“Yes. I need to think on a few things,” Ilya adds, giving me a pointed look. I hold his stare. If he thinks he’s going to get rid of me, he’s very wrong. Not only because I won’t be leaving here without Rori, but because I have the feeling he knows he shouldn’t be pissing off the Chameleon.
He looks at Rori. “Do I need to tie your ass up in the dungeon so you don’t escape?”
“And ruin the budding relationship we have?” she gushes with a fake pout. “My Daddy would be so disappointed in me if I did.”
Zakhar bursts out laughing, while I have to fight back my own smile. Yeah, I missed this, and I’m going to make sure I can get her alone very soon.
If we only have a couple of days to make a plan and for me to fix this with her, there’s no time to waste. Even if she doesn’t agree.
At this point, I’ll get on my knees and crawl if I have to.
16
RORI
The roomI’m given is far better than I expected. And I don’t fucking trust it for a second. First things first, I need to have a look around.
The room is far different than the one at Nico’s I shared with Alonzo. Well, up until the last few days. The new room I was in wasn’t much different though. This one, however, leans more toward the rustic luxury charm. Dark wood covers the walls, but instead of feeling like I’ve been thrust back into the seventies, it feels modern. Intricate woodwork fills the room, surrounding the large stone fireplace on the left wall, and showing off the four-poster canopy bed.
Why the hell did they put me in this room? The rugs are even fancier, covering the lighter hardwood floors. If they’re worried about scratch marks on them with Hades’s nails, then that’s too damn bad. I look down at my dog, so relieved to have him here, but before I can fall apart about it, we need to get to work.
“Search.” The command has him setting off, nose to the floor.
It took a long time to train him to spot bugs and hidden cameras, but we’ve gotten it down to a science now. I go high, he goes low. I don’t even care if Ilya has cameras on me in here, watching this. Let him see that if he’s going to try to spy on me, he’s going to have to be really clever about it if he doesn’t want me to find out.
The room is large enough that it takes a long time to go through everything. To search every crevice and every nook. Hell, I even scaled the walls in a few places to make sure I reached all the spots.
The bathroom and closets are decent-sized, but nothing like the ones back at Nico’s. Still luxurious with a separate tub and shower, but a little less in your face, dripping in money. Two smaller walk-in closets branch off the bathroom, with no exit to the main bedroom, and since it sits empty, it doesn’t take me long to find the bugs they thought they were being clever to hide in the shelves and the light fixtures.
I put them in a pile in the middle of the bed with the others that Hades and I have found. The only last place to check is the top of the bed. I look at the posters thoughtfully. How the hell am I going to get up there?
Damn it, I’m going to have to climb one of the columns.
I’m thankful that I’ve maintained a vigorous workout routine that includes climbing ropes, because trying to scale the posters is more challenging than I figured. By the time I get to the top, I’m sweaty, and my arms are aching. Not to mention, my clit is feeling a little tender from rubbing along the ridges in the wood even through the thin pants I’m wearing.
I glance over the edge at Hades, who is watching me with concern, but thankfully doesn’t bark. The last thing I need is to have people rushing in. I’m wondering if they made this bed for some weird shit, because damn, this thing is built sturdy and with ridges in interesting places.
I gingerly move across the top of the canopy, careful to watch for any screws or nails, but thankfully, nothing sticks out. It’s definitely strong enough to hold my weight, and I eventually find a hidden camera and a bug hidden in the corners of the frame, one pointed to the door, and one pointed to the sitting area by the fireplace.
I lean over the edge and toss the two devices onto the mattress with the others. Easing back, I look at the room again. I need to know every inch of this room. I don’t trust Ilya or Zakhar Romanov. Simeon, well, he’s not really much of a concern. He’s already feeling sucker punched that his carefully laid plans have crumbled.
Not my problem.
I need to decide how far I’m willing to go along with their plan. Well, what has been figured out so far, which is essentially nothing. The only thing that I’m certain of is that I don’t trust Ilya’s offer of my freedom.
Knowing who I am, and now knowing my father’s plan, he’s not going to want to let me walk away. Not when he can have me as an ace in his pocket. And I’m not about to be pulled back into this world. I worked too fucking hard to stay out of it. I toed the line, I lived my life, and no one was the wiser of who I was and to whom.
Fucking Tatiana. She just had to come in and ruin it. The next time I see her, I’m going to kick her in the vagina as hard as I fucking can. Seems a bit more appropriate considering how well she’s truly fucked me over.
That’s a worry for later. Right now, I need to map out my new prison. I need to know every line, every imperfection, and every place I can hide or use to my advantage if an attacker is stupid enough to try and come in here to take me out.
I wasn’t lying that my father will have someone scoping out Simeon, and now Ilya and Zakhar by extension. If they’vefigured out that I’m here, then I’ll be the first on the list to go. Hell, my father will probably tell them to bring my head back on a spike to prove a point.
A shudder works down my spine. Seeing my father again is the last thing I want to do. The man hates me. Has forever. I was the first, which meant I was supposed to be his greatest success. Instead, I abandoned my position, and because of who I was related to, he couldn’t come after me himself. He tried sending some of his precious students as a test in those early days. I made sure to send them home with a message.
I wasn’t coming back, and he trained me well enough that I could keep it up for as long as I had to. At first, I thought it would never stop, but after the first year, it was like he finally realized that losing his students all the time was going to mess up his plans, and if what the rumors said was true, then the families of those who were killed by him were starting to complain to the Pakhans.
He couldn’t have risked it. So I’ve had years of relief, but never safety. I’ve never been safe.
