Chapter 24 Allie
ALLIE
“Good morning, baby.” Mass kisses me lightly. I blink up at him, surprised to find he’s holding a steaming coffee. “I made this for you.”
“Thanks?” I sit up and rub my face as he places the mug down on the nightstand. It’s a little past eight in the morning. “I slept in.” I frown as that sinks in. “I haven’t slept in since—”
“Rosie’s fine.” Mass grins and hands me the monitor. “See?”
I turn it on, fighting back panic, and find Satya sitting in the rocking chair while Rosie plays with blocks on the floor. Satya’s reading a book to her and showing her the pages.
I groan and look at the ceiling. “I should’ve been awake. I can’t believe I slept through her waking up.”
“I got up and took care of it. Then I called in Satya so I could make you breakfast.”
I stare at him in pure surprise. “You got Rosie up?”
“I did.”
“You changed her? And fed her?”
“It’s not that difficult.”
I laugh sharply. “Imagine doing that every single morning!”
“I could if you’d let me.” He leans down and kisses me lightly, brushing his fingers over my cheeks. “Would you like that, wife? If I let you sleep in and took care of our daughter myself?”
I try to picture it. Mass the domesticated husband.
But the voice on the phone last night breaks through the nice daydream.
He’s torturing people here…
“I can handle Rosie. Honestly, it’s okay. You have work to do.”
He kisses me again. “Nothing’s as important as the two of you.” He stands and stretches. “Drink the coffee and come down when you’re ready.”
I watch him walk off, admiring his lean body despite myself. My head’s a mess of worries and reservations, but I force myself to use the bathroom. The coffee really is good too, and the caffeine helps clear out the cobwebs.
Rosie’s happy when I go check on her. I hug and kiss my little girl, but Mass makes me leave her with Satya.
Breakfast is simple. Eggs, bacon, some pastries from the kitchen. He claims to have cooked it, but who knows. It's hard to imagine Mass doing anything with food. We sit together at the table, and he talks in vague terms about his day and the amount of work he’s got to do.
“There’s always more,” he murmurs, frowning slightly into the distance. “Do you ever feel like you’d rather be somewhere else?”
“You did kidnap me, remember?”
He grunts like he actually did forget that part. “You’re still trying to escape?”
I freeze suddenly. He says it so casually, but the words are cutting. Like he knows about my meeting in the solarium. And the dead body in my wake.
“Would you blame me if I was?”
“Not really. I hope you can come to see how this place is good for you. But it wouldn’t surprise me.”
I drink the coffee and move the eggs around. My stomach twists, and I wonder how much I can tell him. I’m so tempted to confess everything and give him the phone. That way, I can be done with this insane game.
But that hidden room still bothers me.
And I can’t bring myself to say anything.
In the end, he kisses me and leaves for the day. I indulge in a few more minutes alone at the table before I go and check on Satya. The old woman is laughing with Rosie, and I pause to watch them for a couple of minutes.
“Would you mind sticking around here for a little while longer?” I ask her, glancing toward the stairs.
“Of course not. I love this little darling girl.” She scoops Rosie up and tickles her. My baby laughs and twists around, delighted and ready to play.
“I’m going for a walk. I think I need some exercise. I haven’t really gotten much physical activity lately.”
“That’s a wonderful idea. There’s a gym on the first floor.”
“I’ll check it out. I shouldn’t be long.”
I change into running clothes, strap on a pair of sneakers, and head out into the Fortress. Like always, nobody bothers me. I’m aware that there are eyes all over the place, but I have to remind myself that I’m the Dragon’s wife. I can go anywhere I want.
Including a specific door set back in a quiet, empty hallway.
It’s still there and locked tight when I approach. I keep thinking I should turn around and go to the stupid gym instead. Whatever’s inside that room, I don’t really want to know about it.
But I can’t help myself. I know it’s a mistake when I approach the code panel. “Lady? Are you listening?”
“Yes, Mrs. Cardone, I’m here.”
“Can you pause recording and surveillance in this wing?”
There’s a short hesitation. “You are authorized to make such a request.”
“Good. Great. Do that, please.”
“Very well. Anything else I can do for you?”
“Erase all memory of this conversation and can you make it look like I’m in the gym?”
Another short pause. “Done.”
“Thank you, Lady.” With a shaking hand, I punch in the code beside the door, half expecting nothing to happen.
