Chapter 38 Kiera
KIERA
I held my breath as I popped my head into the kitchen, then let it out in a long, steady stream. No dice.
My first couple of days here, I’d been under lock and key any time my saviors were away, which meant that any time they were home, I was waited on hand and foot.
Now, I’d gotten the freedom I’d asked for — access to the living room and kitchen only, revocable the moment I crossed a toe over another threshold — but it came at a price.
Today, that price was making my own lunch.
I pouted as I slunk over to the fridge and pored over the selection. The ingredients available were random at best. There was a stack of pre-prepared lunches on the top right shelf, but it had been made amply clear to me those were property of Dom, which meant no touching.
Whatever. I don’t want her stupid gym bro protein garbage food anyway.
Spencer might be able to whip up a killer grilled cheese or a beautiful breakfast spread from nothing, but I was much more of a box mac and frozen nuggets kind of chef.
I threw the fridge shut and let my head roll back with a groan. Maybe I could wait for my saviors to come home. That might be hours, though.
Lately, they’d been gone more frequently and for longer stretches. They wouldn’t tell me what they were up to, but based on what I saw at the arcade with Spencer, I had a feeling I didn’t want to know. Or I didn’t want them to know that I knew, more aptly.
Maybe I can just starve.
But as my eyes caught on the shelf of cookbooks across the kitchen, a new idea struck me. I hummed, crossing the room and grabbing a book with a beautiful bundt cake on the cover.
Cakes were made out of the same stuff as waffles and pancakes, right? Which meant that not only did we probably have the ingredients, but I could justify the sugar bomb I was about to drop on my empty stomach as a second breakfast.
I flipped through the pages, looking for a pretty one that didn’t seem too complicated. A cake seemed like a good way to thank my saviors for keeping me around. I had no idea how to bake one, but how hard could it be to learn?
Besides, I’d welcome anything that got me out of my head at this point. Being alone in the house was creeping me out more than I liked to admit considering it was the only place I had to live right now.
I figured the chill the creaky hallways sent down my spine would ease with time and exposure, but it was only getting worse by the day. I didn’t like to walk the halls at night. Sometimes, when I was here alone, I forced myself to sit at the end of the hallway, to face the fear.
Everytime, I felt like a scared little kid hiding from a monster. When I closed my eyes and pictured the halls, the shadows felt alive, and everything seemed so much bigger than it was in real life.
But I wasn’t a little kid, and I knew there weren’t any monsters hiding in the shadows. So why did it all feel so real?
A shiver ran down my spine, but I shook it off. The cake.
The cake would be a good distraction.
Settling on a chocolate lava cake from the back of the book, I propped the pages open against the coffee machine and started gathering ingredients. Butter, chocolate chips, salt, sugar, flour and eggs: this should be easy.
Resting a tub of sugar from the low pantry on my hip, I swung open the fridge door and reached for the carton of eggs. A precarious dance for sure, but worth it to save the extra trip across the kitchen.
Slamming the fridge shut with my hip, I pecked my way over to the counter and started to measure out the ingredients. “Butter, chocolate chips, salt, sugar, and…ugh.”
I forgot the flour.
Throwing my hair up in a loose ponytail, I doubled back to the low cabinet, grabbing another hefty white tub. Feels stupid to haul this whole thing when the recipe only needs a few tablespoons. And the utensil drawer is right there…
Popping off the lid, I rested the container against my thigh as I fished through the drawer for a measuring spoon. “Come on, come on….Aha!” My fingers closed around the small metal handle of a tablespoon, just as…
Slam!
The front door banged shut with enough force to shake the house. Enough force to make me jump and drop the container, loosing a snowstorm of powder in the middle of the kitchen.
“Shit,” I coughed. The powder was everywhere: up my nose, in my hair, and covering seemingly every inch of the pristine kitchen counters. “You’re home early.”
I wondered what had brought them back so soon. Leo told me not to expect her until well past sunset, and Spencer was always working until ungodly hours.
But before I could find a dustpan to clean the mess up, my worst nightmare appeared in the doorway: not Spencer or Leo, ready to tease me for the slip up, but Dom.
Seething, hateful Dom, who could find the worst in every little thing I did.
Dom, whose face was already crumpling in rage as she took in the carnage.
“All you know how to do is cause a fucking mess.”
I knew getting defensive would only make it worse, but the scoff pushed past my lips before I could help it. “Wouldn’t have caused a mess if you weren’t having a perpetual tantrum.”
“Tantrum?” She growled, “You’re the petulant child galavanting around my house like it's some fairytale castle. News flash: you’re not Cinderella, and there’s no Prince Charming on his way to save you.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned away from her. “Oh, hon, don’t get it twisted. I’ve never waited on a man to save me.” Marching toward the closet for a broom, I called back over my shoulder. “Could have had me fooled about the fairytale thing though. You’ve been quite the fucking beast.”
“Bold words for someone living off my generosity.”
“Generosity?” At that, a genuine laugh bubbled up from my chest. “Dom, we don’t have to be friends, but let’s not fool ourselves, either.
If it were up to you, you’d be sitting here alone atop your pile of gold, and I’d be on a bus out of here to god knows where.
If I’m here on anyone’s generosity, it’s the two saints that handle you. ”
“No one ‘handles’ me.”
