Chapter 8 Confession #2
Slipping back out into the main area, I kept an eye on my work, the first signs of smoke curling out from the edges of the velvet but no sign of the fire making it to the outer sides yet. That was good. I needed it to bloom as far as it could without being seen.
My head swiveled as I inspected the crowd, finally spotting Leah’s bobbing, sleek ponytail before she vanished into an alcove with a man. I shouldered through the guests, offering tight smiles in apology when I spilled someone’s drink on their dress, but the woman grabbed me by the bicep.
"Hey, this is Prada," she exclaimed, gesturing to the wine stain on her silver gown. "I don't know where you think you're going, ma'am, but I expect you to pay for my dry cleaning bill."
My eyes narrowed. I didn't have time for that bitch, so I leaned to her ear and snarled, "How about I save your life instead, you foul, disgusting wench?
Get the fuck out of here. This place is seconds from burning down, and I can assure you, you won't give a shit about that fucking stain when it does.
" She didn't deserve a headsup in the slightest, but I was right in thinking it'd spook her to back down.
She was pale as a ghost with my admission, her lips wobbling.
"W-what?" she stammered.
I rolled my eyes and yanked out of her grasp, folding into the crowd. It took several minutes to finally push through. Desperation clawed awake inside me when I reached the curtains concealing Leah. Carefully, I pulled the flap open, sneaking a glance inside and my stomach twisting.
Leah laid on a sofa, her ponytail in a man’s grip, and her gaze dull as she stared up at the ceiling, his hips slamming against her.
It was strange for a moment to witness her being a Doll, almost like an outer body experience.
I’m ashamed to admit that I felt myself glue to the floor, unable to step inside.
It had been so long since I’d felt true fear.
Halden had done his worst on us, and I’d honestly thought I was incapable of most big emotions anymore like love, fear, pain, and sorrow.
But seeing Leah like that, it opened every floodgate.
I stepped inside the alcove, the tink of my lighter giving me away as I ran my flame against the velvet curtain.
The man shoved off Leah, his scowl immediate when he realized what I was doing.
“What the fuck?” he growled, hurrying to pull up his pants and do his buckle, but I crossed the distance in a single stride, flicking my thumb expertly and lighting his tie.
He startled, stumbling back and toppling over into the burning curtain, his cry puncturing the gala beyond.
The symphony stopped, and more frantic shrieks arose as I imagined they noticed the fire finally breaching the outside of the curtains on the opposite end.
I couldn’t pay any of it any attention though, because Leah was still just lying there.
Like she genuinely couldn’t move until someone gave her permission to.
Viktor. He had to be at that party. Somehow, that thought had escaped me.
It was either him, or Leah had a Buyer somewhere in the panicking crowd beyond.
My wrist buzzed as I knelt beside her, and I glanced down.
Rafe: One minute.
“You’re okay,” I whispered, scooping Leah’s face between my hands, but her eyes stayed dull.
She didn’t even…blink. And her face was so cold.
Why was it so cold? “Leah?” I said more forcefully and gave her a small shake.
Her arm fell limp off the sofa, and that was when I saw the needle jabbed in her vein.
“No—” the word cracked out of me as I pressed my palm to her neck and then her chest, searching for a pulse that wasn’t there. “Leah!” I screamed and shook her harder, but her head lolled.
I collapsed over her chest, my ear pressed to skin that was already cooling. My fingers scrambled for her hand, but it was limp, sliding through mine like water.
“Leah,” I whispered again, softer, more desperate.
The fire crackled louder, hungry now. The velvet curtains behind us went up in a rush, and smoke billowed into the alcove like a beast. The heat blistered my back, but I didn’t care. I curled myself tighter around her, covering her body with mine.
Someone shouted my name. Hands yanked at my arms. I thrashed, clinging harder. “No! Don’t touch her!” My nails dug into Leah’s dress, tore the fabric, my knuckles white as I clamped down.
“Arden.” It was Kane, his voice sharp with authority. "Let go."
Thorne’s cut through the chaos next. “She’s gone, Arden—”
“She’s not!” My scream tore my throat raw. “Don’t you fucking say that. She’s right here. I won’t leave her again.”
The curtains collapsed in a shower of flame. Sparks leapt across the floor. The air turned molten, but I only clutched Leah tighter, pressed my face into her hair. “Let me burn with her,” I sobbed, shaking against her stillness. “Don’t you dare take me away. Don’t you fucking dare!”
