24. Zane #2
“The lock on the next door isn’t that secure,” Hyacinth mutters. “It would be faster to jostle it open than to look through this.”
“Yeah,” I say flatly. “Do it.”
How could I have completely misread this?
We’d had nothing to say in the car, he has nothing to say in here that doesn’t pertain to the clues, and he doesn’t want to be here.
Maybe the only place we have chemistry is the bedroom.
Maybe I shouldn’t out myself for him after all.
Hyacinth goes to the door, a lockpick in hand that he got from I have no idea where.
As the lock clicks open, the speaker on the wall suddenly rings out. “Ma’am! You need to stop. You’re going to break the locks.”
“Actually,” I say through the walkie-talkie. “We’re going to call it. If you can unlock the rest of the doors…?”
I don’t like the way this feels.
How had I misjudged so terribly?
“Next time, you pick the venue,” I tell Hyacinth, trying for levity but failing entirely. “I’m sorry I miscalculated so badly.”
Hyacinth tilts his head. “Miscalculated? Why? We were winning.” He gestures at the final room. “I’m sure we could have figured that out. They had a high score chart. The fastest team managed this room in eighteen minutes. We could’ve beaten that.”
“Or we could’ve enjoyed the ambience and had fun,” I snap at him. The doors have opened, and I stride through them.
The woman at the front desk looks flustered. “Sir, if you want a refund—”
I shake my head. “No. Thank you. It was very educational.”
Hyacinth follows at my heels. “Now you’re mad? Because I was too good at escaping?”
Stefan takes one look at my expression and steps outside, opening the door for us.
“You started to cheat because you couldn’t be bothered to even try to have fun,” I say.
Hyacinth scowls. “It’s an escape room. I escaped.
It was an easy room, and normally you don’t get clues or keys to escape, but if you don’t do it fast—” He cuts himself off, then laughs.
“Well. It wasn’t real.” He wraps his arm around mine.
“Do you do these a lot? Is it where you take all your submissives before you drag them back to your lair?”
His words cut deep. I jerk free of him and take a step back.
“No, I’ve never done this before,” I snap at him.
“I researched ideas for hours, trying to think of something you’d like.
I arranged this with the intention of us enjoying ourselves.
I don’t ever take my submissives anywhere, because they’ve all been secret, something I was trying to avoid with you.
” I bark out a laugh. “I’ll take you back to your hotel. ”
Hyacinth’s eyes widen. “No! I mean.” He lowers his head. “I’m sorry. I’ll do it better next time. We can do another room if you want.” His fingers clutch the fabric of his dress.
He looks far, far too vulnerable to be the same assassin who nearly killed me three or four times by now.
We’re standing in the middle of the sidewalk, which I realize is a bad idea, and I grab his arm to pull him in the direction of the car. Stefan goes to get inside, and I shake my head.
He stands outside the car instead.
It’s only when Hyacinth and I are safely ensconced in the back of the vehicle that I ask, fighting to control the anger in my voice, “What the hell happened back there?”
Hyacinth gives me a strange, broken smile. “I told you. It was an easy escape room. I’m used to ones that have no light, or where a wrong step means shards in your feet. And if you aren’t fast, the crying on the other side gets louder, or maybe it’s been a while since you had any food or water…”
The anger dissipates as I process his words.
So I took him into a situation that made him relive his trauma, then got pissed when he wanted to get out as fast as possible.
Great.
“I’m sorry,” I say more quietly. “I shouldn’t have tried to surprise you. I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell you. It’s not like you can change what happened. And I really should have given it more of a chance.” Hyacinth pulls something out of his pocket.
It’s one of the keys from the escape room.
“The next team will have a much harder time, though,” he says with a laugh.
I crack a smile. “Yeah.” I fall silent. “I made dinner reservations.”
I’m not in the mood to go out anymore. The heavy atmosphere has settled deep into my bones.
“I like food more than I like escape rooms,” Hyacinth says tentatively.
“I was trying to be good. I was trying…” He hunches his shoulders, then straightens them abruptly.
“Why are we acting so pathetic? Do you have any enemies who need torturing? I think that would be the perfect pre-dinner activity.”
Only if I count his mother, who I’m sure is the one responsible for those escape rooms.
I don’t know what his training as an assassin looked like, but with how broken he’d looked, I can’t imagine it was pleasant.
“I didn’t want you to be good, Hyacinth,” I tell him quietly. “I wanted you to be you.”
Hyacinth’s eyes widen.
“That’s silly,” he says. “But…” Hyacinth leans closer to me. “I want to be a me too.” He digs his fingers into my arm. “I want a ‘me’ to exist. It feels like too much to ask, though.” He kisses my shoulder.
“It’s not too much to ask,” I say. “I’ve seen enough of you to know that that’s who I want.
But you seem to have these expectations of me, to where you think I’ll only like you if you’re a killing machine, or if you’re submitting to me.
I want to know who you are when you aren’t playing a role.
That’s…” I sigh. “That’s what I thought tonight would do. ”
We sit quietly long enough that I wonder if I should signal Stefan to get in the car.
“I lied,” Hyacinth says. “When you asked me if I had hobbies. Watching competition shows is Chrys’s hobby. I spend most of my days training, when I’m not working.”
I exhale slowly, then wrap an arm around him. “I guess we’ll need to get you some new hobbies, then,” I say. “Because I want more than death and sex with you.”
“Those are pretty good though,” Hyacinth points out.
He sits up straighter and wraps his arms around my shoulders.
“We could walk by the water… Okay, no, bad idea. Um. Cemeteries are fun, but open areas with easy hiding spots are always a risk. Indoors will make it harder for anyone to snipe you. We’ll stay away from windows, of course.
You did book a private room for our dinner date, right? ”
“Yes,” I tell him. “It’s on the second floor of an already exclusive restaurant, and I asked for a cozy table away from the windows.” I wave Stefan into the car. “Let’s go to the restaurant. We’ll be a little early, but we can sit at the bar.”
Hyacinth scoots off me, but he stays pressed against my side.
After a few moments, he says, “Thank you. And I’ll think about it. About things I like to do that aren’t…” He waves his hand dismissively.
“Yes,” I say. “We’ll try some things out.”
But no more escape rooms.
I’ll just have to learn more about him.