Eye for Adrian

Eyes for Adrian – Part Two Chapter Four – Shadows in the Hall

Adrian’s silhouette filled the garden entrance, the lantern light from behind him throwing his features into half-shadow. His cane tapped once against the gravel not because he needed to find his way, I suspected, but because he wanted to announce his presence.

“I thought I told you not to be long,” he said.

My pulse was still racing from Daniel’s sudden disappearance. I forced a smile I didn’t feel. “I was just enjoying the air.”

His head tilted slightly, the way it did when he was listening for something beneath my words. “You’re unsettled,” he said. Not a question, an assessment.

I stepped forward, brushing past him toward the ballroom doors. “Too many people,” I murmured. “Too many eyes.”

His hand caught my elbow not roughly, but with a weight that made me pause. “It isn’t their eyes you should worry about,” he said quietly.

My breath hitched, and for a fleeting second I wondered if he somehow knew about Daniel. But Adrian’s face was unreadable, his sightless gaze fixed somewhere beyond me.

“Come,” he said at last, guiding me back inside.

The ballroom felt louder, hotter, after the garden’s cool hush. Adrian navigated the crowd effortlessly, each step sure, his presence cutting through the noise like a blade. We returned to our table, but his attention never seemed to fully rest on the conversation with his associates. Every so often, his hand would shift fractionally toward mine, his fingers brushing the tablecloth as though he could sense the restlessness in me.

When the evening finally drew to a close, the car rides back to the estate was steeped in silence. Only once, as the city lights faded behind us, did Adrian speak.

“You met someone tonight.”

It wasn’t an accusation, but my stomach clenched all the same. “I spoke to many people.”

“Not in the ballroom,” he said.

I stared out the window at the blur of dark trees. “You have people watching me?”

“I have people protecting what’s mine,” he corrected.

I swallowed hard, my fingers tightening in my lap. Protection. Ownership. In Adrian’s world, they meant the same thing.