The Six | A Reverse Harem Novel | ✔️

Sixty Two

Longing speared through me, and I jerked at the cuffs encircling my wrists, begging them to break apart. Squatted on the floor directly in front of me, Sharife studied me with a saturnine smile on his handsome face. Slowly, he dropped a translucent box on the ground. The technology embedded deeply within it crooned softly.

“What? No anger? No emotion?”

“In case you forget, asshole, you’ve wiped my memory. So, what exactly do I have to be angry about?”

Smirking, he rose and turned away, pulling at the buttons on his suit jacket. With practiced ease, he dropped it from his shoulders and neatly threw it across the table. On the ground, the box flickered, changing from blinding white light to a pastel blue before calming down again.

“Where to start?”

“Sharife, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

Turning to eye Levi lazily, Sharife shrugged. “I don’t remember asking you what the fuck you thought. Did I?”

Scowling, Levi crossed his arms. Silently, he walked away from us, heading for the bank of windows on the west side of the building. Tension strung between them, tightening until it was difficult to breathe. Sharife came over to my struggling form again, dragging a chair behind him. Just as his cologne wafted over me, he sat.

“Listen carefully, Blue, because I won’t be giving this story a second time.”

“Then why give it at all? Since I won’t remember, anyway?”

Leaning forward, he balanced his elbows on his knees. “It’s always a joy to see fire strike in those dark eyes of yours. And it’s even better when I extinguish it.”

“Fuck you.”

“You will.” He smiled. “Now, I believe I owed you the truth?”

“Get it over with.”

“Ryker loved you more than anything. You were his pride and joy.” Laughing, he sat back, crossing his legs. “The faceless monolith in charge of Hawthorne Holdings since you were a child. You changed the face of technology and human evolution without breaking a sweat. Yet, with all your advancements, you were still vulnerable. He knew that.”

“Vulnerable?”

“Yes, even though I couldn’t locate you, I could always locate those around you. So, Ryker made a deal. Bring me a workable machine, unreleased to the world, or at least four of your designs.”

“And if he didn’t?”

“I’d use him to hunt you down and kill you where he could watch.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. Gasping, I fisted my hands to keep them at bay. Stubbornly, I refused to cry. It was not the time for tears. It was strange to experience a surge of desperate hopelessness storming my insides.

Though I was fighting as hard as I could, I was slowly losing. Resolved to fight against every bit of what I was feeling, my face hardened. He wanted to get a rise out of me, but it wouldn’t work.

“He fell for your threat, obviously. What happened?”

“What’s the matter, Blue? Are you going to cry?”

“Just get it over with!” I spat.

“Normally, I’d wait until you asked nicely, but since you’re so ready to hear about him. I’ll continue.” Freeing his cuff links from his wrists, Sharife casually stuffed them in his pocket. “He did better than I hoped — he brought something special you’d made for him and him alone.”