Noah said he was bringing someone. I didn’t really think about who, but I guess I expected Rafael or Dominic. But it’s Wes.
What the hell doesWeshave to do with Noah?
I know Wes through ForbiddenX. I don’t know him through Noah.
“What the fuck is he doing here?”
Noah halts mid-step when I suddenly block his path. He sighs. “Yeah. He said you didn’t seem to remember him. Wes sometimes helps me with cleanup, and I sometimes help him.”
I stare past Noah to Wes. I don’t see it. I don’t understand. I don’t want to.
“I’ll stay out here,” Wes calls to me. “It’s fine.”
It’s not fucking fine, and it snaps the fragile threads holding me together.
I blow past Noah and storm out into the loading zone where Noah’s truck is parked beside the Valenci vehicle. Wes straightens from his lean against the side of the truck.
I see him clearly for the first time. His stern, handsome face. His violent readiness. The militant harshness that never really fit with his business.
“You’ve knownall along,” I demand. There’s a lot missing from that sentence, but Wes doesn’t look confused. He understands me.
“From the second you applied to ForbiddenX, yes.”
“So you fucking spied on me for Noah?”
“He’s here to help you, Andre, and so am I. So instead of being a dick about it—”
“Answer my fucking question!” I slam Wes into the side of the truck with all the anger that I can’t unleash with Noah or Elias, the anger that never has any real outlet.
Even when I killed those two men, it was controlled, purpose driven. This isn’t.
Wes reacts so fast that I don’t even know how I end up the ground—but it is everything I need. I fucking lose it.
We twist and wrestle. There’s shouting at the edge of our fight, but I ignore it.
I manage to get behind Wes and hook one of his legs with mine. I’m halfway to getting him in a headlock when he slams his head back into my face. I lose my grip on him, and he’s quick to take advantage of that fact. His elbow drives into my ribs.
Shit happens too fast for me to track, but I end up on my back with Wes on top of me, his hands at my throat. I ram my knee into his side. He squeezes harder. His teeth are bared in a rictus of fury, and I understand it so fucking well that it takes all my anger right out of me. It just flips a switch in my brain, turns it off. I stop fighting. I let him choke me. My thoughts slide away.
Distantly, I hear shouting.
Wes suddenly releases my throat but unleashes a wordless, vicious scream in my face. He shoves up from me and goes stalking off.
“Go inside,” Noah orders him as I roll onto my side, coughing and choking. “Now, Wes!”
Noah doesn’t touch me, but he hovers at my side as I get to my hands and knees thento my feet. I’m lightheaded, dizzy, but I feel strangely calm. Things have broken apart inside me.
When something crashes inside the apartment, my heart skips, disrupting the calm. I push past Noah and hurry inside. Elias is in there.
I’m halfway across the dark space when the kitchen light blazes on behind me, revealing two dead bodies amid the mess of toppled furniture—two dead bodies and Wes, pacing. His expression is still furious and his dick is pressing visibly against his black combat pants.
But Elias is nowhere to be seen.
Then I spot him in the loft, peering through the bars of the black railing.
I calm back down. I go to stand at the bottom of the cast iron staircase.
“Oh, you’re fucking fine now, are you?” Wes shouts at me.
