"Oh, you shouldn't be in here," the housekeeper said as she brought a dusting cloth in. "This area hasn't been prepared yet. It's best you go back to the rooms that have been properly?—"
"No, that's okay." I gave her a smile, daring her to say something more. "I'm just admiring this antique desk. It's so lovely. I have always been so fascinated by such craftsmanship."
"Really you should?—"
"I'm good, thank you." I was being a bitch, but I didn't care. It was putting this poor woman in an awkward situation, but if she had a problem with it, she could tell Artem and he could deal with me directly.
The housekeeper looked at me for a second, disappointment and irritation radiating from her eyes before her lips pressed into a thin line and she picked up her dusting cloth and headed out of the room. She muttered something under her breath in Russian as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.
If she was going to tattle, that meant I only had a few more minutes.
I closed the drawers and went to lift the rolltop. Thankfully, it wasn't locked and after a little pulling it slid open. Inside were several rolled papers. Maps of the entire estate and blueprints.
Then I saw one with faint lines that was different from the others. It was old, but not the oldest in the bunch. It looked like someone had dug Prohibition tunnels throughout the estate.
It showed passages that could take me from the house, if I was reading it correctly and these paths still existed. One looked like it would not only take me out of the house underground but would resurface pretty far from the estate.
If I could get out this way, I could go undetected until I hit the highway.
My heart raced as I traced my fingers over the faint lines on the map.
"This is it," I whispered, the sound swallowed by the shadows in the room. "This is how I get my freedom."
CHAPTER33
ARTEM
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice?" I kept my voice low, calm, even.
Holding back the storm raging inside of me as I tapped the screen and turned it to face Viktoria.
She sat in a leather chair in front of the desk in the office Gregor had set up for me.
The video I played was of Viktoria snooping in the back room.
I may not have gotten a full cleaning crew in there and had everything locked down. That didn't mean I left any part of this house unsecured. If I was going to do that, I might as well have left her in that apartment with the security that had already failed her.
She met my gaze, not even bothering to watch the video showing her pressing against the hidden back wall of the closet and blindly walking into the dark tunnel.
"I knew you would notice. I just didn't care," she said with a casual shrug of her shoulder, her intense eyes meeting mine.
Her blatant disregard for her own safety was insufferably frustrating.
"Why do you insist on acting like a spoiled child?" I bit out.
"Probably because you insist on treating me like a child."
"Excuse me?" A sudden, sharp pain stabbed through my temples, and my fingers tightened into fists under the desk before flexing wide and pressing against my thighs.
I had beaten people for far less, and I wanted to take her over my knee now, but she had already proven that wasn't going to work. "I am not treating you like a child."
She let out a dark, bitter laugh.
"First, you moved me to the middle of nowhere, without even asking. You pulled me from my classes." She counted the perceived slights on her fingers. "You think you can control who I spend my time with, what I eat, and you have me under constant surveillance. Not to mention you hired a nanny to watch me."
She stared at me in defiance as she listed off the ways I tried to protect her as if they were marks against me. My jaw clenched and the skin at the back of my neck heated.
I was always in control of everything, the least of which were my emotions, but this girl just cut through my control like it consisted of tissue paper instead of carefully tempered iron.
