Chapter 50

A Little Mischief

Alex

"Ay-yo!"

Jade's body shuddered in my arms, Andrei’s loud and obnoxious call murdering the bittersweet moment. "Let's all get in the fucking house!"

God fucking damn him.

I trailed behind Jade into the house, cursing myself for not blasting through Knox’s skull when I had the chance.

He fucking cut her open, and it all looked rough and recent. The dark images in my mind were overwhelming. What did he do? Held her down and tried to fillet the poor girl? Touched her?Hurt her.

He hadballsto think he’d go unpunished. Big fucking King Kong balls to attack her like that and think he’d never face retribution. I’d test it—see how strong his balls were when I’d hang him up in one of our warehouses—byhis balls.

It would give him all the time to think about his mistakes. Plenty of opportunity to beg Jade for forgiveness.

“So? You gonna tell me what you’re doing here?” Andrei stood in the kitchen, his arms crossed and his tone reprimanding. Jadeslinked into the shower as soon as we made it into the house, and he finally caught me alone.

I chuckled, a dark irritation brewing inside me for the first time. Andrei and I had always been on the same page; we always saw eye to eye. But not now.

“What do you want me to say? I like her. I want to spend time with her. Happy?”

He nodded slowly, still leaning against the counter, but all I wanted was for him to disappear.

“You’ve chosen her overus.” He pointed between us, the accusation absolutely wild.

“You’re being dramatic like always, and I—”

“No, no, I’m not. We discussed this. We worked toward this. We’re on the brink of fucking prison, Alex—”

His phone rang loudly and he reached into his pocket as if on instinct, picking it up right away. I stood there and listened to the way he spoke to Olga—gentle, understanding, each word pronounced softly.

“I have to go.” He hung up the phone and headed for the door as if he wasn’t in the middle of a neurotic episode ten seconds ago. “Olya says she has pains and I—” He suddenly turned to me, halfway across the house. “I watched what happened here. The head massage, thecooking for her,the crying. The video was a good fucking idea; I’ll give her that.”

He pointed toward the bedroom where Jade was in the shower, my blood warming at the thought of her in there. But the video he mentioned brought me right back to the tears Jade made herself cry last night.

How fragile she felt in my arms.

And for better or for worse…it worked. Moretti received the video and called an emergency meeting, and another press conference, the details of which Andrei and I were awaiting with anticipation.

“Did you fuck her?”

Andrei’s crude words cut through my thoughts like a hatchet. Jade and the wordfuckingdidn’t exist in the same place in my head. Jade was meant to be loved. Caressed.Worshippedlike the goddess that she was.

And only fucked if she wanted it.

“It’s none of your fucking business, Andr—”

“Youmadeit my business, Sasha. The day you fucking laid eyes on her, I fuckingknew—”

The shower turned off and we both whipped our heads in the direction of the bedroom. Andrei dropped his voice. “I had a damn premonition that this was going to be a probl—”

“Alex?” Jade’s voice sounded from behind the closed door, my reaction to her voice like that of Pavlov’s dog.

“What’s your plan? You’re going to drag me out of here?” I turned to Andrei, eager for him to get the fuck out.

He scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets. “You asked Maksim to go to your house and get your clothes. And your fucking toothbrush. Did you ask for your razor too? Your bodywash? You moving in with her? With Moretti’sdaughter?”