Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
NORTH CAROLINA
B ryson stared at the last bite of his pancakes, absently dragging his fork through syrup. He sat beside his brothers at the gleaming white marble breakfast bar, sunlight streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows behind them.
The Federov estate was nothing like he’d imagined. The daughter of the devil should’ve hated the light—but Adria’s home practically worshipped it. Sunlight poured in through every surface, illuminating a space that felt more like a modern sanctuary than the lair of a monster.
Back at his father’s, everything had been blood-red and gold, heavy with velvet and arrogance. But this place? It was bright. Crisp. Unsettlingly simple.
Kaydon leaned in, voice low. “It’s been three days. When do we see Little Bo-Peep?”
Bryson didn’t answer. He’d been wondering the same thing. Since they arrived, the script had been flipped. Instead of being paraded or punished, they were examined. Fed. Cleaned. A doctor had come by. He’d even been given prescription meds for his rib.
It was disarming. And that was likely the point .
“She’s wasting everyone’s time,” Seth muttered, stabbing at his eggs.
Kaydon tried to speak, but his mouth was full, cheeks puffed like a chipmunk.
“ Maybe she’s scared, ” Bryson spoke in his native tongue. He had tested Adria, and it was clear she spoke the language. However, it was unlikely the rest of her staff did.
“ If she says jump, then jump, ” Kaydon said. “It’s the best way for us to stick together.”
Kaydon had been on Bryson’s nerves since leaving his father’s house.
“ My father signed the contract. You two don’t have to stay here,” Bryson said.
Bryson wanted them out of his father’s home. Contract or not, he didn’t trust his father so close to them. But the longer he stayed here, the more uneasy he felt having them around. His father's attention was no doubt elsewhere by now. There was no reason they needed to see whatever dance he and Adria were about to engage in.
“I don’t trust him, Brys . I want to stay together,” Kaydon said.
Bryson leaned back in his chair, stuffing more bacon in his mouth, saying, “We all know why you want to stay.”
Kaydon balked, “That is not why and you know it.”
“Sure as shit isn’t a reason you don’t want to be here,” Bryson said, throwing a piece of bacon at him.
Kaydon turned a delightful shade of pink.
“I’m thinking about you and Seth. How to keep you safe. That’s it, period.”
“Wait, am I missing something? Why does Kay want to be here?” Seth asked.
Kaydon glared at him—with don’t you dare eyes .
Bryson broke out into a huge grin, never wanting to miss an opportunity to embarrass Kaydon.
“Our burly mountain man here had a crush on her since we were kids.”
“When we were kids,” Kaydon clarified.
“I’m not so sure,” Bryson said.
“We are staying because it is the safest course of action,” Kaydon grumbled into his plate.
“Do what you want,” Bryson said. “I mean, maybe it won’t be so bad. Who knew the beast’s belly would be so comfortable?”
Kaydon served himself a second helping of sausages. Seth, as usual, ate only a small portion from his plate. It wasn’t from lack of choices. Over the past three days, they’d been given multiple options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Seth mentioned he was allergic to mango during the doctor’s visit and mango was removed from the table the next day.
“Just follow the rules, go through the motions. Mata blanda zgarie rau , (the gentle cat scratches badly) and we won’t have to go anywhere,” Kaydon said.
Bryson had no idea what to do, but it definitely wasn’t that.
Kaydon eyed him. “Promise me you will do what you can to keep us here. I don’t want Seth and me on the street.”
The look Seth gave him was like a dagger to the chest. Who did they think he was?
“I would never do anything to put either of you in danger. And you wouldn’t be on the street,” Bryson said, shooting a stern look back at Seth.
“I can’t wait for kitty to show me her claws,” Seth said.
A natural submissive in the bedroom didn’t mean he was a pushover in real life. Gifted as a peacemaker, Seth was smart and quick with his words, but cross him and you would have hell to pay.
“Like you will even know what to do when you see them,” Kaydon joked.
Seth glared at him. “I just want to show her how ineffective she is.”
Kaydon threw a chunk of pineapple at him. “Yeah right, you’ll love it and you know it.”
Seth glanced at Bryson before responding to Kaydon. “No way. I’ll go through the motions, so I get the highest bid.”
