Chapter 18: The Trap Upstairs
2239 Words
The stairs to my apartment had never felt so long.
Three flights.
Cracked concrete.
Flickering lights.
The smell of old paint, rain, and someone’s dinner from two doors down.
Normal things.
Painfully normal things.
Except my mother’s hand was shaking in mine, my best friend was tied to a chair upstairs, and the man waiting inside my apartment might have been dead for seven years.
Adrian Voss.
My possible almost-father.
No.
Not father.
The DNA test had cleared that lie.
But he was still something worse.
A ghost with a voice.
A rich man’s son who had learned how to turn women into leverage and call it a game.
My mother stumbled on the second landing.
I caught her.
“Mom.”
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
She was not.
Her face was pale, her lips dry, and every step looked like it cost her more strength than she had left.
“We can stop.”
“No.” Her fingers tightened around mine. “Tessa is up there because of me too.”
“Because of him,” I said.
Her eyes filled.
“Because I hid the truth.”
I wanted to argue.
I wanted to tell her secrets kept for survival were not the same as lies told for cruelty.
But there was no time.
Cassian’s voice came through the tiny earpiece he had pressed into my palm before I left the car.
“Alina.”
I nearly jumped.
It was small and hidden beneath my hair, but his voice sounded far too close.
“What?” I whispered.
My mother looked at me.
I tapped my ear.
Cassian said, “You’re doing well.”
I almost laughed.
Now?
Now he wanted to be encouraging?
“I’m climbing stairs to meet your psycho brother,” I muttered. “Compliments feel badly timed.”
A beat of silence.
Then, softly, “He is not my brother tonight.”
Something about the way he said it steadied me.
Not enough.
But a little.
On the third-floor landing, our apartment door stood closed.
Light glowed underneath it.
My chest tightened.
Tessa was behind that door.
Tessa, who had held me through evictions and hospital scares. Tessa, who insulted dangerous men for sport. Tessa, who had looked at me the night I signed Cassian’s contract and reminded me I was not anyone’s toy.
If Adrian had hurt her— No.
I couldn’t think it.
My mother touched my arm.
“Alina.”
I looked at her.
She reached into her coat and pulled out the blue tin.
My breath caught.
“I thought you said it was upstairs.”
“I lied.”
For one second, I could only stare.
Even Cassian went silent in my ear.
My mother’s eyes shone with fear and apology.
“I knew he would search your room. I moved it years ago. I carry it when I’m scared.”
I looked down at the old blue tin.
Chipped.
Small.
Ridiculous.
All this for a locket inside a tin my mother could hide in one hand.
A laugh almost escaped me.
It would have sounded insane.
“Mom,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.” I closed my fingers around hers. “That was smart.”
A tiny sob broke from her.
I took the tin.
Cassian’s voice returned, low and urgent.
“Good. He doesn’t have it. Keep him talking.”
“Easy for you to say,” I whispered.
“I’m in the building.”
My heart slammed.
“What?”
“Quietly.”
“Cassian—” “Open the door.”
I swallowed the argument because the handle turned from the inside.
The door opened before I could touch it.
Adrian Voss stood in my apartment like he owned every broken thing inside it.
He looked exactly like the boy in the photograph grown into a nightmare.
Beautiful.
Dark-haired.
Elegant.
Alive.
His smile was warm enough to fool someone who had never seen the devil well-dressed.
“Alina,” he said.
My skin crawled.
His eyes moved over my face slowly, studying me with an intimacy he had no right to.
“Malcolm’s daughter,” he murmured. “You have his eyes.”
I hated that.
I hated him for knowing something about my father before I did.
I lifted the blue tin.
“You wanted this.”
His smile deepened.
“I wanted many things. That is one of them.”
Behind him, I saw Tessa.
My heart almost stopped.
She was tied to one of our kitchen chairs, wrists bound behind her back. Her cheek was bruised, but her eyes were open and furious.
The second she saw me, she shook her head hard.
“Mmph!”
A cloth was tied around her mouth.
My anger went still.
Deadly still.
Cassian’s voice in my ear sharpened.
“Breathe.”
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped.
Adrian stepped back, inviting us inside.
“Come in. All this drama in the hallway feels common.”
My mother stiffened beside me.
I held her hand and walked in.
The apartment looked wrong with him inside it.
Too small for his expensive coat.
Too honest for his polished shoes.
Too poor for the kind of sins he carried.
He glanced around with faint amusement.
“So this is where Isabelle hid you.”
“Don’t say her name,” I said.
His gaze flicked back to me.
Interest sharpened there.
“Oh. There she is.”
I didn’t ask what he meant.
I already knew.
The reaction.
The spark.
The part of women like me men like him enjoyed waking up just so they could punish it.
I held out the tin.
“Let Tessa go.”
Adrian laughed softly.
“So direct.”
“Let. Her. Go.”
My voice did not shake.
Good.
His eyes glowed with approval, and that made me want to scrub my skin.
“Malcolm had that same tone before he died.”
My mother made a broken sound.
I stepped in front of her.
“How did he die?”
Adrian tilted his head.
“Bravely. Stupidly. Those are often the same thing.”
Cassian’s breathing changed in my ear.
Not loud.
But I heard it.
He was close.
Closer than Adrian knew.
I had to keep him talking.
“What is the locket?” I asked.
Adrian’s gaze dropped to the tin.
“The beginning of everything your father stole from mine.”
“Funny,” I said. “I heard your family was the one stealing.”
His smile thinned.
“There are two kinds of theft, little Reed. Taking what belongs to someone else…” His eyes lifted to mine. “And keeping what should have died with you.”
My mother whispered, “Leave her alone.”
Adrian’s attention moved to her.
