21
“I need a shower, change my clothes, and go to the bathroom,” I demanded to Nicolae when he arrived in the morning with breakfast. Lev wasn’t beside me when I woke, although I wished he was because a couple of hours after we had sex, he then went down on me and had another equally wonderful orgasm with my direction.
He was starting to enjoy pleasuring someone other than himself, and I enjoyed his cock filling me up after a stressful few hours with that prick who was standing before me, wanting to hunt me down.
“Fine,” he said smoothly, hesitated as he laid the breakfast at the foot of the mattress, then stood over me, folding his arms across his chest. He wavered for a few beats as I looked over the Pop-Tarts and bowl of Honey Oats drowned in milk. “How do you have your coffee?”
“Black with cream, Jeeves,” I joked.
“It’s not black if it has cream in it,” he pointed out, ignoring the poke at calling him by a butler’s name.
He hesitated before adding, “I didn’t know what you liked for breakfast, so I made you a cherry and a sugar-cinnamon Pop-Tart, and if you don’t like the cereal, there are three others you can choose from in the kitchen. ”
“Thanks,” I said, gazing up at that handsome face and seeing only someone who viewed me as prey and thought I was so worthless he would make me run while he hunted me down.
“This will be fine.” I poked around a bit with the cereal as he still stood there as if he had something else to get off his chest. “Are there drugs in here? Is that what you’re waiting for?
Waiting for me to eat some food, so I’ll fall asleep and wake in the middle of the forest somewhere, surrounded by predatory animals.
And by animals, I mean you and your brother. ”
He exhaled as if he was holding on to pent-up stress, “The date has been announced for your father’s funeral. “It’s this weekend, so we’ll be taking you.”
His words fell like a lead balloon as he turned his back and walked back up the stairs. Once he was at the top, he looked back. “I’ll come back in an hour to take you to the bathroom.”
I heard him, but didn’t quite register what he was saying.
My father’s funeral and life back in my hometown were pushed to the back of my mind as I focused on survival.
But then a sharp cramp in my lower abdomen woke me out of my daze.
“I need to use the bathroom now,” I demanded as my bladder was full and I was busting.
Last night, after Lev and I had sex, he carried me up the stairs and outside, where I slid down my underwear and did a pee in the bushes behind the Lud. But that was hours ago, and I’m not a fricken hibernating grizzly bear.
He sighed, looking annoyed, “Fine. Ez is getting clothes from your room as we speak, so he should be back soon.”
I gasped in horror, “How long are you going to keep me here? Take me back to my room in Morgana, please.”
“I’ll think about it,” he stated, stepping back down the stairs. “You called the police on me, so I don’t know if I can trust going out there alone again.”
“You kidnapped me, you fuckwit,” I hissed violently at his smug face.
“Do you want me to help you up the stairs or not?” he said in a steely, although amused tone.
“No, thank you. Just leave the door open, and I'll make my own way up,” I suggested, but he wasn’t buying it.
“Sure,” he rolled his eyes, then bent down, slid his hands under my upper thighs and back, and easily lifted me into the air. I didn’t want to touch him, but my hands had to go somewhere, so I laid one hand on his shoulder, while the other was folded across my stomach.
He paused at the door and grunted, “You’ll have to unlock the door,” he pointed out, and I did as he asked, and instead of taking me into the bush like Lev did last night, he brought me inside the Lud.
It was early, and the entire mini castle was quiet. I had no idea what the time was, but the coolness in the air and the fact that the sun hadn’t risen above the mountains yet told me that it was early, maybe 6 AM-ish.
He took me into the bathroom by a large kitchen and lay me down on the side of the bath. “You may as well bathe in here, while the boys are still asleep. I’ll get you a clean towel.”
He closed the door behind him, and I immediately grabbed the side of the bath to hoist myself up onto my feet.
My ankle throbbed all night, although there was some relief from the pain when Lev seduced me.
It was nice, and I enjoyed it, but one must never be fooled into believing he would ever choose me over the Warwicks.