Air rushes out at me. I stare as the door sinks down into the floor like I’m on some kind of spaceship. There must be a different HVAC system in here because I can feel the wind as I step forward into what feels like an entirely different world.
It’s hot. I notice that right away. Most of the Fortress is relatively cool, but this room is humid and very warm. I take a second to acclimate, staring around at what looks like a room I’ve seen a thousand times in a dozen different houses back home.
Wood paneling. Old photographs. An ancient TV on a shelf. A greenish couch and a thick carpet. My parents had a room like this one back in the mansion, although it was falling apart.
This one feels pristine.
But that’s not the strangest bit.
In the very center is a massive hospital bed.
The man wrapped in crisp white sheets is old.
He looks like he’s asleep. There are scars on his face, and his hooked nose is missing a chunk.
His left ear is gone, just a strangled mass of tissue left behind.
He’s thin, painfully gaunt. Machines whir and beep quietly.
A comfortable-looking quilt is draped over his knees, and a pair of thick glasses are perched on top of a paperback novel with the cover torn off.
This doesn’t look right.
No, it seems all wrong.
The voice said someone in here was being tortured, but that old man looks more like some kind of hospice patient.
I take a step back toward the door, but it has already closed behind me. I bump into the metal, making a dull thud, and curse as I smack my head against the frame.
“Who’s that?” The man in the bed stirs. His voice is reedy and thin. He clears his throat, fingers grabbing for his glasses. “Massimo? Did you come to speak with me already? Or is that a new nurse?”
Panic hits me. I shouldn’t be here. He puts the glasses on and frowns at me, clearly somewhat confused as I look around for an escape. There’s a bathroom and another door behind him, but it’s not open, and I have no idea where it goes.
“Do I know you? Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Not usually at least.” He smiles weakly at his joke. “Did Massimo send you?”
“I’m so sorry,” I blurt out, frozen in place. The man continues to regard me curiously. “I think I’m a little lost.”
“Aren’t we all, dear?” He chuckles to himself and struggles to sit up straighter. “I admit you caught me at an awkward moment. Are you with the nursing staff?”
“No, actually. I was exploring the Fortress and I just—”
His eyebrows raise. “You stumbled into my domain.”
“Something like that.”
“Casually through that ten-inch-thick steel door behind you? The one with the fancy security?”
“Uh—” I grin awkwardly. “Yes?”
His eyes narrow. I’m totally screwed. He can see right through me. Now that he’s coming awake, I can tell he’s much sharper than he seemed at first. Clearly physically weak and ailing based on the way he doesn’t move much and how thin he is, but his mind is still solid.
“What’s your name?”
“Allie, sir.”
He smiles at that. “Call me Elias, not sir. You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Very new.” I laugh awkwardly. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Please.”
“I thought someone in here was in trouble.”
His grin gets bigger. “Now why would you think that?”
“Well, I mean, Mass—” I pause, not sure how to explain it without mentioning the phone. “I heard sounds coming from this room and I was told I wasn’t allowed in here, so I just—”
He nods knowingly. “You just assumed the big, bad Dragon was torturing me for information.”
“Kind of, yeah.”
“You’re not far off, actually.” He waves a hand at a chair set beside his bed. “Come sit down. I don’t get many visitors. How’d you make it through the door?”
I drift closer. Elias doesn’t seem like he’s a threat. The old man is clearly sick somehow, and Mass has gone out of his way to make his room comfortable. “I’m kind of Mass’s wife,” I admit, taking the indicated chair.
Elias brightens. “Are you really? I thought that might be you. He was just talking about you the last time he was here. It’s wonderful to meet you.”
“You too, but honestly…” I trail off.
“He never mentioned me.” Elias looks thoughtful. “No, he wouldn’t. He’s a smart man.”
I look around the room. The place looks genuinely nice. “Are you a prisoner in here?”
Elias seems to find that very funny. “Yes and no.”
“That’s not a great answer.”
“Let’s say that I am… but not because Mass wants to keep me.”
“Sounds like there’s a story.”
His eyes twinkle. “There’s always a story, my dear. Would you like to hear it? I’ll give you the short version. If I told you the whole thing, Mass would have to kill you.”
I honestly can’t tell if he’s joking. “Better edit out the bad stuff then.”
“The big picture is this: I met Mass a long time ago. We became friends after a while, or at least as close to friends as men like us would ever be. But we live a hard life, and one day an old enemy of mine attacked and nearly finished me off. He would have too if it weren’t for Mass.
I was saved, but I paid a heavy price.” He gestures at himself.
