Chapter 19 – Emika
The next few days passed in a blur, and the mansion felt more and more like a prison. I felt the walls closing in on me. Even something as basic as breathing now felt like a privilege I had to earn.
Security was tightened; guards were everywhere, armed and dangerous. The hallways seemed to echo the boss’s orders every now and then, as though a zombie apocalypse were going on that I didn’t know about.
No one was allowed in or out of the mansion without permission. Not even me. According to Adrik, it was for safety reasons. But I didn’t think so. I thought it was another form of control, a means to exert his dominance over everyone at the house.
He didn’t tell me this, but I’d learned from Natalya that he’d finally killed Richard’s errand boy. She knew this because one of Adrik’s men was her secret boyfriend. She also revealed that the reason he’d tightened security around the house was to prepare for a possible retaliatory attack.
She said that there was no way Richard Beaumont was going to take the death of one of his loyalists lightly. He was going to launch an attack since Adrik had just declared war on him.
That was when it made sense to me why he interrogated the hell out of me the other day. He’d just killed Richard’s loyal man and sent him the body in a box. Adrik knew my grandfather would come for vengeance, so he needed to know where I stood.
All those questions about what I told Richard were his attempts to scrutinize my loyalty.
What if he found out that Richard and I had an agreement?
What would he do to me? And as for my grandfather, would he really launch an attack on the household where his granddaughter was?
Would he attack and risk me getting shot in a crossfire? Was he capable of that?
At this point, these two monsters were capable of anything. For all I knew, Richard might be pissed at me for not reporting anything back to him. He might have concluded that I’d picked a side already. My husband’s.
Considering how selfish he was, what’s to say he’d give two shits whether I lived or died?
I lived in constant fear for my safety and could barely sleep at night. I would wake up at intervals, just to be sure that I was still alive. I knew I couldn’t continue to live like this, afraid of when death would come knocking.
I didn’t want to be trapped in this world of violence anymore. And so, I made it my mission to find a way out of here. Adrik and Richard wouldn’t drag me into their senseless war. I wasn’t going to lose my life over their enmity.
Determined to escape this cursed place, I spent the next few days planning my prison break. Since I couldn’t sleep at night, I used the time to study the guards’ routines.
I memorized their shifts, observed their operational patterns, and found the loopholes I was looking for. When I’d first arrived here, Natalya had shown me around, pointing out all the possible exits in the mansion.
According to her, the one down the basement led to a hidden tunnel that linked the mansion to the woods outside. I hadn’t paid much attention to her at the time because I never planned to escape.
To refresh my memory, I joined Natalya as she was watering the plants two days ago. Since she always loved to talk, I tricked her into telling me more about the tunnel and where it led.
As expected, she didn’t hold back a single detail. Natalya never suspected that I would attempt an escape. She only told me what I needed to know out of the goodness of her kind heart.
I felt bad for playing on her intelligence and using her for my own selfish gain. But this was war, and in war, everything was fair. As a bonus tip, she even told me the exact section of the library where I would find a copy of the mansion’s blueprint.
“You didn’t hear that from me,” she’d whispered in my ear with a harmless grin on her face.
Natalya had no idea how much she’d simplified my escape plan. The night we had that talk, I made my way to the library, testing my knowledge of the guards’ routines. To my surprise, I’d perfectly memorized everything.
When I moved through the dark hallways undetected, I felt like a ninja in action. Like an actual spy. I successfully reached the library, retrieved the blueprint from a shelf, and spread it across a table.
With my phone, I took clear landscape photos of the design before returning it to where I found it.
After heading back to the bedroom, I lay down in bed, eyes fixed on the phone’s lit screen. While studying the building plan, I would zoom in on the areas that needed more clarity.
I spent the whole night studying that thing, alone. Adrik hadn’t slept in the room for like two nights now. He was busy keeping the house safe from a possible invasion. While he was planning to protect his household, I was planning on escaping from it.
The next day, I found out from Natalya that Adrik wouldn’t be home that night. He had to attend an important midnight meeting. I knew in that second that this was my chance to bolt.
I’d already memorized the blueprint and had it saved on my phone. I’d learned the guards’ routines and could move without being seen. Thanks to the blueprint, I knew where the house’s blind spots were.
There was nothing stopping me now.
I waited in my room that night until it was time to move. Dressed in an all-black outfit that would seamlessly blend with the darkness outside, I stepped out into the corridor.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I made my way through the hallways. I moved like a shadow, knowing the exact to stop and when to move again. That was how I avoided the guards and got to the basement.
I stopped in my tracks when I spotted the torture room where I first saw Adrik’s cold side. Across from it was the exit I was looking for: a steel red door. I threw my hands into my hair and pulled out the clip holding it together.
Like a river of blood, my hair fell loosely over my shoulders as I walked over to the waiting door. I crouched before it, slipped the clip through the keyhole, and began picking the lock.
I hadn’t done this in a long time, but I was certain that I still had it in me. After a solid five minutes of trying, the door finally unlocked with a soft click.
A fleeting excitement washed over me, prompting my lips to curl into a small smile. I rose to my feet and gently pushed the door open. My face twisted in response to the metallic stench and the foul smell that filled the tunnel air.
