My family might be upset. Kaspar would be angry he lost his pet. But truly, I brought nothing to the world, and was never given the chance to try.
It didn’t matter that I was pretty and rich. My family name was irrelevant. I was consigned to mediocrity from the moment I was born purely because I was a girl and the Oligarchs only cared about their boys.
I was treated like a precious doll, coddled and cooed over, but never dirtied.
God, I wanted to get filthy.
I wanted to roll around in whatever muck was stuck to the bottom of life. I wanted to experience everything around me—
And knew I never would. Not with Darren or Kaspar or anyone else making all my decisions for me.
I felt like such a terrible person complaining about my upbringing. I should’ve been happy. I was given anything a little girl could want and provided as many opportunities as possible given the constraints of my life. My family loved me, and I had some friends, though they were few and far between and I rarely saw them anymore.
I still felt restless and dissatisfied. I craved more, or at least the ability to decide for myself.
I sat up and sighed, staring at the floor, my shoulders hunched forward and my hair hanging down around my face. Another lovely cage. My whole life was a series of beautiful enclosures.
Something thumped out in the hallway.
I frowned, cocking my head, listening. I heard voices, talking quietly at first, then a loud bang. There were shouts, more loud bangs, and what sounded like an explosion.
My door burst open and the young guard rushed inside.
I wished I knew his name. His eyes were wide and wild and he held a small semi-automatic rifle under one arm.
“Get up, you’re with me.” More shouts from the hallway, more explosions.
It was gunfire.
“What’s happening?” My heart raced as I got to my feet.
“We’re under attack. Stay behind me and keep your head down. Keep moving, no matter what, do you understand?”
Screams of pain. I nodded quickly, mouth hanging open.
“What’s your name?”
He stared out of the door, raising his gun. “Scott.”
He fired three shots. It was like getting kicked in the eardrums. I groaned, but he stalked over to me, grabbed my arm, and pulled me behind him.
We rushed into the hallway. A man lay bleeding on the floor. He was dressed in black combat fatigues and held a pistol in his hands. He raised it feebly, but Scott kicked it away then shot him in the skull.
I clamped my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming.
“Come on,” Scott said, shouting over the gunfire. More shouts, more screams. He grabbed my arm and pulled me along down the hall and into the main room of the suite.
Kaspar’s door was open. Some of his men were fighting from there. Several attackers were hunkered down in the middle of the room, hiding behind furniture, shooting back at the guards. Scott shoved me against the wall and killed one of the attackers before they turned and fired on him.
“We’re pinned down,” he shouted, teeth clenched in a grimace. “Don’t move. We’ll break them.” He fired off a few more shots.
Then someone roared like a monster.
I peered around the corner, crouching low. I screamed as something went off, bright like the sun, and my eyes went white, my vision completely destroyed, and my ears rang like I’d been kicked in the skull.
“Flashbang,” Scott yelled in my ear, but he sounded like he was at the far end of a football field.
More gunshots rang out, but they were like cap gun pops. My vision cleared and I blinked rapidly, trying to focus my eyes, and when I looked around the corner again, I sucked in a shocked breath.
It was Kaspar, a gun in each hand, his suit splattered with blood. He shot one attacker in the head then kicked the gun of another. His bodyguards rushed in behind him as Kaspar shot another attacker in the guts then finished him with a headshot.
When it was over, eight men lay dead on the floor, with more in the hallways. Blood drenched the carpet, the marble floors, the ceiling. Everything was sticky with red.
Kaspar fumed like a volcano. He shouted at his men and paced around. I’d never seen him so out of control before. I shied away, staying as far from the bodies as I could, until he finally spotted me.
I wished I could hide.
Kaspar came over, his anger shedding like water from his skin. A strange calm fell over him as he knelt down in front of me.
I looked around for Scott, but he was gone.
“Are you okay?” Kaspar asked softly.
“I’m fine.” I blinked at him a few times. Blood dripped from his chin like sweat. His suit was ruined. “Are you hurt?”