“I know,” I answer, kissing her forehead.
I hold her until I fall asleep.
At some point, the crash of the sea against the shore wakes me and I stir, carefully pulling my arms and legs from Eva’s and watching her for a moment.
In sleep, she’s innocent and peaceful.
When she wakes, she’ll be consumed once again with our new reality, so I’m careful not to disturb her as I slip from the bed. Since I know I won’t sleep again tonight, I don’t want to wake her with my restlessness.
I stand on the balcony, watching the sea for a little while, for an undetermined amount of time. Staring at it doesn’t make me sleepy though, so I finally sigh and head back inside. A nightcap might do the trick, so I pull on my trousers and pad barefoot through my bedroom doors, toward my study, without bothering with a shirt. Grendel snaps his head up as I enter the hall and immediately stands.
“Stay, boy,” I murmur. “Stay here and guard Eva.”
He instantly drops back to his haunches, watching me nervously as I walk away. Because he is so loyal, it makes him anxious to be away from me. But I can’t leave Eva unprotected.
My study is quiet and massive, empty in the middle of the night. I head straight toward the bar, and gulping down the scotch, I enjoy it as the familiar warmth spreads into my chest, warming my gut. I empty the crystal decanter, pouring a second portion into a glass. Three fingers of the amber liquid should do it and soon, I should be ready to sleep.
I settle into a wingbacked chair, closing my eyes, waiting for sleep to come. But instead of the welcome sleep, I feel the stirrings of an unwelcome sensation….the dark twinges of a drug-induced episode.
Fuck.
My eyes pop open and I lunge from the chair, determined to make it to my brother’s room before I lose consciousness. Damien can keep me from hurting anyone…from hurting Eva. I have faith in that.
But the darkness comes quickly and before I reach the door, it is already overwhelming me, turning the crisp and clean lines of the room into wavy blurs and contortions of color. My sensations turn visceral and everything turns into scents and feelings.
As I sink onto the floor, I feel as though hands are on me, on my shoulders, pulling me up. I twist to look, but my vision is black. Except for one thing. Before my sight goes, my vision tunnels on one thing.
The crystal scotch decanter glimmers in the moonlight. It’s empty now because I just drank the scotch it contained… mere moments before this episode’s onset. A dark realization slams into me.
It was the scotch that was poisoned. It was always the scotch. As I quickly think back, I always drank it before an episode emerged. How did I not put this together before?
Even though I scramble to hold onto the last vestiges of consciousness, to get to Eva and warn her, I can’t. The drugs are too powerful and they take my mind prisoner, rushing in like clouds of ink. Hands are on my shoulders, but I can’t fight them off. I’m no longer in control of my limbs. All I can do is succumb.
Within a moment, all is black and lost.
Chapter Eight
Eva
The sunlight is warm as it tickles my shoulder, and I open my eyes, content in the warmth, and in the memories of last night…the memories of Luca. I remember how earnest he was when he showed me the tunnels, how concerned for my safety, and then I remember how tender he was when he held me until I fell asleep.
I stretch out my arm to find him, but his side of the bed is empty and cold. I sigh, but it’s nothing new. He was probably up at dawn, not wanting to wake me with his restlessness.
I take my time getting ready, soaking in a hot bath, pulling my hair into a low chignon and dressing casually in capri’s and a white button-up. As I make my way into the house, various servants greet me, and as I look at all of their faces, something in me stirs and tenses.
Could one of them have assisted Adrian, allowing him onto the grounds?
The mere thought sends a chill down my spine and I would normally feel silly for being suspicious, but after Adrian betrayed Luca the way he did, I know that anything is possible. Loyalty is a hard trait to come by. I fight to subdue the suspicion. I can’t let it consume me. I can’t get to the point where I trust no one.
When I enter Luca’s study, I expect to find him bent over his large desk. I don’t. Instead, I find Damien there, on the phone, scrawling his name on a stack of documents.
When he sees me, he hangs up immediately, smiling a greeting.
