THE CONTRACT OF REVENGE

Layla's pov "Please…please…spare…me." The stuttering voice came from somewhere around the corner I was about to turn into. I froze immediately, I expected some kind of shady dealing going on here but now that I was close to it, I just couldn't stop my body from trembling. I had been walking down the corridor for the past three minutes, heart in my throat, fully aware that I was in a part of the Cross estate that I had absolutely no business being in. But the door had been unlocked, and the stairs were just right there, and curiosity—curiosity has been a personal villain of mine since childhood or at least that's the excuse I gave myself for my terrible nosiness. I pressed myself against the wall and peeped into the corner exposing the dimly lit basement. My mouth flew wide open along with my eyes like I had just been electrocuted, maybe I was, by the sight I was beholding. There was a man in a cage, but that wasn't even half the problem, the problem was who it was. I took a deep shaky breath and peeped into the corner again to confirm that it's not my brain playing tricks on me. It was still the same. The man inside that cage was someone the entire world had mourned four months ago. And now he was here, very much alive, chained to a chair in a cage in the Cross empire's basement, begging for mercy from men who did not look like they had any to offer. How's that even— He had been one of the top contenders in the world market—right behind the Cross empire itself and here he was— No…no…it can't be, this has to be some sort of trick. My palms were soaked and shaky as my mind went through several stages at once. Shock, Horror, Denial then the slow, nauseating realization of exactly what I was looking at and then the most important stage. GET OUT. NOW. IMMEDIATELY. GO. I was already turning, already erasing this…this sight from my memory, already selling a version of tonight to myself where I came downstairs, saw nothing, and went peacefully back to my house. I was a lot of things, but a hero was definitely not among my very short list of qualifications. I turned around and walked directly into something solid, a huge wall perhaps, just that it wasn't there at first when I came and besides why did it feel like the huge wall was breathing. I looked up and my heart skipped multiple beats at once. You've got to be f*****g kidding me. The man staring down at me had an expression so stern it could have been legally classified as a weapon. My heart rate was off the roof, beating so fast I thought it was about to jump out of my chest. "I've just caught a rat sneaking around." The man said, turning towards the room. I could have guessed I was the rat he was talking about but I didn't have to since he grabbed me by the collar as soon as he started speaking. I would like to say I responded with composure but that's cap, I didn't respond at all, I was awestruck and my brain abandoned me just like it always did whenever I found myself in trouble it had already warned me against. I was dragged around the corner and into the room I had been so carefully trying not to enter, and every single head inside turned toward me at once, and I want to be clear that there was not a single—not even one friendly face in that basement. I was thrown to the floor knees first, my heart still beating so loud and fast that I genuinely hoped I'd collapse. I caught myself with my hands and stayed there for a moment, staring at the concrete, having a very brief and very sincere conversation with myself about all the decisions that I made that led me to this exact moment. Then I looked up and I recognized him immediately. He was standing slightly apart from the others. You wouldn't necessarily notice him immediately—except that every person in that room was unconsciously angled toward him the way plants angle toward light. Landon Cross, heir to everything in this building including, apparently, my fate at that point and he was looking at me with an expression so completely, perfectly empty that it was scarier than anything else in that room. Anger I would understand, he was supposed to be angry, but this man looked like he had never felt a string of emotion in his life. He walked toward me slowly, without any form of urgency like he actually had all the time in the world—which he did by the way, because I was on the floor and going absolutely nowhere. Each step closer made my heart skip a beat more until he stopped in front of me. I was shaking, my full body was shaking, in a very embarrassing and impossible to hide way. My hands were pressed flat against the floor trying to hold me steady and my heart was beating so hard I was convinced he could hear it. I was trying to breathe normally but I was failing woefully even though I had twenty two years of experience at breathing in air. Okay, I told myself. Okay. Think. You are smart. You have always been smart. Use that right now. My brain didn't budge, it was absolutely not making any positive contributions. "Who are you?" He asked, his empty eyes scanning me from head to toe as he spoke. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. My name. I needed to say my name. It's really not that complicated, just my name. "I—Layla." I stopped. My voice was shaking almost as badly as my hands. "Layla Vance." He paused for a moment, like he was doing some sort of mental calculation. "Who do you work for?" He asked, his eyebrows raising in a way that made his face look even scarier than it already was. "No one." The words came out in a rush. "I swear, I wasn't—I got lost, I didn't know what was down here, I wasn't looking for anything I just—I made a wrong turn and I—" "Liar." One of the men stepped forward, hand already raised, and I squeezed my eyes shut expecting the hands to land anytime soon. One second, two seconds, nothing. I opened my eyes and saw Landon with two fingers up. The room was very still. Landon crouched down until we were level, and up close his face was even harder to read. "You see these men," he said quietly, in a not too friendly tone."They're ready to pounce." He let that sit for exactly one second. "But me? I'm giving you a chance and all you have to do is answer sincerely." He paused again. "Who do you work for?" "No one." My voice broke on the second word. "I promise you, I work for no one, please—I won't say anything about what I saw down here, I won't tell a single soul, I'll forget everything, just please—" He stood up, smoothed the front of his suit jacket like this conversation had left dust on it and turned to leave. The other men started moving toward me and I—I don't know what my nervous system did in that moment but it made a decision completely without my permission because I opened my mouth and I screamed — "PLEASE—" He stopped but didn't turn. "Don't kill me." The words were falling out effortlessly, no charade, just raw desperate will to survive. "Keep me. I'll be yours—your possession, whatever you need, whatever you want, just use me, please, I don't want to die, I'm not ready to die, please—" The room went silent. And then Landon Cross turned around. There was something on his face that hadn't been there before, it was not warmth and it was definitely not sympathy, I really couldn’t name it. He walked back toward me, stopped and looked down at me still trembling on the floor of his basement. My chest went tight as he stood there in complete silence for long enough that I started mentally drafting my funeral arrangements. "I have an even better proposal." He said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips without quite reaching his eyes. He paused for another moment, then his gaze locked with mine. "Marry me."