Chapter 47 An Insider
Aiyana's P.O.V
The days that followed blurred into something sharp and restless.
‘Investigation days’ Jerome called them.
I called them suffocating.
The house changed after the guard died. Not visibly, in the way walls cracked or furniture moved, but in the way silence tightened, in the way men stopped whispering and started avoiding eye contact altogether.
Jerome Black had always ruled with fear, but this was different. This was fury sharpened into purpose, and it was all because of me.
It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to hurt me in this house, and that bitter truth lingered in the corners of my mind.
There had been threats before, attempts masked as accidents, glances that lasted a second too long and Jerome had always dismissed those with ruthless efficiency, but this time, he didn’t.
This time, he wanted answers and he was not relenting until he got some.
“I have to know who because this wasn’t Cortez.” He said again like the first night after the incident, his voice tight as steel.
I remembered the way his jaw clenched when he said that name, the way his hands flexed like he was holding something invisible by the throat.
“Why are you so sure?” I asked quietly, looking at the way he was so focused and serious about this.
I mean, it was a serious and audacious attempt to try to kidnap someone in Jerome's house but this was something else.
All operations had stopped, all the noises I heard from training had ceased. I could also swear that there was some business going on that had also paused because of this.
How do I know all this? Maybe because he hadn’t let me out of his sight since the incident.
Jerome didn’t answer immediately. He was pacing then, slow and controlled, like a predator deciding whether to strike or stalk. Finally, he stopped in front of me.
“Cortez makes noise,” He said, looking at me with the same crease that had rested in between his forehead for days now.
“He sends messages. He doesn’t use subtlety. This was quiet, and personal. The worst thing a man like me can do is let a cunning enemy live.”
My stomach twisted.
“Personal?” I echoed.
His eyes softened just a fraction as they met mine. “Yes.”
That word haunted me, but Jerome didn’t let go of me.
Not figuratively.
Literally.
He followed me everywhere.
If I stood up, he stood too. If I walked, his steps matched mine. If I sat, he positioned himself close enough that his knee brushed mine, close enough that I could feel the heat of him even when he said nothing at all.
The only place he didn’t follow me into was the bathroom, and even then, he waited right outside the door.
The first time it happened, I thought he was joking.
“Jerome.” I said, half-amused, half-nervous, hand on the doorknob. “I’ll be fine.”
His gaze didn’t soften, nor did he budge. “Go.” and go I did. I could tell when it was impossible to argue with him and this was one of those times.
I could hear him through the door, every shift of his weight, every quiet breath. When I took longer than usual, he knocked once.
“Talk to me.” He would ask. Not impatient. Not angry. Just… there.
I leaned my forehead against the door, heart thudding. “I’m still alive.”
There was a pause.
“Good.” He replied quietly.
That became our rhythm and I found it so cute because I still saw that he was the dangerous man everyone claimed he was. He was as hard as he was soft.
Investigations ran day and night. Jerome questioned everyone, from the guards, to the staff, to lieutenants. Even Gerald wasn’t spared, though the tension between them had already reached a point where breathing the same air seemed dangerous.
I watched it all from the edges, perched beside Jerome like a shadow he refused to shake.
They said things when they thought I wasn’t listening.
“She’s changed him.”
“He’s not even hiding it anymore.”
“He’s going to burn the house down for this.”
They weren’t wrong.
Jerome stopped sleeping. Or maybe he slept in pieces, sharp, broken intervals where his hand remained wrapped around my wrist even in unconsciousness.
Sometimes I woke to find him staring at the ceiling, eyes wide and calculating.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked him once, voice barely above a whisper.
“Everything.” He said.
The house felt like a coiled spring.
And then, before a full week had even passed, we were waking up to the house vibrating from it's foundation up.
The explosion came.
It was still dark. Too dark. The kind of dark that only exists before dawn, when the world hasn’t decided to wake up yet, but the sound tore through the house like thunder ripping stone apart.
The walls moved.
I was thrown forward, the bed jerking beneath me as if the ground itself had buckled. Glass shattered somewhere nearby. Alarms screamed into life, shrill and deafening.
I screamed Jerome’s name, but he was already moving.
In a blink, he was out of bed, pulling me with him, using his body as a shield as another shockwave rattled the windows. The house groaned, actually groaned, like it might collapse under the weight of what had just hit it.
“What…what was that?” I gasped, stuttering as I could not fathom what just happened.
“Stay with me.” Jerome said sharply, already reaching for his phone. “Don’t let go.”
I didn’t. I didn't dare.
He was shouting orders now, voice cutting through chaos like a blade.
“Status! Front perimeter, respond!”
Nothing.
His jaw tightened.
“Dungeons! report in now.” He shouted into the little phone he held to his mouth
Still nothing.
The absence of response was louder than the explosion itself.
“That’s not possible.” He muttered, more to himself than to me. “There are men stationed…”
Another distant boom echoed, smaller but close enough to make my ears ring.
“Jerome.” I whispered, fear creeping into my bones. “What’s happening?”
His hand tightened around mine.
“The underground dungeons.” He said grimly. “Only a handful of people know the way.”
I looked up at him. “I thought you said…”
“...that even the guards don’t,” he finished. “They’re blindfolded every time. They don’t know the route.” He confirmed, rubbing my arms to pacify me as he could see just how much shock I was in.
My blood ran cold.
“So if no one’s responding…” I started and he completed it.
“Then someone who does know the way is involved.” He said, confirming my thoughts.
The realization hit me like ice water.