Chapter 9
Nine
N erine
Unbelievable.
That was the only word that came to my mind the second I lifted the lid of the case. Nyx had given me two black metal blades, etched with intricate designs, nestled inside a plush housing. Wood and steel made up the hilts, and if I wasn’t mistaken, jewels, maybe sapphires, rubies, and diamonds.
Pulling one out, I studied the handle.
OMG, these were authentic gems. Were these women nuts? They wanted me to practice with knives that had actual diamonds in them. I had to be living in some alternate universe.
That’s when I noticed a small lever in the box and tugged. Underneath sat another collection of weapons, knives of various sizes, two guns, a pickaxe-looking thing, a few other items I couldn’t identify, and a note.
No, we don’t expect you to learn with jeweled weapons. Give us some credit. That’s a showpiece.
You’ll practice with the items below. Talk to your bodyguards between lessons if you have any questions. They have instructions. And keep up your studies.
-N&D
I couldn’t help but smile seeing the initials for Nyx and Devani. It was fitting since all three of my teachers, including Lilly, were known for wielding a weapon to deliver a deadly message.
I stared at the small arsenal the women had provided me, and a sense of apprehension and awe filled me.
This was actually happening. In the last several weeks, I’d not only started to learn to defend myself but also to believe I could truly pull off my escape.
I wasn’t sure when or how it would happen, but my gut said soon.
Yeah, there were people all around me playing their games. I knew it, felt it, and saw it—with Simon Drakos, Xander and Theo, and even the ladies.
But the difference with the ladies was that they had nothing to gain but to help a victimized woman regain her strength and thumb her nose at the world that had taken everything from her.
I sighed. Was I getting carried away and being too trusting and naive?
Well, a girl had to have hope.
I slid the jeweled blades back into place, closed the case, and then hid the entire thing in a secret compartment inside a sliding baseboard panel near the side of my bed.
This house held so many passageways and hidey holes. Very few of the hidden corridors connected to each other, so if a person discovered one, it wouldn’t necessarily lead them to others.
The only people currently alive who knew about them all were Theios Alex, my sisters, and Mama. Xander and Theo had learned of the passageways when we were younger but never traveled them to the level I had or could walk them blindfolded as I’d done for the fun of it as a child.
Keeping the weapons case from prying eyes was paramount. This gift meant so much to me.
It symbolized the start of my transition from the girl who’d shattered into pieces to the one who planned to create a new life for herself, her mother, and her sisters.
Deep down, I knew Papa would understand.
Maybe what I wanted was to run away, but I thought I’d earned it. My life here meant I was a commodity. My value came in my body, my name.
As if sensing my train of thoughts, Andraius appeared between the threshold of his bedroom and mine, watching me, lust glazing his eyes.
I released an internal sigh.
Here we went. For the next four nights, he’d fuck me to acquire this baby I’d never let come into the world.
But first, the small talk.
Time to slide on my bitch cloak, or I’d throw up the second he touched me. I should have downed a few shots of ouzo or something, and then maybe this would go easier.
“How are the lessons going with Nyx?” Andraius asked and stared at me with this disgusting interest that made me want to gag and punch him simultaneously.
“Fun. I like Nyx. I may take up some of her ideas for the gardens here.”
He studied me as if he thought I was full of it. “What kind of flowers are you interested in planting?”
“Low-maintenance greenery is a better option this late in the season, and then we can consider things for the spring that won’t suffer shock with the upcoming cold cycles.”
He considered me for a few seconds as if he were seeing a different woman.
Yes, asshole, I do know a thing or two about plants. It was part of my training.
“I was concerned about this association with Drakos’s wife, but now I think it’s the best type of influence that could have happened to you.”
I shrugged. “As I said, I like Nyx and am learning a lot from her. It is nice to have a friend to visit.”
“So there isn’t any truth to the rumors about her obsession with knives?”
Oh, you mean like the fact she wears one strapped to the inside of her thigh wherever she goes, and it was given to her by her husband?
“Umm, no,” I said, giving him a frown. “Outside of the ones used to prune plants, I haven’t seen anything. Besides, gossip is a waste of time. I’d rather give people the benefit of the doubt, wouldn’t you?”
He ignored my question and asked, “And what about Drakos? Does he spend much time at the estate?”
“He was in Greece until today. We left around the time he arrived. I believe he wanted us out of the way so he could be alone with Nyx. They are a very affectionate couple.”