I managed to climb up and park my backside against the side of the bath, but I accidentally pressed my swollen foot on the floor and bit my lip to keep from crying out.
I hated being in this weak position, at the mercy of the worst men imaginable, but I struggled to see a way out.
Nicolae took my phone from me, so I couldn't call Mila or the police again.
That meant relying on college staff and classmates to notice I was absent and perhaps ask questions.
But the more I thought about it, the more downhearted I became because the only students who even knew of my existence were the Yorks, and Mila and her friends.
Dean, my Finance tutor, had been concerned for my welfare, so he was my only bet now.
But even then, I wasn’t confident that he could pierce through the barrier the Warwicks had me caged in.
The door flung open, and Nicolae stood there with a clean, white towel and handed it to me. “Do you need help with anything?” he asked as he reached into the shower and switched on the water, then tested the temperature.
“No,” I told him straight, then waited for him to leave before I hobbled to the door, turned the lock, and began to undress. Ezrah hadn’t returned with clean clothes, so I’ll be dressing back into my clothes, marked in dirt and sweat from the chase last night.
The window was too small to climb out of, and even if it were large, I doubt I could manage jumping down on the other side.
Then, of course, I’d have to run on one foot to who knows where.
It was a dismal situation, and my heart felt heavy, numb at my father's death and with his funeral this weekend.
I checked the lock on the door was secure, before I hobbled into the shower, kept one hand pressed against the wall to stop me from falling over, because even touching the floor with my swollen foot was just too painful.
While the foot brace had brought some relief, I was a little shocked to find how black and blue my ankle was when I took it off.
It probably looks worse than it actually is.
The warm water gently massaging my skin was like a spa for my soul, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the sensation, but as soon as I did that, emotion surged, and I dropped my face into my hands and cried as I’d never cried before.
It was okay to cry because my sobs were drowned out by falling water, and eventually the tears dried up, replaced with clarity and pure rage.
It wasn’t the Warwicks I was angry at. It was my father, most of all, who enraged me for allowing this situation to occur in the first place.
How could he not see Leslie for what she was?
How could he be so careless with his business and investments to let her have that much say and then not have proper protections for when or if he died before his time?
The only conclusion I came to, over and over again, was that he had no intention of dying because he did not kill himself.
It was her all along. It was she who somehow killed him.
It was she who organized the blackmail scheme using her nephews, the Yorks, and it was most likely she who had a razor blade hidden in a cupcake meant for me, which, unfortunately, Mila ate.
From the moment she started dating my father, she wasn’t to eliminate him and take his assets for herself.
She got rid of me by sending me to Castlehill, put me in positions that endangered me, wore down my reputation, hoping my father would be ashamed by the pics taken by the Yorks, and then relied on the Warwicks to do their dirty work to destroy me.
Which left only one obstacle to eliminate - my father.
The problem was that she didn’t destroy me at all because I am still here, angrier than ever. I pulled myself out of my fug, found a cake of soap, and began to scrub away the filth of this devious plan I found myself in the middle of.
Once done, I switched the water faucet off, unsteadily stepped out as my head spun in a thousand directions, and while I wasn’t concentrating, I lost my footing, slipped over, and smacked against the door on the way down, and then landed in a crying heap on a wet, hard floor.
Immediately, I sat up in an attempt to compose myself, then tried to crawl to my pile of dirty clothing while clutching the towel.
“Adina?” I heard Nicolae’s voice through the door. “What was that bang?”
I groaned, “I’m fine,” then winced, “I just fell over.”
“Oh fuck, are you alright?” his tone sounded genuinely concerned, but I didn’t believe him.
“Like you give a shit,” I snarled at him.
“Do you need help?” he asked, ignoring my vitriol.
“No, I’m fine,” I lied, because I definitely needed help as I shuffled on my backside over to the side of the bath in an attempt to lift myself. My hands slipped, and I growled loudly in frustration, throwing the towel against the wall.
“Adina?” Nicolae again. Fuck.
