KESTER.
Power was a fragile thing. Give someone a taste of it, and they’d start believing they had a right to wield it however they pleased.
That was the mistake Sylvia had made.
Kasmine was mine.
Mine to scold. Mine to break. Mine to put back together again. No one-no fucking one-had the right to lay a hand on her. Not in punishment. Not in humiliation. Not in any damn way.
When Claire came strutting into my office, wearing that self-satisfied smirk she always did when she thought she had something I’d want to hear, I almost dismissed her. Almost.
I barely heard most of what she said beyond ‘Sylvia and Kasmine and humiliation in front of everyone.’
And just like that, the room around me ceased to exist.
A slow, cold rage settled inside me, and for the first time ever, I felt like pulling the annoying bitch into a warm hug for letting me know all that had been going on between Sylvia and Kasmine for a while now.
Kasmine would never have told me about it. I knew her that much. She always didn’t like situations that would put people into trouble, especially with me.
I had steeled myself not to get affected by Kasmine’s presence but imagine the effect the scene I met had on me. But, even at that, I tried not to let it show. I was still angry with her.
“Please, sir, it won’t happen again. I swear,” Sylvia was on her knees in front of me, hands trembling as she clutched the termination letter I had just handed her. It took everything in me not to make her suffering worse.
I didn’t respond. Didn’t even look at her. Her presence was nothing more than a stain in my periphery, a noise I had no interest in entertaining.
She cried. As she should.
She knew what she had lost.
She was well treasured here, but she lost it all. She knew she would never find another employer like me. Never find another position that came close to the power she once wielded here.
I wish Mine had been here to see this, but she had walked out of her office with Claire as soon as she returned from her unpleasant meeting with Sylvia.
She was probably crying her eyes out right now, but I tried not to care, even though my every instinct pushed me to go and check on her. Especially when Jake left his seat, and I knew exactly where he was headed. But I tried to sit my fucking ass on my chair and pretended to focus on things that didn’t matter to me at that moment.
I was already picturing her, already imagining the way her face crumpled when she cried.
And worse, imagining Jake wiping her tears with those cursed hands of his… The ones I’d cut off soon enough.
Fuck.
“Leave, Sylvia, and never return,” I said to her, releasing my Alpha command on her, and she obeyed like a helpless pet.
I had to use my command. Otherwise, she wouldn’t give me the peace and quiet I demanded at the moment.
*
“Wait for me in the car. I’ll be out in a minute,” I told Kasmine as I caught sight of her heading toward the elevator at the end of the hall. I barely spared her a glance before turning back to Edward.
We were discussing a replacement for Sylvia when he dropped a golden opportunity in my lap-Fred Anderson, Valor Lante Technologies’ former Head of Operations, had just walked out on them over a salary dispute. A man like that on my team? Perfect.
“I won’t be riding with you. Jake will take me home today,” I heard her say, and I froze instantly.
What the fuck? Did she have the audacity to throw his fucking name in my face without fear?
“What the fuck did you just say?” I turned slowly to face her, blood pumping faster than usual in my veins.
“I’ll be riding home with Jake and Claire,” she repeated. She tried to walk away, but I caught her wrist before she could take another step. My grip was firm, but I tried not to make it too obvious because of the subtle glances I was getting from my employees who were walking around, pretending to wrap up their day while sneaking glances in our direction.
“Let me go!” she gritted, lifting her gaze to meet mine, and for the first time, I saw the damage I had done. Her eyes-red, swollen-told me everything I already knew. She had cried, and it was because of me. The realization twisted something in my chest, but it wasn’t enough to drown my fury.
I turned to Edward, “Make sure Sylvia never gets into Valor Lante, no matter what happens. I don’t care what you have to do.” I instructed, “And as for Fred, you know what to do.”
Edward nodded, “Yes, sir,” he said and hurried out of my sight. Was my anger that obvious?
“You and that fool both have a death wish, right?” I asked her in a dangerously low tone.
“I do not want to ride with you, Kester Hamilton! Let. Me. Go!” She clenched her Jaws so tight that I feared she might loose some teeth.
Kasmine was trembling beneath my grasp, and when I studied her intently, I saw that it wasn’t from fear. No, it was from sheer, unfiltered rage.
She was still angry with me.
Without another word, I pulled her with me, dragging her out of the hall.
“Kester, let me go!” she hissed under her breath, but I didn’t stop.
I yanked her into the elevator, slamming my palm against the button for the ground floor.
Kasmine twisted in my grip, trying to yank herself free. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she seethed.
I had spent the entire day pretending I didn’t care, but I wasn’t pretending anymore.
The elevator doors opened, and I pulled her forward, leading her straight through the lobby.
People stared. Some had the audacity to look curious, and others wisely looked away. None of them dared to intervene.
Kasmine struggled harder, digging her heels into the floor as I led her outside.
“Kester, damn it-!”
The driver was already waiting, standing beside the open car door. He stepped back immediately when he saw the look on my face.
Kasmine barely had time to turn before I roughly pushed her inside.
The moment she landed on the leather seat, she twisted around, eyes blazing, hands balling into fists.
I slid in beside her, shutting the door behind me. “Drive.”
“Yes, sir.”
As soon as we pulled away from the curb, I pressed a button, instructing the driver to raise the privacy partition. The glass slid into place, enclosing us in the dim, silent cocoon of the backseat.
That’s when she ripped her wrist from my grip.
“Let me go!” she spat, eyes wild with fury. “I don’t want to be here with you, Kester! I don’t want to be anywhere near you!”
I tilted my head, watching her, “What’s your fucking problem, Kasmine?” My voice was low and cold. “Is this about June sucking my cock?”
She stilled but didn’t respond.
Her lashes fluttered, and her expression became suddenly unreadable. For the first time since this entire fight began, she didn’t try to lash out.
That silence? That lack of reaction?
It pissed me off more than if she had screamed in my face. I wanted a reaction from her.
“No,” she finally said, “It’s none of my business.”
I leaned in closer, my knee pressing against hers. “None of your business?”
She met my eyes, “That’s right. June is your fiancee, after all.”
The word fiancee felt like a slap to my fucking face.
“And you and I?” she continued, “We’re nothing. Nothing but a joke.”
Something in me snapped.
Before she could turn away, I grabbed her chin, tilting her face up to mine. My grip was rough, but I didn’t give a fuck.
“A joke?” I murmured, my voice trembling with a rage I could barely contain. “Is this what this is to you?”
Hot, merciless fury coiled inside me, threatening to spill over.
Her eyes-those goddamn eyes that had always been my undoing-narrowed slightly.
“Yes, Kester,” she spat, and her words were like knives flung straight at my chest. “What did you think? That we’d fall in love and make babies over time?” She let out a laugh that twisted something deep within me. A laugh that mocked me, ridiculed me, as though I was the biggest fool she’d ever known.
“Kasmine…” I called in a warning tone, but it didn’t stop her.
“You’d better wake up from your pathetic fantasy, Kester. I’ll never feel the things you expect me to feel toward you love, affection, jealousy…?” She chuckled again, the sound ripping through me, tearing apart every ounce of control I’d been clinging to, “I can never feel all that for a man like you!”
Kasmine had always held the power to destroy me, but I never thought she’d wield it with such cruelty.
And fuck, she was killing me.
I let my hand drop from her chin. My throat felt tight, my heart a bruised, mangled thing beating erratically in my chest.
She killed me… With every word that left her mouth… she tore me apart, shredded me down to the bone.