CHAPTER 134
BRIANNA’S POV
I was taking a nap when I suddenly heard a loud bang like a gunshot from downstairs. My eyes flew open and I quickly rose from the bed, my heart thumping madly in my chest.
What the hell was that?
I was still trying to make meaning of the sound when I heard another one and another followed by shrills from the maids.
Panic like never before welled up in my throat. I rushed out of my bed, quickly covered up and went out of my room to check it out.
I just hoped it wasn’t I thought it was. Maybe the guards got into a fight or something. But that hasn’t happened before. And even if they did get into a fight, they never carried guns. Maybe they caught a burglar or thief.
As much as I wished it wasn’t a gunshot, the loud, sharp sound echoing through the entire castle suggested otherwise.
My mind kept running wild with different thoughts as I reached the stairs. Peering down to catch a glimpse of what could be happening, what I saw left me frightened, electrified, weak to the bones.
The whole place looked like the aftermath of a gruesome war; the bodies of some of the maids including the head maid and Sebastian’s guards were scattered all over, lying in the pool of their blood.
Choking back a cry, my knees suddenly felt like jelly, tears pouring down my face as I desperately gripped the stair rail for support. What was happening? Why was everyone suddenly dead? Then I saw him. I saw Hermes.
Everything else but him seemed to fade to a blur and my airways felt like they were cut off as I struggled to breathe, those disturbing memories of him and everything he had done to me flashing like lightning through my head. How did he find me? When did all this happen?
He had only sent a letter a few days ago. Sebastian and I never imagined he’d be coming here.
“I won’t ask again,” he roared at one of the maids. “Where is she?”
The gunshot wound on both legs of the maid was an indication she was badly injured. She was whimpering, the little breath she had escaping in a quick shallow gasp as she tried to crawl away from Hermes, her entire dress and the floor around her drenched in blood.
“Where is she, you bitch?!” His voice thundered through the building to the extent it shook its very foundations.
But she won’t say anything. She pressed her lips firmly shut, her mind made up not to say anything even if she was subjected to the most brutal torture.
Her loyalty even at the point of death melted my heart to a pulp. I really felt for her and wished I could do something, anything to help her. But I couldn’t. I was so shaken I couldn’t even move a muscle.
She put all her effort into trying to get away from him. But it was all in vain. With every move she made, Hermes only came closer, his patience running thin as he pointed a gun at her.
He intentionally stepped on her wounded leg, causing her to scream with everything in her, veins bulging from her forehead, and neck, painful tears mingling with the blood stains on her face as she sobbed heavily to the point of death.
Mercilessly, Hermes wriggled the thick sole of his shoe on her wounded leg, adding pressure almost to the point of breaking her bones.
“This is what you get for being loyal to someone who doesn’t give a shit about you,” Hermes said, his lips curling devilishly as he relished in the pain he was making her feel.
But he was wrong. Of course, I cared for the needs of the castle maids as much as they cared for mine. I wasn’t and can never be like Catherine who treated them cruelly. I was willing to do anything for their well-being and make sure their stay in the castle was comfortable and fulfilling.
She cried out in pain, her skin turning pale red. Her suffering was so intense I felt it from where I was. That was when her gaze involuntarily met mine. Amid her agony, she mustered the strength to mutter, “Run…”
Hermes seemed to notice as his head immediately whipped in the direction of her voice and our gazes clashed. I froze in fear, a lump forming in my throat, a chilling sensation running through me as goosebumps specked all over my cold skin.
They were still the same; dark, devilish, dangerous, mischievous, smouldering with everything I hated in a person. I wished I didn’t have to know what they looked like again. I wished I didn’t have to look at them again.
“Hello Princess,” he said, smiling like a serpent. “I have come to take you home.”
Without hesitation, he shot the maid multiple times in the head and she dropped dead. Then he started advancing toward the stairs in my direction with a fierce intensity.
“No….” I took a shaky step back, clumsily falling on my butt.
I got up quickly, driven by the desperate determination not to let him take me back to that hellhole again. There was no way I was going back there with him. No way I’ll let him have me and subject me to all that terrible treatment again.
I raced to my room but was slow due to the heaviness of my pregnancy. I needed to call Sebastian. I needed to tell him this bastard was here to take me away and that he and his men had killed everyone. But the telephone was downstairs and I hadn’t gotten a smartphone yet. Gosh…. why didn’t I think of getting one since?
Sebastian had gone out early in the morning to table a complaint to the association of Alpha kings concerning the letter Hermes sent on wanting me back since it was against their auction rules. That was his plan. I was doubtful of the success of it. But he assured me it was the only way to get Hermes off my tail once and for all.
He didn’t mention when he’ll be coming back. But from the looks of it, I was sure he might take long. I wished he’d come back now. I wanted him here with me.
As I opened the door to my room and got in, I tried to close it immediately but Hermes pushed against it from the other side.
“Let me in, princess,” he said with a mischievous giggle. “You can’t keep shutting me from your life.”
“Never…I’ll never let you in…” Excess tears welled up in my eyes and with everything in me, I struggled to push the door close but he was stronger. Unrelenting.
He forced it open and I stumbled backwards, almost losing balance.
His features hardened with a dangerous frown as he marched in.
“That is no way to welcome your master,” he shook his head in a dark disapproving manner.
His devilish eyes roamed the length of my body and on settling on my stomach, his brows pinched in a furious surprise. “Just nine months of being away and you’re already pregnant…for that bastard?…” He scoffed incredulously.
Then his lips twitched with a wicked smile and a gleam flashed in his eyes. “This gets more interesting. Not to worry, I know exactly how to handle that.”