—”
“I tried to tell you before you left the ball.”
I spin around, mouth open, to find Rachel standing behind me, her cheeks flushed and chest heaving. Her normally perfect bun askew. “I chased after you but you’d already gotten in the taxi.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before? We spent hours together while I was getting ready!”
She drops her eyes. “I don’t know. I guess I thought maybe you and Adam would work it out and it wouldn’t matter.”
“What does Adam have to do with this?”
“He’s the one who moved all your stuff into his place. As like, a surprise engagement present.”
Adam fucking Archer. What the hell is up with him? Did he always just stampede over people and then pretend it was a ‘present’ or a ‘surprise’ or was it only with women he was supposedly engaged to?
The gods want everything. But Adam isn’t a god. He’s a spoiled rich boy.
My hands are in my hair as if I’m about to rip it out by the roots. I force myself to let go, lower my hands and huff out a long breath. “This is so not okay. Where am I going to sleep tonight?” There’s zero furniture left in my townhouse. Just a dust outline of where my pictures used to hang on the wall. Fucking Adam Archer.
“You know what? Fuck this. I’m going to sleep in my own damn apartment. Come on. Let’s go get my stuff from Adam’s. You game?”
Rachel looks uncertain. “I don’t know. It’s so late already.”
I pull my phone out of my small clutch. “It’s only nine forty-five. And I don’t even have pajamas to change into here!”
Rachel bites her lip. “I’d say you could come back to my place but the guy I’ve been seeing has been staying over a lot and he’ll be there tonight…”
And now I feel like crap. “Oh Rachel.” I grab her hands. “I’m such a shit. You’ve got your whole life going on and a new guy and I haven’t even asked you about it. I swear I’m going to start being a better friend.”
She squeezes my hand and smiles wanly. “It’s okay. Really. Don’t worry about it. The new guy isn’t that serious.”
“But he’s staying at your place all the time?”
She waves it away. “Let’s go get your stuff. One drama at a time.”
I frown at my friend. Usually whenever she’s got a new man I can barely shut her up, she wants to analyze and dissect every single thing he’s said and done. But she’s bailing me out big time helping me tonight so I won’t push it.
“Come on,” she says, “I’ll told my cabbie to wait for me. I didn’t think you’d want to stay here.”
I nod and we hurry downstairs. I feel a little ridiculous running around town in my elaborate ballgown and updo, but whatever.