Chapter 87 Adeline
Adeline's POV
About five minutes after he left me alone in the office, my panic had gone to be replaced with the kind of anger that made me pace his office.
By the time I heard him coming back, I was already standing by his window, but I couldn't even enjoy the view.
Percy walked in, looking completely unruffled as if he weren't the cause of the anger in my belly. He walked over to his desk and tossed his encrypted phone onto his desk before he finally looked at me.
"He is on a bus to Florida," Percy stated, his voice calm and entirely unapologetic. "He won't ever step foot in this city again."
I glared at him but tried my best to keep my voice steady. "You put a shadow detail on me."
"I did."
"I walked away from you, Percy," I said, my voice rising. "I left the penthouse and gave you back your ring. I told you I didn't want any part of your syndicate or your protection, and your response was to have that man stalk me through the streets of Soho?"
"My response was to keep you breathing," Percy shot back as he took a slow, deliberate step toward me. "And clearly, it was necessary. You thought your father’s men had found you. You were hyperventilating in the middle of my building because a homeless man looked at you the wrong way."
"Because I thought I was alone!" I yelled at him, and I hated how vulnerable I sounded just then. "I have spent my entire life looking over my shoulder, Percy. You know what that does to a person! You know how hard I fought to escape that life, and instead of letting me find my own footing, you put your enforcers in the shadows to watch my every move. It’s a violation. I don't want it."
"But you need it!"
"Pull them off, Percy," I demanded, looking him dead in the eye. "Tell Alex and his men to stand down. I am not your property to be looked after."
"No."
I bristled, my jaw clenching. "Excuse me?"
"I said no, Adeline," Percy repeated, his voice dropping into a dark, gravelly register. He closed the distance between us with his frame towering over me. "I am not pulling the detail. You can hate me for it, but they stay."
"You don't get to make that choice for me!" I practically snarled, stepping around him to get out of his presence before I scratched that superior look off his face.
"I'm going back to work." I reached for the door, but before I could, a large hand slammed flat against the wood right above my head.
Percy stepped behind me, his chest pressing lightly against my back so I was between his body and the door. Being that close to him after all this while was making me weak in the knees, but I stood my ground.
"Unlock the door." I refused to turn around.
"You are not walking out of this office until we have an understanding, baby," he murmured and lightly nuzzled my neck.
I clenched my teeth to resist him. "We have an understanding. You run a mafia syndicate, and I want nothing to do with it. Let me out."
I tried to turn the handle, but he shifted his weight so I was now boxed in on both sides.
"You want to live in the light, Adeline? Fine, but the real world doesn't care about your boundaries. The real world has men who will follow you onto a train. If Alex wasn't watching you today, what exactly was your plan? If that man had actually been sent by your father, what were you going to do? Hit him with your heels?"
"I survived before I met you!" I yelled, finally spinning around to face him. There was nowhere to go. My back was flat against the door, and Percy was inches away, his dark eyes blazing with anger.
"You barely survived!" Percy yelled back. "I am not letting you rely on luck again. I will not sit here and wait for a phone call telling me that your father's men finally caught up to you. I would burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone touch you again."
I stared up at him with a heaving chest. I wanted to push him away and scream that he was suffocating me, that his love was just as terrifying as the monsters he was protecting me from.
I raised my hands, pressing them flat against his solid chest, intending to shove him back, but the moment my palms met the warm feel of his chest beneath his dress shirt, the fight completely drained out of me.
He was right, and I hated it. If that man had been a real threat, there was nothing I could have done to stop me.
"You can't protect me from everything, Percy," I whispered, my voice finally cracking. My hands curled into the fabric of his shirt, gripping it tightly as the tears spilled over my lashes. "You can't."
"Watch me," he vowed without a second of hesitation. The anger evaporated from his face, replaced by tenderness. He dropped his arms from the door and immediately wrapped them around my waist, pulling me flush against him.
I didn't fight him anymore. I buried my face in his shoulder and just cried. Percy buried his face in my hair, his large hand coming up to cup the back of my head, holding me as if I were the only thing keeping him sane.
"Keep staying at Zara's," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "Keep pretending we're just colleagues when we step out onto that floor. Keep the detail invisible if it makes you feel better, but you have to agree to let them watch you. I need to hear you say it, Adeline. Give me this."
I closed my eyes, letting the scent of his cologne wrap around me like a shield.
"Okay," I whispered into his shoulder, the surrender tasting bitter in my mouth. "Okay. They can stay."
Percy let out a long, shaky breath, his grip tightening around me. He had won the battle, but as he pressed a desperate kiss to the top of my head, we both knew the war between us was far from over.