Chapter 4: Loyalty Tested
The smell of him was everywhere—on my skin, in my mouth, a mix of expensive cologne and sweat and sex. My silk dress felt like a lie against my still-thrumming body as I yanked it up over my thighs, the material clinging to the dampness between my legs. Pace was calmly fastening his belt buckle, the click of it absurdly loud in the humming quiet, when the door to the observation suite crashed open.
Light from the surgical theater sliced into the dark room, outlining Vito’s bulky frame in the doorway. His sharp eyes didn’t miss a thing—Pace’s loosened tie, my trembling hands trying to smooth my hair, the unmistakable, heavy energy in the air. I could feel a flush burning up my chest to my cheeks.
“What the fuck just happened here?!” Vito’s voice was a low, dangerous growl. His gaze swung from Pace to the window where Jace lay, then back to me, his lip curling. “And how’s Jace?! Pace, I called your phone fucking ten times! And Doctor Vesperine?!” He took a step inside, his hand hovering near the holster under his jacket. “What the fuck is going on?”
Pace finished with his belt and smoothed his hands down his shirtfront. He turned to face his lieutenant, a slow, infuriating smirk spreading across his face. His composure was a wall of ice.
“Vito, you and your thousand questions are staggeringly annoying.” His voice was smooth, utterly unconcerned. “We’re good here.”
My mind blanked. We’re good here? After everything? The synthesis, the bleeding, the things done to me against the glass? A hysterical laugh threatened to bubble up. Instead, I felt my blush deepen, a painful, hot crimson. “I… he’s stable. The interim serum is holding,” I stammered, my voice barely above a whisper. I sounded like a frightened intern, not the lead on a billion-euro project.
Pace’s dark eyes slid to me, the smirk turning wicked. “See? The doctor has it under control. Though she gets a bit flustered during debriefings.”
The comment was so blatant, so deliberately humiliating, it stole the air from my lungs. Before I could form a retort, he closed the distance between us. His hand came up to cradle the back of my neck, his thumb stroking the frantic pulse there. He leaned in, his lips brushing the sensitive skin just below my ear where his bite was already a tender, aching brand.
“Isn’t that right, Lina?” he murmured, the word a dark caress.
A full-body shudder wracked me, part shame, part unbearable, unwanted arousal. I was trapped between the cool glass at my back and the heat of him at my front, on display for Vito’s disgusted gaze.
Vito didn’t just look disgusted. He looked apoplectic. “Pace!” he roared, the single word cracking through the room like a gunshot.
Pace ignored him, pressing a soft, open-mouthed kiss to my neck, right over the pounding vein. He lingered there, a blatant, possessive statement, before pulling back just enough to look at Vito over my shoulder.
“The crisis is handled,” Pace said, his tone shifting from teasing to a blade’s edge of command. “Jace is stable. The doctor performed. I was… ensuring her continued cooperation. Now, do you have a real report, or did you just come here to audit my personal management style?”
Vito’s jaw worked. He stared at Pace, then at me, his expression a storm of loyalty, fury, and sheer confusion. The hand near his holster flexed, then fell to his side. He was a soldier, and Pace was his commander, even when the commander was doing things that made no tactical sense.
“The clean-up crew is at the penthouse,” Vito said finally, each word bitten off. “Forensics will find nothing. The security leak that gave Jace the access codes… we’re tracking it. Looks like it came from inside his own faction. A lieutenant named Goran. He’s gone to ground.”
“Find him,” Pace said. “I want to have a conversation before he stops breathing.”
“And her?” Vito asked, jerking his chin at me. “Is she a part of that conversation?”
Pace’s arms tightened around me, not a embrace, but a claiming. “Dr. Vesperine is now our most valuable asset. She stays with me. She’s mine to manage. You look at her, you talk to her, only if I’m not breathing. Understood?”
The finality in his voice brooked no argument. Vito gave a stiff, curt nod, his eyes telling me I was now a different kind of problem. He turned to leave, pausing at the door. “He wakes up,” Vito said, nodding toward Jace, “there’s gonna be hell to pay.”
“He’ll pay it,” Pace replied, his voice cold and certain.
Then we were alone again, the silence rushing back in. The scent of sex and tension was slowly being overtaken by the persistent antiseptic chill of the facility. Pace released me, and I staggered a half-step, my legs unsteady.
“Get your things,” he said, his voice all business once more. “You’re coming home with me.”
“I have my own apartment. My work—”
“Your work is a pile of delicate glassware and a synthesizer, which will be moved. Your apartment is a vulnerability. You saw what Jace was willing to do to get to you, to your research. He won’t be the last.” He buttoned his suit jacket, the impeccable image reforming. “You live under my protection now. In my house. Where I can keep an eye on you.”
It wasn’t an offer. It was a relocation order.
He walked to the window, staring at his brother’s unconscious form. The blue light of the monitors played over the sharp planes of his face. “You saved his life tonight. That means you owe me nothing for the initial… disruption. We’re even.”
I barked a laugh, the sound harsh in the quiet room. “Even? You dragged me out of my lab, threatened me, forced me to work under duress, and… and…” I couldn’t even say it.
He turned, his eyes capturing mine. “And fucked you raw against a window while my brother lay dying,” he finished for me, his tone disturbingly matter-of-fact. “Yes. And in return, you got to play god and save a life. You got to feel what it’s like to be wanted like that. I’d call it a fair trade.” He stepped closer, his gaze dropping to my lips. “The question, Lina, is what happens now that we’re starting with a clean slate.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He never did. He simply took my elbow, his grip firm, and guided me toward the door, out of the observation suite, past the medics who didn’t dare look up, and into the humming obsidian belly of his world. I went, because there was nowhere else to go. The cool air of the corridor felt like a judgment on my feverish skin. I was leaving one sterile, controlled environment for another. But this new cage had Pace Augustus in it.