Business Arrangement

Part 9

Author's Note:

Thank you so much to all those voting and commenting! That means a lot to me.

Here is a new chapter, I am dedicating this one to @riagrov.

CHAPTER 9:

I STARE UP at him.

I swallow, "I'm not."

He gives me a dark look, "You are." It's a cold wintry storm on his tongue. The way he speaks down to me, like I'm the bad girl, like I'm the killer. He's the monster, he put me in that cage...

He didn't teach you when to cut off all battles.
He didn't tell you when to stop.
He only placed you in the position where a choice was made.
Deal with more bruising, or reveal it to him that self-defence and pain...is not a problem.
Not for you.

"Say that again with a mirror attached to my face. If I'm such a monster, what does that make you? The monster who shoved me in that cage to begin with because you thought you had one on me. You thought you could humiliate me. Again." I grit out, angry. I let him see it too.

His intense, intimidating gaze would make any other girl want to crawl under a rug. I was so tired already, just by being in his presence. I felt drained, like my own energy and my own life was getting sucked out of me now that I know what his motives are, why he needs a wife. Why he needed me in the first place. My Father wasn't a dumb man, he wasn't a coward either.

This act was unlike him.

Unlike him to accept it.

As if...as if he wanted to keep me out of something.

I look back to the man in charge. He leaned back against the lockers with a rigid look on his face. Like he's thinking, his 'thinking' face was high cheekbones jutted out with thick lips pursed, long, thick lashes kept to the top of the eyelid. His blonde hair looked strangely like he'd been running his hand through it. A knock on the door resounds. He turns toward it and cracks it open a little. The older gentleman stood there, giving a fierce look in his eyes.

Ender stares at him, he shakes his head once before the door bangs open and the girl of my height and build stands there. I stand up and turn my back to her. I didn't let her see my face-because at this point, I wouldn't have wanted to see either.

"Bring her to the gym tomorrow, Ender." The older deep voice suggests.

"We'll see. All of you, go. Now, Isabella. Go." Ender initiates, closing the door.

I slip on my shoes, grabbing the silk dress that slides between my fingers. I felt a cold chill bite like knives down my spine. Ender struts towards a door in the other side of the room, snapping the lights off in the room and sensor lights flick on in the stone corridor. I follow with silent movements behind his brooding stature and wide-frame.

My knuckles bleed pain.

My shoulders and arms, unable to relax after the movements and stunts I pulled with them. Darren and Archer sat opposite Ender and me. The SUV a stark contrast to being shoved in the trunk the ride over. I curl my knees up and face the window, making a mental note to sterilise the injection needle on my ring and insert the proper substances back inside.

Ender jiggles one knee, annoying me.

But he was clearly agitated, but by that, he was mad. He was so frustrated that he moved forward, rubbed his hands together, palms out, rings annoyingly clanging side-to-side.

"Stop." I plead. Stop moving. Stop making noise. Just. Stop.

He doesn't, "You shut up. After the shit you just pulled, you will shut right up." He spits at me, eyes darker than the thinly veiled anger running through his veins as he stares me down.