Page 98 of Temptation
“Riiight,” I drawled out as he walked away from me, leaving me in the middle of the club.
Skylar and Sebastian were with Dylan on the other side of the club, playing darts, pretending that they didn’t see what was happening around us. I felt Dylan’s and Skylar’s eyes on me several times already, but I couldn’t share anything with them when even I didn’t know what was going on.
Why would the president of Sons of Hades want to talk to me? Why come all the way here for Winworth?
Whatever it was, it had something to do with Nikolai and his connection to Judah. I didn’t miss the fact that Ophelia and Nikolai shared the same last name, but if she had killed him, does that mean that she had killed her own father?
I looked around, trying to find another familiar face. The only other person I knew, apart from Dylan, Skylar, and Sebastian, was Atlas, and he was nowhere to be found. Men passed next to me without giving me a second glance, but when I spotted a lone figure sitting next to the bar, something pulled me to her.
Ophelia sat by herself, ignoring the rest of the world, and most of all, Storm, who was glaring at her while standing at the entrance. She had a knife in front of her, carving something into the wooden bar, and even if it made me a fool, I had to talk to her.
I had to know why she was here.
With hurried steps and before someone could stop me, I crossed the distance between us and pulled one of the bar chairs close to her. Her eyes narrowed on me as I sat down, but she never said a word. Instead, she kept looking at me as if I grew two heads, and just as I pulled closer to the bar, she slammed the knife into the wood, turning fully toward me.
“You’re a brave one, aren’t you?” she asked, chuckling at the same time.
“I would rather say reckless. Being brave has nothing to do with it.” What happened recently told me that much. For years I thought I was brave, rushing to save the day, to save the world from the Big Bad. I never stopped to think about the things I was doing.
I planned, but none of those plans worked in my favor. And it would seem that I trusted the wrong person.
“You have the same last name as Nikolai,” I murmured.
“I do.” She smirked. “It would seem that I am my father’s daughter.”
“F-Father?” I stammered.
“Don’t look so surprised, Ash. Just because somebody gave them the power to be parents, didn’t mean that they were good ones. Yes, we share the same last name, but that’s the only thing we shared. Although, if you ask Storm and his buddies, I’m pretty sure they’ll tell you what a terrible person I am and to stay away from me.”
That’s exactly what Indigo had said.
She kept looking at me, but I could see that her mind was somewhere far away from here. And when she looked behind me, I didn’t even have to turn around to see what she was looking at. But I did.
Storm stood next to one of the tables now, right next to Indigo, glaring at both of us. His eyes went from her to me, and I didn’t have to be a genius to know what that look represented.
Jealousy.
Anger.
Pain.
This was the man who knew pain as if it was a permanent part of him, and I wondered what put it there. I wondered if it was her, or if something else bothered him.
Storm’s dark hair was longer on the top, his arms crossed on his chest, the black thermal shirt clinging to his muscles like a second skin, and I knew he wasn’t a man I would like to see in a dark alley all alone. He oozed danger, and while he kept staring at the two of us, I had to ask. If he was going to kick my ass, I at least wanted to know why.
“What are you to him?” I asked out of the blue and looked at her. Sorrow, pain, and anguish all mixed in one, they passed over her face, rolling over the slight tremble of her lower lip, while her eyes stayed on him.
“Nothing.” I found that hard to believe.
“Okay.” I nodded, carefully choosing my next words. “And what is he to you?”
This time she turned to me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Everything.”
Gone was the confident girl from just half an hour ago when she introduced herself to me. This was a wounded tigress, yearning for something she couldn’t have.
Only one word, but one word was enough to show all the emotions hiding inside her. And whatever went wrong with the two of them, it was most probably the reason for those dark circles.
“I’m—”
