“Gabriel didn’t send us.” He stepped forward, approaching Kai. “And we leave on her
command. Not yours.”
Kai turned to me, bowing his head to stare me down. “Go with him. I dare you.”
My heart skipped a beat. How much he reminded me of Damon now.
But the contract still wasn’t signed. Once it was, I could bolt, and it would be up to him if he wanted to chase me down. If I broke the agreement now, though, Gabriel would blame me.
Kai lowered his voice, everyone around us hushed, but the music and partygoers in the rest of the place still went hard. “Who do you belong to?”
“Kai,” someone scolded.
“Quiet, Rika,” he bit out, still looking at me. “Who do you belong to?”
I could feel eyes on me coming from everywhere, and I wanted to take out my pocket knife and sink it into his fucking gut. Goddamn him. Years and years of climbing over shit bags like him to just get a peek over the fence, and here he was, grabbing my ankles and yanking me back down into the pit. Everyone was going to know. Everyone was going to see me powerless here.
I held his eyes, my own burning with hatred. I clenched my teeth so hard they started aching.
Taking a step, I moved to his side and turned around, facing David, Lev, and Ilia.
“To you,” I said barely above a whisper.
And I’m going to kill you for this. A lump lodged in my throat, and I felt nauseous.
“Now…” Kai said, sitting down in the black cushioned chair behind him. “You can take her home.”
I didn’t wait for the guys to do anything. I shot off, pushing through all the people, the guys turning and following me as I passed. I felt a hand rest lightly on my back.
“She knows how to walk,” Kai barked behind us. “Don’t touch her.”
The hand, probably David’s, immediately left me.
Swinging around the corner, we all charged into the elevator, and Ilia pushed the button. Once the doors closed, I was fucking done. I threw my fist into the wall over and over again, swinging my leg back and kicking it, growling at the top of my lungs. “Fuck!”
I swung around, throwing my elbow back, everything in my right arm, from my knuckles to my shoulder, screaming with pain. I slammed the wall again and again, punching and kicking. “Ugh!” I threw another punch.
Thankfully, the guys knew to shut up and stay on their side of the elevator.
I paced back and forth, breathing hard. He’d humiliated me in there. I slammed the wall with my palm again, pain shooting up my arm. Humiliated me…
“What do you want us to do?” David asked.
But I didn’t look at them. Or answer.
I knew what needed to happen. I needed Kai to sign that damn contract. Once he did that, he was all I had to contend with. My brother would be allowed to return and be safe, and father would be out of the picture, having gotten what he wanted. I could do things my way, then.
But I suspected Kai never had any intention of signing it. That was the problem. He was going to drag this out and drag me with him.
I should never have let him touch me.
“Guys just wanna fuck,” I remembered my brother telling me once. “We’ll fuck anything we can get our hands on. No one’s going to love you. Not really. He’ll just lead you on, get what he can take, and eventually, he’ll move on to someone newer and hotter. Promise you’ll never let anyone use you like that. Don’t be a slut. Be strong.”
My brother taught me that men would only use me and hurt me, and from what I’d seen so far in this life, he was damn right.
Kai could get horny just like anyone else, but lust could never overshadow how cruel I knew he could be. How cruel he was to Erika last year and how cruel he’d just proven himself to be.
He was in complete control of me. He knew it, and he’d just proved it.