Chapter 9 Flynn
FLYNN
“Flynn?”
Kaia’s voice drifts down the hall toward me but I ignore it, continuing my stride while fixing my watch and adjusting the fit of my shirt.
“Flynn, I’m sorry!”
Her apology makes me stop dead and a deep sigh rattles through my chest. “For what?” I call back, refusing to look up from my watch as if the links themselves are hopping in and out of place.
“For prying yesterday. For trying to get into your locket. For, well, not for what I said but for those things…
I wasn’t trying to be a dick or pry into something personal, I swear.”
Slowly I turn to face her as Frank joins me in the hallway. “Why should I believe you?”
“You don’t have to.” Kaia’s hands come together at her waist. “But I want to make it up to you.”
My suspicions rise. “Why?”
“Less because I actually care what you think and more because…I wasn’t kidding when I said I was bored, okay?
You’ve had me captive here for almost two weeks, and I don’t know about you, but the whole aggravating thing is really fucking with my head.
I’m not saying we should be friends or anything because I still hate your guts, but if we’re stuck living together, then could we try to reach…
I don’t know, some kind of amicable middle ground? ”
If she’s putting on an act, it’s pretty convincing. Or I’m just too soft.
“There may be benefits,” Frank murmurs in a very low voice so she doesn’t overhear, “to having her on side.”
“Fine,” I say loud enough for her to hear. “I’ll be back at dinner, then we can talk.”
“Excellent!” Kaia bounces up onto the balls of her feet and smiles, then she turns and vanishes in a flurry of curls and her flowing skirt.
“You think she’s up to something?” Frank asks as we exit the manor and head toward the waiting car.
“Probably,” I reply.
“But what?”
Running my tongue over my teeth, I shrug. “Given that I caught her snooping in my room, I bet she’s after information.”
“Will you give it?” Reaching the car, Frank holds the door open for me and I pass him with a brief smile.
“Depends on what exactly she’s after.”
“The truth, I would think.” Frank slides into the driver’s seat after closing my door and taps the engine start button. “If my suspicions are correct, she’s more in the dark than she realizes.”
“Maybe,” I reply, settling back into the comfort of my seat. “Or she’s better at playing these games than we give her credit for.”
The day passes quickly with a round trip to all our nightclubs and cooking houses to ensure Antov Yudkin hasn’t taken any immediate action against us.
After his stunt at the warehouse, he’s been suspiciously quiet.
Frank thinks it’s because he didn’t realize I would make good on my end of the deal and actually bring Kaia with me, but I’m hesitant to agree.
Given the nature of the exchange, there’s no scenario where I wouldn’t hold up my end, which leads me to reason that Antov really doesn’t care if his niece lives or dies. Something like that can be problematic since Kaia’s usefulness to me relies on her uncle wanting her back.
If that ends, then I’m simply the bastard keeping a woman captive for no decent reason and that doesn’t sit well with me.
All through the day, I mull over several possibilities to Antov’s motivations, but by the time I arrive home later that night I’m no closer to working them out or finding out where he’s hiding.
The eyes I have locked on his private home haven’t reported a single sign of life these past few weeks, which likely means he’s gone to ground, forcing me into a stalemate until he lifts his head again.
Maybe Kaia can be the key if she’s honest about her desire to find a middle ground.
After changing out of my suit and spending an hour with Angie, I make my way to the dining room in just a loose blue shirt and white pants, where Kaia is in the middle of lighting the last candle.
“You came!” Her brows dart upward and a somewhat nervous smile creeps across her lips. “Honestly, I didn’t think you actually would.”
“I got your message,” I reply. “Dinner?”
She nods quickly. “Florence helped me. Can’t say I’m a great cook, but it was actually kind of nice to focus on something else for a little while y’know?” Kaia clutches the lighter to her chest and winces slightly. “Not that I’m trying to be an asshole here.”
Her softer attitude surprises me, and while the urge to snap back at her rises I swallow it down with a slight smile. “There’s bad blood between us. No need to pretend that it’s not there.”
“I know. But if we focus on how much we hate each other, the soup will get cold and we won’t reach any kind of middle ground.”
“You think there’s middle ground to be had?” At her prompting, I take my seat and she settles next to me, immediately reaching for a glass of red wine.
“I don’t know. I uhm…” She drinks deeply for a few seconds then lowers her glass. “I need there to be. I don’t expect you to care about how I’m feeling in the same way I don’t care about yours but…honestly, I’m going crazy here. There’s so much I don’t understand.”
I run my gaze over the bowls of soup laid out before us, the basket of freshly baked bread rolls, and the fresh salad glistening in a large bowl in the middle of the table.
She really put effort into all of this.
If this is part of her games, then she’s very dedicated.
“What don’t you understand?”
“Will you answer me honestly?” Kaia sets down her glass.
Our gazes meet. Kaia isn’t my enemy.
She’s just a tool to get to him, so the decision is easy. “To the best of my ability, if I have a truthful answer then I will give it.”
Kaia’s eyes narrow slightly and I glimpse the shimmer streaked over her top lid.
While the yellow dress she wears is sweet and simple, it clings to her voluptuous curves in a way that constantly draws my attention, even as I fight to keep my eyes level.
Her sparkling, smokey makeup deepens the green of her eye and makes for a good distraction.
“I don’t have much reason to lie to you, Kaia. I’m the one with all the power here.” It’s impossible to resist taunting her, but Kaia merely rolls her eyes.
“You’re like a dog with a bone,” she remarks, reaching for a bread roll. “All you men care about is who is on top all the damn time.”
“It’s the way of the world. You’ve seen this growing up, I’m sure.”
