Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
HAYAMI
PRESENT
It’s when the drugs start to wear off that the reality of my current predicament kicks in.
Willa has made a pot of tea and found some biscuits, her effort at “settling us in.” The Beast is off setting up the security system that’s supposed to keep me safe from the nothingness that must be outside. Because who the fuck is going to find me when I don’t even know where we are?
“So, how long are we expected to stay here for?” I ask Willa, pulling my knees up to my chest.
“I’m not sure. Until it’s safe.” She holds the black mug with two hands like it’s a tiny fire keeping her warm.
“And how is my father intending to achieve this? By killing the entire Castro family and all their gang members?” I glare at Willa, who remains silent. “We both know what’s going down here. A gang war.”
Her grip tightens around her mug.
“Which is great if my father wins, but what if he doesn’t?”
“Hey, it won’t come to that.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“When has your father ever lost at anything?” Willa scoffs. “Besides, it’s not our place to be concerned about what’s going on with him and the Castros. What we need to focus on is keeping you safe, which is exactly why you’ve been sent here.”
It’s my turn to scoff. “Of course he has. I’m his prized possession.”
Willa’s face screws up in confusion, as if the tea is too hot, just as the Beast returns. His black T-shirt pulls against his enormous chest, the dark combat trousers snug around his waist. And that face. One half angelically beautiful, the other monstrously scarred—he’s a man of two halves.
He takes the tea that Willa hands him and scowls. I’m not sure why. Maybe this whole fucking set-up. I take a biscuit from the plate, avoiding Willa’s quizzical gaze. She didn’t know what I’d been talking about when I referred to my father looking after his investments.
What my father has been up to isn’t common knowledge amongst the staff.
I’ve contemplated telling her. She’d understand.
She might even help me. But the Hellhound?
I’d been close to telling him once, the day of the fair, when he found himself dragging me from the water for the second time, but then the moment was lost. I’m not even sure what he’d make of it all.
I have this belief that everyone who works for my father must have some level of respect for him; otherwise, why work for a guy like him?
Then again, who does like their boss? Who works for someone just because they admire or respect them?
Probably no one on this planet. Still, I can’t imagine being a Hellhound without some degree of loyalty to my father—or at least the Devall name.
Or maybe it’s not loyalty at all. Maybe it’s just fear. Maybe everyone around him operates out of sheer terror at what will happen if they don’t.
“Where the hell did you get tea and biscuits from?” I ask, eyeing the digestive, trying to distract myself from my thoughts.
“Markus mentioned something about a local store down in the town. He called ahead and got the owner to come up and stock the house with the essentials. Apparently, the store used to do it when your dad used this house for his holidays. It’s just tea, coffee, eggs, milk, and bread by the looks of things. ”
“How long, then, before we need to start eating each other?” I quirk a brow.
Willa flips me an exasperated look.
“I’m kidding. We aren’t going to be here that long, are we?”
She glances at the Beast and then quickly back to me—one of those looks she hopes I didn’t notice.
“We don’t know,” she says. “But I’m sure it won’t be long.”
“And what about university? I’ve got lectures this week and assignments due.”
I’d gone on to university after studying my A levels, even though there’s no point in any of it, as there’s no way my father will let me get a job in the real world.
But he couldn’t argue with staying on in education.
Uni is the only time I get to feel like a semi-normal person, despite Bastian accompanying me to every lecture.
He probably knows more about human biology than I do. I swear he pays far more attention.
“Your laptop bag is here. Maybe you could email your tutors and tell them you’re ill, and they’ll send you what you need. It’ll be like distance learning, I suppose. I’m sure they won’t object, not with how much money your father pays them.”
This is one of the reasons why I love Willa.
She’s so practical and always thinking ahead.
Distance learning is doable. The university organised it for a girl in my chemistry class who’d had a really bad car accident in the first term and broke both her legs.
And yes, as one of the university’s biggest donors, my father holds more sway than most.
But I don’t like the ease of this answer.
I don’t like that this is a solvable problem.
I want a dilemma, something that can’t be fixed at the click of an email or the flash of my father’s cash.
I need a reason why I can’t be here in this fucking house.
If I’m ever going to destroy my father’s plans for me, it isn’t going to happen squirrelled away on a mountain with my bodyguards.
“Fuck.” I punch my fist into the sofa. “As if my life couldn’t get any fucking worse, I’m now stuck here with you two.” Willa doesn’t react, and neither does the Beast. “Come on!” I all but yell. “You guys can’t be happy about this.”
