Chapter 8 You Are My Girlfriend Now

ADRIAN

She looks terrified.

That was the first thing I noticed when Mia came to sit with me in the dining room.

The last time I was in a room with her, she was afraid of me too. Though, back then, I assumed her fear came from the circumstances surrounding our meeting. She probably still believed I abducted her, and considering the way she was brought here, I couldn’t exactly blame her for thinking that.

But this was different.

She is very terrified of me.

She sat across from me at the long dining table, her shoulders stiff and her hands resting awkwardly beside her plate.

I studied her for a moment.

Mia has always been expressive. I noticed that from the first time I met her. Her face usually betrayed whatever she was thinking before she could stop it.

Right now, it is doing exactly that.

Fear was written all over her.

“Are you going to eat, or do you want to keep staring at me?” I asked, tilting my head slightly.

She blinked, almost as though my voice had pulled her out of a trance, immediately reaching for her fork and knife.

My eyes narrowed at her, but I chose to ignore her behaviour.

I picked up my wineglass and took a slow sip, before reaching for my fork, but when I looked up, she was staring at me again.

It wasn’t admiration or curiosity.

It was the appearance of someone studying a dangerous animal, trying to figure out how close they could get without being bitten.

That irritated me more than it should have.

I dropped my fork onto the plate with a clatter and her entire body jerked at the sound.

“Why do you look so terrified?”

She swallowed hard and dropped her gaze again, suddenly becoming very interested in the food sitting in front of her.

“I am not,” she mumbled.

My jaw tightened. “The fastest way to fuck with my mood is to fucking lie to me, Mia.” I warned. “What got you so tense?”

“The bald guy,” she whispered. “Is he really dead? Did you really kill him because of me?”

Someone is clearly developing a big mouth around here.

“And exactly how did you become privy to that information?”

She lifted her eyes from her food and stared at me without blinking. “So it really is true.”

My jaw tightened. “Don’t make me ask again.”

“I don’t want to have another blood on my hands.”

I frowned. “What?”

“I snitched on the bald guy, and you killed him. I’m not stupid enough to snitch on another person.”

What the hell was wrong with this woman?

What is she? Fucking Barbie?

A man had hit her for no reason, and somehow she is sitting there worrying about his death.

“A man attacked you without provocation,” I said slowly. “And you’re worried because he’s dead?”

“I’m not worried that he’s dead,” she argued, tone careful. “If he had fallen down a flight of stairs and twisted his neck, I wouldn’t have cared.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“But knowing that he would have lived if I had kept my mouth shut…” She swallowed. “That’s what troubles me.”

She genuinely felt guilty.

“Mia, he didn’t die because you snitched. He died because he acted without orders.”

Her brows pulled together.

“He attacked you without my permission. That alone was enough.”

She opened her mouth, but I lifted a hand, stopping her.

“If it wasn’t that, it would have been something else. A man who ignores my orders once will ignore them again. In my world, disobedience has consequences.” I picked up my wineglass and took a slow sip. “So no, you didn’t get him killed, you simply saved me the trouble of waiting for him to fuck up again.”

My explanation didn’t make her feel any better.

If anything, she looked even more troubled.

I sighed quietly.

“You’re going to have to get used to the fact that people die around me.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

I didn’t soften the statement.

That was the reality of my life.

I could dress up, give her prettier words, pretend there was some moral justification behind every death, but the truth remained the same.

People who disobey me paid for it.

“So,” I said, placing my glass down, “who told you I killed Louis?”

“I am not ans_”

My hand slammed against the table, making the plates and glasses rattle violently.

“You think I’m trying to fucking coax you?” I snapped. “When I ask you a question, I expect you to fucking answer!”

Mia flinched.

Her eyes widened, and for a second, she looked like she might actually cry.

“Clarissa,” she blurted out.

I stilled.

“She said her name is Clarissa,” Mia rushed on, her words tumbling over each other. “And she warned me not to get on your nerves, which is why I’m trying so hard not to.”

Clarissa.

My brows drew together.

Clarissa had never been much of a talker. She was one of the most reserved people in my organization.

So why the hell is she talking to Mia?

I shoved my chair backward and stood.

“Have your breakfast. After that, meet me in my office. We need to discuss your situation.”

“We can discuss it now.”

I looked down at her.

She pushed her plate away. “I’m not hungry.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting the irritation building behind my eyes.

This woman has a talent for testing my patience without even realizing she was doing it.

I walked around the table and stopped beside her chair. I leaned closer and she immediately averted her gaze.

Her throat moved as she swallowed.

I reached down and placed a hand against her jaw, gently turning her face toward mine.

Her eyes met mine reluctantly.

“You need to understand something, Mia, when I tell you to do something, there isn’t another option left.”

Her lashes fluttered.

“You don’t get to decide whether you’re going to listen based on how you feel about the order. You don’t get to negotiate every instruction I give you. You are expected to do exactly what I told you.”

She bit her lower lip, and her eyes became glassy.

Then a tear escaped.

“I just want to go,” she whispered, another tear rolling down her cheek. “Please…I’m not going to tell anyone you killed someone,” she continued, her voice breaking. “You don’t have to keep me here because of that. It might interest you to know that I’m not exactly on good terms with the cops anyway.”

Yet she was friends with a lawyer.

Could have fooled me.

I slowly released her cheek and took two steps backward, my hands disappearing into my pockets as I studied her.

“I’m not keeping you here because you saw me kill someone.”

“Then why am I here?”

“Because you, Mia…” I paused, watching her carefully. “You are my girlfriend now, and being my girlfriend comes with a shit ton of risks.”