by Mallory Fox
He flashes me a cold smile. “You down the next drink I order. Whatever it is.”
Five answers for one drink. I glance at the menu and there doesn’t seem to be anything on there that would be too disgusting to drink. I shift in my seat and give Odette a cursory glance. She’s calmly eating her salad, texting whoever the hell is at the other end of her phone.
“Fine. But I want five complete answers. No yes or nos in this game.”
“Done. What’s your first question?”
I tilt my head, the question I’ve been dying to ask all day on the tip of my tongue. “Who is Seth’s sister and why is he visiting her?”
There’s a feral light in Romain’s eyes as he considers my question, rubbing his chin in mock contemplation. “That’s two questions, and Seth’s sister is, of course, Beth Montford. She is also, how do you say it, not right in the head, and hasn’t been for some time. Ever since Seth’s father passed away and Grandfather disowned her. Beth is currently a guest at psychiatric hospital in Annecy. And as to why Seth is visiting… you’ll have to ask him that.”
I blink at him, the feeling of stepping on someone’s grave creeping over me. Should I really be finding out more about Seth like this? I can’t seem to help myself. “Why did Beth get disowned?”
Romain rolls his eyes. “Stupid cow married for love instead of business. Why else?”
When I gawp at him, he just shrugs. “We can’t let just anyone in the family, Pearl. There’s a process. An initiation. Everyone we date has Marcel’s approval.”
My brows shoot up and I glance at Odette who’s staring at us both now, no longer absorbed by her phone. “What? Marcel approves everyone?”
He smirks, taking a piece of my bread now and eating that. The boy should really order his own food if he’s hungry. “Not those we fuck, just those who might be the one.”
Odette glowers at her brother. “Romain, stop fucking about. We really need to go.”
“Hold on…” he smirks. “Pearl hasn’t paid her due yet.”
“You’ve only answered three questions. I’m not drinking anything.”
Eyes twinkling, Romain leans forward. “How about you drink half? That’s fair, right? I answered three of your questions.”
Sighing, I nod at him. I guess that’s fair.
He calls the waiter over. “The lady will have a Death In The Afternoon.”
That’s not on the menu. I look down and sure enough it’s not. I scowl at him. “That’s not on the menu.”
“Stop whining. You’re going to fucking love it. I’ll even drink the other half,” he says, licking his lips.
When it comes, it’s bright green. I take a sip and an anise fizz swirls around my tongue. “Don’t tell me this has absinthe in it?”
“Absinthe and champagne. Invented by Ernest Hemingway himself. A drink of poets and romantics like ourselves. Now fucking hurry up and down half. Chop, chop, little mouse.”
Little mouse.
Eyeing Romain, I take the concoction and down exactly half of it. I finish swallowing just as Romain takes the glass out of my hand and drinks the rest.
Odette gives us both a shitty look. “You’re both going to be trollied after that. Come on, let’s go. We’re late.”
Romain scrapes back his chair and stands up. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re leaving. I’d rather fuck a corpse than stay here a minute longer.”
“Charming,” I say, adding afterward, “Go where?” I’m a little light-headed from the rush of alcohol and since I don’t drink much these days, it’s gone straight to my head.
Romain doesn’t answer but steps up behind my seat, placing a hand on the back of my neck. His touch sends uncomfortable shivers down my spine.
“Come along, little mouse,” he sneers. “Seth hasn’t got all day.”
Odette and I both get to our feet and somehow, I end up in the middle of them both. Odette in front and Romain behind, trapped. Romain’s fingers are still curled around my neck and he uses it to steers me after Odette onto a leafy pathway that leads away from the main club house.
“Where are we going?” I repeat as a dark thrill of panic edges its way in just below the surface of the alcohol buzz. “Are we going to see Seth?”
Odette sweeps a look back at me, eyes full of pity, and then turns around, leading the way to fuck knows where.
Chapter 18
Pearl
Romain chuckles behind me, still closer to me than I would like, fingers digging in my neck. “We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of fucking nightmares…”
Dread twists in my gut. “Who?”