Willa waits as if testing the water before saying, “Yeah, well, this is the last place I want to be right now.” She pats my leg. “Marta’s due date is next month.”
My stomach squirms.
“Shit. I forgot about Marta. How the hell is she?” I ask, guilt swamping me that I’m not the only person here with problems, and some might argue that mine are worth shit compared to Willa. But I suppose we all think our own dilemmas are bigger than anyone else’s.
“She’s doing the best she can, but she hasn’t been sleeping lately because she’s so big.”
“You sure it’s not twins?” I joke.
“Yeah, it’s just the one ginormous baby. But I hate being this far away from her when anything could happen.” She stares at the cup in her hand.
“That sucks.” I pick my tea up and take a sip, assessing Willa as she sets her drink down and starts to pull at her fingers. “Hopefully, we won’t be here that long,” I tell her, and she smiles, but it’s not the usual Willa smile.
“What about you, big man?” I ask, turning to face the Beast. “You got some lovesick chick back home who’ll be pining for you? Or maybe some hot dude who’ll have to see to his own needs for the next few days?”
He glares at me, and I love it. It’s like poking the bear with a stick through the bars of its cage. I’ve never asked him about his love life—that would just be weird. But when your bodyguards are with you so much of the time, it’s hard not to get to know them.
Take Bastian, for instance. I know he’s divorced, has no kids, and is dating a woman called Cherry, who has two kids from her previous marriage.
I know he likes to fish. When I’ve asked him if he’s had a nice weekend off, he’ll tell me that he spent it at Lake Hanover, sitting on the embankment, catching absolutely nothing at all but having the best day ever.
And Willa, I knew about her and Marta wanting a baby and how they’d ruled out adoption. She hates horror films and wants to take up gardening to grow her own vegetables but has a strange fear of worms. You get to know these things through idle chitchat and general human curiosity.
But not the Beast. I know zero about him or his life, or his scars. Nothing that isn’t written on his face.
With a stone-cold stare, he answers me. “No one.”
And I believe him. Like the dog at the pound with no tail or a sparse coat, no one would want to own him.
“I forgot, you’re married to the job.”
“Speaking of which,” Willa pipes up, “did you get the cameras working?”
“Yeah. They’re all up and running,” the Beast confirms.
Willa pivots slightly so she’s facing me.
“Okay, here’s the problem.” She pouts slightly like she’s practicing how she’s going to address her toddler when she has to break bad news.
“We looked over the security layout on the flight out here, and I feel it only fair to let you know that there’s a camera in your room. ”
“A what?” I hold the cup suspended in my hands.
“It’s for your safety, I assure you. There could be any number of ways someone could try to get to you whilst you’re asleep.
It’s been known for people to use drones, venomous insects, and all manner of things they could get into your room at night.
So, Fenrir and I devised a plan. I’ll stay up with you during the day to make sure you’re safe, and he’ll take the night shift, watching the camera from the security room. ”
I glare at the Beast. “I bet he put up a fight about that job, having to sit and watch me sleep all night. Where the hell am I meant to get changed? What if I need a little nighttime relief?” I don’t break his gaze, thrusting the stick further into the cage.
I’m practically poking at his fur, but he doesn’t flinch.
He doesn’t even turn a shade of pink, which has me wondering if his scarred skin can change colour like the rest of his face.
“There’s an en suite where you can get changed and… see to your needs,” Willa explains.
“Yeah, and I wonder where he’ll be seeing to his needs.” I cock my head at him as Willa suppresses a laugh.
“That fucking mouth of yours will land you in trouble,” the Hellhound says, and I’m not ashamed to admit that the hairs on the back of my arms stand up and a tiny flame ignites in my core, which I try to batten down.
“Is that so?”
Willa sighs. “Come along now, kids. We need to look out for one another, not fight amongst ourselves. We don’t know how long we’re going to be out here, and I, for one, do not want to have to referee you two. Do I make myself clear?”
I glare at the Beast, who stares back, and it’s me who breaks. I glance at Willa and salute before the Hellhound just nods in her direction.
But the truth is, I don’t want to behave, and he knows it. Over the past six months, there has been a strange energy between us. Something I can’t fathom.
Eyeballing the Beast, I wonder what he’s thinking.
I’m not sure what’s going on between the two of us and what Willa will have to referee. I imagine the next few days are going to be so fucking boring that I’ll have to find some way of amusing myself.
I’ve never been very good at toeing the line, and I’m not about to start now.
This could be fun.