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“What do you mean you told him to come here? Have you lost your mind, Riddick?” He must have thrown something, because I heard a loud bang and then what sounded like things falling off a shelf. “Get your ass back to the island right fucking now!”
His office door flew open, and I raced back to my room, shutting the door quietly.
Please don’t come up here.
I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity, but he never came up. My whole body was shaking, vibrating with a level of anxiety I wasn’t familiar with. The fact that my body was reacting this way freaked me out even more to the point where I had to take deep, steady breaths. The subconscious mind was a powerful thing, and if I was having this reaction to hearing Ryzen yell, then I knew I had experienced this before. How many times had we fought? Had he yelled at me like that? He’d said I’d gotten mad at him for pushing back the wedding date, and my drunk ass had decided the best way to handle that was to speed down a dark road going over seventy miles per hour. It didn’t make sense. How could I turn into a fuck-up like that? Especially after the snippets of happy memories that were starting to come back to me.
There was only one answer that I was starting to accept. And that was that I wasn’t a fuck-up. I was just being tricked into believing that.
Something was very wrong here. Something bad. But I was going to get to the bottom of it. No matter what.
The sound of cars pulling into the driveway had me running to the window. Five sedans pulled up, one after another. I narrowed my eyes as men started climbing out of the cars. There must have been twenty of them all dressed the same in black suits. It looked like an army. One man stepped out from the crowd, a whole lot bigger than the rest. He glanced up at the window I was looking out of and took off his sunglasses. I stepped back slowly, just as Ryzen yelled out a slew of cuss words from downstairs. I didn’t know who these men were, but he was definitely not happy about it.
A few minutes passed, and I peeked out the window again. Only a handful of men stayed by the cars, and the rest had walked up and were standing on the porch.
Well, no use being a chickenshit and hiding in my room. If we had company, then I wanted to know who they were. I went downstairs and peeked inside Ryzen’s office, but they weren’t there. Voices were coming from the main living room, so I went in that direction and ran right into Valik standing in the entryway.
“No, no, no,” he whispered and tried to block my view of the living room—or more like he was trying to block whoever was in the living room from seeing me. “Get out of here,” he murmured over his shoulder.
“Who have we got here?” a man’s voice purred from the living room, and I pushed past Valik. “Ah, Miss La Roux.” He walked towards me, his eyes widening as he looked me over. Hell, I looked a lot better now than I had two weeks ago, but I still had cuts and scrapes covering most of my body, and plenty of bruises to boot. At least my black eye had finally started to get better, and now was a nice disgusting yellow color. I was used to seeing my beat-up and bruised body; I hadn’t realized that it might be jarring to someone seeing me for the first time since the accident.
“Hi.” My smile faltered as he got closer. He was massive, bigger than Ryzen, and covered in tattoos. There was an aura of power around him, and something else. Whatever it was, it made the hairs on my arms stand up and I regretted coming down here and being nosey. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“Nova,” Ryzen huffed. “Go to your ro—”
The man held his hand up and Ryzen stopped talking abruptly. “Did he do this to you?” His voice was low, his eyes assessing me.
Ryzen huffed and opened his mouth, but the man snapped his fingers and Ryzen stopped whatever he was about to say.
“Oh, no, no,” I scoffed. “I guess I did it to myself?” I shrugged my shoulders and he raised his eyebrows. “I was in a bad car accident. Um, I’m sorry if I don’t remember you. I’m having trouble remembering a lot of things actually.” I was rambling, and my heart was beating so fast I thought it might pop right out of my chest. “You know me? My name, you said it. We know each other?” I hated how eager I sounded. Being locked up in this house with mostly just Ryzen and Valik—and, well, now Dracula—as my only companions had me desperate for contact with another human being.
Ryzen walked up and gripped my hand. “She’s not well at the moment. Valik, please take her.” He turned me towards Valik and I wanted to scratch his eyes out for making me leave. I wanted to know what was going on. It wasn’t normal to be cooped up in a house like this. Desperation washed over me, and I shook off Valik’s hand from my shoulder.
“I’m going to make a snack,” I muttered and went down the hall. Valik seemed satisfied with that and didn’t follow me, just turned back to face Ryzen and the stranger.
I tiptoed across the kitchen floor to the side hallway that connected to the other side of the living area. Their voices echoed down the hall, and I peeked through the little crack in the door.
“What happened to her?” The man’s face was scrunched up with anger. He looked terrifying, if I was being honest with myself.
“She was in a car accident and sustained a head injury. Amnesia—well, temporary. We’re seeing a psychiatrist.”
I gasped, my hand flying to cover my mouth.Why, you little damn liar.We weren’t seeing a psychiatrist, and he knew it.
“That’s none of your concern though.” Ryzen crossed his arms over his chest, keeping a distance from the man.
“Oh, but it is,” the man purred and took a step closer to Ryzen. “Cian Blackwood is causing problems. Problems that I don’t need.”
“I will handle him.”
“Like you’ve been handling Covington? Tell me, Ryzen, what have you accomplished while hiding out on this island the past few weeks like a coward?”
“I’m not hiding,” Ryzen scoffed and wiped his forehead. “I’m working on closing the deal. It’s all going to plan.”
“And my money?” the man demanded and took another step closer. He moved his jacket to the side, reaching into his pocket, and I saw a flash of metal.
A gun.
“I need more time. Two weeks tops.”
