the yogurt, places the tub on a nearby table and steps up to the piano to drag a fingertip across the keys.
My pulse picks up, eyes glued to every tiny move she makes.
Adeline pulls her hand away and glances down at the bench. Dragging it out, she lifts the seat to find all her old music. Her brows tug together, annoyance flickering across her face. I smile because it’s funny.
What else did she expect to find? She already knows I know everything about her.
Despite her annoyance, she grabs sheet music from the top, eyes the piano, the music, the piano again, and then she sits down, her hands hovering over the keyboard before she finally presses a key to play the first note.
I hit the volume button, music filling the silence in Lincoln’s living room.
Lincoln stares at me from where he sits, saying nothing for a few seconds before, “Is that the little psychopath finally coming out of her shell?”
Nodding my head, I keep watching her. She needs to be pushed more. Fought harder. She’s tipped a toe out from behind her battered curtain, but needs a good shove to get the rest of her soul out into the open.
I’ve been waiting for her to show me she’s ready for the shove. It’s a damn shame it’ll suck so much.
For her.
Not me.
I’ll enjoy it.
Closing the computer, I push to my feet. “Time to go.”
Lincoln eyes me warily. “You’re not going to give her even a second of coming out of her shell before attacking, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” I say as I shove the computer in my bag and zip it shut. Shouldering the strap, I turn back to him.
“Do you remember what Adeline was like when she was younger?”
He groans. “How the fuck could I forget? She was annoying as hell and ran headfirst into every stupid fucking thing a person can do to get themselves beat down or killed.”
Okay, he’s right, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make.
“Beyond that.”
A roll of his eyes tells me he won’t come to the answer I want.
“She’s a fighter. You and I both know it. Grant beat her down into submission the wrong way. He broke her and trapped her in a candy coated shell of compliance. Since I’ve had her, she’s refused to come out of it, and there’s no fun fighting a person who won’t fight back. But now, she’s showing herself again. I needed one sign. One. Which she’s just given me.”
“And you think her touching a piano is a sign she’ll fight back for once? Maybe she’s just bored.”
My lips curl. I know her a lot better than that.
“She’s healed. Physically, at least. Now I won’t feel so bad to bruise her ego and body in the way it should be done. I’ll draw her out.”
I’m across the room with my hand on the door when Lincoln speaks again.
“Why do you care so much, Ari? Why are you investing all this energy into her? Especially when we both know how this will end. She’ll never forgive you.”
Shooting him a look, I refuse to reveal the plans I have for her. The final fuck you that will be delivered when all of this comes to its end. It wasn’t until last night that I thought of it, but now that the idea is in my head, I realize it’s the only thing that will free her entirely.
If I can give that to her, I will. Even if she can never forgive me for what I did the first night I saw her.
“You let me worry about that.”
I leave his place and drive to mine, my mind set on the task I want to accomplish and the best way to go about.
Pulling into the underground garage, I park, kill the engine and roll the tension from my shoulders.
One thing about Adeline I can never forget is that when she thinks she’s cornered, she comes out swinging.
It didn’t happen with Grant. He’d broken her too much before the night he beat her to a fucking pulp.
But it will happen with me.
I may be a bastard but I don’t beat women.
Piss them off, spank their ass, force their hand. All yes. But beat them? No.
Only a pussy does that.
And he’ll pay for being a pussy.
But that’s later, and this is now.
It’s time to fix what that bastard has broken.
Adeline
The boredom is getting to me. For the first week I was here, I didn’t feel like moving. I was in too