“Yeah.” She tears off a piece of the roll and pops it in her mouth. “It’s all I’ve ever seen. My Dad, my uncle, my brother…” Her voice wavers slightly. “It’s like being the leader of the pride is all that matters to anyone.”
“We live in a cutthroat world. There’s no other way to survive.”
“So it seems.” Her voice quietens. “So why am I still alive?” When I don’t answer immediately, she looks up at me from under her dark lashes. “You’ve killed almost everyone else, why not me?”
“Because I need you alive.”
“Why?”
“It’s like you said, men like your uncle and me only care about being on top. And the only way I can get to your uncle is through you.”
She scoffs lightly. “So I’m just a pawn.”
“To an extent.”
“I guess he sees me the same given how he’s playing with my life like this.”
“Did you expect him to have rescued you already?”
“Yes.” She tears her roll into smaller pieces. “But…he must have something you really want if you haven’t just killed him outright.”
“I don’t know where he is,” I admit, watching her expression carefully. “If I did, I would approach him the exact same way I approached your brother.”
Her lower lip wobbles slightly. “So…” As her voice cracks, she glances away and stares hard at her soup. After a few long seconds, she begins eating it and I join her. “So you were hunting my brother that night?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
The soft creaminess of the soup washes over my tongue, a satisfying warmth as I think back to the night in question. “He refused to tell me where your uncle was.”
Kaia gives an unexpected snort.
“What?”
She licks her spoon and watches me. “If you’d come to the door that night and just asked me, I would have told you he was in the city, avoiding my aunt. At least that’s where I thought he was.”
“You were wrong?”
Kaia shakes her head. “The last time I saw my brother he told me my uncle was at his own estate. I’m just…amused that if you’d come to the door like a normal person then I would have told you. Instead, everything is…”
She falls quiet and something tightens inside my chest.
Had I been thinking like a rational person that night then things would have gone differently.
Anger and pain drove me and it still does, simmering underneath everything I do, but something about how Kaia speaks gives life to a pulse of sympathy within me.
“Why do you let me roam so freely? I’m your prisoner and yet you let me walk the halls and the gardens like I live here.”
Her question distracts me from the sympathy blooming inside me, and I shrug. “Every corner of this place is under surveillance and armed guard. There’s little you can do that would disrupt things. And while you’re my prisoner, you’re not my target.”
“I’m not your target?”
“No.”
“So you give me all this freedom, with limitations, because your target is my uncle?”
Warmth creeps across my shoulders and a prickling sensation trickles down my spine, forcing my shoulders into a shiver as I nod. “Correct.”
Kaia nods slowly. “Wow. I almost feel bad.”
“About?” I ask as another shiver works down my spine, but this one is different.
It’s sharper and seeps into my gut where a strange, cold sensation tightens through my abdomen.
“About this,” Kaia says and her eyes drop down to my soup. “Because you very much are my target.”
I follow her eyeline to my half-eaten soup just as a fierce pulse of nausea pulls through my gut and sweat breaks out across my forehead.
Shit.
Pushing back from the table, I rise onto unsteady legs that give way within seconds, sending me crashing down to the floor as panic screams to the front of my mind.
Has she poisoned me? No, that can’t be right. Where the hell would she get a hold of any kind of poison?
“Does it hurt?” Kaia’s voice drifts down from above as I force myself up onto my hands and knees, but sudden pressure from her foot forces me back down. “Don’t worry. It won’t take long.”
Gotta get help, Frank— anyone—
“You almost had me.” Kaia’s gleaming shoes appear before my blurred eyes and my chest lurches, but as panic surges through me, there’s something worse happening inside.
My heart isn’t beating as fast as I’d expect given the frantic screaming in my mind and the adrenaline flooding my veins.
Instead, each beat is slower than the last as if my blood is growing thicker.
My trembling hands scramble for my gun, but just as I get the weapon into my hand Kaia kicks my wrist and sends it scattering from my grip.
I clutch at her ankle instead, but she kicks my hold away with ease and laughs.
“Honestly, the way you were talking I was beginning to think that maybe I had you all wrong. Maybe you had a heart and there was some little bit of information hidden inside you that would help me understand.”
Her foot collides with my chest, forcing me to roll over onto my back. I gasp for air as the tightness in my chest increases tenfold and saliva runs past my lips.
“But there’s nothing in the world that could justify that.
” Kaia glares down at me with tears shimmering in her eyes.
“You murdered my best friend, my brother, and my aunt. Don’t you see?
You slaughtered my family and yet talk to me like you’ve done me some kind of favor by keeping me captive here.
And suggesting that my uncle was playing with my life, acting like he was prepared for me to die at that warehouse when I bet he didn’t even know you’d bring me, did he?
Did you plan on having me die there by his hand to ruin his reputation, huh? ”
Can’t breathe.
Can’t move.
Can’t— fight—
“I would have killed you faster, but I decided that sending you to death’s door and having you suffer is the only way I’ll be able to cope with—!”
Her words trail off in a gasp. I blink slowly as the world before me slows down, matching the sluggish beat of my dying heart.
It’s like watching a flipbook of my last moments and I’m powerless against the force of the pages.
Kaia’s hands go over her mouth, then she rushes away, but whoever she’s rushing at slips by her.
On my next blink, Angie’s face appears above me and the world grows cold.
Her large eyes are flooded with tears, and both her tiny fists slam down on my chest, but the contact feels so far away.
Angie.
I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to make things right.
“Daddy!” Angie screams suddenly and a long, loud wail rips right past her lips.
Darkness consumes me, crushing me under the weight of my failure.