Chapter 22

LOUIS

Even though it hurt, I knew Elias took a separate car to avoid me. I guess he was well within his rights by doing so.

This can’t happen again.

That’s the only thing he ever says after every of our encounter. But this time around, we kissed. And though I probably should remove him from my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about how he held me close to me like I was his to possess.

And for a second, I let my pitiful self believe that there was a universe where that could happen.

“Where to sir?” The question snapped me out of my thoughts and I turned to the driver. It’s weird that someone is referring to me as sir, but I’ll just take it like that.

“The casino.” The driver nodded his head in reply. Regardless of the fact that Elias was ignoring me, I still needed to go to work.

Later, the man dropped me off at the casino. Since I hardly took anything with me to Italy, I just walked in with my bag and dropped it off at the staff area.

Work went as usual: cleaning tables, taking orders and the likes but then I noticed something amiss. 

The guards looked tense. I mean, they always did, but this was different. They seemed like they were watching for something.

Curious, I focused on them, watching them discreetly. I used the guise of the passing servers, and ducked behind one of the tall velvet pillars.

I knew I should be minding my business, but something in me pushed to know what was going on.

Besides, I might finally see Elias. My heart skipped a happy beat at that thought.

I kept watching them but then I saw Elias.

He emerged from the restricted hall, his coat open and shirt sleeves rolled up. His eyes looked dead.

And when I say dead, I mean empty. It was the kind of emptiness that doesn't come from grief but from rage. Cool, contained and ruthless rage.

And somehow, I just knew, he had done something terrible.

That should have been enough reason for me to turn away. I should have gone back to work. But I didn't.

So I waited for the guards to move and they did eventually. 

I moved as quietly as I could, the noise in the lobby dulling my footsteps. My pulse slowed just enough for me to fake being composed.

Then I followed the blood.

Not actual blood—though God knows it wouldn't have shocked me. But there was a presence, something… rotting beneath the marble. Something wrong.

When I came out of the lobby, the only plausible way to go was the kitchen so I disguised myself as one of the kitchen staff by swiping a jacket. With my head kept down and trays in my hands, I knew how to be invisible—years of surviving my brutal existence had made sure of that.

I got through the back corridor, through the service door. I kept walking past the kitchens and down into the storage corridors. Until finally, I saw what I was unintentionally looking for.

A door I'd never seen before made of reinforced steel was there. It possessed neither a label or a handle. The alarm bells started ringing in my head, but I ignored them for just a glimpse of what was behind that door.

It creaked open with a hiss when a guard emerged, wiping his hands on a rust-red-stained towel. He didn’t see me but I saw him.

I held my breath and slipped inside before the door shut.

I regretted my decision instantly.

The room smelled of copper and charred flesh. Metal lockers lined the walls along with chains and numerous hooks. I wasn't sure if I'd walked into a freezer or a slaughterhouse.

But it wasn't meat hanging from that chair.

It was a man.

He was semi-conscious and some of his fingers seemed missing. The face of the man wasn’t even recognizable. His sobs were desperate—like he wasn't crying for mercy, but for death.

And in the corner?

In the corner were tools: Scalpels. Blades. A fucking blowtorch.

My stomach roiled. I backed away, hand to my mouth, eyes wide in terror.

Who the fuck were this people?

So this was Elias's secret. This was the monster under the designer suits.

And I'd kissed him.

I remembered it in vivid, agonizing detail—the warmth of his mouth, the slow burn of his breath at the back of my neck, the weight of his palm on my hip.

I'd wanted him. So badly. So stupidly.

But now all I wanted was… I didn't even know.

Him?

Escape?

Both?

Because the part of me that should have been horrified… was trembling for a whole different reason.

And that made me even sicker.