KAIA'S P.O.V.



No one could remove me from that room.

So far, it had been thirty minutes since my cousins left, and a solid hour from when I first entered the basement and stood in front of Jamila.

Her hair fell around her face in a way that made it hard to see her features at first. I wanted to get a good reading of her condition, checking for marks or anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Dario was right about one thing—they didn't harm her.

She was shaking though, wrapped up in a red wool blanket that reeking of a musty, stale odor.

"She's not coming back."

I turned my head to the left.

Wiping my eyes, I rushed to hide the fact that I was crying. My cheeks felt sticky, cold, and wet at the same time.

More than a warm shower or a hot meal, I longed for some peace and quiet.

Unfortunately for me, Dario wouldn't grant me such a pleasure.

"Being difficult, you know, will only make it worse for you in the long run. Go along with it. You'll have a better time."

"Thank you for your advice. I'll be sure to never apply it into my everyday life."

"I'm only trying to—"

"Take up all my oxygen? It is a basement with no windows, you realize. I only have a limited amount of air down here. I can't have it wasted on unsolicited advice."

"You're not in a vacuum, we have a vent that goes through this room. You're also sitting right behind a window. If you bothered turning around."

Twisting in my spot on the bed, I came to realize that there was indeed a window. When I first rushed in here, looking for Jamila, I hadn't taken much notice of the space around us.

"Sorry, I was too busy crying over my family," was what I wanted to say back to him, but I bit my tongue.

Silence was the only thing I wanted between us.

Sleep came to me gradually, relaxing into the corner I had backed myself into on the bed. It was a single twin with white sheets, tightly tucked into the edges.

When the sun hit my eyes, it took me a mere two or three minutes before I came to the realization that I wasn't in the same room that I had fallen asleep in.

For starters, an overwhelming warmth pooled out of the fireplace, crackling with flickering flames. The embers were hot, proving to be well kept with new wood, and recently tended to. My hands stretched across the plush red and gold fabric I was underneath, wiggling my head from side to side. What was this pillow filled with? I was beginning to fall right back to sleep based on its comfort alone.

I just might have...if it weren't for the door flying open, rattling me awake.

"Good morning."

Letting out a yawn, I sat up. "Hello," I said to a complete stranger. He was a man well into his late fifties, dressed in a black tux. His gloves were pristinely cleaned, showing no stains on the white material. "What's your name?"

"You may call me January," he stated, "Or simply, Jay." Without me asking for him to tell me, he went on to explain how he got the job he had today, where he met the brothers, and other information I had no interest in discovering about his title. "I've been working for the Blaine's for quite some time now. You'll be seeing a lot of me around here."

"I'm—"

"You're Kaia Wells, I am aware."

"I was going to say I'm a captive...but yeah, that, too."

He laughed, a laugh that made me want to curl back into bed and restart the day. The corner of his eye even rolled out a tear, I swear.

"You're funny."

"Am I funnier than the last girl they kidnapped?"

The humor in his expression vanished, appearing as if the life had been sucked out of his face entirely by the words that came out of my mouth. "From my knowledge, no one was kidnapped. No one ever has been. No one ever will be. What took place yesterday was a fair exchange."

"Fair exchange?" I wanted to rip the covers off me and run up to him, telling him he was insane for what he was saying. Before I could do that, a knock echoed through the room. The door opened once more, revealing Shadow standing in the hallway.

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