Live For It

|23|

{ZION ARMANI}

Loosening the black tie around my neck, I rushed toward the corridor that led to the office floor. The security basement alarms had gone off approximately three minutes ago, and I was only notified just now. Someone was bound to get fired eventually. 

I needed to get to the surveillance system inside the study in order to see if Zhara was the one who had tried something against the cell door. All cells were programmed with triggers linked to the alarm system, causing any unlisted movements to set it off. The only others down in the basements were a few thieves and dealers who were brain dead by now. 

"Get everyone to the main office, there's been a break out in the basement," I say into the phone that has Liam on the line, hoping he was awake enough to understand my order. It was barely two in the morning, and everyone but the inner circle was asleep. Xavier was out, probably attempting to bed some chick he met at one of our clubs. Liam was just finishing the unpacking for the armory. I had no clue what Inan was doing...most likely reading or sitting in a dark room somewhere. And Flynn was just heading to his room before I left the central conference hall. 

Twisting the knob aggressively in frustration, I shoved my office door open and walked right in. What startled me more than I like to admit was the beautiful, bloodied woman sitting in my chair with her feet up on my desk. 

My fists tightened at my sides as I glared at the suspect that caused the alarms. Zhara had a sly grin plastered on her face, and damn if it wasn't the most alluring and infuriating thing I had seen. Her crimson-stained fingertips tapped in patterns on the arm of the chair, making my angered breathing hide under the noise. 

She tilted her head back and to the side, letting her lips fall into a pout-like purse. 

"What? Not pleased to see me?" she practically purred, stealthily leaning forward like the sly feline she is. 

I didn't speak, not due to loss of words, but because of the fact that I knew what she was doing.

Establishing her dominance.  

Something that was reserved for me and me only. 

"It was very unintelligent for you to lock me in that cell," she said slowly, suddenly masking her humor with anger. She removed her injured bare feet from my desk, and something in me wondered about the levels of pain she could take. She placed her forearms on the chair sides, narrowing her eyes at me as she tilted her chin up. 

"But even more unintelligent for you to think I wouldn't be able to break out," Zhara stands, leaving her arms at her side as she sets her jaw and goes still. 

She was right, though. 

It was something I did on instinct, something stupid and immature. My reaction to how I touched her was childish, and the thoughts I was having at that moment haunted me as I heard her scream for my honor and promises. My word. 

In this business, you either keep your word...

or die.

And I was hoping to whatever fate there was that she wouldn't make it her goal to kill me. Because I know she can, and she does, too. 

"I've gotten really impatient over the past two weeks, Zion," she slurs my damned name, her tongue dancing behind those lips. 

"The way you've decided to take it upon yourself to kill me," she starts, taking a step to her right, "the way your men treat me...pushing me around like I'm nothing...because that's what their Don ordered."