Caught in the Trap: A Reverse Harem Academy Bully Romance (Mafia Lords of Knightswood Academy Book 1)

by Ivy Clyde

  Before I could step inside, I felt Christian’s fingers coming to grasp my arm.

  “Let me go in first,” he said, pulling me behind him.

  “No one broke in,” I said as he moved forward. “The lock isn’t broken.” However, I fell silent at once. The entire apartment had been turned upside down. Sunshine came in through the broken shutters, illuminating the space that was once my home.

  Not that it was an inviting condo in the first place but it had always been neat and clean.

  My old computer station was completely destroyed. The mattress and sheets on the bed in the tiny bedroom were ripped to shreds. The doors of the small cabinets in the kitchen were all falling off the hinges.

  “Why would anyone do this?” I whispered, feeling an ache building inside me. “There is nothing of any value here.”

  “There was,” said Christian, moving close to me. “But we got you out of here before they could make their move.”

  I looked all around me before gazing back at him. “Who do you mean by ‘they’?”

  “Dimitri’s men as well as those who want to get to you first to blackmail him and Andrei.”

  “That’s nonsense! I am not Maria. Andrei and Dimitri must know that by now.”

  He nodded. “They know that now. This must have been right after we got you out.” He gestured around the room. “Look for your stuff. It’s best if we leave soon.”

  I nodded, going toward the corner where the wrecks of my workstation littered the floor. Pushing away the broken table, I crouched down to reveal a hollow in the wall that contained a shoebox. This was where all my precious memories were hidden. A thick wad of cash was stashed under it.

  “Nice hiding place,” said Christian, kneeling down beside me.

  I nodded. “There was always a chance some crackhead would break in here.” Taking the box and cash, I straightened up.

  “Did you play baseball?” asked Christian, swinging a baseball bat he’d found among the debris.

  “Nah, I nicked it from one of the baseball players at school. I kept it in case someone came in here to look for trouble.” I exhaled a long breath. “We can go now.”

  Christian didn’t leave the bat behind, carrying it with him as we stepped out of the apartment. This time, he led the way out, climbing down the dark staircase hurriedly. Carrying the box under my arm, I followed, feeling my senses sharpening.

  We made it out of the building and into the sunshine but we’d barely taken a few steps when a group of people blocked our path.

  They looked like senior gang members, somewhere in their early forties. Their faces and the exposed parts of their bodies displayed a variety of tattoos, all to distinguish themselves from others.

  “Stay behind me,” said Christian in a low voice. He kept his gaze on the seven men who were slowly approaching us. Their eyes were locked on me.

  “Give us the girl and we’ll let you leave,” said the leader of the group.

  “Leave and I might consider letting you live,” said Christian in return. He raised the hem of his shirt, revealing something to the men I couldn’t see. “Now you know who I am. So, move away.”

  The men stayed where they were, not backing down.

  I looked around the street. There was no one else there to witness this scene. The stragglers we’d seen earlier were probably working for these people. They’d seen me and alerted them.

  Before I could even think of what to do, Christian strode forward, swinging the baseball bat. “I am going to kill every last one of you,” he said slowly and articulately. “Better start praying now.” Next moment, he fell on them, using the bat to attack as a weapon. His hits were hard and powerful, each hit causing the victim to gasp out in pain and fall to the ground.

  Soon, he was surrounded by the others, but he kicked two of the men who were approaching him from the side while hitting a third who approached him from the front. His movements were amazingly fast, too fast for the untrained eye to catch.

  But even as they fell, the remaining few took out daggers and knives, slashing the air, trying to get to Christian.

  My heart throbbed in my chest as I stood frozen, watching Christian take down these men too. None of them were able to get near enough to hurt him. He was an expert street fighter, overcoming the seven men in a matter of minutes.

  “You’re all going to die for this,” said Christian, brushing away the strands of hair falling into his eyes.

  The men groaned and writhed on the ground. He approached the nearest one, kneeling down beside him. Taking one of the knives that had fallen nearby, he lay the man’s hand flat on the ground.

  “No…no…stop,” the man whispered, his voice shaking with fear. “Please don’t.”

  “You should’ve listened,” hissed Christian through clenched teeth as the man struggled against him. “Quiet down!” He hit the man in the face with the baseball bat, proceeding to use the knife to cut off two tattooed fingers.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, running toward him. “Let’s get out of here. We don’t know if there are others around this place.”

  “This is proof,” he said, wrapping the severed fingers in a handkerchief.

  “Come on, Christian,” I said, tugging at his arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He gazed at me and a sudden smile lit up his face. “Don’t be scared. I won’t let them hurt you.”

  Even as my mind screamed at me to run, a kind of warmth washed over me, calming me instantly. I desperately wanted to believe him, to have someone I could trust in this cruel, unforgiving world.

  “All right, let’s go,” he said, taking my hand and running towards one of the alleys leading off the street.

  We ran together as the wind whipped our hair backward. His hand held mine in a strong, firm grip, sending warmth shooting through me.

  We were breathing hard by the time we reached the car. Fear and excitement coursed through me, making me feel jittery as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

  “Get in,” said Christian, opening the door to his side.