Bryson grimaced.
“What?” Seth said, clocking Bryson’s mood. “That’s what we’re here for, right, to make that bitch money.”
Bryson shrugged. He wasn’t ready to think of himself as property. Or that they would be up for sale in twelve months’ time.
There were too many unknowns, and he hated being in the dark.
“ Things will get a lot easier if I can figure out what her angle is. Why she asked for me,” he said.
Seth pushed his plate away. “ This isn’t your fault.”
His Romanian was a little broken, and his accent was terrible, but Bryson always felt pride when he spoke it. Seth didn’t have to learn the language, but he did, because he wanted to.
“ If I hadn’t found that parcel… ” Bryson said.
“No one could have expected this.” Kaydon motioned to the surrounding space.
“If I had, I would have thrown that deal in the fire,” Bryson said, switching back to English.
His father never would have missed it. It had been Bryson who pointed out its value, and pressed his father to use it. Of course, at the time, Bryson thought it would have gotten his father out of Chicago. Or at the very least, him and his brothers, but instead they were here. In North Carolina, slaves of the Ice Queen. No matter what his brothers said, this was his fault.
“My web, I’ll fix it. I just have to figure out how.”
Kaydon stuffed more pancakes in his mouth. “Or you could just experience it for what it is.”
“And why would I want to do that?” Bryson asked, his tone shifting.
Kaydon shrugged. “Seems like the easiest course of action.”
Bryson’s chest tightened. He had no intention of becoming Adria’s sex slave.
“There wasn’t anything in the contract that said I had to excel,” he said.
His next course of action becoming clear in his mind.
He would make her life a living hell.
Kaydon said, “Look at me and promise you won’t do anything reckless.”
“Why promise when that is exactly what I plan to do?” Bryson countered, taking a bite of his apple.
Kaydon continued, speaking slower this time, “The way I see it, we’re better off spending our time thinking about how to get sold to the right person. Maybe working with her is the safer play.”
Bryson couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He slammed his hand on the table. “It’s your job to see the bigger picture, and instead you are excited to be a sex slave for the next two years?”
“There are worse things.”
Bryson was under no delusions about his father. He was a powerful, violent man, and Kaydon was right to be wary of him. But to trust Adria over his father? Bryson didn’t understand where this was coming from.
“I cannot believe this. You need to do your job,” Bryson said, poking Kaydon in the shoulder. “Stop thinking of this as a vacation, where you get to play house. ”
Kaydon sat a little straighter.
“We are vulnerable here. You need to see that,” Bryson said.
“No,” Kaydon pointed in his direction, “ you feel vulnerable here. Seth and I are in danger out there, where your father is doing God knows what. You said you were going to do your best to keep us together, now is that a promise or your usual hot air?”
It wasn’t often Kaydon called him on his shit. Bryson took another bite from his apple, trying to hide the hurt he felt.
“You have my word,” he said, looking Seth in the eye and then Kaydon, and then he kissed his ring, sealing the deal.
Kaydon relaxed. “Who knows? We might not even become sex slaves; it’s been three days of nothin’.”
Eric emerged in the doorway just as the three of them wrapped up breakfast. He always seemed to be nearby. Except for the military-grade knife attached to his hip, he reminded Bryson of a dad going to coach soccer.
Bryson had heard the same rumors everyone else had. Adria had picked him up in a back alley, next to a dumpster. No one expected it to work. But a year or so later, he was out and about, guarding her.
Ex-Navy Seal, if the rumors were true. If he had colors, he hid them. Now that Bryson thought about it, all of Adria’s staff hid their colors.
Eric moved into the kitchen.
“The cakes were a little dry today. I hear heating up the milk can help,” Bryson chided, and his brothers snickered at the table .
Eric leaned against the counter. “Has anyone ever told you three that you talk too much?”
“Big words from the Right Hand that does all the talking for the left,” Bryson responded.
He wasn’t in the mood. Whatever game Adria was orchestrating, he hoped she would play it through already. This waiting was getting on his nerves.
Eric laughed and spoke to him in perfect Romanian, not a hint of an accent. “ Soon enough the left hand will do plenty of the talking.” Looking him up and down, he added, “A nd then some.”
Before Bryson could react, he left the room.