acting as his guard and reminding me of the night we met.
“People rarely do, but strength is more than just being able to use your fists, like you said,” I tell him, pinching the skin on my thighs, using the bite of pain to keep me grounded.
“True,” Zodiac agrees before lifting a strand of my hair and inspecting it. “But beware of wolves with sharp teeth, little Red. Not everyone fights fairly.”
I don’t know if he’s warning me about him or the others, but he needn’t have bothered. Nobody here knows that better than me.
I smile up at him, a sweet smile which Wyatt finds hilarious because I’m anything but, then let it morph into the grin I use when I mean business.
“Some people see Red skipping through the woods without a care in the world, but that’s their mistake. If they looked closer, they would see her red cape is wolf fur coated in blood.”
He takes a step back, letting go of my hair, and just like me, he can’t tell if I’m threatening him or just making an off the cuff comment.
“Touché.” He dips his head before calling for Reid. “Take her to her new apartment,” Zodiac orders before walking over to Leo.
“Christ, woman, you had me worried for a second,” Reid curses, leading me across the room and down the hallway we entered through.
“Yes, I could tell how worried you were when you jumped in to save me.” I roll my eyes. I’ve spent far too much time with liars. Words mean nothing to me. Actions are everything and Reid proved that the only person who has my back is me.
“That’s not how it works here and you know it. We all went through it, Cherry, and if I jumped in, it would have made you look weak. Zodiac would have had us both killed on the spot.”
I shrug my shoulders. He’s probably right. Doesn’t make it sting any less though.
“Maybe, maybe not. You’re right with what you said before, Zodiac wants something from me specifically. I just don’t know what. You notice how many times he mentioned I was a woman? He set me up with a big bullseye on my forehead. The question is, why? If I hadn’t pulled that stunt with the knife, I’d be dead. If he wants something from me, my death puts a kink in the plan. Unless—”
I stop in my tracks just outside the door, making Reid bump into me. He grips my arms to prevent me from falling but lets go once he’s sure I’m stable.
“What? What is it?” he questions, looking around sharply.
“Not here. I’ll tell you in the car.”
He doesn’t say another word, and neither do I as we walk over to Reid’s sleek black sports car and climb in. I yank the seatbelt over me and hiss when I catch my hand.
Leaning over me, he pops open the glove box and pulls out a bandage roll before taking my hand carefully in his.
“This might need stitches,” he murmurs, gazing down at the cut that’s still bleeding, although it’s more of an ooze than a gush, so that’s something at least.
“You have superglue back at your place?” I ask, pulling my hand back. Having him touching me messes with my brain and right now, I need my wits about me.
“Yeah, sure.” He nods, strapping himself in and starting up the car.
“Then you can glue it together for me and I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t like hospitals?” he guesses, looking at me with surprise before pulling away from the planetarium, heading in the direction of his penthouse.
“Hospitals ask too many questions,” I answer. I don’t have anything against them besides that.
“You’re not a minor anymore, Cherry,” he reminds me. “I don’t know your story, but it doesn’t matter now. They can’t send you home now that you’re an adult.”
“There is no home for me to get sent back to and I don’t want to talk about it. What I want to talk about is the fact I don’t think that test back there was about me, I think it was about you and possibly the other division heads.”
He frowns, his hands gripping the steering wheel hard.
“How so?” he rasps.
I like that he doesn’t dismiss my suspicions. I doubt it’s because he trusts me. Maybe he has been questioning Zodiac himself.
“The fact that he kept pointing out I’m a woman bugged me. Like I said, if he specifically needed something from me, then he wouldn’t have set up my murder