  I climbed in, still panting as he started the car and drove away from the street.

  “Sergei Gronsky is a dead man,” he said in a low, grim voice as he stepped on the gas.

  “Sergei?”

  “They were his men. They went against us when they were supposed to be under us. I need to get back to Uncle and tell him of this development. We have to find out who is behind him. It can give us a clue to the people who attacked the Romanoff family.”

  My breathing normalized as we sped away from the city. My thoughts went to Andrei and the cruel way his family was murdered. “Could they be the Volkovs’ people?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They didn’t have the Volkov mark on them. They had ours.”

  I stayed quiet for a while as the car speeded through the city streets. My heartbeat slowed down, allowing other thoughts to flash in my mind. “You haven’t really told me much about Dimitri,” I said. “I checked online for more info but there’s nothing.”

  He glanced at me before looking ahead on the road. “Of course, there’s nothing. We stay out of the media. All articles mentioning us are deleted as soon as they go up. But the most important thing to know about him is that he is a monster wearing the face of an angel.”

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “There’s nothing much to say about him. You already know he’s an heir to one of the most powerful families in town. That should be enough to make you stay alert when you are close to him.”

  I nodded even though my curiosity ate at me. Why did Christian call him a monster? I mean, he wasn’t exactly a saint himself. He’d just smashed a man’s face and chopped off his fingers. That sort of violence came to him effortlessly.

  As the car moved along a highway, my thoughts went back to Andrei. Part of me felt that Christian was biased against both him and Dimitri, that I had to know them on my own and find out
for myself who they were. Leaning back against the seat, I watched the Pennsylvanian countryside flash by, the shoe box with my memories safe in my hands.

  11

  Christian

  My breathing relaxed as the tops of the Ivanov mansion came in view. Our men were already stationed around this area, making it a safe zone for us. I hadn’t been able to relax even when we left the city behind and moved onto the highway. Skye already looked calm, holding onto an old shoebox with a ridiculous soft grin on her lips.

  I kept glancing at her from time to time, savoring the look of happiness on her face.

  Her face hadn’t lit up this much since the time I brought her to her mother. A caring and loving family was a strange concept to me. My parents abandoned me so easily, leaving me to be fostered by other members of the Ivanov family. Loyalty…that I understood but it couldn’t equal the joy Skye seemed to feel around her mother.

  Skye had the face of Maria Volkov, the daughter David Volklov adopted and later gave her to his one and only son. The DNA test proved Skye had no relationship with the girl who became a dangerous pawn in a game that threatened to destroy our families. It was astounding how Skye was living in the same city as her and we’d only just become aware of her existence.

  While it was much safer for Skye to have ended up in my uncle’s hands, I still felt uneasy about letting her go on the mission we’d planned for her. She was too naïve, too shy, too soft. Even the sight of the bloodied severed fingers had been enough to sicken her. Her cheeks had turned a pale gray while she desperately tried to appear strong.

  How was she supposed to survive playing spy to both the heirs of the Volkovs and the Romanoffs?

  I drove the car through the gates of the estate, not bothering to slow down until I reached the mansion.

  Skye gasped as I brought the Toyota to a sudden stop in front of the mansion’s main doors.

  “Come on,” I said, removing the seatbelt. “We need to see my uncle immediately.”

  She nodded, climbing out of the car. The shoe box was still clutched in her arms. How precious could old photographs be that she was holding them like some fragile treasure?

  “Follow me,” I said, leading the way inside the mansion, bringing my focus back to the issue at hand. People sworn to work for us had attacked me. They were of the lowest rank too. I couldn’t imagine what or who would have given them the courage to go up against me.

  “Wait up!” Skye’s voice from behind me brought me to a halt. She was several feet away, hurrying toward me.

  “Keep up,” I said shortly, anxious to see my uncle.

  “Slow down,” she muttered, panting.

  Turning around, I walked down the corridor to reach Uncle’s office.

  “Is he even there?” she asked, keeping her head bowed as we passed a couple of armed men. They seemed to intimidate her, instead of making her feel protected.

  “Stay quiet while I talk to him,” I replied, pushing open the door and walking inside. Unless there was some other emergency, he would be there.

  Our footsteps echoed loudly as we walked toward Uncle’s desk at the far corner of the vast room. He was there, going through something on the screen of his laptop. At our approach, he looked up, taking in both me and Skye. The calm expression on his face didn’t betray his surprise to see us there.

  “Where did you take her?” asked Uncle in a deep voice, his gaze taking in the black jacket Skye wore over her dress and the old shoebox in her hand.

  “She needed something important from her old apartment,” I said. Taking a deep breath, I continued. “Her place was completely wrecked but her lock was secure. On our way back, Sergei Gronsky’s men attacked us. They wanted her.”

  Only the slight narrowing of his eyes gave any indication to the change in his temper. “Are you sure it was his men?”

  Shoving my hand in the pocket of my sweatpants, I dug out the bloodied lump of handkerchief that contained the severed fingers. Walking up to his desk, I laid out the cloth before him, pointing at the tattooed marks on them. “I got this off one of them.”

  “Did you reveal yourself to them?”