Odette sighs and looks over her shoulder. “Marcel.”
My eyes go wide. “We’re going to see Marcel? Now? You said we were going to see Seth?”
“It’s a bit late to be asking those kinds of questions, isn’t it?” This from Romain who is still holding my neck like a vice as he comes up beside me.
“Too late for what?” I say in a raw, panicked voice as I draw my eyes up to him.
Romain just sneers, blue eyes gleaming as he shifts his arm around my shoulder. “Don’t worry, little mouse. I’ve got you.”
“Odette…” I breathe out. One last attempt at gaining back control, but she doesn’t respond, and it doesn’t take long for an old hunting cabin to appear in the thick of the woods surrounding the club. Fear trickles down my spine at the sight of it.
When we get to the front door, Odette knocks. Romain, still with his hand around my shoulder, leans into whisper. “Don’t even think of running off. We own the club and everyone in it. Even if you get back to the main house, they’ll just drag you back here.”
I stare at him in mute horror. All the fears I’ve had since coming to this place crash through me at once, chilling me to the bloody bone.
I shouldn’t have come. Is the last thought I have as the door unlocks.
When the door opens, a big guy who fills the entire wooden doorway steps back to allow us inside. We’re greeted by a sitting room with a vaulted ceiling, thick log walls, and a floor to apex window looking out over the forest. In the centre of the room is an open fireplace surrounded by high-backed armchairs. Dead animals and severed animal heads seem to be everywhere, perched on tables and mounted on the walls.
And Marcel Montford. With his white hair, blue eyes, and villainous beard, dressed in a blue-grey shirt and a tweed jacket, he casually sits in one of the high-backed chairs watching with hawkish eyes as I enter.
My heart lurches when I realize Seth isn’t here. Odette peels away and takes one of the armchairs while Romain guides me, hands on both my shoulders, into the centre of the room to stand in front of Marcel and the ash-filled, empty fire place next to him.
“Miss Darlington, I see you made it. Welcome to my cabin in the woods,” Marcel says, looking over me with dark and intense eyes.
Sully, of all people, is standing behind him, sweating profusely. He gives me a nervous smile. Why the hell is that traitor here?
Romain hasn’t let go of my shoulders yet and I just know there’s going to be bruises in the shape of his fingers on each one after this. “I’m not going anywhere,” I snipe at him, sounding braver than I feel. “You don’t have to keep digging in.”
“You can let her go.” Marcel indicates to Romain with the flick of his wrist. “She’s not going anywhere.”
No, I’m not. That’s what I said.
There are three men in the room not including Romain who all look like a bullet wouldn’t stop them. Not that I’m thinking of shooting anyone since I left Levi’s gun in my handbag back at the estate.
I feel Romain’s hands withdraw. He’s still standing behind me but at least he’s not touching me, which gives me room to breathe.
Okay, Pearl, you can do this.
Keeping my fists clenched, just to stop my hands visibly shaking for all to see, I cock my head at the man who has been tormenting me for the last three months. “Why am I here?” Simple question. I just hope I
get a simple answer.
“I wanted to see for myself the girl who destroyed my favorite grandson,” Marcel says as his eyes harden and his mouth becomes a grim line.
“And now you’ve seen me, are you going to kill me?” I come right out and say it. I’m trembling inside as I do, but to anyone watching my chin is lifted and eyes are fierce.
“Now why would we do that?” Marcel sneers. “The game is just getting started.”
To the rear, away from where I’m facing, I hear the front door open. My first hope is Seth, but a few seconds later in strolls my worst, double-edged nightmare. Royce and Davis. Together.
How? My mouth hangs open. This can’t be happening. Is this a screw Pearl over party? Should we invite fucking Claudia?
