across the parking lot to a posh town car that screamed megabucks.
When I cast a glance at the driver, our eyes connected. I blinked in surprise at the intensity of his look, then shrugged it off when the car shook slightly as Adam opened then closed the door.
Within seconds, I heard the ignition, and then, they were pulling away. Through the back window, Adam turned around twice, as was his way, and as was mine, I was watching.
Raising a hand, I waved at him, aware that as he drove off in a vehicle that was proof of exactly how different our worlds were, he took my heart with him.
And I was more than okay with that.
ADAM
She’d dressed up.
I got it—this meeting was a big deal. A huge deal in fact. The money that Dad was talking was enough to make even a rich man feel a little faint, and for Thea, who’d been raised with nothing…well, hell, it was like finding treasure.
I was happy for her.
Truly, I was, but she’d dressed up when she never dressed up, and it did something to me.
It twisted my gut until I felt like someone had made a knot with my intestines.
I gnawed on my bottom lip as I tried to ignore the way her chignon highlighted her neck, the delicate arch, the smooth, graceful lines. She wore a simple dress, but it was like a long man’s vest with lapels. Tailored to a degree I wasn’t used to seeing her in. A pencil skirt that spotlighted how slender she was. Revealing toned arms and long legs that I’d felt around my hips too few times to be happy about.
Her coloring, true Roma, shone through against the navy lines. Her skin was light brown, tanned, her hair a rich chestnut, her eyes gleaming like dark amber.
Everything about her enticed me. From the way she moved, to the way she talked. She was a snake charmer and I the snake—and how apt that analogy was. Sickening, really.
I stayed in the background, only listening because Dad had asked me to take notes. He dealt with this stuff on Thea’s behalf because, despite everything, I actually thought he loved her. Mom was incapable of love, unless it was Cain, but Dad seemed to really care about Thea, and I was glad about that. She deserved some affection, and her success gave my dad a boner. Not in a creepy way. Just because he saw the potential and wanted to capitalize on it—he was a negotiator to his core.
Everything about Thea, on the other hand, wasn’t.
Thea wasn’t made for business. She could dress up like she was, but she just wasn’t. She wasn’t born to be in boardrooms or to sit in front of cameras and lights for money. I knew she’d do it because she felt she had no choice, but it wasn’t her.
She was made for the water. Born to be free.
I’d long since researched her people. A collective that had intrigued me ever since I’d first come to know of her and the little ways she had about her. I’d delved deeper, probably knowing more than she did about her culture—the level of persecution, of misunderstanding and prejudice. It all seemed to roll off Thea because she wasn’t involved in the community and had no desire to be a part of it. But, even so, it was in her blood.
The material gains had a purpose, that was why she wanted them. Not to buy snazzy clothes—even though her dress today screamed designer—but because she wanted the money to fight an injustice.
That was Thea, and I found comfort in that.
Even if she wasn’t mine, I knew her, and I owned that part of her.
Like she could feel my attention on her, she shot me a look. Instantly, she froze, then she released a breath that let me know she was rattled. That had success flushing through me, even as I pointedly turned away and focused on the meeting.
There were four guys here, all talking BS. Selling the contract they wanted Thea to take. Whether my dad would or not was down to him, but it interested me only because I knew this single contract would solve all Thea’s problems. Which opened up a doorway for me.
I tried not to get excited about that.
She was still only one race into the Games. She still had a lot to prove. Mostly to herself, but also to the world.