I buried my nose in my elbow, turned on my phone’s flashlight, and took that bold first step. It was dark in here, and only God knew what creeping creatures lurked in the shadows.
However, I was determined to leave. Besides, I hadn’t come this far just to turn back now.
They say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
I was about to test that theory for myself.
As I walked through the dark tunnel, my phone lighting my way, my heart raced uncontrollably. I was afraid of the things I couldn’t see in the dark—the creatures making those funny noises.
I heard hisses from all around, like a snake wasn’t too far from me. I hated snakes; they scared the shit out of me. But that didn’t stop me. I could only hope I didn’t accidentally step on any.
My path was covered in thick cobwebs and crawling spiders, while rats scurried around in the dark. But I ignored the distractions and kept moving, hoping to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.
The more I walked, the more it seemed like I was going in circles. I knew I wasn’t because I had the building plan to guide me. The tunnel was just longer than it looked on paper.
I walked for about twenty minutes in the darkness, and with each passing second, I grew more and more nervous. At some point, I began to doubt whether this was the right choice.
A thousand questions overlapped in my mind—all negative thoughts that fanned my fears. I wondered what would happen if I got lost in this tunnel. Or worse, what if I were bitten by a snake and the venom stopped my heart before anyone could find me?
What if I died down here? How long would it take Adrik to find my body?
It took everything in me to silence the noise in my head and keep going.
Then at last, after twenty-five long minutes, I finally saw a glimmer of hope. The light at the end of the tunnel. Literally.
Smiling, I hurried over to the small barred gate, adorned with vines and cobwebs. The padlock on it was huge but rusted. After looking around for a moment, I found a rock by the side.
With that rock, I struck the padlock a few times, and it gave way.
I laughed and pushed it open.
Laughed still when I stepped out of the tunnel, basking in the moon’s ethereal glow. I spread out my hands, closed my eyes, and inhaled the scent of the flowers and leaves around me. Smelled like freedom.
I easily navigated through the woods until I burst out onto a busy road. There, I flagged down a cab and got into the backseat.
“Where to, ma’am?” the driver asked me, stealing a glance through the rearview mirror.
I mentioned a motel located at a safe distance from here. He put the car into gear and drove away.
Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower” was playing in the car’s cabin, the lyrics seeping into my soul.
“Hey, can you turn that up?” I asked the driver.
“Sure.” He did just that.
I drew a deep breath and leaned my head against the glass, letting myself be carried away by the slow, heartbreaking song.
After he dropped me at the motel, I rented a room for the night. The plan was to rest here for a while before cooking up my next move.
The room was clean for a cheap motel, but the space was way too small. Or maybe it was just my eyes. Maybe I only thought so because I’d already gotten used to the large rooms at the Tarasov mansion.
First things first, I took a warm bath to wash off all the sweat and dirt from the dark tunnel. Once done, I lay butt-naked on the bed, my eyes fixed on the spinning ceiling fan.
I threw my hands under my head and said to myself, “You did it, Emi. You did it.” My lips curled into a small, self-satisfied grin. “You’re out.”
Come tomorrow morning, I’d think of my next plan. But for now, it was time to sleep. I pulled the sheets over my body, let out a triumphant sigh, and closed my eyes.
***
Early the following morning, I woke to the loud honk of a truck passing by the road outside. A slight groan escaped my lips, and I rolled onto my side, clasping a pillow over my ear.
As I lay there, frustrated by the honk that had pulled me out of my sleep, two things caught my attention. First, a strange feeling that I wasn’t alone in the room. My senses picked up another presence around me; dangerous, masculine.
Next was the scent of a very familiar cologne.
My eyes widened as the realization hit me hard. “No,” I murmured, overwhelmed with fear.
“Rise and shine, Princess,” came that unmistakable voice of Adrik Tarasov.
I sat up immediately, pulling the sheets over my chest. That’s when my gaze fell on him.
He was seated on a sofa beside my bed, his legs crossed, exuding his usual air of confidence. His expression was blank. No sign of anger or any emotion at all.
My throat wobbled as I swallowed hard, my heart pounding like a freaking drum. “Adrik…what’re you…” I stuttered, unable to get my words together. “How’d you…?” I glanced back at the door.
He looked right at me, his voice deep and steady. “I own half of this city, Emika. I have eyes and ears everywhere.” He uncrossed his legs and leaned in. “Did you honestly think you could run away and I wouldn’t find you?”
His calmness was starting to concern me because I had no idea what crazy punishment he had in store for me.
“I can—I can explain—”
“Save it,” he cut me off and rose to his feet. “Get dressed.” His eyes darted toward the clothes on the floor. “We’re going back home.” He fastened the button on his coat and headed out the door.
I lowered my head in despair, my heart shattering. There was no hope left for me. He’d made it clear he’d always find me wherever I went. It only took him a few hours to track me down. Just a few hours.
That was how powerful and resourceful he was.
How was I ever going to run away from a man who owned half the city and had eyes everywhere?
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, slamming my head against a pillow.
And just like that, all my hard work was gone. Puff!