Fated To Them: A Dark Paranormal Romance

Adeline

When I reach the lobby floor, though, my phone starts ringing. I look at the screen and don’t recognize the number. Quickly answering it, I hold the phone to my ear.

“Where are you?” his booming voice comes through the phone, making me jump.

I stop dead in my tracks. What does he mean? It is time to go home, and they are already beginning to lock the building. I look around, wondering if they are watching me on the camera. They never said I couldn’t leave.

“Adeline, hello?” Cyrus’s voice sounds impatient.

“I’m in the lobby,” I stutter nervously.

Was I not supposed to leave? They didn’t exactly tell me when I was supposed to finish, so I just assumed I finished when everyone else did.

“Get back up here now! You have two minutes to be back up here, or you are fired!” he says, hanging up abruptly.

I stare at my phone screen. Shit! Two minutes? I press the button to the elevator, which is again on the top floor. I look nervously at my watch before my eyes dart to the stairs. Fuck it! Kicking off my heels, I start running up the stairs. The backs of my legs are burning by the time I get halfway up, and I am out of breath. I really need to exercise. I am so unfit.

Glancing at my watch, I have 30 seconds left and two more flights of stairs. I race up to them, my lungs feeling like they are about to burst inside my chest as I push through the door of their floor. Puffing and panting like I am about to drop dead or have a heart attack.

Eli looks at his watch and smirks while I feel like I am about to have a heart attack. I can feel how hot my face is as I grip my knees that now feel like jelly and are about to collapse from under me. I glance up at them.

They both smile like they find it funny. Is this a game to them? I have never felt such rage in all my life; I want to punch their beautiful masculine faces.

“I can’t believe she actually made it.” Cyrus chuckles at Eli, who also has the same stupid smirk on his face.

My heels clang to the ground when they slip from my fingers as my ass finds the cool surface. My entire body is aching from the exercise. I hold up a finger, telling them to give me a second. I lie back, the coldness of the tiles helping me cool down. I don’t even care about how unprofessional I look; they’ve just made me run up twelve levels of stairs. I need time to recuperate.

Cyrus walks over, looking down at me on the floor, my chest rising and falling heavily as I try to catch my breath. He crouches beside me, brushing my hair from my eyes before gripping my chin.

“Now, if only you ran like that this morning, you wouldn’t have been late,” he says before standing up.

Is this asshat for real? Is this some kind of endurance test?

He offers me his hand, and I reluctantly take it, sparks rushing up my arm. I jerk my hand away, looking at my palm before shaking my head. Cyrus, though, has a strange, knowing look on his face. Has he felt it too? Maybe it’s static from my run.

“So, what did you need me for?” I pant out, trying to catch my breath still.

Eli steps forward, handing me some paperwork, and I snatch it off him. I look down at it; it’s paperwork with numbers, addresses, and information on working for them. I quickly scan over the documents.

My eyes go wide when I see the time they expected me to start and finish. 7AM till 7PM. And they expect me to be on call in between those hours and be available on weekends. Like, do I get a day off? I shake my head; I can’t do these sorts of hours. Who will watch Maya when my mother is on shift?

“Something wrong?” Eli asks.

I press my lips into a line and grit my teeth. How could my life get any more hectic? As if my workload isn’t already enough, and now they are adding ridiculous hours on top. The building shuts at 5PM. Why do I have to stay behind two hours after everyone goes home, and why two before work starts? Is this punishment for flipping them off? They have to know; they have to. Why else make me do these hours?

“Something is definitely wrong,” Cyrus hums.

My eyes dart to them, watching me. “I can’t do these hours. I have other commitments,” I tell them honestly, knowing full well I am about to be fired.

“Like what?” Eli demands to know.

Geez, I don’t know, a life? But I don’t say that out loud. There is no way I am about to tell him about my life or my family’s situation. I don’t need their judgmental stares or comments.

“It’s fine. I will work it out,” I sigh. “I need to take my lunch break at 2:30PM, though.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I need to get Maya from school.”

They both seem shocked for a second, looking at each other.

“Maya?” Cyrus asks, his voice cold while glaring at me like I’ve done something wrong, making me furrow my eyebrows.

“My sister’s kid,” I tell him, and he actually looks relieved, letting out a breath, and I see Eli nudge him.

“Fine, but keep your phone on you,” Cyrus says, walking off.

I nod.

“You can go now,” Eli says, looking at his watch. “Be here on time in the morning.”

He hands me a set of keys and a security code written on a piece of paper.

“Memorize that code. It stops the alarms from going off when you come in the side entrance. And for god’s sake, don’t give it to anyone,” Eli says before he turns and stalks off.

I press the button to the elevator, slipping my shoes on while I wait for it to arrive, glaring at his back as he walks off.

Great, now I have to rearrange mine and my mother’s daily routines for them.