“You don’t know anything. Drakos wanted your security to be out of the house so that they wouldn’t spy on him. I can’t believe Peter thought you could run the family. You don’t have the mind for it.”
Ignoring the jab, I decided chitchat time was over.
I cocked my hand on my hip and asked, “Are we doing this? I want to go read otherwise.”
“If that is how you want it. Most couples do talk about their lives.”
“Couples that have actual relationships or want to be around each other talk. It’s not as if you even know how to make me come. Let’s just do the deed.”
“Fine, remove your robe, and I’ll do the deed, as you put it.”
With no regrets, I tugged off my robe, revealing the negligee underneath that accentuated the handiwork he’d sculpted into my body. Andraius’s face grew red, and he clenched his fists.
“You wore that on purpose.”
“What, you don’t like seeing how you cherish your wife? I thought this piece of lingerie displayed my body beautifully. I’ve started a new workout routine. I’m more toned than ever. Can you tell?” I pivoted side to side as if I were modeling for him.
With a vicious glare, he unbelted his robe, loosened the drawstring of his pajama pants, and came in my direction. “Turn around and put your hands on the bed.”
I stood in place.
“I thought you enjoyed me on my back, so you can ensure your cum goes how it’s supposed to go.”
He stalked toward me, shoving me onto the bed and turning me onto my stomach. “Shut up and just do as I say.”
Then he pushed my face into the mattress and pulled my ass into the air.
“Oh, so we are fucking in here. Not in your room where it is my duty to conceive the next heir? Wow, we’re breaking all the rules tonight.”
“What has come over you?”
“The same thing as always. I hate you.”
He jerked my hips up, and I expected him to ram his cock into me, but instead, he pushed away from me.
“You fucking bitch. I hate you just as much.”
I turned and saw his dick lying limp.
Immediately, I burst into laughter as if what I saw was the funniest thing in the world, rolled off the bed, and pointed at him.
“Maybe you should go with the idea of in vitro. How do you plan to impregnate me if your dick doesn’t cooperate every time you come to rape me?”
“It isn’t raping you if we’re married.”
“It is when I didn’t give you consent, asshole. I didn’t consent to marry you. I didn’t consent to fuck you. I still don’t. It only happens because you hold my mother’s and sisters’ lives in your hands.”
“And what about yours? Don’t you care about your life?”
“I don’t give a fuck about me. Besides, we’ve already gone through this. Your threat of killing me isn’t going to work. You need me alive to hold on to this family. You have no valid claim to the seat without a true Angelos at your side.”
“You still have sisters, don’t forget.”
“Oh please, Christina and Ariana are seventeen. And in this fantasy where you force one of the twins to marry you, I should let you know that if you think I’m a bitch, you haven’t seen those two in action. They will set your balls on fire without spilling a drop of their coffee. And of course, forcing anything on Fi would make you a pedophile. That’s a big no-no even in the syndicate world.”
“You have all the answers, don’t you?”
“Not even close. If I did, I wouldn’t be half naked with a man who can’t even get his dick hard.”
“And who exactly would you be with?”
“Not you.” I reached for my robe and shrugged it on. “Are we done, or do I need you to take a pill to make it work?”
He stalked toward me, grabbed me by the throat, and lifted me off the ground.
I clutched at his hand, raking my fingers across his flesh, drawing blood as he blocked all air from entering my lungs. My mind clouded as my consciousness waned at the edges.
Andraius brought me toward his face, his alcohol-laced breath coasting over me. “I hate you even more than you hate me. All I want is a child, and then we don’t have to see each other again.”
He threw me on the floor, and I instinctively rolled to the side, ready to avoid a kick. The whole time, I gasped and coughed.
“You don’t even know the meaning of hate,” I choked out through labored breaths. “And you’re the problem, not me. Ask the doctors you love so much.”
“If that’s the way you want it. Have it your way. I’m going to prove you a fucking liar. And while we’re at it, let them do everything. This way, I don’t have to touch you. The last thing I want to do is fuck a venom-filled whore. How you got any man to fuck you in the first place is beyond me.”
I kept my mouth shut even though I wanted to taunt him more, say all kinds of things that had built in me for years. But, thankfully, through some warped luck of fate, he’d washed his hands of me.
His dream of fertility treatments would never come to fruition. They took time and patience. I’d make sure to draw everything out by months and months.