The room went colder.
“Isabelle.” His voice softened in a way that made my stomach turn. “Still so nervous.”
She stepped back.
He smiled.
“You always shook when you lied too.”
I moved between them again.
His gaze returned to me.
“Protective. How sweet. Cassian must be salivating.”
“Don’t talk about him.”
“Oh?” Adrian’s smile widened. “Still defending him after learning what he wanted before he knew what you were?”
“I know what I am.”
“Do you?”
He took a step closer.
I forced myself not to move.
“You are the daughter of a dead man who thought a ledger could undo blood. You are a poor girl in an expensive game. You are a door, Alina. Not a woman. A door.”
“No,” I said. “I’m the one holding the key.”
That wiped the smile from his face.
Only for half a second.
But enough.
Good.
Tessa’s eyes widened slightly, like she wanted to cheer and yell at me at the same time.
Adrian held out his hand.
“The tin.”
“Tessa first.”
His expression hardened.
“No.”
“Then you don’t get it.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think you’re in a position to negotiate?”
“I think if you could open the locket without me, you already would have.”
Silence.
There.
There it was.
A truth.
Cassian’s voice came through my ear, very low.
“Good girl.”
Heat shot through me so fast I almost forgot where I was.
I hated him.
I hated him for saying it like that while my best friend was tied to a chair.
Adrian’s gaze sharpened.
He noticed something.
Not the earpiece.
Not exactly.
But a shift in my face.
He smiled.
“Is he listening?”
My blood went cold.
I said nothing.
Adrian laughed.
“Of course he is. Cassian never could stay away from things he shouldn’t touch.”
He moved before I could react.
Fast.
Too fast.
One second he stood near the table.
The next his hand was in my hair, yanking my head to the side.
My mother screamed.
Tessa fought against her ropes.
The tin fell from my hand and hit the floor.
Adrian’s mouth came close to my ear.
“Hello, brother,” he said softly. “Can you hear how fast her heart is?”
The apartment door exploded inward.
Cassian entered like violence given a body.
No hesitation.
No warning.
He crossed the room so fast Adrian barely had time to turn, but Adrian dragged me in front of him and pressed a knife to my throat.
Cassian stopped.
Everything stopped.
His eyes locked on the blade.
Then on me.
Not my face.
My throat.
Where the knife touched.
The entire apartment seemed to shrink around his rage.
Adrian smiled over my shoulder.
“There he is.”
Cassian’s voice was deadly calm.
“Let her go.”
Adrian laughed.
“You always say that when it’s already too late.”
“Let her go, and I’ll let you walk out.”
“No, you won’t.”
“No,” Cassian said. “But I wanted to sound reasonable for Alina.”
Despite the knife, despite the terror, something inside me almost laughed.
Almost.
Adrian’s grip tightened.
“You see?” he whispered to me. “This is what he does. Makes danger sound like devotion.”
Cassian took one slow step forward.
Adrian pressed the knife harder.
A sting of pain kissed my skin.
Cassian froze.
His face changed.
The rage stayed, but beneath it was fear so raw it nearly broke me.
“Cassian,” I whispered.
His eyes met mine.
Just for one second.
One second was enough.
I knew what he wanted.
Stay still.
Trust me.
I also knew something else.
Adrian was watching Cassian, not me.
Men like him always watched the threat they respected.
They forgot women could become threats too.
My foot shifted.
I stepped hard on Adrian’s instep.
He cursed.
I shoved my head back into his face.
Pain exploded through the back of my skull, but his grip loosened.
Cassian moved.
The knife clattered.
I fell forward, and Cassian caught me with one arm while driving Adrian backward with the other.
They hit the wall.
Hard.
My mother screamed again.
Tessa rocked the chair violently, trying to break free.
Adrian laughed even as Cassian punched him once across the jaw.
Blood hit the floor.
“Still angry,” Adrian gasped.
Cassian grabbed him by the collar.
“You took Isabelle. You put hands on Alina. You hurt her friend.”
Adrian smiled through blood.
“And you came running. Predictable.”
Cassian’s fist tightened.
For a second, I thought he would kill him.
Maybe he wanted to.
Maybe I wanted him to.
Then Adrian looked past him at me and smiled.
“Open the locket, little Reed.”
The blue tin lay near my foot.
Open now.
Inside was a gold locket on a broken chain.
It had popped loose in the struggle.
I picked it up.
Cassian turned. “Alina, don’t.”
Adrian laughed.
“Too late.”
The locket was warm in my hand.
Just like the key card.
A tiny latch sat at the side.
My name was engraved inside the back.
Not Alina Moreau.
Alina Reed.
My fingers shook.
I opened it.
There was no photo inside.
Only a small black chip.
A storage drive.
The moment it touched air, every phone in the apartment began to ring.
Mine.
My mother’s.
Cassian’s.
Even Tessa’s muffled inside her pocket.
Adrian’s smile widened.
Then a voice came from all of them at once.
Not Adrian’s.
Not distorted.
An older man’s voice.
Calm.
Tired.
Dead.
“My name is Malcolm Reed. If my daughter is hearing this, then the Voss family has found her.”
My heart stopped.
Cassian released Adrian slowly.
Adrian laughed under his breath.
The recording continued.
“Alina, forgive your mother. She did what I begged her to do. She ran.”
Tears blurred my vision.
Cassian looked at me.
His face had gone pale.
“And if Cassian Voss is with you,” my father’s voice said, “do not trust him until he tells you what he promised me the night I died.”
The phones went silent.
I looked at Cassian.
The whole room did.
Adrian’s bloody smile turned victorious.
Cassian’s face closed.
My voice shook.
“What promise?”
- Writer
