Nown 28

EVE 

I rushed into the bathroom as soon as we arrived at the hotel. God, the door hadn’t even clicked shut behind me before I let out a long exhale. I couldn’t believe the kind of air I had been holding back. I was breathing through a straw, and I think my lungs were ready to sue me for emotional damage. 

I was feeling suffocated throughout the entire flight. 

Saint kept his eyes on me the whole time without even as much as looking away for more than a second. The same way he kept looking at me on our first night together. 

And Saint’s stare isn’t just a stare. 

It’s a scalpel. 

It cuts, peels, and probes. 

It digs into your skin, peels back your dignity, and quietly whispers to your shame, “You’re next.” 

His looks had a way of degrading someone and stripping them of every shred of confidence they thought they had. 

It felt like he was dissecting me piece by piece, scanning every layer of my entire being and reaching 

out to the depths of my secrets no one had access to. That’s exactly what it felt like. 

I sat through the entire flight trying not to breathe too loudly or too heavily or too… anything. 

I felt safer around Kyrie, even though he was not too far from Saint in terms of personality. 

He isn’t exactly a warm cup of tea. He’s more like a shot of vodka you take after a punch in the 

face… sharp, burning, and somehow, oddly comforting. 

Something about him made me feel safe. 

At least around Kyrie, I felt like a person. But with Saint, I felt like an unfinished project, waiting to be torn apart and reassembled into something I wouldn’t recognize. 

I know how funny it might seem. But that was the truth. 

1/4 

Chapter 28 

When I was in the car with him, I begged him to tell me where we were headed, but he didn’t even 

so much as cough a response to me. 

He was on several calls, and at some point, he seemed angry at whoever he was talking to. 

From what I could piece together, he was making arrangements for someone to come and stay in his house. A woman, probably. His girlfriend? I don’t know. None of my business. 

But I hated how my stomach twisted when I assumed it. Like I had the right to care. 

And, I swear to God, I was tempted to ask him on two different occasions during the drive why he 

was looking for me back then. I wanted to know if I had also offended him or if he was just helping 

his friend look for me. 

But, no. 

Asking him would mean opening a door I couldn’t close. It would mean revealing the one thing Saint told me never to let slip. And I was in no mood to find out what Saint would do if I ever let that happen. So, I just swallowed down my bitter curiosity with a glass of cold silence. 

I was hoping to spend some more time with him on the flight, just so I could find out where they were all going. It looked like a professional robbery or something. 

Wait. Was it a heist? 

Were they criminals? 

— 

Because let’s be honest the way these men moved, the seriousness on their faces, the controlled aggression, the lack of small talks… it screamed crime. Or something close. 

But Saint didn’t give me that chance. He’d rather I turned into a TV show he could keep watching without getting bored all through the flight, than sit with his best friend. 

Did he think I’d melt into Kyrie’s arms and disappear forever if he left me unsupervised for too long? 

Because apparently, that’s the only logical explanation for why I was suddenly rooming with him and his girlfriend. Two large rooms and a living room. He let me have one of the rooms. 

I didn’t care how luxurious the hotel was; I still felt like I was sleeping in a glass box. And I found it 

very inconvenient. 

2/4 

Chapter 28 

I’ve just known these men for, what, three days, and it already seemed like my whole world was being controlled by them. 

I splashed cold water on my face, trying to douse the fire building in my chest. But the more I stood there staring at my reflection, the more pissed I got. 

No, seriously, who the hell did Saint think he was? Even though I owed him, he didn’t have the right to drag me two hours from home, stick me in a company of people I didn’t even know, still refusing to say a damn word about what I was even doing here? 

I dried my face and stared myself down in the mirror. My hands were shaking. My chest was tight. But I was done playing the coward. It was best that I confronted Saint myself. 

I was shaking by the time I reached his door. But I still knocked either way. A stupid, cowardly part 

of me begged me not to take this step, but I wasn’t a coward. I was done being a coward. So, I knocked again. 

I heard the lock clicking from the inside before the door pulled open, revealing the same lady from his office. The one who’d been bouncing on his lap like a trained gymnast while we stood there 

watching. 

She flashed me a polite smile, “Yes, Eve.” 

Of course, she knew my name. I was the awkward step–sister slash captive with emotional baggage and enough secrets to blackmail a country. I was certain Saint must have told her all about me. 

“I… uh…” I swallowed hard. “I need to speak with the Alpha.” I forced the words out before I’d change my mind and bolt into my room. 

My voice didn’t sound like mine. It sounded rehearsed, overcompensated, and way too polite. 

“Oh. Come on in,” she moved aside and ushered me in. 

The second I walked in, my soul left my body. 

The first thing my eyes caught was a large dagger tattooed on the hard, chiseled back of a man putting on nothing but black briefs, with his whole attention focused on whatever it was he was looking at outside the ceiling–to–floor window he was standing before. 

And he was smoking again, blowing clouds like he was bored of breathing oxygen. 

3/4 

Chapter 28 

Jesus Christ. 

His presence was so depressing. 

His sleek, silver hair was disheveled and slightly wet. He’d just stepped out of the bathroom, I guess. 

“Saint? Someone is here to see you,” the girl announced, but he didn’t even as much as turn in my direction. 

I saw the girl’s countenance turn sour before she reluctantly walked to the closet, put on something a bit more decent, and left the room. 

Mind link, obviously. 

And the second that door clicked shut behind her, my guts immediately screamed at me that this was the dumbest idea ever. 

Because now, I was left alone with him and no one but my foolishness. The kind of foolishness that starts with “just knock, Eve” and ends with you standing in front of a half–naked Alpha whose silence could rot a soul. 

Chapte 

ts 

LIKE