Bella
“Nooooo!” I repeat, over and over, until my cries feel helpless. I’m sure he didn’t mean to slap me, and it’s not like he ever has before. It couldn’t have been easy for him to step into this environment. Me, his girlfriend, along with his former enemy, who is suddenly so jealous he can’t even blink out of fear someone will touch me. I should have just told Cal no, that we weren’t eating in the dining room. I was scared, though. He’s hanging my parents’ careers over my head—he holds my future, and theirs, in his hands.
Sometimes I see the person he used to be. It’s a miniscule amount, but he’s in there. I was ready to end things with Trent and make myself live in this world Cal created for me. After six months, maybe I could fall in love with him. I might not want to leave once he sets me free, and even if I did, I’d know I at least tried everything I could to repair what was broken between us.
My body is depleted of strength as I twist and turn, trying to break free from this rope that binds me. I look over when I see that black snake looking at me. I hold her stare, challenging her to look away first.
A minute passes, then another, but she wins.
I’m weak.
All my life I’ve done what everyone else wanted. The one time I made a choice for myself by taking this job, it was the wrong one.
I try again. Tugging and twisting the rope, hoping it will snap and I’ll be free. It digs into the skin of my arms with each pull, but I don’t stop. Not even when it burns. Even when I begin to bleed, I keep going.
“Ahhhh,” I scream, yanking harder and faster, cutting myself while trying to free myself.
I look back at the snake who’s still fixated on me. It’s like she’s laughing. Mocking me and telling me I can’t do it.
I will get out of here. I might not be able to save Trent, but I swear if Cal kills him, I’ll leave. He can make good on his threats against me. I’ll buy my way out of the contract and my parents can get new jobs. I will not live with a man who kills someone just because they upset them. Yes, he killed Vincent, but the man tortured him and left him no choice. If anything, Cal was brave in that moment. Right now, though, he’s being a coward.
With my eyes deadlocked on the snake, I pull again. My body crashes to the ground, and I realize I did it. I’m free.
In that instant, the snake looks away and slithers down a branch. I’m not sure why, but I smile.
I won.
Without wasting another minute, I go straight to the closet where the secret door is. Pushing the suits to the side, I turn the handle and open the door. My feet get away from me as I hurry down the winding staircase.
For whatever reason, Cal told his guard to bring Trent down here. He mentioned a club of some sort. Oh my gosh! My stomach clenches. What if Cal is involved in some shady organized crime that involves killing people, or even torturing them?
I’m fearful of what I could potentially walk in on. But when I turn the handle on the door to the room at the end of the staircase, I’m reminded that I won’t be walking in on anything. This door is locked with a passcode.
“Dammit!” My hands fall from the door in defeat. Just because I never want to see Trent again doesn’t mean I want him to die. If I don’t get in there soon, that is a very big possibility.
I hurry back up the stairs, feeling like time is running out. If there are plans for a club down there, then there has to be another entrance. Surely guests won’t be going through the secret door in Cal’s bedroom closet. This isn’t The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Wait a minute. The door on the ground floor by the main entrance had the same keypad. Serena and the bartender both came out of that door. It has to go somewhere important. That must be it. It has to be. I can’t imagine the password is the same because there is no way Cal would let anyone have immediate access to his room. There is no lock on the closet door, so it leads me to believe Cal is the only one who uses it. He may be the only one who knows about it.
Tearing through the closet, into Cal’s room and out the door to the hallway, I don’t stop moving. I go straight to the elevator and hit the down arrow, over and over, until the doors slide open. I’m in full-blown panic mode and don’t even notice it’s occupied when I step in. Taking a step back, I stumble over the edge of the door.
“Cal. I…umm—”
“I can see I didn’t put enough faith in you. You’re free.”
I look down at the elevator floor and notice the blood dripping from his hands. It’s been almost an hour since Cal attacked Trent. The blood from their fight should be dried.
