THE BILLIONIARE DON WANTS ME DEAD

CHAPTER 3

Lyra’s POV

My feet are cold on the ceramic floor, there is a carpet right beside me, but he said I should stand adjacent to him.

He takes his cufflinks off, then says, “Strip.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Strip.”

“I’m sorry this might be—“

“Do it now or I will do it for you.” I gulp.

It’s my first time alone with him and that’s what he has to say.

He doesn’t want to hear a thing. He turns his head to me after dropping his cufflinks on his drawer. It’s wooden, the edges are sharp, like it was crafted earlier today. That’s how everything in his house looks, from the perfectly white walls to the grass which are on the same level.

My hair is tied loosely, and I probably smell like coal from cleaning the furnace. He doesn’t look like he cares. My hands move upward slowly, loosening the white clothing, I call a neck choker.

That only seems to enrage him because he moves forward, grabbing the already loosened bit of cloth. “So f*****g slow, seventeen.”

Seventeen. That number again. I hate it. I want to say my name, spit on his face while I’m at it. But I’m already thinking of my escape. I’m already thinking about the fact that I don’t want him to find Lyra.

His hands drag the outfit up, which essentially tears it, and I’m on my toes trying to at least have some balance on the ground. He looks into my face, he stares into my eyes like he’s seeing something in them, then he shoves me to the ground.

“Get out,” he said. And like the cultured woman I was, I held together the part of my cloth he opened up and walked out the door.

Adrick was upset. I don’t know him and any of his moods, but his upset is the only thing the mansion has felt.

A black car drove Adrick in. Martha made Clara and Adora and I wait at the doors when he came in. Like the way she waited for us when we got here.

The driver came out of their seat, and opened Adrick’s like Adrick was some sort of princess. He stepped out, with his signature smell hanging to him, smoke, blood and mint. He walked past us, then said, “You, to my room.”

Then he went up the flight of stairs like he was annoyed by our presence alone. With Martha standing right there while he gave his requests, orders, she urged me to go up.

“It’s you,” Martha said. “He wants you in his room.”

I looked to Clara and Adora, then to Martha. And I finally said, “He didn’t specify who.”

“He meant you,” Martha said, with her voice as cold as ice. “Now shut your mouth before it gets you killed.” I folded my arms, I was coming out of the furnace, in fact, I was in the furnace because this rich brat wanted people doing random work for no real reason. Then I was taken out of my work, mid-work, just to stand in and wait for him to come back. Just to act like we’re not even human.

“Go,” Martha said.”Now.”

I sighed and turned. My feet climbed the first flight of stairs, until I reached up, and I was at the door of one of the rooms that was off-limits. Mr. Adrick’s bed room. The room that could hold all the secrets, answer all my questions.

I pushed the door open, walked in and he acted like I didn’t exist for the first few seconds. And when he finally acknowledged me, it was him eyeing me from top to bottom. Before he said, “Get off the carpet.”

“Sir?”

Then he slightly turned his head to the left and I was on the ceramic floor.My feet were cold on the ceramic floor.

Now, I’m out of his room, and am on my way to the one Martha assigned me, because I can’t be walking around the mansion with my breasts out.

As I walk through the corners of his mansion, I see the artifacts. The paintings, the sculptures, the art, like I was in a museum. There’s a lot of hidden corners and restricted areas in this mansion.

There was something off about Adrick, something very off. And I shouldn’t be interested in discovering what that is. I have a sister I should be back to already, but I’m deeper into the organization than was originally intended.

Was Adrick just one of the many men who bought women? Why did Adrick purge 156 women before us? Why us specifically? I felt like I was going to find out soon. I’m standing in front of a statue that looks like a bat and a human morphed together, I’m not sure when I stopped walking, I’m not sure when I started watching. But I need to be watching for an escape instead.

I still turn, finding my way to my room, then I take my already torn outfit off. I walk into the shower, washing off the coal from my body, washing off the scent of smoke, blood and mint.

I scrub my body just wanting to wash it all off, but did I really? Maybe I hated the smoke and blood, but that mint. His arms on my clothes, his eyes in mine, the way he contracts himself.

“Strip,” then “Get out.”

Me specifically but seventeen.

The water washes over me, but I’m still thinking of what could have been if I did spit in his face. If I did say, I was Lyra. If I did call him out on all his bullshit.

I walk out of the shower when I’m done. I take up another one of the outfits and start wearing it. Then I had my hand behind my back, re-packing my hair.

This job wasn’t for me. This job needs to end soon. I don't want to know more about Adrick… but you do Lyra.

I want my sister.