16. Numb!

Author's POV 

Egon was in his car, watching out while diving into deep thoughts. Her face is printed in his mind, with closed eyes he sees her, with open eyes he admires her, she is in his thoughts when she is not there, she is everywhere. How interesting it is to think that this woman was born to rule. First, her realm, and when he snatched it, she ruled his thoughts. 

She is a queen for a reason. 

"Master, we are here!"

His driver informed him, snapping him out of his captive's thoughts. 

He looked out and saw Rancho, his cousin, approaching him, running to open his car door. 

"King!"

He gritted with a huge grin. Rancho is his distant cousin, and Egon is not fond of him, but he acknowledges him for the sake of it. He doesn't even know by which relation they are cousins. 

If he dives into it then they are not even blood related. 

But Rancho is sometimes helpful, he has an agency full of assassins whom he rents to people. Egon needs a good bodyguard after Emerald stabbed his trusted one. 

He can hire anyone from his own army but he doesn't want his private things to leak into his men. Someone new to the system wouldn't do that. 

"How are you? I heard you have caged the queen, you are such an ambitious man... I would love to meet her personally someday, I have heard that she is charismatic."

Rancho always talk nonsense. 

"I need a bodyguard... The best fighter among your assassins."

Egon ignored his blabber. 

Rancho grinned proudly.

"Can you afford it?"

He laughed out like a maniac. 

"Just kidding. Of course, you can buy me and sell me for grains..."

Egon just stared at him till he was done with his nonsense. If he wasn't his cousin, then he would have been long gone. 

Rancho led him to his office and showed him the data of his fighters. 

"These are class A fighters..."

He changed the screen to show him all. 

"What is that category?"

Egon pointed at the data of one fighter. He noticed how visibly Rancho's facial expressions changed. 

He looked nervous. 

"This fighter has failed one mission, but is too good to be class B, so I have given her this status in the agency..."

"Include her in the selection process."

Egon ordered and Rancho chuckled nervously. 

"Girl won't work for your job, woman can't handle your rough work."

Rancho changed the screen. 

Egon just stared at him challengingly. 

"What's the matter? Tell me or I will kill her."

Rancho's eyes widened.

"Brother, she is giving me business.... She is my go-to fighter for high-risk jobs... If I give her to you, then I'll lose my money."

Egon rolled his eyes annoyed.

"Call her on the ground."

He ordered and walked out of the office. 

Rancho groaned and cursed when Egon was gone.

"Fucking shit!"

He grabbed his phone and followed him out. 

Egon was in the hallway when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and was about to answer, but then he collided with someone. His phone slipped from his hand, and one slender, delicate hand caught it before it could hit the ground.

He looked at the person, and she came face-to-face with him as she handed his mobile back to him. Those blue eyes seemed familiar to him, she had a baby face, looked too young but she wasn't. Her innocent face was void of any emotions. People usually shake in fear when they see him but she was looking fearless. 

"Apologies, Mr. Bismarck."

She walked past him. 

Egon turned back to look at her. She was fit. Perfect body and attitude to be his bodyguard, she is probably the first woman who didn't eye fuck him. 

"Arabella!"

He smirked.

He called Rancho and informed him that he is taking Arabella as his bodyguard. Rancho's face drained of colour.

"King, she is a good fighter... The cute, heatless creature who can protect you from any risk, but boss, she was involved in a love triangle with the Knight brothers... It's been years now, but if you want to risk it, then I don't have a problem."

Egon shook his head disappointed. Knight brothers are his potential enemies; in future, he is definitely going to collide with them, and in that case, he can't select the woman who has feelings for them, no matter how worthy she is. 

He selected the second-best man to be his bodyguard and went back to his car. He looked out of his window and noticed that Arabella was watching him from the gate with her eagle eyes. She looked equally disappointed in him for not selecting her. Those eyes were trying to say something to him. 

He stared back, and there was a faint feeling in his chest that this was not their last meeting. They might meet again in the future and it won't be just business. 

Egon couldn't understand why he was feeling that way, he shook the thoughts aside and decided to leave. 

His phone rang again, and it was Layla. She doesn't call twice if it's not important. He answered her call. He hadn't seen Emerald since last night, as he was busy with something else. 

"Master, the queen hasn't eaten for two days... I tried but she is not even talking to me."

"Okay!"

He disconnected the call. 

He knows that Emerald has gotten a shock after killing her mother, she was silent after that, but she was supposed to get normal by now, like she got after killing her sister. He wasn't expecting her to shut down for so long. 

Looks like he needs to check on his captive. 

He went back to the castle. It was almost dinner time. He straight away went to Emerald's room, and she was sitting by the window, on the floor. Staring blankly at the piles of skeletons. 

Her face looked pale. Egon slowly walked towards her, and she usually reacted to his footsteps, but now she didn't. Either she was too lost or she was too numb to react. 

He knelt in front of her and made her look at him.

"Missed me, Emerald?"

He smirked, tried to get a reaction from her, but she was blank and numb.

She just stared at him, her eyes were just Emerald without any emotions in them.

Layla came inside with the plate of food. She placed it in front of her and walked out. 

"You have five minutes to start eating."

Egon sat in front of her, waiting for her to start eating. 

Emerald just started at the plate, she didn't move to touch it.

"One more minute and you will regret this drama... EAT!"

He warned her. 

She was unfazed by his threat; it was like she couldn't hear him. Egon gritted and pulled her by the arm madly, and the next thing he did was unexpected, even for Emerald.