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There’s a churning in my gut I can’t seem to get rid of. Vanya has barely been in the mausoleum for five minutes but suddenly she is rushing back out, her face pale, as if she’d seen a ghost. Her hands are trembling at her side, eyes brimming with tears.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her, concern bleeding into my tone. I’d been sure to have everything in her family’s tomb put together properly. Even made sure to leave the stone coverings off so she could see the coffins inside and know that I hadn’t tricked her in any way.
I hadn’t been joking about burning her family’s bodies. It was what I had intended to do, but her large doe-filled eyes when I had told her kept the monster at bay.
Barely.
“Nothing,” she pants. “It’s just—” She shakes her head as if clearing it. “It’s creepy in there.”
Her eyelashes flutter. She’s lying, but I will let it go. For now. I’ll be sure to double-check everything in the mausoleum before having it sealed shut. She’s the last living Castellanos and I’ll make sure she isn’t buried in that tomb.
There are far worse places for her to go.
At least that is what I tell myself.
“Umm—” she hesitates like she is afraid she’ll anger me if she speaks too much. Rightly so. I’d threatened to end this field trip before it started if she didn’t behave and shut the hell up. There is a piece of me that is regretting that now. “Can I see where you buried the staff, please?”
I frown, my eyes narrowing on her.
“Why?” From what I’ve been told, she doesn’t give two shits about the staff. Vanya Castellanos is nothing more than a sheltered, spoiled princess whose idea of fun is spiking her daddy’s credit card limit.
Well, thatwasher idea of fun. She won’t be spiking her daddy’s anything now.
“Because I want to see where you buried them and pay my respects.” The look in her eyes tells me she’s sincere. Tilting my head, I lead her away from her family’s tomb and through the small graveyard. Anton and my men had needed to create an entirely new section to accommodate the sixty employees who had died. There hadn’t been enough room for all of them in the main section and since we had no way to identify them at the moment, we couldn’t reach out to their families.
A small sob leaves the girl beside me, her chest heaving as tears spill down her pale cheeks. It’s an odd reaction, but a real one. Curious. Vanya hadn’t shown any hint of having cried for her own parents, yet here she was sobbing over the help.
“Why are all the stones blank?” she hiccups.
“We haven’t been able to identify them yet,” I tell her. “Anton took photos of their faces so that we can run a search. We’ll add the names to those we are able to identify. I am assuming your father kept records of whom he hired. That is where we will start.”
Vanya sniffs, her throat visibly bobbing as she wipes away the tears.
“You don’t need the files,” she says. “Where are the photos?”
“What?” I’m looking down at her dumbfounded.
Her head turns to look up at me. “Where are the photos?” She’s speaking to me like I’m dumb. Her words are slow and punctuated.
I snort. “You don’t honestly expect me to think you can identify all of these people?” I question her, disbelief written all over my face.
“I know every single one of them.” She’s confident that she can identify them. Even Ada, who’d worked for the Castellanoses as a maid for a short time before marrying me, didn’t know the names of all of my staff and I have considerably less in my house.
“Anton,” I call to him. He’s been the one in charge of ensuring the bodies were buried and cataloged. My second in command jogs over from where he was talking with one of the men who’d dug the graves.
“Yeah, boss?” he asks, looking between the two of us.
“Do you have those photos of the staff,” I question. “Princess here thinks she can identify all of the staff for us from their pictures.”
Anton looks over at my little captive skeptically. He’s heard the same thing about her that I have. She’s spoiled. Entitled. Wouldn’t know a broom if it hit her in the face, let alone the name of a servant.
“Sure.” He digs in his pocket and pulls out the Polaroids he took of all the staff. “They’re in order.” Anton points to the row of graves. “Straight down and then they head back this way.”
My little mouse nods as she stares at the first photo, tears making her eyes shine. What is she so upset about?
“If you can’t identify them, little mouse,” I mock her, “just say so. We all know what a spoiled little princess you are.”
The fire in her eyes as she looks up at me has my cock stiffening. Her hazel eyes narrow on me, her face flushed red with anger. Fuck, she’s beautiful.
