I hated myself for asking, hated myself for even wanting to know. He'd thrown me away. After having the audacity to claim he loved me, he'd sent me spiraling into that hole without knowing where it ended, without knowing what it would do to me. For all he knew, he’d killed me.
Darius' eyes met mine and he frowned with apparent disappointment before shaking his head.
“No one knows where the partners go,” he informed me.
I nodded, feeling foolish, and clenched my fist so hard the glass in my hand shattered.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered but Roxy was already running for a towel. She grabbed one from the kitchen before she returned and sat beside me, pulling remnants of the glass from my hand and patting at the blood they'd drawn.
“It’s okay,” she said gently. “It’s fine. We’ll get another.”
We.
My jaw clenched as my gaze darted up to the one full bed in the corner.
“I should go,” I said, standing so suddenly I nearly upset the shattered glass in Roxy’s hands.
She jumped back at the last second, pulling the towel away so the pieces wouldn't fall to the floor, but I was already moving toward the door, blood dripping down to my fingertips.
“Adrian,” Darius started, rising from his spot on the coffee table.
“I should find my own apartment,” I spat before he could say any more, whirling around to face him with a smile that came out more as a grimace, “and figure out what sort of assignments Tiberius has for me. It was good to see you again, Darius. And Roxy, nice to meet you but I should really—”
The door opened behind me before I could reach it myself.
“You left your keys in the door,Rox,” a masculine voice said as the door opened wider to reveal two men standing in the threshold. “Were you in such a hurry to—”
His words broke off in the same moment his eyes met mine. His casual smile faltered, dark eyes flicking from me to Roxy and back.
“Hello,” he said simply.
“Hi,” I replied.
He was a large man. Not quite as big as Tiberius but tall and toned. The man beside him was a bit shorter and much thinner. He pushed a wiry pair of spectacles up the bridge of his nose in a way that reminded me entirely too much of Milo.
“Kane,” Roxy said, stepping out from behind the couch. “This is Adrian. Adrian, this is my brother, Kane. And behind him is our friend, Hugh. Kane got the wine.”
“Which I see you’ve already devoured,” Hugh muttered, skirting around us on his way to the couch.
“Adrian,” Kane repeated, brow furrowing. “Darius’ Adrian?”
I bristled at the insinuation that I was somebody’s property as Kane’s gaze shot down to the brands peeking out from beneath my sleeves and widened. I pushed them down and stepped past him.
“Nice to meet you all,” I said.
Then I was out into the hall, door closed behind me, before anyone could stop me.
I stepped briskly down the long hall of residential quarters, passing the lifts and striding toward the work quarters beyond, my mind whirring with everything I'd learned in that cramped but homey apartment.
Darius had a girlfriend. Darius drank illegal wine. Darius had changed.
But then again…so had I.
Chapter Five
Dante
"In the end, it's fear. Fear is all there is. It's all there ever was. And it's all there will ever be. They made it that way, these gods. These gods made the fear and they use it to destroy us.”