“Eva,” he greets me, standing to hug me good morning. “You slept well, I trust?”
I’m not sure if he’s kidding. Why would he assume I slept well, when our lives are under attack by a madman? I smile back hesitantly.
“Not as well as I once would have, but well enough, under the circumstances.”
“Is Luca still sleeping?” Damien asks, pouring a glass of fresh orange juice and handing it to me. I startle, glancing up at him.
“No. He’s not in our room. I thought he’d be in here. I was surprised to find you instead.”
Damien shakes his head. “I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d borrow Luca’s desk and catch up on some work. I haven’t seen him yet. I imagine he couldn’t sleep either and got up early to walk the grounds. We’ll have to remind him not to go out alone. That rule doesn’t only apply to you, my dear.”
He holds out his arm. “We should see if he’s at breakfast. And you should eat.”
“I’m not very hungry,” I murmur quietly. “I’d like to find Luca.”
Damien nods. “Let’s check in the dining room first. It stands to reason that he might want breakfast.”
The dining room is empty, but for the heavily laden sideboard filled with breakfast foods and juices.
“I guess the kitchen staff got excited that you’re here,” I tell Damien. “They made enough for an army.”
Damien smiles a bit. “Well, we should probably eat some of it so it doesn’t go to waste. Why don’t you text Luca and see where he is, and we’ll sit here and wait for him?”
Staring at the mountains of food, I have to agree. I don’t want it to go to waste and I’ll have to speak to the kitchen staff about preparing such large amounts in the future. It simply isn’t necessary. Even after Christoph arrives, we won’t eat so much.
After loading a plate with fruit, a bagel and yogurt, I pull out my phone to text Luca. Setting my phone beside my plate, I give Damien a wry look.
“We’ll have to see if he answers. He’s not much of a texter.”
“I know,” he agrees. “It drives me insane.”
I have to admit that it does me, too, so we spend the next minute or two complaining about Luca’s aversion to technology. But after we’ve finished discussing that bad habit, and after we finish eating, Luca still hasn’t appeared and he still hasn’t answered my text.
Alessa comes in to clear my plate and as she does, I put my hand on her arm.
“Have you seen Mr. Minaldi this morning?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think so, miss. I might’ve seen him first thing this morning, walking out toward the cliffs, but I can’t be sure. It was foggy.”
My head snaps up. “You saw someone walking toward the cliffs? A man?”
Alessa nods.
“And did you tell Oliver about this?” I snap, instantly annoyed with the girl. I know she tries to be helpful, but honestly. It’s only common sense to report such things with the situation such as it is.
She looks stricken. “I…uh. No. It didn’t seem out of the ordinary. I thought it was either Luca or Damien and I didn’t think twice. I’m sorry, miss. I’ll make sure to not make that judgment call again.”
I stare at her. “Alessa, I know it seems severe, but I also know that Oliver has discussed our situation with you. There is a man out there who is targeting Luca. Chessarae might seem secure and it is secure, but we have to take every precaution. If you see anything that might be unusual, report it immediately.”
She no
ds quickly, her cheeks flushed. “Yes, m’am. I’m sorry.”
I relent now, feeling bad for her. “No harm done. But if you see Luca this morning, please tell him I’m looking for him.”
“Yes, m’am,” she murmur quietly before she hurries off.
Damien stares at me. “Eva, I’m sure everything is fine. You need to stay calm. We’ll be under stress until Adrian is found. You can’t stay in a state of distress until then. Put it out of your mind and continue about your life as normal.”
I return his stare incredulously. “Normal?”
He nods. “As normal as possible. You must.”
I’m absolutely confounded by his ability to detach from the situation, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Luca shares the same ability.
I push away from the table.
“I’m going to find Luca. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast.”
I hear him sighing as walk from the room. But it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but finding Luca because deep down, I feel like something is wrong. Even though nothing is amiss around the house, the hairs on the back of my neck are at attention, chills racing down my arms. My instincts are on high alert.