He wouldn’t touch me anymore. The bastard wouldn’t touch me anymore. Dizziness engulfed my head as nausea flooded my gut.
Pushing to my feet, I rushed to the bathroom and barely reached the toilet before I let everything empty from my stomach. I grabbed a towel, wiped my mouth, and leaned against a wall.
Tilting my head up, I gasped up at the decorative ceiling through wet eyes. I wiped at them and realized more tears streamed down my cheeks, now flowing free as if a dam had broken.
A sob escaped my lips, and I covered my face with my hands as the heartache and pain of the last few years flooded over me in pounding, overwhelming waves. I’d refused to cry for so long that my body needed to purge everything once I freed them.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat on the floor. I only knew that my lungs burned, and I couldn’t allow myself to lock away my emotions to this level ever again. It only gave Andraius more power over me.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I went back into my room and glanced at the now closed door of Andraius’s room. Suddenly, laughter bubbled up from my chest.
I’d let that bastard break me. But it looked as if I’d fucked him up, too.
In my defeat, in my not giving a fuck about anything, I’d chipped away at that man’s biggest flaw.
His ego.
I took a deep, almost relieving breath for the first time in a long time. A wave of something settled over me. Determination? Or was it just a certainty that I would get out of this?
Moving to the windows overlooking the front of the house, I pushed back the curtains just in time to see a fleet of four cars as they drove away from the property.
Most heads of families preferred anonymity when out and about, knowing the less attention they received, the safer. Andraius obviously missed that directive. But, then again, if he allowed himself to become a target, we were all free of him.
Baby steps, Nerine. At least he won’t touch you again. Hopefully.
Maybe he’d have better luck rising to the occasion with one of his special lady friends. I turned on my heel, went to my closet, grabbed a thick robe, belted it around myself, and then slipped on plush slippers. Then I moved to the wall next to the fireplace housing the hidden panel for the passageway leading to the library.
I had some studying to do. Online classes and self-learning worked when I’d had no choice, but having one-on-one instruction hands-down was no comparison. The system Lilly had created for me blew away my mind and pushed me to a level I never thought I’d reach.
I still couldn’t believe that for the past year and a half, I’d had Lilly as my mentor and hadn’t a clue. Then again, over the last few weeks, I’d learned that one of Lilly’s aliases was on the most-wanted lists of six continents.
She was such a badass. All the women were.
They were also ultra-feminists and a bit unconventional when it came to getting me up to speed on what they called “fighting the patriarchy.” No matter how often I told them I had no plans to take over the family, they insisted I do the crash course they dubbed Syndicate 101. And with Lilly as the primary teacher, there was no getting out of loads of homework assignments.
She wanted me prepared for every possible situation, and her mock trials, as I like to call them, were sometimes over-the-top and harshly realistic.
She’d gone as far as having me reevaluate the coup from five years ago and how I’d handle the situation now.
About two weeks ago, I’d stopped questioning everyone’s motives and just accepted the women’s quirky personalities and how they were vested in me.
On the flip side, they’d stopped trying to convince me that I’d change my mind about escaping. Instead, the more they got to know me, the more they understood my demons and why I had to take my family and disappear.
Unless a miracle happened, I’d use the escape plan I’d coordinated with my hacker mentor, who turned out to be Lilly.
What happened after I left? Who knew? It couldn’t be worse than all I’d endured in the last near five years.
I stepped into the pitch-black tunnel, closed the wall behind me, and let my years of navigating the paths direct me to my destination.
Once there, I felt for the latch that unlocked the opening into the library. From an early age, Papa taught us girls to keep all the pathways that gave access to our rooms locked from the inside of our bedrooms with a special key. This way, only we could get in and out.
Thank God, Andraius knew nothing about any of the passageways. Otherwise, he’d have kept me even more trapped than I’d already been. Plus, I’d drilled it into my sisters’ heads never use the hallways if anyone was around, so there wasn’t any risk of mistakes. If one of us forgot to close one panel tight, then everyone would learn our secrets.
The moment I pushed the deadbolt to the side, a whoosh of warm air surged into the passageway, and I tugged the wall on its hinge back only enough to fit my body.
The second I stepped through, a hand grabbed my arm, turned me, and pinned me to a bookcase.
“I knew it. You’re using the secret passageways to get through this house. That’s how you keep sneaking past the team and me.” Xander glowered at me, and then his gaze went to my neck, turning his features into a mask of rage. “What the fuck happened to your neck?”