Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
Alexei
Several days go by and I'm still fuming about my car. My expensive fucking car. I'd love to burn her for it. But I have to pretend we're all dumb enough not to realize that she did it. If I admit I know, they'll separate us and I won't be able to get close enough to take it out on her.
I stomp around the gardens in their estate to head for the house, on the edge of combustion but knowing I have to keep up appearances. I cover my eyes as the sun shines above me like there isn't a rainy day on a horizon. The birds chirp happily and all of it pisses me off.
I really fucking liked that car.
Worse still, I had to call someone to come and pick us up after Sage fucked with my car. Like I was a toddler waiting for a ride home from school. At that time of night, we couldn't stay at the DeMarcos but we also couldn't go the full way home. So we had to stay in a cheap hotel halfway in town.
Isla had done so well at directing me towards the bigger picture, towards Chet and towards working with the DeMarcos for the greater benefit of everyone and everything. Everything except my temper. Which rises within me like a burning flood every time I think about that girl.
She acted like she wanted to play. Well, she'd better be ready. Against my better judgment, I want to retaliate. I want to hurt her. I promised her I would.
Even though what she's doing is stupid. The point of a death promise is to not start a war between our families. Though I admit it is tempting to sneak under the radar. Do it her way. See if I can get away with killing her in her own bed right under her family's nose.
I push the front door open and head up the stairs towards Anton's office. I have absolutely nothing to show for what I'm supposed to be doing. I've got a hundred ideas in my head of how to kill Sage and nothing on Chet. Nothing important. But sharing intel is key. According to Isla, anyway.
I reach the top of the stairs and pause. Her room is just around the corner, and without that bodyguard of hers it is much easier to sneak in there and fuck around with her.
They mustn't realize how vulnerable she is without him. He was always there in her shadow. But now she's open to me anytime I want.
I take a step towards her room and the floor creaks beneath my foot. I scowl, knowing that's enough to have me caught.
"Don't do it, man," Freddie says, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up to me.
"Do what?" I bluff, relaxing my shoulders.
Freddie raises his brow and claps me on the shoulder. He is perpetually amused by this as always. Someday, I'd like to see him crack. Regardless of his humor, there's always something dark and scary driving a guy like that. I should know.
"I thought she'd struggle more than you would," Freddie says. "But after what she did to your car…"
I sigh. We're supposed to be pretending that we don't know what she did. They've seen the state of my car, the fact I could convince them there was something wrong with the wiring is insane. They wanted to believe it.
"Dunno what you're talking about."
"Uh, huh," Freddie says.
"Is this a warning, Fallon?" I say, lip tipping up to reveal my teeth. "If it is, I don't need one."
He huffs through a laugh. "I don't think you need a warning. You know what you're doing. Just don't let her suck you in."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"You've been playing with her. For months," Freddie says, his frown becoming serious as he hits me with the full force of his honesty.
"Anton is blind to that, probably from stress.
You could really hurt her if you wanted to.
But you don't. I'm just saying, stick with that. It's best for all of us."
My nostrils flare. I loathe the insinuation that either he or Sage have any control over what I choose to do.
I open my mouth to deliver a speech that shoves him into place about how I am definitely not playing with her but yes I could kill her whenever I wanted, when I see movement in the hallway.
I turn my head as a woman in a nurses uniform wheels a medicine trolley out of a bedroom. The sight is so completely odd that I wonder if it might be a set up to bait me.
But then I turn to Freddie and I see how his eyes have gone cold. He's not entirely meaning to but he gives it away just in the way the smile drops out of his eyes even if it doesn't drop off his face. By the slight twitch and tick on his brow.
"Anton's waiting out by the pool," Freddie says, lacking his usual amused warmth.
He knows it has piqued my curiosity and I know that he's not going to let me follow it. His voice is clipped and cold as his hand comes to clasp my shoulder like he's trying to hold me in place.
Every part of him is tense and maybe I wouldn't notice if I weren't so on edge in general.
Instinct picks at me and I turn back over my shoulder as the woman heads back into the room. The locks snap into place behind her.
They're hiding something.
Something good. Something big.
"Pool. Rushkoff," Freddie says, a commanding tone this time and his voice a little more forceful than it was before.
Now isn't the time.
I let it go, because I don't have to discover what they're hiding right now. I could do that at any point. And I plan to.
Freddie takes his hand off my shoulder when I move to do what he says, even though I keep a knowing glare on my face the whole time.
We walk through the house towards the pool with Freddie right on my ass the entire time. Whatever is up there has clearly got his knickers in a knot.
I have very little patience for playing along to whatever this is.
We hit the entryway when one of his men stops him and he has to debate whether he wants to watch me walk to the pool or let me overhear this. Eventually he waves me away.
For now, though, I go where I'm supposed to. It won't take long for them to forget that I've seen something they don't want me to. If they aren't watching me closely enough to know what I'm up to with Sage, they won't be watching me closely enough to stop me from getting into that room either.
I make my way through their kitchen towards the pool where Anton is apparently waiting to talk to me.
But as I'm walking through the kitchens, I see a little platter of breakfast and medication that's obviously set out for a certain princess.
I smile just as the idea for a game comes to mind.