by Diana Ames
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The room was eerily silent. The two men stared at Gilly with identical looks of horror on their faces. After a moment, when it appeared no one would speak, Gilly walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured each man a shot of whiskey. Decisively, Gilly extended the liquor to the men. Damian and Anton took the glasses from her, and simultaneously, they tossed the bitter liquid down their throats.
“I’m read…y,” the raven-haired woman said haltingly as she entered the living room. She could feel the thick tension in the air.
No one acknowledged her presence. Gilly surreptitiously studied the woman, memorizing every detail she could. This woman didn’t know it, but she was about to die an early death.
“Master Damian?” the woman said softly.
“Corinna, ah…yes, just let me call for an escort to get you back to the club,” Damian said, snapping out of his shock-induced stupor.
Sitting on the sofa, Gilly waited until a driver came to the door. She noted who the driver was, so she could find out exactly where this black-haired bitch, called Corinna, went after leaving here.
When the door closed behind the driver and Corinna, Anton collapsed into a chair, his hands rubbing over his face. Damian stood beside the fireplace and played with his empty glass. Gilly sat serenely on the sofa, watching both men.
“You have to get rid of it, Gilly,” Anton finally said. “We cannot be together. This…this…this thing,” he bit out, “cannot be born.”
“It’s called a baby, Anton,” Gilly said coolly. “And what doctor would you like me to see to have an abortion? You know the penalty for murdering a royal, even an unborn one.”
“So, don’t tell anyone that it’s a royal,” Damian interjected.
“You and Anton are the only men I ever associate with, Damian. Who in their right mind would think it’s not a royal?” she asked disdainfully.
“Well, the same thing is going to happen if you have it, Gilly,” Damian told her. “People are going to think it’s Anton’s or it’s mine. Then what? When neither of us step forward to marry you and there is yet another royal bastard running around, then what?”
“Damian, don’t you know someone who could take care of this and keep it quiet?” Anton asked desperately.
“No one I’d send Gilly to, Anton. Those people are butchers.” Damian sighed. “And even then, she’s too well-known, and it’s no guarantee that someone wouldn’t blab.”
“Then, there is no choice,” Anton said.
Gilly smiled a little devious grin.
“You will have to go out of the country for an abortion.”
Gilly’s smile faded as she jumped to her feet. “I will not be going out of the country for an abortion!” She faced off with Anton. “I’ve had a few days to process this, Anton. I’m keeping this baby, and there is nothing either one of you can do to stop it!”
“Gilly, you can’t keep your brother’s baby,” Anton began.
It was too late. Gilly was already out the door.
“Now what, Damian?” Anton asked, hanging his head.
“Maybe it’ll be born healthy. You and Gilly don’t seem to have any kind of defects that might get passed on and exaggerated through inbreeding,” Damian said.
Sarcastically, Anton said, “Thanks so much. You’re a big help.” He continued in a mocking tone. “Don’t worry about your child that your sister is currently pregnant with. After all, neither one of you has a tail, so maybe it won’t either.”
“I don’t think there’s much you can do,” Damian told him while pouring another drink. “It’s not like either one of us is going to push her down the steps, hoping she has a miscarriage.”
“I might have a month ago,” Anton said glumly.
“Yeah, well, we’re working on your issues,” Damian said in a lighter voice. “And I’m real proud of you, man. You’ve come miles.”
“Well, how about we go miles? I need to get the fuck out of the castle and away from all these problems before I completely lose my mind.”
“Let me notify security. They can probably have a guard force ready by morning,” Damian said, reaching for his phone.
“No. No security,” Anton said, meeting Damian’s eyes. “Just you and me tonight. We’ll go incognito.”
“I’m driving,” Damian replied.
Both men jumped up and went to pack overnight bags. They’d buy whatever they needed on the road.