The question now is why.
I search high and low. I search the house, I search the manicured lawns and the paths leading to the sea. I search the stables and the beach. It isn’t until I search the garage that I find that his car is missing from its slot.
I stand still, staring at the yawning emptiness, startled and annoyed.
Luca left and didn’t tell me where he was going? Now, of all times? When we’re not supposed to leave the property and if we do, certainly not alone?
I’m furious.
I whip out my phone and try to call, but his phone only goes to voicemail. I try again, and once again, reach his voicemail.
“Luca,” I grit between my teeth after the beep. “You can’t just leave when you feel like it and definitely not without telling me. You need to call me back. Right away.”
I march back to the house, fueled by indignation, and in a huff, set out poring through books in the library to fill my time. An hour passes, then two, then three. I attempt to call Luca several more times, and leave several more messages, each one more frantic than the last.
Grendel paces with me, his massive head cocking at every noise, waiting with me to see Luca come striding in the doors with a good excuse for his absence.
The problem is, he never does.
Night falls and Luca is still gone.
That’s when I know that something is terribly wrong.
Chapter Nine
Luca
A buzzing sound brings me to, awakening me from a foggy sleep. I lift my head and find that my hands are restrained above me, bound in manacles attached to chains in the wall.
A wall. A stone wall, covered in damp moss. That explains the dank smell.
I force my eyes open wider and try to determine where I am. It doesn’t take long.
A crypt sits on one side, a stone tomb that rises from the ground… the name scrolled across it reads Melina Minaldi. My mother.
But I’m not in the mausoleum.
I’m in the secret room beneath the crypts… the room where the gateway is my mother’s crypt above. Very few people know that. No one knows that her true crypt is in this room, a room that has been secret since the Knights of Malta built this estate. A room that houses treasures that we don’t wish to put in vaults at local banks. A room that currently imprisons me….along with my dead mother.
Because the existence of this room is such a secret, like so many others here at Chessarae, the likelihood of me being found is slim.
As my eyes adjust to being open, I can see my cellphone buzzing on a nearby stone, its screen lighting up and showing Eva’s name. Before long, the ringing stops.
How did my cell phone get here?
How did I get here?
“Would you like to hear what Eva said?”
A voice comes from the shadows, a voice I’ve been both dreading and anticipating that I’d hear soon.
Adrian.
He steps from the darkness, his blonde hair glinting in the dim light, his blue eyes sharp and hard. His arms are thickly muscled and his footsteps fall heavily on the stones.
I don’t answer him. I press my lips tightly together so I don’t succumb to the temptation. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.
He picks up my phone and puts it on speaker, laying it down once again. Eva’s frantic voice fills the crypt.
“Luca, where are you? You’re scaring me. I love you. Call me. Please.”
The desperation in her voice turns my blood to ice and I grit my teeth, trying as hard as I can to remain silent.
He studies me, his eyes gleaming with the light from the wall sconces.
“Isn’t that sweet? Eva is worried about you. With good reason.”
His tone turns icy and he towers above me. With a lightning quick hand, he coils back like a snake and backhands my face with all his strength. My head snaps back and I taste blood as pain explodes in my mouth.
But still I remain silent.
“I’ll bet you’re wondering why I didn’t just kill you,” Adrian muses aloud. “Because I could’ve, you know. I’ve watched you sleep, I’ve watched you jog, I’ve watched you living… when you should’ve died already. I’ll rectify that oversight… but not yet. First, you need to pay for what you’ve done to me. Eventually, you’ll beg me to die… and only then will I allow you that escape.”
My heart thuds hard in my chest as I look at the expression in Adrian’s eyes… the insane expression. He’s not in his right mind. To him, I’ve wronged his family. To him, he’s completely justified in exacting revenge on me for the perceived wrongdoings of my ancestors.
As I dangle from chains in this damp crypt, confined and entombed, I have no doubt that he will get it.
