Chapter 248: Chapter 248: Olive's POV

Chapter 248: Olive's POV

First was a heavy pain at my temple.

Like a hammer had constantly been hitting my head, over and over, and I was only now becoming aware of it. My eyes blinked slowly, a sharp pain piercing through my left ribs when I tried to open them. And when I did, the room was dark at first before it slowly started becoming clearer.

It was an empty room with different crates assembled by the wall, a few chairs, and roughly painted walls that were beginning to peel. The kind of room that hadn't been used for anything good in a long time.

The last thing I remembered was driving out with every intention of going to the address Nikolai had sent me. But I couldn't figure out how I had ended up here. I couldn't piece it together. Couldn't remember the moment everything had gone wrong.

I was tied against a chair. Mouth bound.

Everything had happened fast and my brain was scrambled as I stared at the empty dark walls, trying to remember, trying to figure out where I was, trying to calculate whether screaming would help or hurt.

I struggled hard against the chair anyway. The chair scrapping hard against the rough ground.

And it did catch someone's attention.

A door which I hadn't noticed, because it blended almost perfectly with the walls, opened and two tall broad men stepped into the room. Tall and huge and the kind of men who were paid not to feel things.

I recognized the second man the second he walked in. His face flashed through my mind immediately. He was the one who had hit me unconscious.

"Oh, the little brat is awake."

The first man said, smirking as he walked toward me, eyes flashing with something repulsive that made me want to gag.

"Let me go."

I struggled, my words muffled hard against the cloth wrapped around my mouth so tightly that I already knew the after effect was going to leave a bruise.

He turned to look at the second man.

"She's still strong. She won't be once she sees the boss."

The boss.

My brain tried to catch up, the words slipping through my mind. They had a boss. So this wasn't just a random kidnapping. This was more than that. This was planned. Deliberate. Someone had chosen to bring me here.

"Let me go this instant," I yelled anyway, kicking my legs against the ground, thrashing so hard the chair scraped hard across the concrete.

One of the men walked toward me.

"If you don't keep quiet I will blow that head off, bitch."

He said, pulling out a gun which made my eyes widen in shock as he pointed it directly at me.

"That won't be necessary, Stephen."

The second man stopped him.

"The boss is here."

And instantly the door opened.

Someone walked in.

And the second the person stepped into the light, I froze in shock.

It was him.

I knew him. I fucking knew him.

I had met him only once.

He had told me to be careful the last time I saw him. During Judy's funeral. He had looked at me in that garden with those eyes that I had told myself were just grief and had said the words like they meant something more than condolences.

He looked dangerous. That I had known even then. But I had never expected him to want to harm me. To want to come after me. To have me here, tied against a chair in an empty room with peeling walls.

Was this revenge.

To avenge his brother.

I had thought so many times about what would happen if someone who loved Judy came after me. If they decided I was responsible. If they tortured me until I said what they wanted to hear.

I hadn't expected it to be real. To be true. To actually happen.

"Olive Monroe."

His voice came out different from how I remembered it. Colder. Like whatever warmth had existed in him when we met had been completely stripped away and what was left was something else entirely.

"What a nice reunion."

The tattoo marked up and down to his collarbone. The shape of a snake, curling upward in ink that made him even more intimidating than I had remembered.

I tried to speak but nothing could come out.

He was going to kill me. Or torture me. Until I told him I didn't kill his brother or had nothing to do with it. And he wouldn't believe me. He would never believe me.

"Take the cloth off her mouth."

He said, not blinking or removing his eyes from me.

The second the cloth slipped off my lips, my mouth burned with the force of the fabric being removed. Tears formed at the corners of my eyes and I tried not to blink too hard, not to let them fall, not to appear any weaker than I already was before whatever was about to begin.

"Do you know what this is?"

He asked, his eyes piercing straight through mine.

This man looked totally different from Judy.

He didn't just look older. He looked dangerous in ways that suggested he had done things I didn't want to think about. Had made decisions that most people would never be able to live with.

How had Judy ended up with someone like him as a brother?

"Speak."

His voice pierced through the air so fast that I jerked forward with fear, my entire body vibrating with force that made the pain throbbing in my temples snap harder.

"I don't know what this is about."

I muttered, trembling, and God I hated that I was weak, that my voice came out so fucking small. I clenched my fists behind the chair.

"Try again." He tilted his head slightly. "Maybe this will become much easier than starting all over again."

He said, pushing toward me.

I tried to push back from my chair with each step he took but I couldn't move. I was frozen. My body had decided that this was the moment it was going to betray me completely.

He bent down slightly, his face meeting mine, and with force his hand grabbed my chin, jerking it upward to meet his gaze.

And surprisingly, I held it.

"You're here to torture me about your brother's death."

I said to Simon Bryon, my voice coming out stronger than I had any right to expect. And if I wasn't in this position, I might have been proud of myself for that.

I watched his eyes go dark at my response.

I had clearly hit a nerve. Mentioning his dead brother directly to his face had done something I hadn't planned on.

But then a loud deep laughter came out from his lips.

It didn't sound like a normal laugh.

It sounded like the ones you heard in horror films, the ones that kept you completely still, the ones that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Except this wasn't a film. This was real. He was real. This room was real and I was tied to a chair in it and he was laughing at me.

He pushed my face away from his hands with force and stood up straight.

"Well then." He smiled. "That's even more interesting. But unfortunately, that's not the case."

He said.

"My brother Judy was a nice kid. Too good brother. But he crossed boundaries he shouldn't have. I wouldn’t blame him after all. I killed his lover. So he tried to tell you the truth. My plans. He found things he wasn't meant to find. And I had him killed."

He paused.

Looking at me with those flat dark eyes.

"Just like I did to your dear brother."

I froze.

My heart stopped beating.

The words landed somewhere in my chest and just stayed there, too heavy to process, too enormous to move through. Klaus. Judy. Both of them. The same man. The same hands. The same cold decision made about two people I had loved and lost and grieved and carried.

Both of them.

He had taken both of them.

And he was standing in front of me like it meant nothing.

Like it was normal, to take people’s lives.