His gaze raked across the room, cold and imperious. "Let me be clear. Once you walk out this door, if a single word of this reaches Savannah Simmons, don't expect me to honor our past ties."
I sagged against the corridor wall, the cold plaster seeping through my clothes. My extremities went numb, as if the blood had simply stopped flowing.
So that was it. The five years I had traded my life for were nothing more than a meticulously orchestrated punishment.
My future, my dignity—all it took was a slight frown from Stella for them to be discarded. In Sebastian's eyes, sacrificing me was simply how things should be.
A laugh bubbled in my chest, but it choked off, replaced by the metallic tang of copper rising in my throat.
A phone shrilled inside the private room. Footsteps approached the door.
Panic seized me. I spun around to flee, only to collide hard with a solid mass—the manager delivering more alcohol.
The tray tipped. The bottle—a rare vintage reserved exclusively for the Fort Valor Military District—crashed to the floor. The sound of shattering glass was deafening.
The manager's face drained of color, then twisted into rage. Before I could apologize, his hand cracked across my face.
The door to the private room swung open.
Sebastian strode out. He didn't even glance at the commotion. His attention was solely on the figure launching herself at him. He opened his arms, catching Stella as she threw herself into his embrace.
"Why did you come back alone? I told you I'd pick you up," he murmured, his voice dropping to a gentle timbre I hadn't heard in years.
"I missed you! I wanted to surprise you!" Stella's laughter was bright, brittle, piercing.
I knelt on the freezing marble, hidden behind a face mask, less than a meter away.
The diamonds encrusting Stella's wristwatch caught the light, stabbing into my reddened eyes. Just one of those tiny stones could cover Sebastian's imported medicine for three months.
"General James, I am terribly sorry," the manager stammered, bowing low. "This clumsy idiot smashed the liquor."
Polished black military boots halted in front of my face.
Sebastian frowned, impatience radiating from him. "Enough."
He pointed a gloved finger at me. "You broke it. You clean it. Pick the shards out of the carpet with your hands. If Stella steps on even a fragment, I'll make you swallow the rest piece by piece."