the driver’s side door partially open, stands a man whose shape makes me go rigid. Him, I don’t recognize as easily as Domino.
Not until I hear his voice.
He whistles, his laughter booming enough to echo across the property. “Well, good fucking morning,” he calls to me.
My cheeks sear as I realize that he can see me—and my lack of clothing—clearly. Automatically, I raise my hands, attempting to shield myself.
Then I stop, my fingers raised just beneath my nipples.
From the corner of my eye, I see the distant shape of Domino go rigid, like a speck of darkness over the otherwise bright landscape. I know he’s watching me. I can practically feel his eyes raking over my skin with that unspoken possession.
Don’t. I can almost hear him voicing the warning in his signature unstable rasp. Don’t you fucking dare.
I don’t take my eyes off him, even as I lift my hand and wave toward the figure in the driveway. He chuckles, whistling even louder. Something in the sound sends a shiver of unease through me. It’s primal, like the way one of my father’s dogs would snarl when it had a bone it didn’t want to share with the others.
A warning.
When I look back at Domino, however, he’s gone. It’s like he vanished, leaving Alexi standing alone.
At least until I hear a door open and slam with the force of a gunshot.
Chapter Three
“What the hell are you doing?” His voice is softer than it should be, perfectly controlled to not be overheard by anyone beyond this room. “Come here—”
“Why?” I’m still watching Jaguar and his posse. They look dangerous, even from afar. The sort of men my father would meet miles from the city when he thought no one saw him. A reporter did once and threatened to blackmail him, using photographic evidence.
Until my father sent me to charm my way into his office and plant materials that he reported stolen from our house earlier that week, ensuring the man was jailed and unable to access his so-called evidence. At least until he was released on bail and found all of his electronics smashed to pieces. Such was the way my father handled any threat.
With vicious, underhanded tactics or outright bribery.
Whatever he wanted protected, he hid under lock and key, deploying them only when necessary. Whether he realizes it or not, Domino’s been acting the same way—obscuring his hatred toward my family, then revealing Pia’s diary…
And by taking me now?
Trying to decipher his motives hurts my brain. Banishing all thoughts of him, I relish the heat of the weakened sun on my body, counting down the seconds that pass without him dragging me inside.
Then, some harrowing moment between Jaguar’s next whistle and my own heartbeat, I realize that he won’t. He can’t.
Because to do so would risk breaking his façade before the one person he seems determined to hide me from. Alexi or Jaguar?
That’s the real question.
When I turn to face him, I can’t glean an answer from his expression alone. All I find is pure, molten rage.
His teeth flash, the only break in the shadows that shroud most of his expression. “Get in.”
I don’t refuse him outright. I just brace my elbows against the balcony on either side of me and lean back, feeling my heart race like mad. I’m terrified. I’m also resigned.
Honestly, in this moment, I feel like I wouldn’t have any problem at all with leaning back further. Too far. Falling over this balcony entirely and landing on the rugged terrain below.
He must realize that, but the prospect alarms him enough to stalk forward, coming into view of our audience below. I watch his eyes, waiting to see who they flicker toward first.
Unsettlingly, they remain fixated on me, a writhing mass of brown and flecks of green, promising a wrath unlike any I’ve experienced from him so far.
For a second, I rock on my heels, testing how much force it would truly require to actually hurl myself over the edge.
Too late.
He reaches me within a fraction of a second, palming the side of my face to pull me close.
“You have no idea what game you’re playing, Ada-Maria,” he murmurs, his tone so level and soft it’s damn near gentle. His hands betray his malice, however, shaking against my skin as if it’s requiring every ounce of restraint he has just to keep from ripping me apart.
“I think I do,” I counter, shocked by how hard my voice sounds in comparison to his.
His eyes narrow—he’s shocked as well.
Possessed