Chapter 16
RORI
The room I’m given is far better than I expected. And I don’t fucking trust it for a second. First things first, I need to have a look around.
The room is far different than the one at Nico’s I shared with Alonzo.
Well, up until the last few days. The new room I was in wasn’t much different though.
This one, however, leans more toward the rustic luxury charm.
Dark wood covers the walls, but instead of feeling like I’ve been thrust back into the seventies, it feels modern.
Intricate woodwork fills the room, surrounding the large stone fireplace on the left wall, and showing off the four-poster canopy bed.
Why the hell did they put me in this room?
The rugs are even fancier, covering the lighter hardwood floors.
If they’re worried about scratch marks on them with Hades’s nails, then that’s too damn bad.
I look down at my dog, so relieved to have him here, but before I can fall apart about it, we need to get to work.
“Search.” The command has him setting off, nose to the floor.
It took a long time to train him to spot bugs and hidden cameras, but we’ve gotten it down to a science now.
I go high, he goes low. I don’t even care if Ilya has cameras on me in here, watching this.
Let him see that if he’s going to try to spy on me, he’s going to have to be really clever about it if he doesn’t want me to find out.
The room is large enough that it takes a long time to go through everything. To search every crevice and every nook. Hell, I even scaled the walls in a few places to make sure I reached all the spots.
The bathroom and closets are decent-sized, but nothing like the ones back at Nico’s.
Still luxurious with a separate tub and shower, but a little less in your face, dripping in money.
Two smaller walk-in closets branch off the bathroom, with no exit to the main bedroom, and since it sits empty, it doesn’t take me long to find the bugs they thought they were being clever to hide in the shelves and the light fixtures.
I put them in a pile in the middle of the bed with the others that Hades and I have found. The only last place to check is the top of the bed. I look at the posters thoughtfully. How the hell am I going to get up there?
Damn it, I’m going to have to climb one of the columns.
I’m thankful that I’ve maintained a vigorous workout routine that includes climbing ropes, because trying to scale the posters is more challenging than I figured.
By the time I get to the top, I’m sweaty, and my arms are aching.
Not to mention, my clit is feeling a little tender from rubbing along the ridges in the wood even through the thin pants I’m wearing.
I glance over the edge at Hades, who is watching me with concern, but thankfully doesn’t bark. The last thing I need is to have people rushing in. I’m wondering if they made this bed for some weird shit, because damn, this thing is built sturdy and with ridges in interesting places.
I gingerly move across the top of the canopy, careful to watch for any screws or nails, but thankfully, nothing sticks out.
It’s definitely strong enough to hold my weight, and I eventually find a hidden camera and a bug hidden in the corners of the frame, one pointed to the door, and one pointed to the sitting area by the fireplace.
I lean over the edge and toss the two devices onto the mattress with the others.
Easing back, I look at the room again. I need to know every inch of this room.
I don’t trust Ilya or Zakhar Romanov. Simeon, well, he’s not really much of a concern.
He’s already feeling sucker punched that his carefully laid plans have crumbled.
Not my problem.
I need to decide how far I’m willing to go along with their plan. Well, what has been figured out so far, which is essentially nothing. The only thing that I’m certain of is that I don’t trust Ilya’s offer of my freedom.
Knowing who I am, and now knowing my father’s plan, he’s not going to want to let me walk away.
Not when he can have me as an ace in his pocket.
And I’m not about to be pulled back into this world.
I worked too fucking hard to stay out of it.
I toed the line, I lived my life, and no one was the wiser of who I was and to whom.
Fucking Tatiana. She just had to come in and ruin it. The next time I see her, I’m going to kick her in the vagina as hard as I fucking can. Seems a bit more appropriate considering how well she’s truly fucked me over.
That’s a worry for later. Right now, I need to map out my new prison. I need to know every line, every imperfection, and every place I can hide or use to my advantage if an attacker is stupid enough to try and come in here to take me out.
I wasn’t lying that my father will have someone scoping out Simeon, and now Ilya and Zakhar by extension. If they’ve figured out that I’m here, then I’ll be the first on the list to go. Hell, my father will probably tell them to bring my head back on a spike to prove a point.
