Page 9 of Hideaway

“Ashford Manor,”Cade answered evasively, though truthfully. They were at his estate. He had no intention of elaborating on their exact location, but they were secluded enough that it wouldn’t matter if he did.

Kara’s face fell in disappointment. His answer did very little to illuminate the location of where she was being held. For all she knew, they could have left the country, and her lack of specificity had essentially cost her a question. She tried to make the most of his response, considering what information it revealed. The expansive mansion was his, not his employer’s. So he was wealthy, probably well-situated in society. He spoke like a man of breeding, so why was he turning to crime to fund his endeavors? Was the life of a thief really quite so lucrative?

“So what are you?”she asked condescendingly, gesturing to the unavoidable opulence of the room.“Millionaire? Billionaire?”She’d probably wasted another question, but her curiosity got the best of her.

“I don’t like labels,”Cade answered shortly.

“Yes, I can understand why. Labels can get pretty unflattering for a criminal, can’t they?”

“And what makes you think I am a criminal?”Cade asked smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“You’re joking, right?”Kara answered with a scoff.“You and your henchmen literally held me hostage, attempted to steal an incredibly valuable object, kidnapped me, drugged me, and are now holding me prisoner in some garish mansion in the middle of god knows where.”

Caden smiled broadly in response, and Kara was left thoroughly regretting her impassioned tirade. Yes, he had been joking. And, rather than having its desired effect, her anger had merely amused him.

“Yes, I believe that is the dictionary definition of criminality,”he concurred with a laugh.

“Fuck you,”Kara spat back in exasperation. Her comment, perhaps a little louder than intended, caused a hush to spread across the room as the attention of everyone at the table turned to her. They seemed to be waiting for their boss’s reaction, and Kara couldn’t help feeling she had spoken too rashly.

“Someone should teach you some manners, Miss Caine,”Cade responded dangerously, his eyes sparking with disapproval and something more lethal.

“Regretfully, my university never offered a course on proper female etiquette, so I settled for PhD’s in Literary Theory, Archival Science, and English Literature.”

“Congratulations, you spent eight years at university learning how to read a bloody book,”Cade answered with a slow, condescending clap of his hands.

Kara’s cheeks filled with color in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. A few snickers echoed through the dining hall, the loudest of which came from Jace’s section of the room. Kara shot him a dark look before deciding it was best to ignore him completely. It had been six years in college, but Kara was not about to dignify that provocation with a response.

“And where exactly are successful criminals such as yourself educated,Mr. Ashford?”Kara asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Oxford. History. In my line of work, it’s advantageous to know when something is valuable. Does that impress you, Miss Caine?”

Yes.

“Not really,”she answered flippantly, but her eyes found his with a mixture of admiration and envy.

Cade captured Kara’s stare for a moment longer than the bounds of propriety, enjoying the way she shifted nervously in her chair as though his gaze was a physical sensation that monstrously clawed its way across her skin. In one sense, she was right. He was a predator, and his claws were more than merely metaphor. When Cade decided that she had agonized sufficiently in foreboding silence, he continued with his agenda.“Well, now that we’ve gotten to know each other better, I think it is time to discuss the swiftest route for your return home.”

“Lovely, if one of your minions would be so good as to show me the way out, I’d be more than happy to relieve myself of your generous hospitality,”Kara answered far too cheerily, hoping, against her own best interests, to piss off the brooding bastard.

Cade laughed shortly; it was an ominous sound, devoid entirely of humor.“You’re not going anywhere, Miss Caine,”he responded darkly, the threat of imminent danger, destruction, quite possibly death wrapped within a few simple words. Cade reveled in the flash of fear in Kara’s eyes, the delectable way in which she anxiously bit her bottom lip. She was scared of him.

Good. She should be.“We will be needing the book before you’re granted safe passage home.”

“Well then, I’m afraid we are at an impasse because there is no way in hell you’re getting near that book.”

“Be reasonable, Miss Caine,”Cade coerced, his jaw tense with the strain of having to reason with what had to be the mostunreasonablewoman in the whole of Chicago.“Help us retrieve it, and you are free to go. Unscathed.”

“Wow, that’s your offer? Deliver an invaluable academic artifact into your unworthy hands, and you’ll do me the favor of not harming me any more than you already have? Yeah, I think I’ll pass.”

“Would you prefer I offer you something more tangible? Money, perhaps?”

“Now you’re just insulting me. Do you honestly think I’d be a librarian if I was monetarily motivated in any respect? I don’t care about money. This house, this wealth and grandeur,”Kara gestured around to the sheer excessiveness of the room,“they mean absolutely nothing to me.”

Cade fumed at her from across the table, the small fragments of his self-control disintegrating with each word out of Kara fucking Caine’s mouth.“Perhaps I’m not being clear enough. Youwillhelp us retrieve the book. It is entirely up to you how many pieces you are in when we do so.”

“Already heard the death threats from the handsy asshole over there,”Kara replied, throwing a harsh glare at Jace that was met very quickly with a self-satisfied grin.“Shockingly, it doesn’t sound any more appealing coming from your mouth.”

Cade dug his fingers into his hair harshly, feeling uncharacteristically out of control in the situation and desperate to reclaim his authority.“Clear the fucking room,”Cade commanded with a curt jerk of his head, his gaze fixed intently on Kara.

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