Cal scratches his neck, leaving a trail of the fresh blood on his skin. His white shirt is covered, all the way down to his shoes.
“Well, are you getting on or are you just going to stand there and stare at me?”
Swallowing hard, I step in with apprehension.
“Where are you going, Bella?” His expression is desensitized, hands in his pockets.
I hit the G for the ground floor and press my back to the wall. My arms cross over my chest as my eyes scan his body. He’s acting very strange, but that would be expected after murdering someone.
“I just need some fresh air.” My fingers graze over the rope burns and deep gashes on my wrists.
Cal takes notice and grabs my arm. “Why the hell did you do this?” He looks at the marks, then to me. “Don’t you know stubbornness can get you hurt?”
“Did you kill him?” I spit out, my arm still in his hand.
He just stares at my wrists for a second, deep in thought. Finally, he snaps out of it. “Trent won’t be bothering us again.”
“Us?” I laugh tensely. “As if there is an us. I told you if you killed him, I’d never forgive you and I meant it.”
Snapping my arm away when the doors open, I step off the elevator. Cal follows behind me at an amble pace. I know he’s waiting to see what I’m doing, so it looks like, right now, I’m just going for fresh air.
I head straight for the exit, glancing at the keypad on the mystery door as I pass by it.
“You can go clean up. I don’t need a babysitter.”
Cal joins my side, walking in step with me as the fresh, cold air hits my face. I take a deep breath and keep walking.
“You’ve proven that you do. First the snooping and now the disobedience. I told you to stay put, yet here you are.”
When the sound of a boat engine roars to life, I pick up my pace. Walking steadfast down the steppingstones. “That’s a boat. Where is it going?”
“Somewhere you’re not.” Cal grabs me by the arm. “You can’t escape me, Bella. We were so close to where we’re supposed to be until Trent showed up. We will get there again, and you will forgive me. He’s gone and now you can move on…with me.”
I stop moving when Cal holds me in place. A ripple in the clouds tells me another storm is coming. Dread washes over me. I’m so confused and so lost; I have no idea what to do.
“Please just tell me he’s okay.”
“He hit you, Bella. He talked to you like you were a dog and he struck your face. He wants to control you.”
“And you don’t?” I shout. “Isn’t that what this is?” I jerk my arm away and look at his blood-soaked skin. “Look at you, Cal. You’re obsessed with this idea of us living here and falling in love. So much so that you’re willing to kill anyone who gets in your way. If anyone is controlling, it’s you.”
His shoulder shrugs while he stands there, still lacking any emotion that says he’s remorseful for his actions. “You’re right. I am. It’s because I know what I want and what I want is you. I will bleed for you, Bella. I will kill for you. I would walk to the darkest depths of the world to carry you to safety. They don’t deserve you.”
“And you think you’re protecting me by keeping me away from them? Or is this just your way of punishing everyone who wronged us?”
“Both,” he simply says. He walks forward, his chest flush with mine, and he looks down at me with his hands at his sides. “Together forever, until kingdom come.”
“Let the past go, Cal. We don’t live there anymore.”
Cal chuckles obnoxiously. It’s his way or the wrong way. “I can only overcome the past by facing it head-on. Only then will I be able to focus on the future. We’re getting closer. Now,” he says, turning me around toward the castle, “I need to take a shower and get some sleep. It’s been a long day. Peter will bring dinner to your room, you have a call scheduled with Barbara in an hour, and I’d appreciate it if you stay there for the remainder of the night.”
“But it’s only six o’clock. I don’t want to sit in my room alone.”
“Fine. I’ll allow you to go to one of the floors to play the piano. Or, you’re welcome to visit the turret.”
My eyes light up. “I am? But the elevator doesn’t go that high. How do I get up there?”
“Peter can take you.”
I’m furious right now, but I’ve wanted to visit the turret since the day I arrived and saw it sitting so high in the clouds.
“This isn’t over. I will get answers if it’s the last thing I do.”
Cal smirks. “I don’t doubt you’ll try.”