“Is that why you’re so alone?” I turned my attention to the floor, using the broom to kick up little storms of powder across the floor.
But Dom didn’t like to be ignored. She stalked across the room, circling me like I was prey, making it impossible to look away. Every inch of her tattooed body was tensed. And despite my best attempts to keep my eyes to myself, there was a curiosity thrumming beneath my pounding heartbeat.
Did she bear the same mark as her roommates?
I let my eyes flick over her just once before she locked eyes with me. “Watch yourself, Kiera…” Her voice dripped of venom and her jaw set like she was ready to bite, but I didn’t care.
My hackles were up, and after the bitchy way she’d treated me these past few weeks, I was ready for a fight. “Whatever you say, your majesty. Why don’t you make yourself useful and grab me a vacuum? Or is dirtying your hands beneath your station?”
In an instant, Dom’s frown shifted into a full-on bared teeth. The broom clattered to the ground before I could process her hand in my hair, yanking me face down over the counter as she towered behind me.
Her hand alone would have been enough to pin me, but Dom pressed the full weight of her hips against me, letting the countertop bite sharp against my bones.
Her free hand was pressed wide against the counter, right beside my head, and her torso was hot against my back as she breathed in my ear.
“Speak to me like that again, and I’ll show you just how dirty I’m willing to get. ”
A pained whimper was all the response I could manage. My pulse was pounding in my ears, and I could barely draw a full breath under Dom’s crushing force.
Her voice rumbled right through me, somewhere between a hum and a dark chuckle. “What’s the matter? You were so talkative before. Do I make you nervous?”
“Eat shit.” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“All talk and no follow through. You’re not even fighting back.”
Suddenly, I realized she was right. Somewhere in the shock of being grabbed, of being slammed against the counter, I’d frozen. But as soon as the words left her mouth, it was like a kettle poured over the ice coursing through my veins.
“Fuck you.” I screeched, lifting my shoulders just an inch off the counter before she slammed me back down. Pain seared through my scalp as she tightened her grip, but I didn’t care. I thrashed against her hold, kicking my heels uselessly against her shins.
“That’s more like it.” Sick pleasure was audible in her voice as she watched me squirm. Each movement caused a rush of hot friction between our bodies, and I had no doubt that my helplessness was adding to her enjoyment.
“You’re a sick fuck.” I growled, half at her and half at the slick pulse growing between my thighs.
It’s just the adrenaline…
“You’re a bad liar, Kiera.” She pressed against me harder, hard enough for me to feel something rigid between her legs. “You pretend I’m some big, scary monster so you can feel like you’re better than me. But it’s all a show. You might have the other two fooled, but I know exactly what you are.”
What the fuck?
“See the thing is, you act all innocent. Like you’re some sad little mouse roaming the house for scraps.
” Her blue eyes stared deep into my soul, unwrapping something.
“But you, you’re a fucking poisonous Viper.
And if you have your way, you’ll wrap yourself around both of those two and kill them with a single bite. ”
I didn’t have a chance to unpack what she meant before she brought her free hand to my face, turning my chin to its absolute limit, forcing me to look her in those burning blue eyes.
“Tell me you don’t remember.” Her gaze was dark and steady. There was rage, yes, but beneath it there was something more unsettling: despair.
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I recognized something in those eyes. An unnameable feeling that shook me to my core. Something that would kill me if I didn’t escape.
Tucking my chin under the gap between her thumb and index finger, I took the only out I could find. I wrapped my lips around her knuckle and clamped down, burying my teeth in between rough tendons and hard bone.
“Fuck!” She screamed, wrenching her hand back, but not before a burst of copper flooded my mouth. She looked down at her bloody hand, and then at the red painting my lips. Her scowl deepened, but even in her shock, her grip on me held tight.
She slammed her bloodied fist down on the counter beside my head with enough force to make the wood cabinets creak — enough force to make me squeeze my eyes shut. “That mouth of yours always gets you into trouble, doesn’t it?”
Her energy was no longer dark, it was goddamn murderous. And for the first time since I’d gotten here, I was genuinely afraid.
What was I thinking? Sure, I hadn’t seen that sword and wings mark on Dom, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Even if it wasn’t, she might be tied up in all sorts of illegal shit. Fancy house, tons of money, protective of her privacy…she had all the trappings of a cold-blooded criminal.
I didn’t know if she was capable of murder, but it was clear that I was hurtling us closer and closer toward finding out.
Don’t panic, don’t panic. I forced a deep breath as I searched for some way to reason with her. If my big mouth had gotten me into this situation, certainly it could get me out of it…
But before I had a chance to utter a single, shaky word, footsteps froze in the doorway. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Relief crashed over me at the sound of Leo’s voice, followed by a sickening wave of nausea at the thought of what it would take to get Dom off of me.
Leo didn’t even get a chance to take another step though before Dom took a step back, dragging me by the hair and shoving me into Leo’s protective arms. “Get this feral bitch out of my face.”
Leo was ready to tear Dom a new one, until her gaze whipped from my bloody mouth to the open wound on Dom’s clenched fist. Confusion and concern battled for dominance in her expression before she regained control. “This is insane. Where do you want me to take her?”
“You want her alive?” Dom snarled, flexing her hand. “Go somewhere I don’t have to look at her. I don’t give a fuck where.”