Chapter 6: Arrival at Alpine Ridge

Vespera's POV

The iron gates of Alpine Ridge closed behind us with a thud. 

 Situated high on a very steep cliff, looking down over a valley covered in fog Garmisch Partenkirchen, the estate didn't feel like a home. It was a monolith of dark slate, reinforced glass, and industrial steel, a fortress built by a man who expected the world to attack him at any second.

The medical team quickly took Liesea away the moment we landed on the private helipad. They moved her toward the lower level, a state of the art underground wing that looked more like a high tech private clinic than a residence. I wanted to follow her, to stay by her side until I knew every monitor reading was stable but Kasimir’s head of security, Jonas, stepped into my path.

"Fräulein," Jonas said, his hand gesturing toward the grand floating staircase. "Herr Adler is waiting for you in the master wing."

I swallowed the sudden lump of anxiety in my throat, straightened my coat, and walked up the stairs.

The inside of Alpine Ridge was extremely quiet. There were no family heirlooms here. No warm rugs or framed memories. Everything was cold, calculated, and sharp.

I reached the top of the gallery and stopped at the threshold of the master wing.

Kasimir stood near a fireplace, He was pouring a glass of dark scotch. He didn't look up when I entered, but I knew he heard me. The atmosphere in the room shifted instantly, pulling tight, thick with a dangerous, unspoken tension.

"Liesea is settled," I said, my voice cutting through the air. "I want to inspect her room myself."

"My personal physicians are attending to her," Kasimir replied.  He took a slow sip of his drink, his eyes finally turning to lock onto mine, the eye remained as cold as always. "Her vitals are stable. The specialized trial medication from Zurich was administered ten minutes ago. She is safe, Vespera."

"Safe in a cage," I murmured, stepping deeper into the room, refusing to stand quietly by the door.

"Every bird is in a cage when the storm hits," Kasimir said, taking a slow, deliberate step toward me. His shoes made no sound against the rug. "The trick is choosing the cage with the strongest bars."

He stopped three feet away. I lifted my chin, forcing my posture to remain straight despite the pounding of my heartbeat. "And this is my cage for the next three years."

"This is the master wing," Kasimir said, ignoring my sarcasm. He gestured to the large, spacious, simply decorated room behind him. A king sized bed wrapped in  linen sat against the far wall, surrounded by a wide  glass view of the mountain drop off. Beyond it lay a private terrace and a massive master bath. "In the eyes of the staff, the public, and my family council, we sleep here. Together. As man and wife."

My blood boiling, a sudden spike of defensive fury rising in my chest. "Our agreement was a public marriage, Kasimir. Not a private forced"

"Look behind you," he interrupted softly, his voice dropped. I turned my head.

Hidden seamlessly into the dark timber paneling along the corridor wall was a heavy, reinforced door. It looked like solid wood, but the heavy electronic keypad glowing beside the handle gave away its true nature.

"Your room," Kasimir stated, stepping closer until his broad chest was inches from my shoulder. I could feel the heat radiating from his body, catching the faint scent of rain clinging to his skin. "Fully private, soundproof, and equipped with a biometric lock that only accepts your thumbprint. Not even my master key opens it from the outside."

I looked from the keypad back to his face. "You built a panic room inside the master suite?"

"I built a sanctuary," Kasimir corrected, his eye narrowing slightly as he looked down at me. "I am a man with a hundred enemies, Vespera. Some wear suits in the Munich financial district. Some sleep in houses bearing my own name. When you walk through those main doors, you play the devoted, obedient Frau Adler. You sit at my right hand, you smile for the press, and you let the world believe I have claimed you completely."

He reached out, his fingers catching a loose strand of my hair that had fallen near my cheek. He didn't touch my skin, but his hand hovered so close I could feel the warmth of his pulse. My breath hitched in my throat, a sharp, electric shiver tracing down my spine.

"But when this heavy door closes," Kasimir whispered, his thumb lightly brushing the air near my jaw, "a line is drawn. You keep your space. I keep mine. Do not cross into my quarters after midnight, and do not question the guards stationed at the end of the hall."

I locked my jaw, holding his gaze, refusing to let him see how much his physical proximity was undoing my composure. The contrast between his cold words and the sudden, intense heat between us made my head spin.

"A line suits me just fine, Herr Adler," I said, my voice laced with controlled steel. "I have no desire to wander into the lion's den when the sun goes down."

A dark, ghost of a smile touched his lips dangerous, fleeting, and utterly captivating. "Smart girl."

He stepped back, severing the intense, suffocating pull between us, and picked up his glass from the mantle. "Get washed. Dinner is served in the main dining room at seven. My grandmother, Greta, has arrived from Munich. She expects to toast to our union."

The mention of his grandmother sent a sudden shock straight to my stomach.

I remembered the email sitting in my phone's inbox. I remembered the mark left by Greta’s wooden cane on the rainy tarmac the exact triangular indentation I had found pressed into the floor behind my father’s desk on the night he died.

"She's already here?" I asked, keeping my voice carefully neutral.

"She arrived an hour before you," Kasimir replied, turning his back to look out at the dark mountains. "She was eager to welcome you to the family."

I stepped back toward my private door, pressing my thumb against the biometric scanner. The lock clicked open with a heavy, pneumatic hiss.

I looked back at Kasimir’s towering silhouette framed against the firelight. He thought he was playing a chess game against rival corporate boards. He thought he had trapped me here to act as a public shield. He had no idea that the shadow he was hunting was sitting in his own dining room, waiting to drink wine with us.

I opened the heavy door to my room, stepping over the threshold.

As I reached out to pull the reinforced door shut, my eyes caught something resting on the small glass vanity table near my bed.

It wasn't part of the room's sleek, modern furniture.

Resting in the exact center of the room was a small, silver velvet box. It was unsealed, slightly ajar.

 I pushed the door almost completely shut, stepping slowly toward the table. My fingers trembled as I lifted the lid of the box.

Inside lay a heavy, antique silver pocket watch. The glass face was shattered, frozen permanently at 11:42 PM the exact time of my father's death.

Pinned beneath the broken hands was a small, folded piece of  paper with three words typed in black ink:

HE IS NEXT.