Corporate Plaything (12 page)

She snuggled closer and buried her face on his chest. Her cheeks were damp with tears.

Ralph stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “Love you,” he whispered.

Her body stiffened.

She didn’t believe him? She should’ve felt the sacred
cevborn’s
bond the moment they were intimate. Once the rite of Claiming was performed, one couldn’t live without the other, nor would they desire anyone else but their predestined mate. Netherfolks mated for life. Till death do they part. Unlike humans on the surface world.

He stroked her hair one more time and let his breathing slow as if he had drifted back asleep. Anna lay immobile, but he knew she was still awake. Maybe she couldn’t sleep, he mused. After a while, she must’ve thought he was completely out, she clutched the edge of his boxers and cried silently in his chest. His heart sank. This had to stop. The charade had gone far enough. She didn’t deserve to continue suffering when he and his brothers could help with the solution to her problems.

He needed to talk with Justin tomorrow.

* * * *

After they finished their breakfast, Ralph excused himself and slipped into the estate’s library to call Justin. His brother beat him. Ralph’s cell rang the moment he closed the door.

“How is she?” Justin asked.

“Not good. She’s falling apart.”

Justin cursed. “Matt just found out her father was abducted some time last night.”

“You’re still using that private detective?”

“Around the clock. Her neighbour filed a missing person report when she couldn’t find him this morning.”

“Her neighbour?”

“Anna paid her to do some cooking and laundry for him. Joseph Vincent is ill.”

“Bad?”

“She said he had a bypass surgery last year. Did she do anything odd yesterday?”

“I caught her crying last night while hacking my computer.”

“Think she might know what had happened to her father?”

“Could be. She got a phone call around dinner time and looked disturbed afterwards.”

Justin went silent for a moment before he said, “I’ll fly to St. Croix tomorrow. I think it’s time we come clean about everything.”

“Finally.” Ralph drew a relieved breath. “It’s been long overdue. Matt too?”

“Yeah. But we might not be on the same flight. He has to take care of some business with Beautycor first.”

“Understood.”

“Keep your eyes peeled.” Justin disconnected.

Ralph pocketed his cell phone with mixed feelings. He was glad that he and his brothers could soon wrap up their business on the surface world and go back home to Azura. But he also felt worried that things might not go as well as they’d planned. Anna had only been their girl for less than two weeks. Not enough time to woo a woman and convince her she belonged to the three of them.
Forever
.

He padded back to the dining room to find Anna. She might be interested in going out sailing today. He wanted to take her mind off things until Justin and Matt arrived from New York.

The dining room was empty. One of the staff, Reggie, was taking the last of the dirty plates to the kitchen.

“Did you see Anna?” Ralph asked him.

The young man stopped. “Miss Vincent is in the gazebo, sir. I heard her saying she wanted to catch up with her reading.”

Ah
. “Did you see her carry her laptop?”

“No, sir. Just some books.”

“I see. Thanks.” So, Anna was telling the truth. He’d thought she’d continue to try to hack their network to find that formula, which she would never find unless hell froze over.

Even if Justin wrote down that concoction and posted it somewhere in their personal network, anyone who read it would think it just a bunch of babble. Without the magic of the wielder, the secret formula was as useless as a snake oil recipe.

Ralph went outside to find her. When he got to the back garden, he didn’t see her. But he did see her book lying on the gazebo’s bench.
Where could she be?

He treaded along the winding stone path to the beach. He thought she might be there. She’d confided she couldn’t swim and dipping her feet in the water was the closest thing to swimming.

When he got there, Anna was nowhere to be seen. The beach was empty.

Where did she go?
Ralph slipped into uneasiness. Suddenly, something bothered him but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He decided to go back to the mansion, thinking that Anna might be in her room. Then, he saw odd foot tracks near the stone path.

He studied them closer. Two sets of tracks. One was made by someone who wore heavy boots and the other was smeared, bare foot, like somebody had been dragged on the sand. An alarm rang in his head. Instinct kicked into high gear. His heart pounded faster.

Anna
.

Had something happened to her?

