Page 25 of Weeping Roses
“Perhaps your men closed it?”
“Shut the fuck up, Polly.”
His irritated growl annoys me even further and I hiss, “Don’t be such a fucking arsehole. I’m just saying.”
His huff of frustration does nothing to deter me and as he turns the handle, I swear my breath freezes in mid air.
As the door opens, an icy blast chills my blood as a waft of air passes me and it’s as if every nerve inside me stands to attention and terrifies me.
I shiver and yet Valentin doesn’t obviously feel the cold and pushes in, his gun raised as he reaches for the light switch. As the bulb springs into life, I peer past him at the cobwebs and shadows, my heart thumping so hard I may not make it out of here alive.
He advances with me closely behind him and then he growls, “Fuck!”
“What?” My voice shakes as he says irritably, “I trod on something and it fucking hurts.”
I glance down and baulk at the dust our footprints have left behind and something catches the light and twinkles up at me. I drop down and lift it up and note a small iron key nestling in my fingers.
“It’s a key.” I straighten up and Valentin lowers his gun as we stare at the key in my hand.
Then he turns his attention back to the surroundings and says in a whisper, “I expect this caused the crash.”
We stare at a trunk that has fallen to the floor and I wonder if the key belongs to the lock in the front of it.
“Open it.” I say with excitement, my earlier fear evaporating against curiosity, and I watch as he opens the lid.
I cough as it opens and the dust contaminates the air and as we peer inside, I notice several old photograph albums inside.
I crouch down and lift one from its resting place and notice several old sepia photographs inside.
“Wow!” I gasp as I sense the history contained in this trunk, and Valentin says with a growl. “This is your noise. We must have disturbed it earlier, and it fell.”
“But I heard footsteps.”
I raise my eyes to his and he shrugs. “Rats, probably.”
I glance around in fear and he says with exasperation, “We’ll check this out in the morning. I’ve had enough disturbances for one night.”
He waves his gun at me and I swear the blood drains from my face as he says darkly, “Now move. Back to that poor excuse for a bedroom and into my bed. We have unfinished business.”
His eyes gleam in the darkened light and I swear every part of me reacts, but the interruption has also brought me to my senses and I jump to my feet and say airily, “It’s fine. I’m not in the mood now. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I didn’t say it was your decision.”
His voice is sharp and loaded with menace, and I tremble under the ferocious tension that now surrounds us.
“I don’t understand.”
My voice shakes and he says darkly, “You disobeyed me, Polly. You will now receive your punishment as a result of that and it would be wise to come quietly because the way I’m feeling now, I’m liable to lock you in here for the night with the rats for company. It’s your choice.”
I say nothing and turn and run for the door as if my life depends on it and it probably does because anything would be better than spending the night in this hell hole and whatever Valentin’s punishment is, it will be nothing compared to that.
CHAPTER 14
VALENTIN
Iam so angry. More because I was interrupted when I was finally doing something interesting today. Polly is a welcome distraction from the shit happening right now and I’m antsy that we were disturbed.
I’m going to carry on where we left off even if I must tie her to the bed because despite everything that happened today, that was the best thing so far.