***
Gilly sat in the garage, waiting for the driver who took the whore home. It was almost 2 a.m., and she was getting impatient. If he stopped to fuck that bitch, Gilly thought to herself, he’s dead, too. Headlights illuminated the inside of the big building as a black SUV pulled inside. She waited until he got out of the car before making her presence known.
“Where’d you take her?” Gilly asked.
“I…I…I…” the driver stuttered.
“Look, we can do this the hard way or the easy way,” Gilly told him. “I want to know where she went and how long ago you dropped her off.”
“I took her to Teacher Damian’s club,” the driver said hesitantly. “I guess I left her there about an hour or so ago. I think she lives in one of the upstairs rooms.”
“Thank you. That was much easier,” Gilly said, walking up beside him.
He never saw the tire iron in her hand. She swung as hard as she could at his head. Because of her short stature, Gilly’s blow glanced his ear, missing his head almost completely. He jumped and fell to the side though, giving her the opening she needed. Leaping on him, she hit him over and over until she was sure he wouldn’t wake up for a while.
When she looked him over, the blood pooling on the floor beside his head gave her a moment of pause. He was still breathing, but he probably wouldn’t be for long if he didn’t get medical attention quickly. Gilly shrugged and turned away, still clutching the tire iron. She’d get rid of it somewhere between here and the club.
Walking, the club was almost thirty minutes from the castle. When she arrived, Gilly looked for a back entrance. She didn’t want to be seen, lest she be associated with the death that was about to occur. Then, she saw a back door open as a man dragged out several bags of garbage. Gilly wished she’d held onto the tire iron. Making herself as small as possible, she slipped into the shadows and waited for the man to open the dumpster. When she saw him make the motion to throw in the first bag, she slipped quietly through the door he’d left wide open.
She was in a large, well-lit kitchen. Glancing around, she realized this was not a commercial area. It looked more like a sorority house kitchen. There was a door directly in front of her and a set of steps off to her right. Gilly had to decide quickly because she could already hear the shuffling footfalls of the garbage man. She dashed for the steps and sped up them without looking back.
At the top, Gilly’s eyes widened with dismay. There was a long hallway with doors along both sides. She knew she couldn’t go poking into every room. Even one wrong occupied room would be very, very bad.
When Gilly heard footsteps and giggles coming from the stairwell, she ducked into a corner behind a huge potted tree. It mostly hid her because she was so tiny. If no one thought to look for her, she would be fine. Gilly sharpened her hearing as she listened to the female voices getting closer to her now.
“You are one lucky slut,” one voice said. “Were they big? Were they good?”
“Oh my god, they were huge. When I took them both, I thought they were going to rip me in half,” another voice said with a laugh. “I swear that I have never come so hard in my life!”
“Who was better?” the first voice asked.
“Master Damian was definitely in charge,” the second voice said.
Tuning out the voices, Gilly peeked out from behind the tree. She couldn’t believe her luck. The whore was standing right in front of Gilly. She watched as the black-haired whore entered the first door on the left side of the hallway. The other woman moved farther down. She was at
least four or five doors away and on the right side.
Gilly knew it was fate. She and Anton were meant to be together, and this bitch was trying to keep them apart. Destiny had put Gilly in just the right spot to find the whore and stop her from interfering. Gilly listened for footsteps or voices, and when she heard none, she quietly slipped out of her hiding spot and walked over to the door the bitch went into. Tapping lightly, Gilly pasted a pleasant smile on her face and waited for an answer.
“I’m not telling you anymore—” the woman said as she swung open the door. “Oh, it’s you.”
Gilly smiled and shoved the woman in the room. Gilly whipped out the hypodermic needle, uncapped it with her teeth, and shoved it into the woman’s jugular vein. Gilly knew the moment the air bubble hit the woman’s heart and seconds later when the flow of blood was blocked and her heart exploded.
“You’ll never touch my man again, whore.”