Ralph followed the tracks. They led him to the estate’s sugar cane grove. Uneasiness turned into a full-blown dread. He was supposed to keep an eye on her and he hadn’t done a very good job at it. If something happened to Anna, Ralph wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

He ran through the jungle of green stalks with long, blade-like leaves. The tracks had become difficult to see and he had to rely on his sense of smell. He followed her scent, like a bloodhound hell-bent on chasing his prey. It seemed they went uphill towards the lighthouse. The tower perched on the rocky pass, overlooking the sea. The place itself had fallen to rubble from years of disuse, until Justin ordered a contractor to fix it about a month ago. Ralph didn’t think the renovation had started yet. And since the estate was a private area, it should be off limits to everyone besides the staff.

Ralph stormed out from the sugar cane field and into a clearing. He instinctively fisted his hands when he saw what was happening near the lighthouse. Anna was running from a burly man, clutching her hand in agony. He was driving her to the edge of the cliff.

Ralph’s heart skipped a beat.

That man wouldn’t think to
…

Ralph hissed and summoned his power, charging forward to save Anna.

Chapter Six

She knew that Koleniskov, the man who blackmailed her and her father, was displeased with her slow progress, but she didn’t expect the boss of the syndicate to send one of his muscles to St. Croix just to remind her how dire her situation was.

Last night, Koleniskov had threatened her via email, saying that he had Joseph Vincent with him, and if she couldn’t produce that secret formula in the next three days, Koleniskov would cut her father’s fingers, one for each day she was late. And if she still wasn’t able to get that secret formula by the time Koleniskov finished with all of her father’s fingers, he’d kill him.

Anna tethered at the edge of an emotional breakdown after she read Koleniskov’s email. She’d tried hard to get that secret formula and had practically scrubbed clean the Martels’ private network for any sign of
Surrender’s
secret ingredients. She just couldn’t find it. What else could she do? Tie up one of the Martels and force him to talk at gunpoint? She could never do that. They had all been her lovers. Lying to them had been the hardest thing she had ever done. Harming them physically was unthinkable.

Last night, after Ralph caught her sneaking out of the bed, she had a long think and decided that coming clean was the most rational thing to do. If her father were going to be killed by a sadistic Russian mob, then she’d be better off going to the Feds. At least, the Feds wouldn’t want to cut someone’s fingers just because that person accidentally hacked the government’s bank accounts. Anna was going to ask Ralph if she could go back to New York to visit her father. And once there, she would go to the FBI and confess everything.

Since Ralph was busy with phone calls, she’d decided to go to the beach first to calm her nerves and gather her courage. She’d barely stepped on to the sand when some man grabbed her and pressed a knife to her throat. He dragged her through the plantation by force.

Without him telling her who he was, Anna knew he was one of the syndicate’s men. She thought she’d seen him before in Koleniskov’s place. After fifteen minutes trekking through the sugar cane field, the man took her onto a clearing near a ruin of a lighthouse. She saw a black SUV parked on the clearing with two grumpy looking men in it. Her captor shoved her down to the ground.

The men climbed out from the car. Anna recognised one of them as Yuri, Koleniskov’s second-in-command. A cold chill ran through her spine. She’d heard rumours that Yuri was nastier than Koleniskov himself.

“Please,” Anna begged. “I promise I’ll get that formula in three days. I’m so close. Just give me some time. I need to crack some firewall codes.”

“Tell that to Mr. Koleniskov himself. I’m only a messenger.”

“I got your message! Just let me go back so I can start working on it.” Anna scrambled to get up. She wanted to get away from this nasty man as fast as she could.

Yuri leered. “Sure. Right after I deliver Boss’ message.” He snatched her wrist and wrenched her arm upward.

Anna shrieked in pain. “What are you doing?”

Yuri fished something out from his jacket pocket. Anna’s eyes widened when she saw the man had a nutcracker in his hand. She yanked her hand in reflex, but the man’s grip was firm. Before she could do anything else, he slid the tool onto her pinkie finger and squeezed.

