Honey Trap

Chapter Fourteen

Violetta

Maddox was not asleep. He was awake, tucked into the corner of the office with a flashlight placed against his lap. I wondered how long I'd been asleep for as I rolled myself awake atop the couch cushions we'd turned into a makeshift bed.

He didn't hear me move, keeping his head down at whatever it was in his lap that kept him so invested. I rustled some more and he didn't flinch.

He was wearing his glasses, the glow of the flashlight beaming up against his face in a yellow hue. For a few moments, I watched him. Just watched him, and wondered what he was thinking about.

Then, he gripped a yellow highlighter in between his teeth and pulled the cap off, bringing it down to his lap where I heard marker collide with paper.

Maddox Aster was... studying.

I didn't know why it was so impossible for me to think of him as anything other than a man with power. A part of me figured that it had something to do with what I knew I needed to do to him. Another part of me wondered if I'd been cursed with the affliction of loathing long before Nikolai and Alexie forced me to become a monster.

For long moments after, I kept on watching him. I noticed the way his eyebrows scrunched when he didn't understand something. And how seconds after, I would once again hear the sound of marker colliding with paper.

When he finally understood something, his lips would curl up at the sides, a tiny little grin forming on his typically forlorn features.

Maddox Aster was a person.

That's all that he was. Just a person. One who I needed to destroy.

Outside, though the city was mostly dark, street lights lit up the sky enough to see the trickling snow. It continued to fall in smaller, slower, pieces now. By morning, I'd hoped the streets would have been moderately plowed. Enough to get back home and return to my misery.

The beating I'd taken from Nikolai would do me some good. Usually, when he got really angry and went too far, he'd leave me alone for a bit. For the most part, that was. Though, I had no violin to play in solitude with anymore. I hated it and missed it all the same.

Suddenly, I heard a slight startle and found Maddox's eyes peering up into mine. I had zoned out too much and wasn't sure when he'd noticed me awake or how long he'd had his eyes on mine.

He looked embarrassed to be seen by me. He often was, it seemed, embarrassed to be seen as anything other than Maddox Aster the powerful. I thought I liked him better when he was just Maddox.

"Isla," he wheezed, sounding like he was having heart palpitations. "How long have you been awake?"

I figured I'd do him a solid and not make him any more humiliated, so I lied and said, "I only just woke up. I couldn't sleep. These break room cushions aren't exactly memory foam."

I could tell he didn't believe me but wasn't too keen on admitting he knew it wasn't true. I'd seen him let his guard down around me more than he probably wanted.

I wasn't sure what to say, but I figured sitting in silence wasn't doing either of us any good.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sitting up and pushing my back into the wall as I nodded towards the book in his lap.

"Oh, uh, I'm studying," he said sheepishly.

"For what?"

I couldn't help it. I caught myself starting to smile at how uncomfortable my questions were making him.