Page 84 of Ruthless Ambition
This time, it was Cooper who snorted with amusement. “I told you she’d be fine,” Cooper drawled to Onyx.
I stuck my tongue out at him, and his eyes widened a fraction before he stuck his tongue out at me. The stupidity and lightness of the moment centered me. Running my hands through my hair, I looked at them both before I fixed my gaze on a joint in the hardwood floor.
“I came back to my room after being downstairs, I watched some tape, and then I read my book. I finished my wine from dinner, and then I went to bed.” Sitting back against the couch, I drew my legs up to my chest, grateful that my shorts and T-shirt were modest, if not a little worn. “I woke up with something cold against my throat.” I looked away from the join and glanced atOnyx, who was expressionless in front of me. “I was disoriented, and then he spoke.”
“Who is it?” Onyx asked.
“I don’t know. His voice was low. I didn’t recognize it.”
“What did he say?” Cooper asked me.
“He told me to be quiet, not to speak, not to scream.” I felt another tear slip over, and I didn’t bother brushing it away. “I told him to fuck off,” I said, and heard Cooper grunt. “I felt the blade move. I knew it was a knife now, and he told me he would slit my throat.” Looking over my shoulder toward the bedroom, I bit my lip. “I think he tore the pillowcase,” I said as I turned back to them.
“I’m sure they’ve had worse,” Onyx drawled. “What else?”
“He told me that I couldn’t run from him, that I couldn’t hide, that he would ruin me.”
“Ruin you?” Cooper asked as he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Not kill?”
“Um.” I thought about it. “No, ruin.”
Cooper’s attention flicked to Onyx. “Interesting?”
“Maybe.” Onyx looked at me. “What else?”
“I asked him why, and he said I deserved to suffer before I die.” Another tear spilled over, and this one I wiped away angrily.
“Why?” Onyx asked me. “Why doyoudeserve to die?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered as he held my stare. I didn’t jerk when his hand reached out and his thumb brushed away a tear.
“He hit you?” he asked me as his thumb pressed into my cheek slightly.
“It wasn’t hard. I think it was so he could leave,” I said honestly. With a sigh, I moved out of his touch.
“Did he touch you anywhere else?” Cooper asked gruffly, and I quickly shook my head. “Do you need a doctor?” he pressed.
“No, just my throat with the knife and his hand when he hit me,” I assured him. “I don’t even know how he got in,” I admitted. And then I looked at them both. “How did you get in?”
“I told you,” Onyx snapped. “Hotels are the fucking easiest to get into. I told you that you weren’t safe here.”
“I’m safer with you?” I scoffed.
“Obviously,” he snapped as he stood and turned to Cooper. “I told you to put a fucking camera on her door.”
He did what?
“And I did, and it got disconnected, and I was already on my way here when you called me.”
“He knows we’re watching,” Onyx mused. “I hate when people think they’re smarter than me.”
“Anything else?” Cooper asked me, and he rolled his eyes when I glanced at Onyx. “Just spit it out, at this point you’re fucked anyway.”
He ignored my glare, and I looked up at the towering man above me. “I—”
“There’s more?” he demanded.
“I got a letter in the mail,” I began, but Onyx looked so furious I stopped speaking.
