Chapter 19
Zach glanced at Stella. No wonder Maddox had wanted her to sleep with Larios to get the map—there was no way Starry Sky could ever afford it. She nodded, and Junior noted their exchange, turning on her.
“So this is what it comes down to, huh? Because, you know, you’re almost my father’s type. Tiny, blonde. You look tougher than the usual girls, though. Must be the boots.”
Stella rose to her full height and her hand reached for her stomach.
“Did you miss the annotation in there that said I’ve already gotten the entire construction site permitted?” Zach said, cutting in between the two of them and shoving the papers forward against Junior’s chest, precisely where Stella was considering shooting him, then stepping forward to loom over the shorter human man. “No, one crappy piece of paper is not worth seventeen million dollars to me. But you know what currently is?” he asked, his voice a low growl of warning, as Junior’s eyes went wide. “That woman’s ass. So. Sell. Me. The. Paper.”
Stella felt a flush all over her body, both at Zach’s comment and his tone. Humiliation warred with pride; she was not his property… but if she was, she was worth seventeen million dollars?
What the fuck!
She stared at the image on the wall for a moment more, wishing she could see more of it to try to commit it to memory before she stormed out of the room and back to town if she had to—no other member of Starry Sky would’ve put up with this. She shoved the telescope out of her way and its barrel spun wildly, making it clatter as it rebalanced on its tripod.
“Don’t be hasty!” Junior shouted after her. She stopped near the exit and didn’t look back. “Fine, Blackwood. I’ll take your property off your hands.”
“Then this is mine,” Zach said, and as she turned she saw him unearthing the star map carefully off the wall. He cinched it into a roll and handed it over to her.
Junior looked through the paperwork Zach had given him again and chuckled. “Hey, for all that money, you want his telescope too? My old man was just starting to turn his mind to astrology. Kept muttering shit about the starry skies.”
Stella’s shoulders straightened and she kept a sharp intake of breath quiet. “No, thank you.”
“How did your dad die, anyways?” Zach asked the other man, angling around him to come and put a protective arm around Stella’s apparently seventeen million-dollar hips.
“Choked on a hard-boiled egg last night, when he came home from a gala. Killed by a late-night snack.” He gestured around the room with his new contract. “All this work, all this trying to live forever, and for nothing.” Stella stepped away from Zach's hand and said, “Let’s go.”
STELLA FEARLESSLY LED the way back through the mansion, ignoring the panicked sensation in her chest telling her she should run. She had what she needed now—what her pack needed—and, seventeen million dollars of debt to him aside, she no longer needed Zach.
That wildly high dollar amount kept echoing in her head just like her footsteps on the marble, now that she wasn’t trying to be quiet. She was a good twenty feet ahead of Zach, and it wasn’t too late to just hit the door, tear a slit up the side of her skirt, and run back to civilization.
But as she neared possible freedom, the sound of someone violently crying slowed her down.
She knew exactly what that sound was like. What it meant. As disgusting as Larios had been to her last night, his death had still cut someone’s soul.
Stella detoured, turning into the sitting room with the fighting rams she’d noted earlier on the way in, where a blonde woman who looked very similar to the face she’d worn last night was sobbing. Stella hovered nearby, not sure what she should do while feeling very sure she shouldn’t leave this poor girl a little younger than herself alone.
She wound up saying what everyone had said after she lost Remi. Even though she knew it was generic bullshit, the words still tripped off her tongue. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Remi’s death was a knot inside of her chest that she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to untangle. Stella reached out a hand and rested it briefly on the woman’s shoulder, which was when the girl finally looked up.
“Thank you,” she said, blinking tear-filled eyes, glancing between her and Zach, standing somewhere behind her. She caught Stella’s hand with one of her own. “Lock him down. Don’t do what I did—don’t let him die before you get the ring,” she whispered, and then her face crumpled into tears again.
Broken-heartedly crying, Stella realized, for herself.
Stella turned, wiped her hand on her leg, and almost ran for the door.
ZACH FOLLOWED HER CLOSELY, and the car that’d dropped them off had been replaced. He opened the back door for her and gruffly said, “Get in.”
“What, now you think you own me?” Stella crossed her arms, careful not to bend the map.
His lips parted but didn’t move as he spoke in a harsh whisper, much the same as she had the night prior on the dancefloor. “We’re still in public, this place still has cameras, and I’m still the Beast for now.”
Stella took a deep inhale of frustration and then dove into the vehicle, untucking her shirt and pulling out her Ruger, pointing it at Zach while he got himself settled.
“I take it you don’t want me sitting in the middle?” he asked as he put his seatbelt on. The car started the second he had done so, even though there was no one in the driver’s seat. “This is one of Jamison’s self-driving cars.” He looked from her to the gun and then held up his hands like a magician proving he had nothing up his sleeves. “Sorry—but I’ve got to take this shit off,” he said, raking his hands up his face and through his hair, pulling off the magic of the Beast. His scent, like wood smoke rising from an open fire, was brighter now, and it was slightly better sitting in a car with him instead of the Beast—but not by much—because seventeen million dollars?
“We can—I can—never repay you,” she decided and announced. “So— I’m not even going to try.”