  “Of course, I did. They wouldn’t back down.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Skye blurted out when Uncle stayed quiet for almost a minute. I knew he was thinking of the implications but she was unnerved by his silence like most people.

  Uncle exhaled a long breath out. “Take Skye back to her room.”

  Turning around, I caught hold of her arm and gestured for her to follow me. She hesitated for a moment but followed me out of the room. “I told you to stay quiet.”

  “I didn’t want him to be angry with you.” Her eyes were as blue as the afternoon sky as she gazed up at me anxiously.

  Something shifted within me. Each time she showed me concern, my heart would start beating a little harder. I wasn’t sure if I hated the feeling or craved it.

  “Come on. I need to get back to him.”

  As always, I took a different route to reach her quarters, making sure she never fully figured out the directions in the house. It was a measure of protection for both her and us. Even my step-aunt, Zoya, wasn’t allowed to roam the premises but at least she understood that dangerous men always came around to make business calls with my uncle and grandfather and it wasn’t safe to get on their radar.

  Skye still didn’t fully understand the dangers of the world she’d entered.

  “Christian,” she whispered as we neared her room.

  “What?” I asked, still walking.

  “Are you going to be in trouble?”

  Reaching the door, I pushed it open and gestured for her to step inside. She walked in and placed her shoebox on the floor, proceeding to throw herself at me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as her arms held me in a tight hug around my neck.

  “I am sorry for making you go with me,” she said, burying her face in my chest. The gesture surprised me as Skye had always been shy. She fought against me each time I’d held her. Now, she was hugging me out of her free will. I cleared my throat, not really knowing what to say to this display of her sudden concern for me.

  “I had no idea we’d have people waiting to ambush us,” she said, continuing to hold on to me. I let her, enjoying the warmth of her soft body molding against mine perfectly. “More than a month has passed and they were still waiting for me to go back. I just don’t understand why they want me. Just because I look like that girl called Maria?”

  Taking hold of her shoulders, I pulled her away from me. “It’s okay,” I said in a gentle voice. Tears were gathered in her beautiful eyes, making the blue appear deeper. “Those old geezers were no match for me anyway.”

  “Will your uncle punish you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  That made her face break into a painful expression. Skye was on the verge of crying. My heart squeezed in response and the urge to devour those naturally luscious pink lips overwhelmed me. I wanted to consume her, mark every inch of her and claim her as mine. Even though she stole for a man like Sergei, she retained her innocence. Even though she lived in an apartment worse than a kennel, she was still delicate and beautiful.

  I wanted to protect her and simultaneously ravage her. My conflicting feelings raged inside me as I kept her from stepping closer to me. It was already taking enough effort not to pull her into my chest and taste those lips.

  “Stay here,” I said in a rough voice and strode out of the room, closing the door behind me.

  Once outside, I took deep gulps of air to cool the fire raging through my veins. Uncle was freakishly perceptive, his gaze never mistaking someone’s emotions. Raking fingers through my hair, I made my way back to his office. It was better to focus on getting Sergei to confess who he was working for. That would help us get one step closer to whoever was trying to destroy our circle.

  Reaching the office, I found Uncle in a deep conversation on the phone. His brows were contracted and his cool, gray eyes w
ere ablaze with rage. He turned toward me, his gaze narrowing.

  “Find out what you can,” Uncle said into the phone but his gaze was on me. “Call me as soon as you have any information.” Switching off the call, he said, “Sergei was just found dead in his den.”

  “What?”

  “One of his people just found him. Someone shot him in the head. No one saw who did it.”

  “Damn it!” I grated through clenched teeth. “We’ll never know who he was working for. Whoever it is, is powerful enough to shake up royalties. This is bad, Uncle.”

  “I know. Someone’s working from the shadows, gathering both money and power.”

  “Do we need to involve Skye in this mess?”

  Uncle’s gaze came to rest on me but he didn’t say anything.

  “She is naïve and absolutely clueless,” I continued. “There is no way she can get close enough to Volkov and Romanoff to get any concrete information or evidence. It’s best to cart her off to some other part of the country. Her mother will die soon anyway. We can wash our hands off her without any trouble.”

  “She is exactly the kind of girl that can get under their skins,” said Uncle. “She used to hack into people’s computers for a living. She even hacked into Knightswood’s portals to steal test papers. Those are very secure servers and only someone with talent and brains can surpass those securities and steal them. I need her to snoop into both the Romanoffs’ and Volkovs’ networks. We have to find out what’s happening under the covers before it’s too late.”

  It was impossible to argue against him. He’d analyzed everything Skye had to offer.

  “You’ll always be around to keep an eye on her,” said Uncle. “If you care for her enough, you’ll do what you can to protect her.” A sudden knowing smile lit up his face as he leaned forward onto the desk. “Looks like you’re finally growing up. You are falling in love.”

  I scoffed. “What are you talking about? I was just saying Skye’s too stupid to work for us and you…” I shook my head, not willing to accept my feelings for her. It was too risky to attach myself to anyone. I wanted to be like my uncle, cool and undetached. “Don’t the men who came at us today know who was behind their boss?” I asked in a bid to change the subject.