"So, I’m supposed to be cleaning the lobby every hour or what?" Bryce asked Heather, the young woman in the janitor’s uniform. The two of them still standing inside the restroom.
Heather instinctively lowered her voice before answering. "As long as Mrs. Walker doesn’t walk in and notice even the smallest speck of dirt. And trust me..." She hesitated, searching for the right words. "She always does. I honestly don’t know how she does it. Everyone’s terrified of her, if you know what I mean. She could have you fired over practically nothing."
Bryce frowned.
"Doesn’t everyone fear Mr. Walker too?" he asked. "Why do you keep talking about people only fearing her?"
Heather let out a quiet chuckle, though there was no humor in it.
"It’s... different." She shook her head, struggling to explain something she herself didn’t fully understand. "I don’t even know how to put it into words, but it is. Mr. Walker is strict. Everyone knows that. He’s cold, demanding, and impossible to please, but somehow... you can tell he’s only focused on work."
She paused before continuing more cautiously.
"Mrs. Walker is different. Sometimes it feels like she enjoys reminding everyone beneath her just how insignificant they are. She’s rich, beautiful, married to an incredibly handsome husband... she already has everything people dream about, but somehow that’s still not enough. It’s like she wants people to remember that everything they have comes only because she’s willing to allow it."
Heather sighed quietly.
"She treats people like trash."
Bryce remained silent, listening.
"One woman lost her job simply because Mrs. Walker caught her looking at Mr. Walker for... I don’t know... maybe a minute. She insisted the woman had been staring at him inappropriately.
Another time, Mr. Walker arranged a company vacation for every employee. Everyone was excited. Then Mrs. Walker crossed our department off the list over something completely petty. No one even understood what we’d supposedly done wrong."
Heather shrugged.
"That’s just how she is."
For a brief moment, Bryce felt an unexpected sense of satisfaction. At least now he knew Leah hadn’t singled him out because of some personal grudge.
Belittling and humiliating people was simply part of who she was. The satisfaction, however, faded almost as quickly as it came, replaced by a fresh surge of hatred toward her.
He wondered what Leah’s face would look like if she were ever forced to endure the same humiliation she handed out so effortlessly. If she ever found herself standing exactly where she had pushed countless others.
Perhaps he could be the one to make it happen.
And he couldn’t think of any other way besides using Vincent and the bond that tied them together.
The bond clearly gave him an advantage, granting him a measure of power over Vincent. Vincent could resist it, deny it, even despise it, but the moment Bryce came close enough, his resolve began to crumble.
It had happened earlier again. Bryce had kissed him, and Vincent had responded as though he had been starved of that very touch.
If only he could turn that overwhelming sexual craving into something deeper. If he could make Vincent fall in love with him instead...
That alone would be enough to shatter Leah’s pride, or at least a part of it.
And perhaps, in the process, he could shatter Vincent’s pride as well. After all, Vincent would end up wanting the very mate he had spent years preparing to use and reject, a thought Bryce still couldn’t forgive him for.
Vincent would despise himself for falling in love with a man, especially one he had once looked down on, but there would be nothing he could do about it.
Feelings had a way of slipping beyond reason, and Bryce would make sure Vincent lived with every one of them, because no matter how deeply Vincent came to love him, Bryce would never return those feelings.
The thought had barely taken root in Bryce’s mind when Vincent’s voice suddenly echoed through it. The words that followed drained every trace of color from his face, and a surge of shock and fear struck with such devastating force that he froze where he stood.
"Bryce? You okay?" Heather asked, frowning at the abrupt change in his expression, but her voice sounded distant, almost muffled, because his mind had already been dragged somewhere else.
"I, Vincent Walker Ashfang..."
The instant Vincent uttered his full name, Bryce knew exactly what he was about to do.
Panic detonated inside him.
No... no, don’t do it.
The desperate plea tore through his mind with everything he had, as though sheer desperation alone could reach Vincent and make him stop.