Chapter Twenty
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FAT LOT OF GOOD MY ORGASM did me.
My body was on a damn roller coaster—burning alive in the bathroom only to find solace in Rook’s arms. I hadn’t planned on having my second ever release while still wearing my goddamn pants but...it’d happened.
Again.
And I couldn’t even care about the damp discomfort left behind because all that ashy, violent heat just went away. She didn’t just calm me physically, she calmed me emotionally—dousing me in ice and cocooning me in snow, allowing me to breathe without setting fire to the bed.
For a few grateful moments, I found a pocket of existence that didn’t come with suffering but then...him.
“Well?” I hissed. “Are you going to answer it?”
Rook clung to that hated little device as if it might detonate in her palm and reveal everything she didn’t want me to know.
Back in Cinderkeep, I didn’t care who she was in the outside world.
I had no way of imagining her life before me or what she got up to outside my walls. I’d become so insular—so cut off from the rest of humanity—that I couldn’t picture what life looked like out there, so I literally had no drive to ask.
But now?
Now I wanted to know everything.
I wanted to tear her history wide open and rifle through every interaction, relationship, and secret.
“Do it,” I seethed, making Whisper chuff as if reminding me to contain my temper. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop ringing until you do.”
Her gaze landed on mine, her lips thinning with determination. “Just remember...Dillon is like an older brother to me.”
So what?
He was still a man and she was mine.
I would happily slit his throat if he thought he could take her away from me—related or not.
My hands balled as heat flooded through my veins. Instinct urged me to go to her. To touch her. Kiss her. To bind myself to her so she could keep me cool enough that I didn’t burn the bed and breakfast down.
“Oh God, here we go...” Sucking in a deep breath, she stabbed her finger onto the green symbol and tossed it onto the mattress as if it was a live grenade.
She cringed away as if it truly was about to erupt—
“ELARA SNOWFLAKE! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!”
Whisper growled, not liking another male’s voice bouncing off the walls.
Me and him both.
Groaning, Rook buried her face into her hands. “Ugh, not you, too! Why must you insist on using my pseudonym when I’m in trouble?”
“Because that’s what I’ll inscribe on your headstone if I ever get my hands on you! Here lies the runaway heiress Elara fucking Snowflake. Murdered by her long-suffering bodyguard.”
What?!
My hands balled as flames licked hotter, cutting through Rook’s power over me.
I might quickly be learning how dependent on her I was to stay sane, but right now, I wanted to become the apocalypse everyone feared because he’d threatened her. He had the audacity to talk about murdering the one person I needed, and if he was here, he’d be the one needing a fucking tombstone.
Stepping toward the bed, I fully intended to destroy the phone, but Whisper chirped, wrenching me to a stop.
I glowered at the cat.
“You’re so dramatic,” Rook muttered.
“I’ll show you dramatic, you frustrating, annoying pain in my ass!” he shouted back, making my teeth grind to dust.
“Jeez. I’m still alive, okay? Calm down. No need to give yourself a heart attack—”
“Don’t you dare take that tone with me, Elara Snowflake,” he barked. “Not after what you just put me through. Are you hurt? Where are you? What happened?”
My eyes narrowed.
That was the third time he’d called her that.
So she had lied to me.
Rook Snowdon wasn’t her real—
“My name really is Rook,” she rushed, her eyes widening on mine as little curls of heat evaporated from my shoulders. Once again, she read my thoughts—not that they would be hard to follow. “Elara Snowflake is just a company address.”
Snowflake...
I frowned, trying to recall why that sounded vaguely familiar.
She froze, her face going white.
“What?” I asked tersely. “Why are you looking at me as if waiting for me to recognise that name?”
“Do you?” She gulped. “Have you...have you heard of Snowflake Corp before?”
“Who the hell are you talking to?” Her bodyguard cut in. “I haven’t been trying to call you for the past seven weeks just for you to have a conversation with someone else, you know!”
“Sorry, sorry.” Tearing her gaze from mine, leaving me slightly unsettled at how wary she’d become, she added, “And I didn’t mean to leave you hanging for so long. I was in a place with no reception and—”
“That’s no excuse!” he shouted. “How am I supposed to keep you safe when you don’t tell me where you’re damn well going?!”
“I’ve learned my lesson. Believe me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean...let’s start over. Shall we?” Straightening her spine, she forced a bright smile. “Hi, Dil.”