***
With the wind flapping through their hair, Damian and Anton were sitting side by side in a car Damian had borrowed from one of his employees. It was beat-up and dingy, and a funky smell was coming from the backseat. They’d put the convertible top down to try to get rid of the stench, but so far, they were just getting windburned.
“Not one word,” Damian said, seeing the look of distaste on Anton’s face. “You wanted to be incognito and leave tonight without a guard. I guarantee no one will ever suspect that the crown prince is riding around in this hunk of junk.”
“I agree with you there.” Anton tried to breathe through his mouth to avoid the smell. “God, what is that? Did something die back there?”
Damian just laughed and shrugged his shoulders. He might have grown up in the castle, but he’d left as soon as he could. He’d spent the past seven years of his life living as a commoner. While he’d always had wealth and never owned something as foul as the car they were riding in, he had an appreciation for belongings earned the hard way.
“Where do you want to go, Anton?” Damian asked. “I’m assuming the village-to-village tour is canceled since you don’t want anyone to know where you are.”
“On hold, Damian, on hold,” Anton said. “It’s never a good idea to just cancel on your subjects. It makes them feel unimportant, you know.”
“Oh, God forbid,” Damian said, mocking Anton’s snooty tone of voice, as he rolled his eyes.
“Truth is, brother,” Anton said slowly, “I don’t really know where to go. The only time I’ve been away from castle grounds was to fulfill some duty or make an appearance.”
“That’s just sad,” Damian said. He hadn’t realized how cosseted Anton had been throughout his life.
“Well, you know how Mother was,” Anton said. “I couldn’t be more than a five-minute walk from her side at all times.”
“That woman was a menace,” Damian said with a low growl. “I swear that I don’t wish any ill will toward anyone, but I think everyone was better off the day she breathed her last.”
Anton shot Damian a surprised glance. Their mother was rarely a topic of conversation, and when she was, Damian kept his opinions silent. Even though he didn’t speak out, Anton knew Damian resented the woman who’d given birth to them. This was the first time Anton had ever heard Damian say that he was glad she was dead.
Anton wondered if he could tell Damian now. Many times during the past year, Anton had wanted to reveal how their mother had really died, but if being royal had taught him nothing else, it had taught him how to keep his mouth shut. To tell Damian would be to give him complete trust, and Anton would be forcing another to trust him completely as well. Anton struggled internally, swinging back and forth between telling Damian and not telling Damian. Finally, Anton couldn’t keep it in any longer.
“I had her killed!” he shouted.
Damian jumped, startled by the shout. When he registered what Anton had said, Damian’s body swung around in the car to gape at him. Damian’s shock was so great that he forgot for a moment that he was driving, and the car swerved into a ditch.
Damian’s head bounced off the steering wheel. “Damn it!” After a few minutes, he felt his senses return to him, and he realized he hadn’t heard anything from Anton. “Brother,” Damian said with evident fear. “Brother, are you okay?”
When Anton groaned next to him, Damian sighed with relief. Unlatching his seat belt, Damian leaned over and looked into Anton’s face. He let out a laugh when Anton put his hand on Damian’s forehead and shoved him away.
“What the fuck, Damian?” Anton said, groaning again. His body was jarred by the rough trek into the ditch. “I thought you knew how to drive.”
Defensively, Damian said, “I know how to drive just fine as long as the guy beside me doesn’t confess to murder loud enough for anyone in a ten-mile radius to hear him. Care to explain that statement?”
Anton sighed and tried to open his door, but it appeared to be stuck. He scrambled up and vaulted over the side of the door. He was thankful that the piece of shit car was a convertible. Leaning against the hood of the car, he waited for Damian to get out as well. When Damian was finally beside him, Anton swallowed hard.
“I had our mother killed, Damian.”
***
Mellissandra woke up, feeling disoriented. She glanced around and couldn’t figure out why it was so dark. Sitting up, she reached for the lamp next to the bed. She flinched at the light and closed her eyes against the stinging sensation.