Davis’s lip twists into a cruel smile as soon as he sees me, and he takes up position in a chair by the fireplace, looking for the world like this is the best day of his shitty life. It probably is. “Bet you didn’t expect to see me here, did you?” he snarls. I knew Davis had been released due to insufficient evidence, the recording I had of him wasn’t enough to charge him for sexual assault, but I hadn’t given him a second thought lately. Not with everything going on.
Royce, next to him, leers at me. “Hello, darling, looking ravishing and cold-hearted as usual.” When I don’t respond except to flip him the finger, he shakes his head and walks over to Marcel to talk quietly.
I’m expecting Romain, standing ever so close, to say something extra scathing now that more of his brethren have arrived but he doesn’t. In fact, as I steal a glance at him to see if he’s paying any attention to me, he appears to be irritated and bored. Which is strange because Odette is looking on with more interest than she has all night, her eyes practically glowing.
My guess is that Romain likes to be the only psycho in the room. Fucking weirdo.
I eye the door, calculating roughly in my head if I can make it or not. One of Marcel’s men shifts in his stance, eyeing me like a lion does a gazelle. Running isn’t an option then.
My only hope is Seth.
As though reading my mind, Romain turns his shoulder to me and leans in. “Seth isn’t coming, you know that. It’s what he does, little mouse. Fuck up and leave it much too late.” He speaks a low voice, so only I can hear, reaching up to tease lock of my hair at the same time. I glare and shake my head to get rid of him.
I watch Royce leave, smirking at me as he goes into the other room.
I turn to Marcel. “Why have you brought me here?” I croak out one more time. Deep down inside, I know why. This is retribution. This is payback. Every cell in my body is alerted. Every muscle tense. Something very bad is about to happen and I should have seen it coming.
“Did you know, the woods between here and the chateau belong to me? Just like the land the golf club is built upon,” Marcel says as he gets to his feet and stares out of the wall of glass. “If you head east from this cabin, through the woods, you’ll happen upon the chateau? Speed walking it takes about four hours around the lake in between, give or take how fit you are.”
Romain hands are clamping my shoulders again now, not as painfully as before, but enough to keep me firmly in place.
And Royce has come back into the room carrying what looks to be four long rectangle-shaped cases. There’s a tightness in my chest and loud thud to my heart as he places each one on the table by the window and opens them.
“What has that got to do with anything?” I can’t quite keep the high pitch out of my voice.
“I use this cabin in the summer as a place to stay, to hunt deer or fish on the lake without upsetting Constance. She hates to see the slaughter of defenseless animals.”
I’m all too aware of Romain standing behind me, holding me, and Davis’s eyes practically gleaming as he watches me from the chair he’s sitting on.
My eyes can’t look away from what Royce is taking out of the cases.
Hunting rifles. Eight of them.
Suddenly, I know why I’m wearing fucking red.
My eyes flit to Odette but she’s back to ignoring the whole room, tapping away at her phone like she’s bored out of her mind.
Breathing slowly and evenly, I try to sound normal. “I didn’t sign up to go hunting.”
Romain leans in. “Aw, does Dorothy want to go home?” He squeezes the tops of my arms as Royce loads them up with what look to be tranquilizer darts, and hands a rifle to Davis and one to Marcel, and then he walks up to me and Romain standing behind me and offers him one too.
“No shooter for me.” I hear Romain chuckle as something cold, flat and hard presses against the diamond cut out at the side of dress. “I prefer things a little more up close and personal.”
I don’t move or look down, I can’t. Because if I see the knife held my skin, I might freak out.
“None for me either,” Sully interjects. “I’m going to stick this one out.” I’d totally forgotten about him. I mean, why is he even here?
“Everyone is playing, except for Odette,” Marcel barks.
Sully, shaking more than I am, doesn’t hesitate after that, he takes the gun Royce offers, looking as miserable. I’ve no idea why, he’s the one who has a bloody gun. I don’t see anyone offering me one.
Suppressing a shiver, my eyes dart around the room. “What are you hunting?” I don’t think my voice has ever sounded so small.
Roman laughs and then whispers in my ear. “I think you’d rather not know, don’t you?”
