Breaker (Unmasked #3)

28. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Cora

I ’ve slept like shit for the last six days. My days are bogged down with emptiness. Fear fills each night. Fear that Rune will send Clyde away and come for one last fuck in my childhood bed, like the pervert he is. Emptiness because parts of me feel scattered about. One piece sits in a large, run-down mansion in the room with the bed I shared with Delly. Another with a dark, broody man who barely talked to me, didn’t touch me but promised to care for me like he’d known me for years. More lie with a man who made me feel safe and coveted, touching me gently, yet so full of hunger it was as if I was his alone to worship. Another piece sits with a man whose feral energy leaked of want, making me feel bright and new when I’ve always felt dark and used. And my last piece rests in the hands of a man who reminded me I was strong, who looked at my shattered heart and didn’t turn away. Instead, he showed me his.

That’s not true.

Striker doesn’t hold the last piece of me.

They all carry parts of the woman I want to be, but I hold my pieces together.

I belong to me.

Rune hasn’t said anything since the night in his office. No one’s said anything about Zane at all. I’ve not been allowed out of the house besides going to work. I’m allowed to go out to the pool, down the dock, but when I tried to walk to the end of the drive, peering around the gate to find the source of the revving engine I keep hearing, Clyde grabbed my arm and dragged me back inside.

Clyde, my ever-present shadow. He’s been here all week, making meals with me since Rune let the staff go. In all my fifteen years in this house, I’ve never spent so much time with Clyde. It’s like the man’s developed abandonment issues. Or he’s terrified something bad’s going to happen to me.

Like Zane.

Now that I have a plan, I need to enact it, but I can’t until I see Zane. But between his obsessive talk with Rune in the meetings all week as they wait for a response from Snyder about the deal, or his chatting about his lodge buddies coming to the fundraiser, I can’t get him alone.

And the strangest part isn’t that I’m not allowed to leave, that Zane seems to be more interested in rubbing dicks with this Snyder guy, or Clyde’s overprotective presence; it’s that no one’s talking about Delly.

I can’t wrap my head around why no one, not Rune or Clyde, is asking me questions and wanting to know more. Details. Something. Anything.

I don’t understand. It’s like Delly stopped existing. It makes me wonder what kind of man their father is and why Rune isn’t retaliating. It makes me wonder what Rune did to their brother.

And it makes me wonder why Rune killed him, to begin with.

I mostly sit in my room when I come home from the office. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m barely even a person anymore without her here. My entire life was so wrapped up in work and Delly and going out nights to pick up some random stranger who would leave me feeling slightly less empty than Rune. But at least those nameless men made me feel like I had control over parts of my life. Over who was touching me.

I know Delly’s fine, and they have some sort of plan for her, but Rune doesn’t. It makes me think they’ve had communication beyond telling me to come back. Maybe the silver-haired man is communicating with Rune.

In between crying quietly into my pillow or pacing aimlessly in my bedroom, I nap or sit in front of the TV with Clyde, watching reruns of The Great British Baking Show. If I try to sit in my room alone to pout, Clyde will stalk in and either sit next to me on my bed, sprawling his long legs out on my pink comforter, and read or drone on about work.

Interest almost sparks when he talks about how Snyder contacted him, expressing interest in Rune’s deal. I remember when we finalized the sale of their chain of hotels across the west coast last month, how difficult it was to get ahold of anyone in his company. It was hard to even get him to sit down long enough to hash out the details. He’d finalized the sale over video call, from his yacht as he took Rune for millions.

Chain of hotels. I’m no fool. Rune paid an ungodly amount for that chain. And while we did end up with the hotels, I know Rune ended up with something else. Drugs. Smuggled artifacts. Who the fuck knows at this point?

Now, Clyde is sitting next to me in my bed, taking up too much space as he flips through videos on his phone. He tells me that thanks to this previous sale, the Snyder Group is donating a huge chunk of change to Zane’s fundraiser.

I glance his way, my stomach dropping. He sees my expression and nods.

“Yes, girl, the fundraiser.” He pats my head. “It’s tonight. We need to arrive early to greet guests.”

I slump down in the bed, covering my head with my blankets.

“We do this every year, Cora,” Clyde reminds me like I need it.

Lowering the blanket, I peer over it, ensuring he sees my frown. My eyes fall to my nightstand where I’ve stashed the envelope. I need to get Zane alone.

Clyde nudges my leg with his shoe, but I duck back under the covers. “Get up, or we’re going to be late for work. Rune wants you to type up the contract today.”

I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me under the blankets. He nudges me again, and I sit up, tossing the covers off.