Chapter Ten
Eva
A full search of the property turned up nothing. I even ran through the underground tunnels, flinching at the shadows, but still I ran on, hunting everywhere I could think of. When Luca wasn’t even in his secret library, I knew I wasn’t going to find him. There was only one thing left for me to do.
Beseech Damien.
But now, as I face him in Luca’s study, I know it’s useless.
“You don’t believe me,” I utter helplessly, twisting my hands around in my lap as I stare at Luca’s brother. Damien stares back sympathetically, but unmoved.
“Eva…” His voice trails off and he stares out the windows, away from me. “It isn’t that I don’t believe you. It’s that I know my brother. I think he wanted to spare you the pain of this situation. He wanted to draw Adrian away from Chessarae, away from you. Surely you can imagine that of Luca. Just last night he was telling me how he felt selfish for allowing you to be a part of this.”
He stares at me earnestly, willing me to believe that Luca would’ve left me on his own accord. I can’t believe that of him. If I don’t want my heart to shatter into a million jagged pieces, I can’t believe that of him.
But still, I can’t help but remember the night in the fort, the night he told me that he was taking me to the airport, that he was sending me home to America to keep me safe from Adrian. I’d refused. Adamantly refused. What if… instead of arguing with me about it, he’d chosen to leave instead?
Would he really have gone to such lengths to keep me safe?
At my feet, Grendel whines just a bit before he gets up to once again pace the perimeter of the room, his toenails clicking on the mahogany floors. He’s been restless since Luca left, disturbed, and something abruptly occurs to me.
“Luca wouldn’t have left Grendel,” I blurt out. “I can see where you’d believe that he’d leave to keep me safe, but he’d never have left Grendel. He knows Grendel is miserable without him.”
Damien’s expression grows even more sympathetic and I resist the urge to punch him.
“I’m serious,” I
insist. “Luca wouldn’t have left him.”
Damien shakes his head. “Luca would do anything to keep you safe. If it wasn’t convenient to take Grendel, then he’d leave him. Grendel might be a loyal pet, but he’s still but a dog, Eva.”
A lump forms in my throat, a hard knot that I can’t seem to swallow.
“He wouldn’t,” I whisper limply. But to be honest, I’m not so sure.
“There’s no sign of a struggle,” Damien says calmly. “Trust me, we’ve looked. Oliver’s teams have searched everywhere for any sign. They’ve found nothing but an empty garage stall. It appears he left on his own free will, Eva. Knowing that Adrian breached Chessarae probably drove him to this decision. My heart tells me that he left to protect you. He’s my brother. If I had any inkling that there was foul play here, I’d take immediate action. But there is no sign of that. We can’t overreact and bring in the polizia. We have to protect Luca’s secret.”
My heart breaks again at his words and I press my lips together to keep from crying. Luca’s secret. God, I’m tired of being held hostage by Luca’s secret. The secret that was thrust upon him through no fault of his own.
“What do we do now, then?” I finally manage to ask.
“We wait,” Damien answers softly, reaching over to grip my shoulder. “I’ll get Oliver hunting for him, but I’m guessing he doesn’t want to be found until Adrian has been dealt with.”
“But what if Adrian finds him first?” Even I can hear the panic in my voice. Damien hears it too and almost visibly flinches. I can tell he’s not used to being around devastated females.
“We have to have faith that that won’t happen,” he answers firmly. “Eva, you should go rest. This has all been so much. You’ve had a shock.”
A shock. That’s what he calls Luca leaving me? I shake my head as I walk from the study and pad toward my bedroom. Apparently, Damien doesn’t think I’m in as much danger now, now that Luca is trying to draw the danger to himself like a magnet, because he lets me walk alone.
But as I close my bedroom doors behind me, doubt floods me.
I know Luca and he would’ve thought this through from every angle. He would be worried that his plan wouldn’t work, that Adrian would target me simply to cause more pain to Luca. If something happened to me, it would hurt him far worse than if something happened to himself. For that reason, it’s hard to fathom that he would leave me here, defenseless.
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