A shudder works down my spine. Seeing my father again is the last thing I want to do.
The man hates me. Has forever. I was the first, which meant I was supposed to be his greatest success.
Instead, I abandoned my position, and because of who I was related to, he couldn’t come after me himself.
He tried sending some of his precious students as a test in those early days.
I made sure to send them home with a message.
I wasn’t coming back, and he trained me well enough that I could keep it up for as long as I had to.
At first, I thought it would never stop, but after the first year, it was like he finally realized that losing his students all the time was going to mess up his plans, and if what the rumors said was true, then the families of those who were killed by him were starting to complain to the Pakhans.
He couldn’t have risked it. So I’ve had years of relief, but never safety. I’ve never been safe.
I close my eyes, allowing myself a small moment to wallow.
I want to go home. I want to be with Sienna, watching her marry the man she loves and raise a family.
I want to keep living my life, and while that might not end the same way for me, I’d be happy.
Now, I’m right back into this fucking mess, facing down power-hungry men, assassins that want to see me dead for a trophy on their wall, and now having to face Alonzo when I told him not to fucking follow me.
Fuck, I’m so angry at him. Why couldn’t he have listened? Facing him is the last thing I need. It’s a distraction. I can’t afford a single one of them. Not if I want to get out of this alive. I need to focus, and worse, I need to become the person I worked so hard to forget.
Rayea Antonova was feared for many years. She was smart, and she was deadly. She was the one who trained other students in that school in secret, thinking stupidly she would have allies.
That wasn’t the case in the end, and being that person, opening myself back up to that side of me frightens me more than death. Becoming her again, can I come back from that? Can I keep the darkest parts of me buried when this is all over?
You did it once, you can do it again.
I want to believe that, but the doubt still lingers.
A soft sound interrupts my thoughts, bringing me sharply back to the present.
I lie on my belly, waiting, listening. Another small sound.
It’s not a knock, but something else. A soft clicking, a small scrape.
Hades lets out a low growl, but I quiet him with a quick, whispered command.
I tell him to wait, and both of us watch the door. Finally, I hear and see it.
The click of the lock giving way, and the quiet turning of the old-timey doorknob. Someone is trying to break into my room.
I bite back a curse of annoyance. Who the hell is trying to get themselves killed now? Unless my father’s spy is planning an early attack to get me out of the way quickly. Damn it.
I brace, waiting. I need to time this right, or I’ll end up with a broken neck or a bullet somewhere painful and probably deadly.
The door opens without a sound, and I slow my breathing as I get into position.
A figure steps through the door, head down, but I don’t wait to see who he is.
I don’t dare. I launch myself silently from the edge of the canopy, flying across the room at him fast enough that I’m already hitting him when he whips around from shutting the door.
Shit!
I really should figure out angles and shit next time. With how quickly he looks up, and how hard I’ve pushed myself off, I’m moving faster than I plan, and I only get to see his eyes widen, hear him curse, and rush to grab me.
Which is exactly how he gets a face full of pussy instead of me hitting him in the chest as I planned.
It stuns him enough that I can quickly gain the upper hand, wrapping my legs around his neck and throwing myself backward, causing him to stumble and fall forward.
It’s when I hear his sharp Italian curse that I realize who it is. Fuck.
I don’t have time to pivot, and I brace to land hard on the floor, but at the last moment, Alonzo manages to roll and take most of the brunt of the fall, landing with a hard thud and pained groan. I hit the footboard of the bed hard, pain shooting sharply through the back of my head and shoulders.
“Fuck!” I hiss. I don’t move, taking a second to get my bearings. “What the fuck do you think you’re fucking doing, Alonzo?” I snarl.
I open my eyes and look down, but still, when I realize that in this position, my crotch is still in his face, my thighs squeezing around his head.
His eyes burn as he looks up at me. Images of the last time I was in this situation flash through my mind, and heat flushes my cheeks. I shove to my feet, fighting the urge to kick that look right off his face. Damn it, I don’t need this bullshit.