Anna heaved. She heard a sickening crunch. A freak wave of agony tore through her. She froze with the intensity of pain from having her bone snapped by a nut-cracking tool. Her stomach roiled. Her eyes watered. She gasped, swallowing a lungful of air and at the same time, trying not to retch.

Yuri let her go. “Do you get the message now?”

“Fuck you.”

“Apparently, you don’t.” The man seized her hand again.

“Let me go!” Anna stepped backwards in panic. “Don’t touch me!”

“Not until you get the message through your thick skull, cunt.”

Anna yanked her hand, trying to get away from Yuri and his men. But there was nowhere to run. They had cornered her at the edge of the cliff. Anna begged them to spare her. But they kept advancing. She flailed when she lost her balance.

No.
Her scream evaporated in her throat when she realised her foot stood on nothing. The deep ocean, with its hungry tides, snarled at her. She fell.

Anna screamed. A sliver of thought flashed through her that this was the end of her. The sharp, jagged rocks welcomed her with delight. But just before she hit, a powerful tide swallowed her in its embrace.

Funny
. She thought she saw Ralph’s face before she passed out.

* * * *

Anna thought she was hallucinating when she opened up her eyes and saw Ralph, Justin, and Matt.
This can’t be right. I’m already dead. Why do I see them here?
She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again just to be sure.

Justin leaned over her. His face was grim. “Ralph, she’s awake.”

Ralph touched her face and held up his hand in front of her. “Anna, how many toes am I holding up?”

She snorted. “Very funny.”

Ralph turned to Justin. “She’s fine.”

“Am I…dead?” She scrambled to sit up. Matt helped her. She examined her hand and wriggled her fingers. All seemed intact, including her pinkie that had been broken with a nutcracker. How was this even possible? She should be dead meat. She couldn’t swim. Plus, logically, no one could survive after falling from that cliff. If the ocean hadn’t drowned her, the rocks below would have shredded her body to pieces.

“No, baby, you’re fine. But you gave us quite a fright,” Justin told her.

Anna studied her surroundings. The place didn’t look like the estate, the villa. It was…grander. More opulent. Her gaze drifted up. The bedroom ceiling was so high, one could fit a two-story building in here. The walls were plastered with rare, black granite-like stone. Luxurious draperies adorned every window. All the furniture in the room was carved from an exotic dark wood with intricate patterns. Definitely a room fit for a king.

“Where am I?”

“Azura.” Justin spread his hands. “Our home.”

“Netherworld?”

“Correct.”

“How…?” Anna ran her hands through her hair. “The last thing I remember is that I fell.”

“You did. But Ralph caught you in time. He brought you here and healed you.”

Healed? Ralph?
She recalled Ralph saying he was a healer of his people or something. “How long have I been here?”

“About a day and a night. You sustained quite an injury.”

Anna checked her hands again, then turned to Ralph. “How could you possibly fix my broken finger in a day and a night?”

Ralph smiled. “Easy. I just chanted the magic word and ‘bam’! Finger healed.”

“Seriously.”

“I’m serious.” Ralph furrowed his eyebrows and held her gaze evenly. He wasn’t kidding.

All of this just didn’t make sense. “Thank you. But I think I must go.”

Three pair of eyes watched her with intensity.

Panic started to creep in again. Anna guessed this time there was no way around it anymore. She must come clean to the brothers. Her father was in danger and she had to go to the FBI before it was too late.

She took a deep breath. “I have a confession. I’m not the person you all think I am. I’m a thief.”

“Oh?” Justin’s eyebrow arched up. “What did you steal?”

Heat burned her cheeks. She fixed her stare on her lap. “I’m supposed to get
Surrender’s
secret formula. My father and I were blackmailed by this man, Ivan Koleniskov, and he threatened to hurt my father if I didn’t deliver that formula in three days. I need to go to the Feds. And after I settle my business with the Feds, I’ll take full responsibility for my actions. I’m very sorry for deceiving you. I really am.” Anna didn’t dare to move after she spewed out what had burned her mind and her soul for the past two weeks. An immense relief washed over her, but new dread blossomed. What were Justin and his brothers going to do with her? They were going to be furious. After everything they did for her, she’d been planning to repay them with treachery. She felt ashamed.