“I’m afraid I’m not the man I used to be.
” With a flourish, he leans forward and pats the blankets.
Which shows his lack of legs from the knees down.
I try not to stare, but it’s difficult. He seems amused, though.
“I’m really sorry to hear all that. Was your enemy Medved, by any chance? I keep hearing that name.”
“The one and only. Let’s pray Medved remains only a name for you, my dear. Although God doesn’t listen to me often these days. Otherwise, my legs would have regrown and I’d be twenty years younger.”
“Only twenty?”
He barks a laugh, grinning savagely. “I like you.”
“How come you’re here? And in a locked room?”
“The lock is for my own protection. I’m not as mobile as I used to be, and if the people who listen to my orders ever realized how frail I’ve become, they might stop doing what I tell them to do. That would be very bad for everyone. And so all this—” He gestures around him. “This is a secret.”
Something clicks inside my head. A little piece of gossip and news I remember my father talking about back in the day. “You’re a Dragon, aren’t you?”
“Until the day I die.”
“You’re the missing Dragon… the fifth Dragon. The one that never shows his face.”
“And now you see why. I was cursed with terminal ugliness.”
“Mass has been hiding you for years.”
“That’s right. Otherwise, Medved would’ve smoked me out and ended me by now, or I would’ve been usurped in some other coup, or a thousand other ways my current situation could’ve gone wrong.
But enough about my misery. I want to hear more about you.
” He leans forward eagerly. “Tell me about the girl who caught Massimo’s heart. ”
I laugh awkwardly, but Elias clearly isn’t kidding. “I don’t think I caught anything of his.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
That makes me uncomfortable, but it also sparks some excitement in my chest. “I’m nothing special. My last name’s Russo. My dad’s in the life. My brothers are too. We lived out on Long Island, and I was going to marry someone else until I ended up here.”
Elias frowns, head tilted to the side. He studies me, eyes squinting again, and I resist the urge to squirm under that attention. “Russo from Long Island? There are probably a dozen Russos out there… but in the life… is your father’s name Francesco?”
“Yes!” I say, sitting up straighter. “You know him?”
“You have brothers. Dominic and Gabriel.”
“I do. How’d you know that?”
“And your mother.” His voice drops to nearly a whisper. “Her name is Margot. But her parents called her Maggie. She hated that. Drove her crazy.”
I’m stunned. I don’t know how he could possibly know all that.
My father’s a well-known man in the life, and my brothers both work with him.
But my mother isn’t a public figure, and nobody could possibly know what sort of nickname her parents had for her.
I didn’t even know that. Unless this man is making it up, he’s much more familiar with her than I could’ve imagined.
“How?” I ask, heart racing suddenly. “Did you know them? Her parents, I mean?”
“Alessandra.” He’s looking at me with pure sadness in his eyes. “Oh, my dear girl. Massimo didn’t tell me. And he clearly didn’t tell you. I should have recognized you the second you walked in, but you caught me off guard, and it’s been so long. You’ve grown up.”
“Who are you? I mean, how do you know who I am?”
Elias starts to answer, but he’s interrupted by the door abruptly opening.
I leap to my feet, a yelp cut off short as Mass strides into the room. Two security team members stand behind him, weapons drawn. Mass stops at the foot of Elias’s bed and glares at me, face hard.
“I hope she didn’t bother you,” Mass says.
Elias isn’t looking at him. “Not at all, Massimo. You should’ve told me your wife is so beautiful.”
“I’m possessive.”
“You should be when it comes to a woman like her.”
“How long did you talk?”
“Long enough.”
“And you know?”
“Yes, Massimo. I know.”
His face tightens and he nods. “We’ll discuss it later.” He turns to me, expression darkening. “And you better have a good excuse for this.”
All words leave me. Something’s going on between Elias and Mass, but I don’t know what it is, something that involves me.
I want to scream at them to come out with it, to just say what they mean, but Mass’s presence is like a weight dragging us both down to the floor.
His anger threatens to crush me to pieces.
“I got lost,” I mutter, glancing down at my hands.
He storms over to me. I take a step back as he takes me by the arm. I go with him willingly, since I’m afraid he’ll drag me along behind him if I don’t. Elias watches impassively.
“We’ll speak later,” Mass calls out.
“I look forward to it.”
I catch a glimpse of Elias as the doors close behind us. He’s studying me, his expression hard, like he’s not sure what to do with some intractable and potentially deadly problem.