“You didn't eat. Do you think we are trying to poison you?” She picks up one of the little sandwiches and takes a bite. “It’s safe. You need to eat. Those are Aidon’s wishes, and you don’t want to suffer the consequences of not following them.”
I hadn't really thought about them trying to poison me. But I noticed it irritated Aidon when I hadn't eaten my breakfast. So I figured not eating was a good way to get him to come back around.
Kailler thinks she’s intimidating me with her subtle threats, but I’m trying to poke Aidon. I can’t seduce him if he’s not around to be seduced. I welcome the consequences as long as they are done by him.
“I’ll eat if you show me how you flipped me.”
“Fine.” She huffs. For the next thirty minutes she tries to teach me. Over and over I try to flip her but get nowhere.
“You have to use your body weight,” she repeats for the tenth time as we both put our hands back on each other's shoulders.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
She lets out a bark of laughter. “You’re not going to…”
I turn and pull her arms with me. My feet knock hers out from underneath her as I pull her over my shoulder and flip her. She lands on the rug. She stares up at me with surprise on her face before she bursts into laughter.
I can’t help but join her. This time she catches me off guard, sweeping my feet from under me and causing me to fall to the floor, which only makes me laugh harder. That’s until she realizes what she’s doing. She suddenly stops laughing and gets to her feet. I watch as the cold mask slips back into place.
“I have to go.” She holds her hand out to help me to my feet. I want to ask her to teach me more, but I don’t. Instead, I rush over to my trunk, pulling out one of the paperbacks they packed with my things.
“Take this.” I give her the book. “We can talk about it after you read it.” She looks at the book in my hand.
“’The Secret’ by Julie Garwood,” she reads the title out loud. It’s one of my favorites. It has two love stories. Not only about the hero and heroine falling in love but about the love of two best friends.
“It’s a classic. I’ll reread it on my Kindle.” She takes the book from my hand.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing, but it won’t work on me.” She doesn’t hand the book back to me as she steps onto the elevator. As the door starts to close, I see her open it. I can’t help but smile. I may be trapped inside this room, but I plan to make the best of it.
Chapter 9
Aidon
Two hours later, Bran and Hunt call in from an apartment on the east side. The address makes my eyebrows arch. “The Cloister?”
“Vieth’s orphans are rich, I guess,” answers Kailler. Her voice is odd, and her color is a little pink. I frown.
“You sick?”
“No. Why?”
“You look...off,” I say for lack of a better description. If it were Cora, maybe I’d say she was turned on, but this is Kailler, my right hand. She’s killed more than she’s flirted—if she’s ever flirted.
Kailler shoves her phone into her pocket and glares. “I’m fine, sir.”
“Okay, but if you’re sick you should go lie down.”
“I’m not sick,” she snaps. “And if I was, I wouldn’t risk your life or any of the other members of the crew by spreading my germs here.”
“Great. I’m glad we’re on the same page.” Maybe Kailler’s being weird because of Cora, but I’m reluctant to ask. A mean Kailler is not someone I’m in the mood to deal with. “Back to the Cloister address. The Vieth orphans have to be pulling in seven figures to be shacking up in that high rise. Even the one-bedrooms start at a million, and hers is on the seventh floor.”
“Do the boys know the identity of the owner?”
“No. They say it looks abandoned. The refrigerator has milk over three weeks old, and the fruit is decayed. There are plenty of pictures there, though.”
“Of her?”
“Could be. None of Poppy though.” I get to my feet and grab the jacket off the back of my chair. “Have the car brought to the basement elevators. I’ll be coming down with Cora.”
“Cora? Wh—” she stops. “Oh, she could identify people in the photos.”
“That she could. In fact, she’s in one of them.”
“At least we know she is a Vieth,” Kailler muses.
“Not Karin’s daughter biologically, but maybe Karin views herself as the mother of all the girls under her wing.”
“Or the girls view Karin as a mother figure.”
“Correct. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Blood related or not, Karin’s going to be treating all these girls the same.”