Page 39 of Hideaway

Someone burst through the door, providing Kara with momentary salvation. It was Declan. Cade turned the full brunt of his fury on the poor boy, giving him a deadly glare that made Kara shudder and Declan eye his escape route warily.

“I said we were not to be disturbed,”Cade thundered angrily, his hand still painfully constricted around Kara’s arm. The boy was already next on his hit list after the events of the day, and his interruption was not helping matters.

Declan gulped nervously before answering.“Jace says that it’s urgent. It’s about the December client.”

Kara rolled her eyes, terror temporarily giving sway to annoyance. Of course Jace would offer up the poor boy like a sacrifice to the mercy of Cade’s wrath rather than risk interrupting Cade himself.

Cowardly bastard.

Cade took a moment to determine the best course of action. He needed thirty minutes alone with Kara. Thirty minutes and her disobedience would be reprimanded, his need for retribution would be sated, and he could complete the order for the December client with a clear conscience and a clear head. But he had already stolen time from one of his highest statured clients to fly home and deal with the Kara fiasco under the guise of a work emergency. If Jace was demanding his attention, Pascal was probably getting restless. Cade ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair.

“Fuck!”Cade yelled in exasperation, causing both Kara and Declan to flinch. Begrudgingly choosing to put work before his personal issues with Kara, Cade pulled Kara viciously toward the door.

“Follow me,”Cade ordered over his shoulder to Declan.

Cade dragged Kara down the hall, around the corner, past the library, and up the stairs. She struggled to keep up with his rapid pace, tripping slightly on the stairs, but his vice-like grip on her arm kept her upright and continuing forward. Declan trailed obediently behind them. To her relief, Cade turned toward her room rather than his own. Kara’s relief was short-lived as he opened the door to her room and thrust her inside, the force of his push throwing her to the floor. Kara gaped at him with unabashed outrage.

“Do not fucking move from this room until I return,”Cade thundered, pointing his finger at her in emphasis.

“And when exactly will that be?”she questioned angrily, not taking kindly to being manhandled and given orders.

“When I bloody well feel like it!”Cade yelled, equally incensed.

With no further goodbye, Cade turned on his heel and left the room, slamming the door behind him with shattering force. With nauseating dread, Kara heard the scrape of a key turning on the other side of the door. Even when Cade had first taken her hostage, she had never been locked in her room. For the first time since she had arrived at the manor, Kara was truly imprisoned.

“Cade!”Kara called in panic.“Let me out! You can’t lock me in here.”

“On the contrary, love, I can do absolutely anything imaginable to you, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I treated you as my guest. I gave you my trust. But you have disregarded my hospitality and broken that trust. So now, you will be treated as the prisoner you so enjoy claiming to be.”

“Cade, please,”Kara pleaded, the stubbornness and fury vanquished, replaced with quivers of fear.

“You’ve brought this upon yourself, Kara”Cade answered stonily.“Declan will be here to guard the door. And I assure you he has every intention of fulfilling his duties and redeeming himself of this morning’s lapse in judgment. Do not talk to him. Declan is under strict orders to call me immediately if you attempt to disobey my orders.”

Kara heard the sound of footsteps receding and then nothing.“Cade?”she called into the emptiness.“Cade!”

There was no answer. She was alone. Locked in a room with no escape and a monster for a jailer.

Chapter Ten

THE minutes ticked past slowly. Or perhaps they were hours. The sun had yet to shed its nightly cloak, the moon still a looming orb of gloom, signaling morning had yet to arrive. Kara had very little with which to fill the vacant hours of ennui. She had no phone, there was no television in her room, there wasn’t a single book to offer a kindly reprieve from the tedium that was now her wretched existence. Cade had successfully entombed her in a crypt of boredom, a true testament to his obvious cruelty. Kara had allowed her lust and ill-fated attraction to Cade to cloud her judgment regarding his true character. It was a mistake of deadly proportions and one that she would not make again.

With little else to distract her thoughts, Kara was keenly aware that she was starving, her last meal being breakfast with Cade that morning. Apart from a cup of black coffee at the library, she hadn’t had any sustenance since. Contemplating the risks of disobeying Cade’s orders yet again, Kara summoned the courage to ask Declan if she could be allowed to venture downstairs for dinner. She would have eagerly accepted a mere crust of bread delivered to her door, but dinner might give her an excuse to escape her confinement, even if only briefly. “Declan,” Kara called sweetly, her mouth pressed against the door where he waited on the other side.

“Shit, Kara. You aren’t supposed to talk to me. I don’t want either of us getting into more trouble with Ashford,”Declan answered anxiously, his voice a harsh whisper.

Kara rolled her eyes. How exactly was he in trouble? She was the one locked away and guarded. For what infernal reason did everyone tread so carefully when it came to Cade? Sure he was imperious, ill-tempered, and pretentious, but not so very threatening. He was a mere man, endowed with as much or as little power as he was allowed to take. Unlike the men who followed him, Kara had no intention of allowing Cade to dominate her fear.

Gritting her teeth, Kara tried again to reason with the Caden Ashford acolyte.“I’m sorry if I got you in trouble with Cade earlier. I didn’t mean for you to be blamed for my leaving,”Kara apologized with partial honesty. She had planned to be back before Cade found out, eliminating the need for anyone to be blamed or punished. She’d felt bad for using the kid’s gullibility to her advantage, but the guilt was mitigated by the fact that Declan was actively enabling her imprisonment.

“It’s okay. I was stupid. Shouldn’t have let you out of my sight,”Declan responded with an embarrassed laugh.

“You were empathetic and kind. You should never have to apologize for possessing such worthy attributes. You should get the hell out of here before any goodness disappears entirely,”Kara answered truthfully, repressing a shudder at the thought of the sweet kid turning into someone as merciless as Jace.

There was an uneasy pause before Declan answered.“Well, you really shouldn’t be talking to me. Boss’s orders and all.”

“I know. It’s just…I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast. Do you think you could let me go downstairs for dinner? I’ll come right back to my room, I promise,”Kara pleaded. The degradation of having to ask permission to keep from starving left her feeling bitterly indignant.

“I don’t know, Kara. I’d have to ask for his approval.”

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