I don’t return it. Instead, I cross the room, grab my wheeled suitcase from the closet and drag it out, dumping it onto the bed, dangerously close to his ribs.
I let him see the restraint. Let him think I’m choosing calm.
Because with Santiago, brute force won’t win. He’s like Lucian in that way. He’s smart, patient, meticulous. He plans five moves ahead and waits for you to self-destruct on the first.
So I swallow the violence clawing at my throat and do the one thing he won’t expect.
I play the game and ignore him.
I move to my dresser and take the few picture frames I have with me and Kayla, some jewelry and clothes. Most of my things are ragged and old compared to the expensive things Lucian has provided for me. Even the dress I’m wearing has to be worth a fortune, tattered and caked with mud and God knows what from the sewer. But my things remind me of my old life, of my time with Kayla, before VMR consumed our lives, and it’s nice to have something to remember her by now that she’s gone.
If only I could’ve had some alone time here, like I had wanted. But no, a vampire’s here to ruin it all.
I throw open the luggage’s lid and hit his leg with it. I wish it was his nuts.
And then I start packing.
“Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?” Santiago asks me with a cocked brow.
A small thrill of intrigue ripples in my blood but I shake my head. “Are you going to ask how I’m still alive and not burnt to a crisp?”
“No need,” he says. “You’re smart. I knew you’d figure out a way to escape.”
I don’t know whether the fact that he doesn’t even deny his involvement in it is refreshing or infuriating. Maybe both.
“And I know Lucian is too stubborn to die,” he continues.
“All you’ve done is piss him off,” I say. “Not the wisest move.”
He shrugs. “My brother needs some excitement in his life, don’t you think? That is why he changed you, after all. For some…excitement.”
I’m about to snapHe’s not your brotherbut I refrain. That’s just Lucian talking through me.
Keeping my face blank, I dump panties into the case.
He sits up and hooks a pair with a finger. “Cotton? Doesn’t he buy you silk?”
Lucian does. Silk, satin, lace. But I’m not going to tellhimthat.
I dump T-shirts in next. He sighs as he pokes his finger in a hole in one of them.
“What do you want, Santiago?”
“I saw how he had you naked, tied up, and suspended.” He slides closer, wrapping a hand around the back of my thigh.
It feels so wrong.
I shove him away. “What Lucian and I do privately isn’t your business.”
“Still…” He stands, smoothing my hair from my face. “Just because he created you doesn’t mean you have to stay with him.”
“I’m aware.”
He moves around me, and I freeze in place. Santiago might be handsome, the visual opposite of Lucian, but I’m suddenly finding him as attractive as a gnat. When he tries to press his face into my hair, I swat at him, catching his cheek with my nails.
He laughs. “And yet you’re packing your old life away to go be with him.”
“Where else should I go?”
