AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Waving both hands, she beams. “Bye bye, Ms. Role!” Her expression darkens. “Do not let Alexios steal your soul while we’re gone. But stay as long as you like!” She shrieks when her father lets go of her ankle, and she barely catches herself on his shirt. “Daddy!”
Something almost akin to laughter rumbles in his chest as he glances over his shoulder at me. “Make yourself at home, Kassandra. We’ll be back in about five or six hours, so let yourself out if you don’t want to stay that long.”
Five or six hours?
“Wait…” My voice cracks, but it’s too late.
They’re already gone.
Chapter 3
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sniffing washcloths.
First of all, I don’t know why I’m still here, snooping through a stranger’s house with my phone poised and ready to get evidence of anything that might lock Pollux Strakh up for good. The place is huge, larger than looks possible from the outside, and it’s spotless. No matter how hard I look, I can’t find the broken windows I saw when I came up the sidewalk. All the furniture is antique and real wood. The decorations look like they’ve all come from eons past, but they’re in near-perfect condition.
The apparent wealth is chilling.
Because where in the world did a young single father get this kind of money?
And why in the world is my brain answering with a resounding drug lab?
“Miss?”
I jump, whirling to find Alexios a foot from me in the long upstairs hall. I did not hear him approach. I cannot explain what I am doing. Not even remotely. In all honesty, I kind of forgot he was here. After Pollux and Andromeda left, the entire house went eerily quiet and still.
Like a morgue.
If a morgue had multiple cabinets dedicated to hosting liquor bottles around every corner.
Because, yes, apparently someone here is an alcoholic.
I’ll just add it to my list of reasons to cry myself to sleep tonight.
Alexios’s smile unfurls, disarming. “If you’re looking for Pollux’s room, it’s the last set of double doors on the right. If your reason for wanting to be in his bedroom is because you’ve discovered that the door to the basement and his lab is locked, however, I might regret to inform you that no physical key for it can be found in this place.”
“I… I wasn’t…” What? I wasn’t what? Looking for a key to the basement? I one hundred percent am now. In my defense, Pollux told me to make myself at home. Probably with severe subtext that actually meant get out of my house immediately and never come back. But it can’t be held against me if I’m taking him at his word, can it?
I feel backed into a corner with him.
If he has as much money as it seems, there’s very little the government will do even if I can get them to find this address. He probably has people who can buy him out of anything.
I’m grasping for straws and fleeting hope.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going down without a fight.
“Helpless…” Alexios reaches a gloved hand toward me as I dissect my attention from my rampaging thoughts. He touches my chin, tilting my face up to meet his. “You feel utterly helpless. Angry. But not afraid.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” I try to step back, but my feet don’t move.
Slowly, Alexios’s smile drifts off his face. “Interesting. Do you remember ever feeling afraid?”
I swallow, temper my rage, and ignore the fact I can’t seem to get my legs to work. “I’m a teacher,” I hiss.
“Do elaborate.”
My lungs fill, and I stay stonily put, this time of my own accord. “I am the last defense between my kids and anyone who would try to hurt them. It’s not my job to be afraid. It’s my job to put the very essence of fear into anyone who dares come for my littles. It is my job to make absolute certain they have nothing to fear.”
