CHAPTER 22 – THE SHADOWS THAT FOLLOWED HER
Elena did not sleep that night.
The echoes of Adrian's voice, the weight of his stare, the speed of his heartbeat when he held her in the hallway—everything stayed with her long after she locked her bedroom door. The mansion felt painfully silent, like every wall was listening, like something was waiting for dawn to break.
She sat at the edge of the bed, hugging her knees, thinking about the way his fingers had trembled slightly when he touched her cheek. Adrian Kane… trembling? A man who terrified half the city? A man who could break a person with a single command?
No. It had to be the darkness he carried.
The kind of darkness she sensed every time he tried to push her away but kept pulling her back without even realizing it.
By the time morning came, Elena's eyes were burning, but not from tears—she was simply tired of trying to understand a man who had locked his heart behind a thousand walls.