“Are you still there?” I snipped at him. “If I knew you were still there, I would’ve screamed more quietly.”
“Adina, do you need help?” he asked for the hundredth time, sounding a little exhausted because I bet the last person he wanted to deal with early on a Wednesday morning was a snarling Boleyn with a swollen ankle.
“No, I’m naked. Or is that why you want to come in?” I questioned his motivations.
He scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he hit back. “Fine. I’ll leave then.”
“No. Wait,” I called after him, resigning to the fact that if I don’t let someone in to help, I might die in this bathroom. I was exaggerating, but at that moment, I wasn’t exactly shimmering in positivity. “I can’t stand. I need help standing.”
He turned the handle, and it wouldn’t budge. “You need to unlock the door.”
“Give me a second to crawl there,” I said, exhausted, grabbing the towel, wrapping it around my body, and then began walking on my hands and knees as my foot throbbed with every movement.
Turning the lock, he then slowly pushed the door open as I wriggled out of the way to give him space. “Ah,” he grunted, eyeing my naked legs, then spotted my hugely swollen black and blue ankle. “Alright,” he bent down, tucked his arms under mine, and swiftly raised me off the floor.
Unfortunately, in the process, my towel unfastened and tumbled down my naked body.
Those dark eyes drank in my naked breasts before I scrambled to cover them back up again.
He plonked me down on the edge of the bath, then stood back and picked up my pair of panties, then my bra, which I snatched promptly off him.
“Thank you,” I managed to say, although he didn’t deserve my gratitude, since he put me in this position in the first place.
“You have a big bruise on the left side,” he wouldn’t have seen it if my towel hadn’t dropped.
I didn’t know it was there, but I had noticed it hurt a little on that side. “Well…I was lying on that side when I was hiding from you under the overhanging rock,” I spat. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring my gun and shoot at me.”
“It had crossed my mind,” he confessed casually, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking. “I could use a pretty head like yours erected onto my wall.”
“You think I’m pretty? Fuck you,” I spat at him, and he shot me that amused look.
I expected him to leave to give me privacy as I dressed, but instead, he turned on the cold faucet, removed his t-shirt, and wet it with the water. I lowered my eyes, trying not to look at his beautiful, smooth skin and shapely arms.
“What are you doing?” I asked as my nerves zipped about in my stomach. I hated being trapped in this situation, useless and broken, at the mercy of my enemies.
He shot me a look before kneeling and wrapping the cold, wet fabric around my ankle. “We need to get the selling down.” He took the fabric off after a few moments, gently pressed his palm against my skin to feel how cold it was, then bound my ankle in the foot brace. “Does that feel better?”
I nodded, struggling for words.
He then took my panties from my clutches, lifted my swollen foot to place it through the leg hole, then did the same with the other side and pulled my panties slowly up my shins as my breath hitched at his tenderness.
Once he got to my bent knees, he stood up to lift me to my feet as I held on to his shoulders and pulled my panties up my thighs and over my butt, stabbing me with that dark gaze. The same gaze of the man in the library watching me being railed by Ezrah.
His fingers tucked into my towel and pulled it off me as I covered my breasts with my arms in fear. Keeping his eyes on my face, he took my bra from my hands and placed my arms through each strap and then turned me around to fasten the hooks.
He then continued to dress me, slowly and tenderly, guiding my arms into my sweater and my legs into my jeans. Then, when I was fully dressed, he lifted me in his arms and carried me back out to the basement, where he laid me back down on the mattress.
No word was spoken as he dressed his doll. No word was spoken as he climbed the stairs and shut the door behind him. Leaving me reeling, confused as if he had reached his hand into my chest and stolen my heart.
This tenderness did not fit the man—the same man who hunted me down in the forest at night, and locked me in the basement after finding me snooping at his house.
After he was gone, I was left with silence that twisted around my neck like strangling vines. Nothingness. Every creak of the walls seemed louder than normal, reverberating my emptiness. It’s odd how a tiny moment of kindness can turn one’s perception of the world around you.