Squinting against the offending brightness, she got up and exited the bedroom. Splashing water on her face and brushing her teeth brought her to full consciousness. Remembering her conversation with Alyssa, she played each heartbreaking word over in her mind.
She had thought that Damian had taken advantage of her, but this morning, she decided that he really hadn’t. She’d wanted him just as much as he’d wanted her or as much as he’d seemed to want her. He hadn’t forced her or coerced her in any way, and he certainly hadn’t used his power as her teacher to demand she fuck him.
She was having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Damian was the head of some legal sex group and that he had the power to say who could do these things and who couldn’t. She’d known he was powerful, after all, he was working for the prince, but she’d had no idea just how much power rested in his hands.
It disturbed her a lot to know that he’d trained so many women and that he was considered to be above everyone else in the sexual world. She hadn’t had any illusions that Damian was inexperienced, but having these facts shoved in her face hurt her heart.
One last glance in the mirror showed her that her color was normal, and she didn’t look like she was about to vomit anytime soon. With a deep breath, Mellissandra called on every ounce of strength she had and left the bathing chamber. Nothing has changed since yesterday. I have to behave as though it’s any other day.
She went into the common area of the home and didn’t see Wally or Ryan anywhere. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was almost two in the morning. Mellissandra knew the main floor would start to clear out soon, but the diehards would be there until nearly dawn. Now would be the perfect time to use the back hallway and sneak a peek at the depravities Wally had been so desperate to shield from her.
Mellissandra went into the kitchen and opened the closet beside the back door. According to Alyssa, who’d been here for nearly five years, there was a panel in the back of the closet that pushed inward and led to a staircase. Apparently, this house had been built during one of the few civil wars that had torn the country apart, and this passage had been used to hide people and provide an escape route should the need arise.
She found the panel easily enough, but when she pushed it open, all she could see was darkness. Mellissandra shoved a hand through the black hole and could not find a light switch. She figured this part of the house had never been updated with modern conveniences like electricity. Or dusting cloths, she thought to herself with a chuckle as she pulled her hand back to see it covered in
cobwebs.
Back in the kitchen, Mellissandra found several utility candles that were kept all over the house due to the rolling blackouts that would frequent the area. She shoved two candles into her jeans pocket and held onto another one. Back in the closet, she struck a match and lit the candle. As it flared, it seemed to swallow the darkness.
She swept the cobwebs out of her face as she carefully climbed and counted each step. After twenty creaky, old steps, she reached a three-foot square landing with a door. Alyssa had assured her that this was the back door of an unused bedroom, and Mellissandra would be able to see the entire main floor by just peeking out the room’s main door.
Mellissandra touched the old door and winced as it squeaked. She could hear muffled sounds coming from the other side, and she crossed her fingers, hoping that it was the revelry from the main floor. With no knob to turn, she pushed on the door, but it didn’t budge. Thinking she wouldn’t catch the action after all, she felt a hint of disappointment along with a hint of relief.
Raising the candle one more time, she looked for a latch or any way to open the door. She noticed that the top of the door was pushed out farther than the bottom. She touched the door and found it felt almost springy. Pushing harder, she jumped back as the door moved toward her.
Peeking into the room, Mellissandra confirmed that it was empty. Alyssa had been right; this room really was unused. Glancing at the bed, the mattress looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Dust was evident on every piece of furniture and decoration, and the wall drapes appeared as though moths had gotten to them.
Mellissandra felt safe now that she could see no one had been in this room in years. She walked swiftly through the room to the main door. Mellissandra opened the door just a crack and looked out with one eye. Her jaw dropped open as she became enraptured by what she saw.
***
Completely still and silent, Damian stood beside Anton. Damian didn’t know what to say. Anton had just confessed to murdering the queen. It didn’t matter that he’d had her killed. If anyone found out, Anton’s head as well as whoever had done the deed would be on the chopping block. And damned if Damian was going to see his brother put to death for the murder of a woman who hadn’t deserved to live anyway.