Davis is still looking at me like he wants to finish what he started back when he trapped me in the university kitchen and tried his very best to rape me. While Royce just cocks his head and sighs. Royce was a pig at school but Seth swears the boy has grown up. He’s even engaged, I hear.
Romain, I don’t know and don’t trust. Davis, clearly wants to hurt me…
But Royce. He might help me.
I catch Royce’s gaze in my own and send him a silent plea. He looks apologetic but nothing more.
“Romain, take her outside. Make sure she knows the rules.” The rules. Like this is some kind of fucking game. This must be where Seth gets his twisted sense of sportsmanship from.
At that moment, an engine roars and there’s the sound of a car drawing up outside the cabin. Seth? Or more people who want to hurt me? I make a mental note that this place must have its own driveway. If that’s true, it means there’s a main road and that means cars with people in them. If the main club house is out of the question, then maybe I can make it to the road.
One of the burly men behind Marcel stalks over to one of the front windows and flicks the curtain, checking to see who it is. He looks back at Marcel and I catch the barest hint of unspoken information passing between them. Whoever’s outside is someone they’re not expecting.
But I don’t get to see who because another guard opens the patio door and I’m being herded outside.
“Rules, rules. Let’s see. There’s only one rule you need to worry about,” Romain says as he shoves me forward toward the open door, the metal of the knife still very much pressed against my side.
“All you need to do is run.”
Chapter 19
Seth
I’m driving back from Beth’s hospital when I get a bunch of messages from Odette telling me she’s taken Pearl to the club. Of all the places. If Marcel isn’t there, it’s harmless enough, but if he is…
I dictate a message to Pearl back telling her I’ll see her at the club and then I call Grandfather. Marcel picks up on the first ring. “So you finally came crawling back, did you?”
“I didn’t come back for you,” I say plainly.
“No, it appears you came back for the Darlington girl. I had a feeling she would be able to draw you out of the woodwork,” he chuckles down the line.
“Did you even want to see her or was this all a ruse to get me back to the chateau?”
“Oh, I have plans for her as I do you, don’t you worry,” he says, his voice thick with gloat.
&nbs
p; My jaw clenches and I grip the steering wheel, unable to stop myself from saying it outright. “So I was right, Romain is here to do your dirty work.”
“Romain does as he’s told. Unlike the rest of you.”
“You’ve called them to your golf club, haven’t you? Why?”
Marcel just laughs. “Did you really request Odette to keep an eye on her? You know she works for me right, just like you do, my boy?”
Fuck. I should have known.
In the base of my stomach, something hot and suffocating threatens to twist out of my control. “She’s mine.”
“You know Romain, he likes it when I give him new toys to play with.”
“If he touches a hair on her head—”
“Come quickly, I won’t be able to stop him otherwise.”
The bastard hangs up just as Odette pings me a message to get my ass to the club. Fuck. Marcel has her. He has her at the fucking cabin.
I tell my device to dial her number. She doesn’t answer, just like I knew she wouldn’t. So I drive like maniac, almost coming off the road around one corner, the roads are so slick from the rain the night before. But I make it without killing myself or wrapping the front of the car around a damn tree. As I pull up to my grandfather’s hunting cabin, there’s a darkness hanging over the wood surrounding it.
All eyes are on me the moment I walk through the door.
Pearl’s not here.
Biting back my anger, I turn on the lot of them. “What the fuck is going on? Where the hell is she?”
Odette’s eyes land on mine and it’s not hard to read the word of warning in them. Caution. But she doesn’t have to warn me. I know what bringing her here means and what’s supposed to happen. But I’ll be fucked if I let that happen.
Then I see her through the glass, illuminated by the cabin’s rear spotlights even though it’s still light outside, all dressed in red. Fucking hell, wearing that she’s going to be a sitting duck for them all.
Romain is sneering, holding her in his arms as she blinks, eyes startled, face drained of color. She can’t see me through the glass because the other side is reflected. She doesn’t know I’m here.
