My end goal was for her to see that I wasn’t the monster in this story, in her story, and maybe any hate she had for me she could let go. I wasn’t a fool to think I had any chance with her. Our love died a long time ago, but if I could make her see I wouldn’t kill someone I love, then others could see it too.
None of the Underground Kings could show our faces in public. All our fiasco’s made national news, and everyone had an idea of who we were. The stares I could deal with, the whispering I could handle, but the fact that it was all a lie. I refused to live my life under a bed of lies.
Maybe then, I’d be able to show my face without shame.
I was a man who carried a lot of burdens. I shouldn’t care what people think, and while a part of me doesn’t, there was a sliver of me that did. I believed that if someone said they didn’t care what people thought, I’d call them a liar.
Society was the fuel to a person’s life. To do better, be better, and live better than anyone else. To make the world your kingdom, and a kingdom wouldn’t exist without competition.
When the plane came to a stop, I stood and hurried out of the room to get to my suite. As I walked down the aisle where the tan leather booth seats sat along the right and left and minibar equidistant from the front of the plane to the back. Everything was beige, gold, and white, with pops of black. I liked minimalist color. The only power that needed to be in the room was mine, not anything else.
I took a right down a narrow hallway and came to my bedroom door. It had a gold handle, and right behind it was a woman that could have been there for me when I needed her most. Her lack of faith in me was the thing that hurt most over the years. She should have known I would have never killed Tracy, but instead of staying by my side, she was instantly afraid of me.
It still fucked me up that she abandoned me so quickly. She was always better than me. A trust fund girl and a criminal on the wrong side of the tracks didn’t live happily ever after. She saw what she wanted to finally see— a man destined for failure.
I laid my forehead on the door and did my best to compose myself. I was strong, but my greatest weakness was beyond this door. I knew it. And I didn’t care how long it took to convince myself, this plan had to be about me, and if I told myself enough, I’d finally believe it.
The knob twisted under my palm as the jet engines hum became lower and lower until they finally shut up. I cracked open the door, and my shampoo lingered in the air, rosemary, and tea tree oil. It relaxed me while I showered, and besides sex, I didn’t have many things in life that relaxed me.
I stepped forward, and my shoes gave under the soft carpet. The four-post canopy bed sat in the middle of the room, and I saw a figure lying on my side of the mattress where I usually slept. My hand gripped the wood, the soft mosquito netting acted as a barrier to keep skin from touching the wood, and when I was on the right side of the bed, I parted the sheer curtain.
My damned heart beat so hard I thought it was about to leap out of my chest when I saw her lying there. Her blonde hair fanned across the silk tan pillowcases, and she clutched the black shirt to her chest, showing the delicate curve of her breast from the side. The skin was so flawless, and it looked softer than the silk that made the sheets.
The gas that came through the vents must have interrupted her while she changed. I leaned down and caged her head between my arms, the bed giving under my weight as I stared. She was sleeping beauty. I wanted nothing more than to lay my lips against her, but true love’s kiss didn’t come from a villain, and I was no prince charming.
She had a bit of venom in her veins too. She could fool everyone, but she couldn’t fool me. There was a darkness inside that yearned for me, and I had a feeling she gave up on me so easily because I brought it out of her.
I brushed a piece of hair out of her face and ran my finger down the vein on the side of her throat, allowing a smile to tug my lips. She was truly exquisite.
“You know what happens when you enter the devil’s lair?” I spoke to her as I kept my eyes above her breasts while I tugged the shirt over her head. I wanted to look, but I was more of a man than to take advantage of an unconscious woman. “You never escape.”
When darkness met darkness, sometimes the brightest light couldn’t see into the depths, and that was what Quinn and I were, the abyss at the end of a black void.
Chapter Five
Quinn
It was the second time I woke with a dizzy head, and I couldn’t be more pissed off. The man had some nerve; I’d give him that much. Jaxon Steel always had what it took to get under people’s skin and itch them the wrong way.
When he got under my skin, it felt good.
No, that was then, and this was now. A man who ruined my wedding day, my happiness, and destroyed my heart for the second time in my life. What else could he really want from me? He had taken everything. I had nothing left to give him.
I rolled over in bed, and the mattress went on forever. When I sat up again, I held my hand to my head and cursed Jaxon Steel with every damn word I could conjure. Just wait until I saw him. I was going to give him a piece of my mind and punch him.
In between the legs.
And then I’d make a run for it.
Stupidest plan ever. I had zero chance of escaping his hold. He wasn’t a man that kept anything out of reach.
Studying my surroundings, I noticed the room was different.
Was every time I woke up going to be a maze of rooms?
The walls were stark white with one gold accent wall to dull how bright the room was. There were a few wide diagonal skylights along the ceilings, showing a tease of the evening sun setting.
God, was it still the same day? Amazing what could happen in twenty-four hours.
I rubbed my hands along the fluffy comforter and looked left and right to see the gigantic mattress I laid on. No wonder when I rolled it felt like it went on forever. It was a double California king. This room was massive, it had to be to fit a bed like this, and who needed a something so large to sleep in? How many people did Jaxon sleep with?
No, I didn’t want to know.
The room was cut at an odd angle, not like a plain square, but the ceiling was high and slanted, and the walls were obtuse angle’s, fanning out from the doorway instead of staying narrow. The bed sat on a white and gold slate, and this time, art hung on the walls, a style that reminded me of Jackson Pollock. A winding marble staircase sat to the left and spiraled up to the top floor. Must be a loft of some sort.
The room was beautiful, but even with all the beauty, I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to go home. I was on the verge of freaking the hell out but knew throwing a tantrum wouldn’t get me anywhere with Jaxon, and I knew he wanted me to lash out at him. I knew well enough that a bit of defiance turned him on, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Yeah, right. I remembered all too well how Jaxon reacted to defiance.
It made goosebumps appear on my arm when I thought about how good he used to make me feel. If there was one thing I could say, Jaxon Steel was the best lover I had ever had and the worst man to trust. Still, memories of us rolling around in the sheets haunted me to this day. With his strong body, lean torso, tight ass, and big cock, it was hard for a woman to deny him when he carried the arsenal needed to take us down.
“Bastard,” I grumbled, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I didn’t remember putting on my shirt. I tilted my chin down and pinched the material, doing my best to think about how it got on, but the last thing I remember was being on the plane. “Jaxon,” I hissed. He had something to do with this and the reason why my head pounded.