CHAPTER 10: I'M NOT A SPY!

CHAPTER 10

ELENA’S POV

I threw myself off the bed and hit the marble floor hard, almost knocking over the bedside table.

I scrambled to my feet, legs trembling. I instinctively hid my right hand behind my back. I glanced at Ethan, his dark curls a chaotic mess from where my fingers had just been buried. Then my gaze shifted to the two men standing by the bedside.

Their eyes were bulging. Their mouths hung open, but no words came out.

I didn't know if their shock was because they'd seen Ethan fully awake, or because they'd caught the chosen surrogate tangled all over him.

“Good morning,” I stammered with a jagged laugh, the words flying out a second before I spun on my heel and bolted into the master bathroom.

I slammed the door shut, locked it, and rested my forehead against the cold wood. My heart hammered so hard I could hear it in my ears.

I didn't know how it happened. How did I roll over to him? What if he...?

No. He wouldn't. He was calm. I saw it in his eyes. If he had wanted to, I wouldn't be here.

After a few tense moments, low, urgent whispers drifted through the ventilation grates. It sounded like a confrontation. I leaned my ear against the door, trying to catch the words.

My breath caught when I heard Ethan briefing the men in that low, clipped voice.

Wait... they knew?

The bodyguard and the doctor—they'd known the billionaire was awake the whole time.

I should have stayed put. I should have kept my mouth shut and waited them out.

But the curiosity won.

The moment I heard the word spy, tangled up with details of his car accident, my fingers moved on their own.

I cracked the bathroom door open a fraction of an inch.

And in that exact moment, I was caught.

The man in the sharp black suit snapped his head toward the gap. His jaw tightened.

“See? I told you she's a plant,” he growled, stepping away from the bed. “I told you she was brought in to extract information, didn't I?”

The word spy rang like an alarm inside my skull.

I pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

“I'm....I'm not a spy...”

“Dan was right,” the doctor muttered, his eyes narrowing with condescension. I recognized him now... He was the same doctor who'd examined Ethan the day I first announced him awake.

“I never trusted her. The moment she tried to alert the staff, I knew she was hiding something.”

My stomach dropped.

“Good thing I brought the paralytic,” the doctor added coldly.

He pulled a sleek syringe from his lab coat, filled with a thick, amber fluid, and handed it to Dan.

“Once this is in her system, she won't move an inch. We'll take her out without anyone noticing, and when they come looking, they'll think she ran.”

My stomach dropped. I staggered back at how perfectly arranged it all was, my eyes darting to Ethan.

His face was void of expression. He sat against the headboard, dark eyes tracking my movements like a predator.

“I'm not a spy—please, stop them!” I pleaded, my voice cracking.

He didn't move. He didn't blink. He didn't say a word. He just stared.

His silence was the green light Dan needed.

The bodyguard charged, his face a mask of cold hostility, the syringe raised.

Just as the needle was about to pierce my arm, instinct took over—the same instinct that had put Cain on his back weeks ago, the same instinct Ken had never once been allowed to see.

I twisted, my foot slicing up to hand level, and drove a sharp kick that sent the syringe flying across the room. It shattered against the far wall.

Dan's eyes went wide. He froze, slowly turning his head back toward the bed.

Ethan didn't look surprised. He just gave his bodyguard a heavy I-told-you-so look.

Realization hit me cold.

It was a setup.

The doctor, the syringe—it was all a calculated trap to test my reflexes. They'd wanted to force my hand, and by reacting with trained precision, I'd just handed them their confirmation.

Now survival was the only thing that mattered.

I lunged for the shattered remnants of the serum, but before my fingers reached the floor, a kick landed square in the center of my back.

The air left my lungs. I crumpled flat.

Before I could draw breath, Dan grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back. Pain shot through my skull.

“Who sent you?” he demanded, his voice dropping into a rumble.

My lips trembled, but I forced my jaw tight.

“No one! I'm not a spy!” I shouted.

Dan pulled tighter, forcing my chin up until furious tears blurred my vision.

I looked past him, locking my eyes on the man on the bed—the same man who, earlier, I thought had let me fall asleep tangled around him without a word of protest.

“Please... I'm an ordinary girl from the Stewart family...”

“Speak before I use the backup dose,” Dan commanded, cutting off my words.

The doctor pulled out a second syringe and raised it toward the base of my neck while Dan held me still.

My heart pounded. I didn't know what they wanted... only that I had to break free.

I tried sliding my heel down his shin to break his leverage, but Dan anticipated it, countering with a lock that caged my throat.

For the first time in my life, I was entirely pinned and helpless at the same time.

“Talk.”

“I don't know what you're talking about!” I sobbed against his arm.

“Then how do you know moves like that?” Ethan's voice cut through the room, cold and absolute. “A fragile girl wouldn't know how to execute a professional combat lock.”

My chest heaved.It was about the night before.The moment I'd pinned him to the pillows.

“If it was about last night, it was instinct!” My voice cracked. “I trained secretly to protect myself at a dojo downtown....I am not a spy! Please, trust me!”

Ethan let out a soft, smug chuckle that sent a shiver down my spine.

The same look Ken had used when I caught him in bed with my sister.

“Trust you?”

He cracked his neck and shifted his gaze to his bodyguard.

“Cut off her fingers, one at a time, Dan. Let's see how long her instincts hold out.” His voice was flat. “She'll talk eventually.”

Something in me snapped the second those words left his mouth.

Cut off her fingers.

He'd promised me this once already—the collection of severed fingers on his wall, the warning about touching his hair. I'd thought it was theater. I was wrong.

My fists clenched until my knuckles went white.

Ken's smug face in Cleo's bedroom.

My father, trading my life like cattle.

Ethan Vance was exactly like them. A man who thought he could whatever he wants with me because he held the cards.

My jaw tightened.

I sank my teeth into Dan's hand, biting down hard.

Dan growled, his grip loosening in shock. I spun free, drove my weight into my hips, and slammed a kick into the doctor's face.

He crashed backward, blood spraying from his broken nose.

Dan lunged to reclaim his grip, but I ducked under his reach and drove a strike into his groin.

He collapsed with a strangled shriek, rolling on the floor.

I turned toward the bed.

For one unguarded second, Ethan's eyes flashed with panic before he masked it again. He sat helpless against the headboard, his body still too weak to move...completely at my mercy.

I marched to the edge of the mattress and pointed a trembling finger at him.

“You think I was sent to kill you? If I was an assassin, Ethan , don't you think I'd have ended the very first day of my arrival?”

He forced a tense chuckle, arching a brow, trying to claw back control.

“And how exactly were you supposed to do that? I control this empire. What makes you think a little farm girl...”

I didn't let him finish.

I snatched the heavy velvet pillow off the mattress, a sharp smirk crossing my lips.

“This is how.”

His eyes went wide with confusion.

Before he could see it coming, I lunged forward and slammed the pillow down over his face, pinning him with the full weight of my body.