Truth scalded her throat, and the bitter taste of it hung heavy on her tongue.
Would she be able to forgive Darling if she was in his place?
No, she wouldn’t. So what made her think for even a nanosecond that he’d be a better person than she was?
Because he’d always been a better person.
Guilt, dread, and raw fear tormented her with more scenarios.
And all of them ended with him killing her…
Maris left her alone in the hallway so that he could enter Darling’s study first.
Tempted to run for cover, she listened intently. If Darling spoke, she couldn’t hear him through the door. But Maris’s voice was plain.
“I think I might have found something to finally brighten your foul mood.” Maris opened the door and motioned her forward.
For a full minute, she couldn’t move as terror overwhelmed her.
I can’t do this. Fear had her absolutely paralyzed.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” Maris whispered. He held his hand out for her.
Summoning her courage, she allowed him to pull her inside. She’d barely entered the room when her gaze locked with Darling’s.
Time hung still as they stared at each other.
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t the man in front of her. First, she couldn’t see anything of his face. He wore a gold mask that had no expression whatsoever.
Only a pair of furious blue eyes showed his emotions, and the hatred there was a living, tangible entity that held her immobile.
Like some menacing demon, he wore a black hood pulled up over his head with tendrils of long, greasy red hair peeking out around its edges. Not a single millimeter of skin showed other than his scarred lips and bearded chin. He was swathed from head to toe in black and his hands were covered with leather gloves. But what held her attention hard and fast was the explosive device he wore around his chest.
Maris was right. Darling was deranged. She could feel the violent undercurrent in him with every instinct she possessed.
Run!
But her limbs wouldn’t obey her…
Darling didn’t move as he stared at the last human being he’d ever thought to see again. For a full minute, he couldn’t breathe as he gazed into the amber eyes that had haunted him for months now. At first he thought his drunken mind had conjured her, but one look at Maris and he knew the truth.
The treacherous bastard had betrayed him.
Even worse, Maris must have dressed her. Darling had never known Zarya to wear makeup of any kind before. Nor curl her hair.
Tonight, she was exquisitely perfect in his office. Not that she hadn’t always been exquisite. From the first time he’d met her as an adult, and she’d been covered in grease and blood from a mission she’d been on, he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman in the universe.
You’re all I ever wanted…
In spite of everything her soldiers had done to him, a part of him wanted to run to her and hold her. To have her soothe the blackened misery that consumed every last molecule of his soul.
He hated that part of himself.
She betrayed you. She spit on you like you were dirt beneath her feet. When he’d been helpless and torn apart by her friends, she’d slapped him.
He still bore the scar on his cheek from the ring he’d given her. It bisected the one his brother had given him.
But worse was the agony deep inside. The part of him she’d kicked the hardest.
His heart.
All of his volatile, competing emotions slammed into him with resounding violence. In that one heartbeat, he wanted only to kill her. He could already feel her last breath. Smell her blood on his hands.
“What is she doing here?” he snarled.
Zarya swallowed as she heard what Maris had warned her about. That wasn’t the lyrical, refined voice that used to whisper in her ear. It was a gruff, raspy growl that sounded like it caused him pain to speak. One that told her just how badly the muzzle had damaged his throat.
Her poor Darling…
Maris faced him bravely. But for his reassuring hand on her arm, she’d be running for the door.
“I thought she’d make you happy.”
Darling came out of his chair with a feral snarl. “Get her out of my sight.”
“But—”
Before Maris could utter another syllable, Darling let out a fierce roar and overturned his ornately carved desk. Everything that had been on top of it went flying.
The air was charged with Darling’s fury as he stormed toward them.
Fearless, Maris released her and put himself in Darling’s path. “If you want to hit someone, hit me. I’m the one who bought her for you.”
“You’re going to tempt me one time too many to hit you, Maris. One day, I’m not going to pull back.”
“And I’ll still love you, even if you knock my teeth out.”
Those words seemed to calm Darling a degree. At least that’s what Zarya thought until he looked at her. Then the bitter, insane rage returned to his eyes.
He stepped around Maris to grab her by the arm.