“Come on, I’ll show you the layout before the boss gets back.” Igor appears in the doorway with his shoulder propped against the frame. His eyes sweep over Emma sprawled on the bed, taking in her mussed hair, flushed cheeks and heaving chest, and a knowing smirk spreads across his weathered face. “She giving you trouble?”
I shrug, deliberately not looking at her and keeping my posture loose and bored. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“You sure? It looked like she took a chunk out of you on the way in.” He gestures toward my shoulder, where I can feel her bite throbbing beneath my shirt. “Need to get a tetanus shot?”
I reach up and rub the spot where her teeth marks are probably still visible, letting annoyance creep into my expression. “I took her shoes. Let’s see her try to run now,” I say flatly, jerking my chin toward her bare feet dangling over the edge of the mattress.
Emma makes a sound of outrage behind me, pushing up to sitting now to glare. “Ha. Don’t pretend to be mad. You liked it.” Her voice cuts through, sharp and mocking, and I can hear the vicious satisfaction in every syllable. “I know you did.”
I turn to look at her over my shoulder, letting a slow smile spread across my face. The kind that says she’s right, and we both know it. That her teeth in my flesh made me harder than I’ve been in months, and I’m still half-hard just from the memory.
Her cheeks flush a deep pink, but she doesn’t look away. In fact, her gaze drops to my crotch, and she raises an eyebrow, the exact opposite of backing down.
“Come on,” Igor says, already turning to leave, his boots scuffing against the hardwood floor.
I follow him out, wrapping my fingers around the heavy brass door handle and pulling it shut behind me with one last longing glance at my mate, who’s already slipping off the end of the bed.
“Don’t go anywhere.” I tease, throwing Igor a wink. I turn the key in the lock. The click is loud and final in the quiet hallway.
For a second, there’s nothing but silence, thick and suffocating.
Then Emma screams in rage, the sound tearing my chest apart just as much as Igor’s sick laugh.
“NO.” The word is followed by a thunderous kick against the door, hard enough to rattle it in its frame and send specks of dust swirling in the dim light. “You fucking prick. Let me out.”
Another kick. Then another. Her fists pound against the oak in a furious rhythm.
Igor snorts, shaking his head as we walk down the hallway, her rage fading behind us with every step. “Good luck with that one, Lennox. She’s going to be a handful.”
The tour doesn’t take long, but Igor makes sure I see everything that matters. We wind through corridors panelled in dark wood, past unmarked doors that all look the same, and down a back staircase that opens near a functional kitchen where staff in white uniforms carefully avoid eye contact. The guards’ quarters are in the basement. It’s a converted wine cellar with tiny single rooms and a common area that smells like stale cigarettes and cheap beer.
At one end, there’s a security hub, which is a cramped room barely larger than a closet, crammed with monitors that flicker with grainy footage of every angle of the outside of the property. The front gates. The perimeter fence with its razor-wire crown. The long driveway that cuts through immaculate grounds and ends in a sweeping turning circle outside the massive entrance. Entrances and exits, all of it watched and recorded.
And one camera pointed at an open basement door, and the ominous darkness beneath.
“What’s down there?” I nod toward a corridor on one screen of the monitor bank, showing the opposite wing, blocked by a heavy door with a guard stationed in front of it.
There’s something worth protecting in there. Other than the basement, this is the only interior camera I can see.
“East wing. Off limits.” Igor’s expression shutters, closing down like a door slamming shut. “Emma isn’t the only asset that’s being kept here. This one’s just a bit more… high profile.And on a strictly need to know basis.” He shrugs, rolling his shoulders as if he’s talking about paintings or jewelry rather than human beings. “You just worry about keeping the virgin a virgin. Some of these men have no self-discipline. If they get the chance, they won’t be able to help themselves.”
One of the guards, stocky with a previously broken nose, shakes his head, but his grin tells of his amusement. He clearly finds the risk of these women being assaulted by the men in this house funny.
Staring at the screen, I concentrate on keeping the anger off my face and my hands by my sides. My bear snarls, hackles rising, but I keep my expression blank and my posture relaxed, just another hired thug who doesn’t ask too many questions.
“Understood.”
Igor’s phone buzzes in his pocket; the sudden noise harsh in the quiet room. He fishes it out, squinting at the screen, then his expression shifts and tension appears in his posture.
“Kozlov’s ten minutes out.” He pockets the phone, then fixes me with a hard look, all traces of casual amusement gone from his weathered face. “Stay out of his way when he arrives. Post up outside the girl’s door and don’t move until you’re told otherwise.”
He claps a hand on my shoulder, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise, then leans in close enough that I can smell the whiskey on his breath.
“You’ve been promoted to the big time, Lennox.” His voice drops, low and serious. “Don’t fuck it up. Kozlov doesn’t do second chances. If he decides you’re not up to the job…” He mimes a gun to his temple and makes a softpewsound with his lips. “Got it?”
“Got it.” The beast within rails against his touch, perceiving it as an act of aggression. And in a way, it is. Igor’s trying to asserthis dominance, letting me know he’s higher up in the pecking order than me.
But bears don’t give a fuck about hierarchy. The strongest wins. Simple as that.