“Why isn’t he trying to get Delly?” I ask.

Clyde recoils, confusion and something like concern flickering over his features.

“I was returned and no one talks about her. I don’t understand.”

He takes a deep breath. “We’re waiting.”

“For what?”

“On information.” Clyde pockets his phone and stands, looking up at the ceiling. He’s in a suit today, which means another long day at the office avoiding Zane. “We are waiting to see what those men want in return for Delilah.”

I clench my teeth. Revenge is a vile thing. It makes people do heinous things. Rune killed their brother, they took Delly to retaliate. And they didn’t just take her, they turned her against him.

No. Cora. You did.

There’s a part of me that wants to tell Clyde she’s okay. That he can give up hope she’s ever coming back. Because when she does, Delly won’t be the same person. She’s theirs now.

And so am I.

But I clamp the words behind clenched teeth, and slip out of bed, walking toward my closet. When I open it, the dress Clyde had sent to the cleaners crinkles in the garment bag.

Reaper’s words flash in my mind. I’m theirs. I’m hers.

I belong to who and only who I choose to give myself to.

And it will never be Zane-fucking-Devin.

Tonight might be my only chance to get him alone. If I play my cards right, I’ll be free of him soon.

Then, I can focus on what’s important.

“Come on, girl, get dressed,” Clyde says, opening my bedroom door. “You need to get this contract typed up.”

***

The deal Rune wants isn’t a deal at all but an invite.

I type up the NDA and the rest of the contracts for each owner of the Snyder Group and watch, foot tapping, as the printer spits out pages. The paperwork includes the fees charged per year for membership and what Rune calls “The Wilderness Experience,” which is just a name he made up to entice the people he invites to join.

I don’t bother reading it over, but I glanced at it before I printed it out. All that it stated was that the new members would get the whole “Wilderness Experience” after they had passed the initiation. When I read the word “initiation,” I pictured a bunch of overgrown frat boys during hell-week, all dressed in Camo, hazing some old banker by tying him to a chair and making him chug from a keg before hopping on an ATV’s, rifles in hand.

As the pages spit out one by one, I can’t help the nervous jitter in my stomach, writhing like a snake and tangling up in my belly.

I can’t pinpoint it, but something isn’t quite right.

Not with any of this. Not with the fact Rune’s not frothing the mouth, trying to get Delly back. Not with Clyde following me around like a guard dog. Not with this invitation for the Snyder Group to join Rune’s lodge, and certainly not with the fact that Zane hasn’t said a single word to me since I stormed out of his office a few days ago.

As if the fates hate me enough that just the mere thought of him conjures his presence, Zane’s standing in the doorway of the resource room, hands in the pockets of his slacks, rocking back on his heels.

“Busy?”

I gesture to the massive printer, papers still spitting out.

“Is that the contract?” he asks, stepping forward. His excitement is palpable. “For the Snyder Group?”

“You know it is Zane,” I say, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

He rests a hip on the counter, holding supplies, hazel eyes dipping to my breasts. “Do you have your dress for tonight?”

A grin curls my lip, my insides fluttering. “I have the perfect one.”

His gaze doesn’t leave my breasts as he says, “It’s a masquerade ball. I think the theme is the Seven Deadly Sins.”

“Of course it is, Zane. You’re the expert on living each sin to the fullest.”

He leans forward, one hand still in his pocket, the other gripping the counter. That gross cologne her loves invades my nose. “I don’t expect you to like me. You liking me isn’t a concern of mine.”

“Good because I don’t.”

His grin makes my skin crawl. “But you have to act like you do, Cora. This marriage is for our families.”

“Let’s be real, Zane,” I snap, my face heating with anger. “This is for money and to get your slimy ass in good with Rune.”

“I’m already in good with Rune.” He winks, and I debate hitting him. “And yes, this is about money—“

“My money”

”—and about connecting our families.”

I let out a biting laugh. “This is a business transaction, Zane. Say it for what it is. You marry me, then you take control of my finances, my shares of Rune’s company, and then my life.”

He nods, a smirk turning up the corner of his mouth. “Like I said. Business.” He scoots closer, making me cringe back. Just his heat in my space is invasive. “And when I fuck you—

“You’ll never touch me or my money,” I hiss, my mind filling with images of my past and my future horror. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“If that’s what it takes, my sweet little fiancé, I’ll fuck your corpse, then buy my next yacht with all your traitor money.”

“You would know about traitor money,” I say before I can think.

He steps back, eyeing me. “What did you say?”

“You’re a snake.” My smile is poisonous I push past him. “See you tonight, fiancé .”