Insatiable (The Edge of Darkness, #1)(84)

I just want to help.

“Visitor for Tobias Mitchell.”

I get to my feet and walk slowly through the corridor, following a woman in clicky heels. My chest hurts from how much I’m holding my breath.

She shows me to a small room. There’s a single bed in the corner, a table in the middle with two seats, two cups of water and two apples.

I thought Kade said they meet up with him in an artificial park?

I sit at the table, fidgeting with the notebook for the longest minute of my life.

My nerves nearly shatter when the door opens, and the tall, muscular presence takes over all the energy in the room. Either the oxygen has been sucked out of my lungs, or I’m just not breathing as Tobias Mitchell, in all his savagery, trains his eyes on me.

“You,” is all he says.

I gulp. This was a mistake.

But I can’t control my body, can’t make myself stand and run from the room, not as he takes careful steps towards me and lowers himself onto the seat opposite me.

The vein in his neck is thick, and damn does it look the exact same as Kade’s. I knew he was handsome, from pictures and videos, but up close? I feel like I’m wandering into forbidden territory even considering such thoughts about him.

“What the fuck do you want?” he snaps, and the notion of finding him hot vanishes. “Where’s Aria?”

“You know who I am?”

“I’ve seen pictures,” he snarls. “Why are you here?”

“I need to talk to you about Kade.”

Silently, he watches me as I place the notebook down, my hands shaking.

“You have some nerve coming to see me. ”

I swallow the large lump threatening to strangle me. “I just want to help him.”

“Help? You don’t think you’ve helped enough by ruining him?”

“I didn’t ruin him,” I snap and instantly regret the way the words come out.

Tobias leans back in his chair. “As much as I tried to make him hear you out, my son hasn’t been the same since he told me his perfect little fucking girlfriend cheated on him. He’s become destructive. He’s like me that way.”

“He isn’t like you though,” I say, meaning it in the most genuine way. “His emotions—”

“His emotions are learned and controlled,” Tobias interrupts. “But when he first started going out with you? He was constantly on the phone with me or sitting down with Aria, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He wanted to know why he felt something that made no sense to him. My son wanted medication to suppress urges and impulsiveness, to make sure he didn’t ruin you like I did his mother. But little did he know all he was feeling was love.”

I swallow a lump. I knew Kade had struggled at the beginning of our relationship. All his senses and emotions were wild and personal. He asked me if I thought he was abusive, manipulative, coercing me into a relationship. I did my best to reassure him I was in it because I wanted to be.

Kade was an angel back then, but now he’s definitely a manifestation of Tobias.

Tobias continues when I stay quiet. “He felt it had become an obsession, the thought of having you to himself. That I could understand. That is what I could help him with. I take it you’re aware of our story? Me and Aria?”

The entire world knows their story.

“The articles I’ve read say a lot of things.”

“I destroyed her because I wasn’t in control. I don’t mean that I gave her a rough time. I gave her hell, little one. I stopped taking my medication, I stopped going to therapy because I thought it would be good for her to have a normal boyfriend. Most of it’s a blur, but I remember what I felt when she left me, what I felt when I watched her spiral into alcohol abuse and come close to losing her job. Did you know I drugged her with my medication? I thought, at the time, I was helping her.”

“I read you swapped her contraceptive pill with your meds to get her pregnant with the twins.”

He glares at me. “Not true. I had no intention of getting her pregnant. Why would I want to pass on my genes?”

I shrug once. “And you locked her and her best friend, Gabriella McGhee, in dog cages. Gabriella died because of you. Then you slit the throat of one of her lovers in front of her – his blood went all over her.”

“It was a dark time,” is his reply, monotone and careful. “I don’t remember most of it. I can only be thankful that Aria forgave me after years of trying to be better for her.”

“Is it true you stabbed her?”

“No. That wasn’t me.”

His eye twitches, and I regret mentioning any of it. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

“Those were mistakes I can never take back. I lost control of parts of me. But like you said, my son is not me; he has every chance in the world to have a normal life.”

I’m not too sure.

“Can anyone hear us?”

A smirk pulls at his lips. “No cameras. No microphones. Nothing. Just us, little one. But be careful – I have one type and her name is Aria. Kade did say you prefer them older though.”

I roll my eyes. “What chance does he have at a normal life when he’s killing people and taking drugs?”

Tobias, frozen in his seat, eyes darkening, watches me carefully. His hands are steepled, his fingertips pressed together. “Elaborate.”