The smoke clawed my lungs. My chest heaved in desperate gasps, but I refused to move. Thorne tried to grab my arms, Kane hooked his hands under my shoulders, both of them dragging, pulling, shouting. I kicked, screamed. “No! I won’t! I won’t leave her again!”
Then the world jolted. A shadow thundered into the alcove—Rafe. His face was carved with fury, his jaw locked, his eyes ablaze. He seized me.
His arms hooked under my ribs, pried me up with a force I couldn’t fight. I shrieked, but he hauled me off Leah and slung me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. My fists pounded his back, my nails clawed his skin through his shirt. “Put me down!”
Leah’s body slid out of reach with each of Rafe’s strides, Thorne and Kane on either side of us.
I reached for her, my arms outstretched, screaming until the sound broke into a torn sob.
Rafe’s grip was steel around the backs of my thighs, his shoulder a brutal wall under my stomach.
He stormed through the chaos, unflinching while I begged him to put me down, to let me go back to her.
Leah didn’t deserve to burn. She just didn’t.
Thorne and Kane averted their gazes from me, their faces grim and gutted.
“Leah!” I wailed one last time, my voice scraping raw, but the fire swallowed her.
“You left the target alive, and now he knows we’re after him,” Halden reprimanded us when we were back at the compound.
I barely heard a word he said. All I could see was Leah lying limp on that sofa. It was so fucking cruel. Why? Why had destiny chosen to put her in my path only to let her die? What had I fucking done to deserve that? Any of it?
“To make up for the lost contract, all four of you will need to serve another Buyer personally for the next month.” Halden bit out each of the words.
He paced, all of us having been shoved to our knees by his guards.
“You will finish the job quicker than that. Is that understood? A week, at most. I hadn’t planned on letting Creed do overnights for at least three more months. ”
Then he stopped in front of me.
“And let me remind you that if this was a ploy to stay out of the compound, to try and escape, I won’t hesitate to detonate the poison we injected. I am the only one with the fucking antidote, so you will do as I say, Creed.”
“Yes, sir,” we said in hollow unison, Rafe signing.
“The jet is waiting. Get out of my sight,” he growled and left us, his dress shoes clicking.
We were delivered to a penthouse in Manhattan, each of us with a small bag.
Mine held only my lighter, my gun, my pearls, and three dresses hand selected by Halden.
I was in the red dress I’d worn when leaving Viktor’s and my leather jacket.
The guys were in new suits, having outgrown their old ones.
To anyone who saw us coming through the lobby and up the elevator, we likely looked like college kids after a night on the town, the only thing really giving us away being Thorne’s neck tattoo of CREED.
Fortunately, no one at that point in time had any idea what Creed was.
To the world, we were invisible, and it was strange watching the elevator climb and having strangers in it with us.
The four of us filled the back while a young couple laughed and scrolled on their phones in front of us.
They were watching a video of a cat dancing to a silly song on a loop.
It was nonsense, and I’d never been more jealous.
I glared daggers at their backs as they got off at the eight floor, my eyes and throat still raw from grieving Leah.
I hadn’t been able to stop crying once we’d boarded the jet, fending off the guys every time they tried to help.
I didn’t want them. I wanted Leah, and I deeply blamed myself for her death.
If I’d still been at Viktor’s, maybe I could’ve kept her from becoming a Doll.
The elevator dinged at the penthouse, doors scraping open and revealing endless luxury in every direction.
Floor to ceiling windows revealed the twinkling lights of the city, the open space of a fireplace, elegant sofas, a bar, and a television laid out before massive sliding doors where an infinity pool overlooked the city.
I gripped my bag tighter, waiting for a man in a suit to come and show us to wherever he kept his secrets, but there was no one.
Slowly, the four of us stepped out of the elevator, Kane moving to a small entry table where a propped notecard sat.
He picked it up, his brows pulling together.
Thorne snatched it out of his brother’s grasp and read it, too.
“It says the place is ours. To make ourselves at ‘home’,” Thorne said, lifting a worried gaze to Rafe and me. “There’s nothing else. Not even a signature.”
Frowning, I took the note, finding exactly that. The lettering was in a sweeping scrawl.
“Let’s spread out. Check every room. Look for cameras,” Kane said. He pointed at me. “C’mon, Miss Creed. Let’s find the biggest room for ya.”