“Don’t you dare ‘Hi Dil’ me! Where are you? Your last ping location was by some massive estate that I couldn’t breach no matter how hard I tried. Are you still there? Were you ever there? What the fuck is going on?”
I ground my teeth together, my temper building, building.
Whisper scratched at my trousers, trying to remind me to stay calm. Crossing my arms, I glowered at Rook, but she refused to look at me.
“Yeah, about that,” she said. “There’s quite a lot to explain and we’re really kinda pressed for time—”
“I don’t care. I’m coming to get you right now. You’re coming home with me and I’m never letting you out of my—”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” I spat, shutting the bastard up. “She belongs to me now.”
“Oh no.” Rook groaned. “Now you’ve done it.”
The phone went silent for less than a second before an icy snarl hissed, “Listen here, whoever the fuck you are—”
Rook rushed to turn down the volume, throwing a worried look at the door.
“—she doesn’t belong to anyone, got it? She’s worth far more than you can imagine and you will let her go. What did you do to her? Where have you been keeping her? Rook?” He paused for a moment. “Rook...are you safe?” His tone turned squirrelly and sly. “Have you eaten today or are you fasting?”
I scowled at the odd question, but Rook just shook her head and spoke to me. “It’s code to see if I’m in a hostage situation.”
“You. Shut it,” the man growled.
She never looked away from me, keeping my heat at bay through eye contact alone. “If you’d kidnapped me, I would say I’m fasting but because you didn’t, I’ll say...I’ve eaten.” Looking at the phone, she repeated. “I’ve eaten, Dil, alright?”
His heavy exhale echoed in the room, his anger taming just a little. “Thank the old gods for that.”
Rook gave me a gentle smile. “That just means I’m safe and he doesn’t need to worry.”
“Oh, I worry,” the man grumbled. “You’ve given me an ulcer with how much I worry.”
I reached my limit.
The fact that this man cared for her. That he worried about her. That he thought he could snatch her from me and take her far away. Stepping toward Rook, I towered over her on the bed and bared my teeth at the phone. “I’ve already told you. You’re not taking her anywhere.”
“Listen here—”
“No, you fucking listen.” I bent over and planted my fists on either side of Rook’s thighs. Our noses almost touched. Her beautiful dark eyes widened at how possessively I crowded her but the longer I was so close, the more she affected me.
The gentlest current of cold.
The coolest feathering of ice.
My temperature dropped a fraction, and I no longer felt like I could rip him into pieces with my bare hands. “I won’t kill you on the account of your past with Rook but...if you try to take her away from me, I will not fucking hesitate.”
“He won’t.” Rook tried to appease me. “He’s my bodyguard, not my jailer. Dil. Tell him. Tell him who you are.”
“I’m your worst nightmare if you’ve hurt her,” the asshole hissed.
“Not helping.” Rook rolled her eyes. “That’s an order. Tell him who you are.”
“Fine.” The bastard sniffed. “My name is Dillon Brooks. I’m assigned solely for Miss Snowdon’s protection.
However, she’s not always accommodating of this fact and makes it her life mission to keep me on an endless goose chase.
I’m also tracking her phone this very moment.
The moment she turned it back on again, I got an alert and I’m on my way—”
“How committed are you to ensuring her safety?” I cut in, pushing off the bed and standing over Rook.
Dillon answered immediately. “Extremely.”
“Would you kill to protect her?”
“I’m the type of person who acts first and questions a corpse later.”
“Good.” I smiled tightly, my heart burning with fresh heat just being this far from my antidote. “Come find her then. You have a couple of hours at the most. You better hurry.”
Snatching her phone, I stabbed the red hang-up button.
She stared at me, her mouth hitting the floor. “Eh...what was that?”
Bending over again, I cupped her face and ran my thumb along the sweep of her cheekbone. Ignoring her question, I pressed my lips to hers in a quick, fierce kiss before marching to the couch by the window. “I need to borrow your phone. Take a nap so you won’t pass out later.”
“Why? Why would I pass out?” She glanced at Whisper with worried eyes. “What are you plotting now?”
“Go to sleep. That’s an order.”
“Tell me. Don’t keep me in the dark like last time.”
“Sleep, Rook.” Blocking her curses out, I sat down and prepared to contact the second key that I’d been waiting to use for two decades.
Rook might’ve been the first.
But now it was time to turn the one my father had put in place over twenty years ago.
And hopefully get the hell out of here.