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She’d only had half the tea when exhaustion forced her to settle onto the pillows. At least she wouldn’t worry about Vanessa dropping by unexpectedly now that the door was locked. Not that she would want to come to Riss’s room, unless it was to kill her. Vanessa didn’t seem like the type to like competition and she obviously thought Riss was her competitor for Davenport’s affections. Riss snorted. She didn’t care if he was a billionaire, Vanessa could keep him. She was not remotely interested. Not in the slightest. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
A sound jarred her into consciousness. Her heart hammered against her ribs. What had made the sound? She listened but there was only silence. She felt foggy. Maybe she’d just had a nightmare, not totally unexpected after the day she’d had. She let out a breath and willed herself to relax when the noise sounded again. The door to her room rattled in the frame. She looked over at it only to see it start to open. She knew she should scream but her lungs seized up, refusing to emit any sound. Someone was breaking into her room.
The form of the person was outlined by the light in the hallway. It wasn’t Cash. She’d know his silhouette anywhere. Someone who was hunched over. Hard to tell if it was a man or a woman. Riss wanted to jump up but her limbs seemed to weigh a thousand pounds each. She was having trouble focusing on the figure. Her heart rate soared but she could barely manage to move.
The figure came into her room and turned to close the door. Riss knew if that happened, she was done for. The figure seemed to stumble slightly, hitting the door. It broke the spell and Riss managed to suck in a huge breath. She let out an ear piercing scream. The figure shot out the door into the hallway and disappeared.
Riss stopped screaming and tried to sit up. She struggled to move her heavy limbs but she finally managed to lean against the headboard and flick on the bedside lamp when she heard footsteps running in the hallway. Dante appeared in her doorway and, immediately after, Cash appeared wearing only his jeans as well as Dominick who was in a pair of blue striped pajamas.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Cash demanded as he grabbed both of her arms and sat down on the edge of her bed.
“S-someone broke in.” Her gaze darted to the doorway.
His brow furrowed. “Into your room?”
“Y-yes.”
He glanced over at the doorway. “You’re sure you didn’t just have a nightmare? You’ve been through a lot.”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. “Yesss,” she hissed. “I’m sure.” She tried to tuck her hair behind her ears but her hands were awkward and slow to respond.
“What’s wrong with her arms?” Dante asked.
Riss looked down at her limbs. “I don’t know. They don’t want to move and they feel heavy.” She tried again to tuck her hair behind her ears, but her hand dropped like a stone before she could accomplish it.
Cash completed the job for her, his fingertips lingering on the shell of her ear.
“She’s been drugged,” a tall man said as he pushed into the room. He was fully dressed in suit pants and a white shirt. He had the greenest eyes she’d ever seen.
Cash grunted, “Her pupils are dilated. Definitely on something.”
The man stood by her bed. “Did you take anything?”
“Me? No.” She looked at Cash. “Who’s he?”
“Sorry,” the man said. “Archer Gray, head of the Society.”
“Oh.” Riss licked her lips. Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton. “Can you hand me the tea? My mouth is dry.”
Cash started to reach for it but then stopped. “When did you drink the tea?”
“Just before I went to sleep. Dominick brought it for me, I think.”
Cash glanced over at Dominick, but the man shook his head.
“But it was here next to my bed when I got out of my shower. The brew was still hot. I assumed you left it as part of some kind of turn down service.”
Archer grunted. “We don’t enter your room unless requested.”
“Oh,” Riss said again. She put a hand to her head and this time it worked a bit better, but a headache was gathering behind her temples.
“Tell us what you saw,” Archer demanded.
She took a deep breath and let it out. “I woke up because I heard a sound, uh… the door rattling in the frame. Then it happened again, and it started opening. I was having a hard time getting my limbs to work and I couldn’t seem to get them moving.” No need to mention the abject terror she felt stopped her from being able to scream until the figure tripped.
“Anyway, the person started to shut the door and they seemed to stumble on something and that’s when I screamed. They ran out into the hallway and disappeared.”
