Chapter 110 The Test{Rosie}

Chapter 110 The Test{Rosie}
The word cut me off. My world tilted like a veil had been ripped off my face. In that moment, staring at the man before me, I finally understood that this wasn’t the man I loved. This wasn't Kieran. 

This was the boss of the Zanna Rosta Mafia. And not only did he believe I betrayed him, but he must also want to pay back my father for my wrongdoings. There was no recognition of the man I knew in those cold steel eyes.

He looked like a man capable of killing in cold blood. I was so used to seeing him in suits and ties that I failed to remind myself he was a three-headed serpent. Who knew how he punished those that crossed him? 

I’ve seen how Berlo punishes people, and I myself have been punished brutally, but seeing Kieran in the light tells me his punishment for me would break me faster than anything. 

My heart trembled. The screams didn't stop. The smell of smoke filled the air. I could hear the wailing sound of the police siren, but I could not look down from the rooftop; I was afraid of heights. I held my breath in my throat and looked back up at Kieran, my eyes strained and heavy with unshed tears.

“Why? Afraid now?”

Kieran was going to kill me.

His voice was calm. Too calm. He spoke with the gentleness of a man enjoying his morning tea, not of a man that just set off a bomb at a birthday party.

I wanted to speak, but my tongue was twisted. Afraid didn’t even begin to cover it. The rooftop lights flickered once, twice, then steadied unnaturally for a building that had just taken a hit.

Kieran’s gaze shifted. He looked past me, towards the skyline. That was when I realized something was wrong. Kieran was monitoring the chaos; he was listening for something.

“You know what?” he said at last, almost bored and tired of having to talk to me. “You should be scared.”

My stomach dropped.

Before I could ask what he meant, a low hum vibrated beneath my feet. Not the shriek of alarms or the chaos below. This was different. Controlled. Sounded like a machine. Like something was counting…down!

My eyes widened, I shook my head, and panic climbed up my throat. “What did you do?” I whispered, my body shaking with fear.

He looked back at me then, truly looked at me, and for the first time that night, I saw it. The annoyance, the impatience. Not hate, not rage. Pure annoyance, and for some reason, even that was worse. From what I could see in his eyes, I was an…inconvenience.

“I didn’t bomb this place,” he said. “If I had, you wouldn't still be standing.”

The words were like an anvil. Heavy and final.

Another explosion echoed somewhere lower in the building. Not as violent as the first, but precise. The vibration was minimal, but screams, shouts, and cries increased. 

My knees weakened. The juice I had managed to step down was threatening to climb back up, but I held it down.

“Kieran—”

“Berlo,” he corrected flatly. “This is his game.”

I frowned, trying to fix in the puzzle. It didn’t make any sense. There was no reason for Berlo to blow up the party of a senator he was pals with.

Kieran stepped closer while I was trying to make sense of the whole thing, lowering his voice as the helicopter blades began to thunder overhead, growing louder by the second. That was why he brought us here.

“He wanted me here; he wanted us here together to see if the Veil would activate and notify me of an incoming threat.” Kieran’s eyes slimmed into slits suddenly. They cut through me in a threat. “I’m guessing a certain someone had blabbered the objectives of the Veil to their fiancé." His voice was very mocking and lacked the consideration it normally used to hold regardless of the situation.  

My blood ran cold. I immediately took the opportunity to clear my name. 

“You know I would never do that to you, Kieran.” I whispered beneath my breath.

“No, Rosie.” When he called my name, I looked up to meet his gaze. “I would never know anything when it comes to you. Elizabeth? Rosie?”

“And after all those times we spent together, you still can’t tell what I am capable of doing?” He sounded disappointed.

“Why would Berlo do this?” I meant to ask myself, but he heard.

“You tell me; you're the one engaged to him.” 

Ouch. That stung. “You’re saying Berlo did all this because of the Veil?” My blood turned cold.

I stared down at the chaos downstairs with horror. “So this was a test,” I breathed. “On people.”

“Yes.”

“And the bomb?”

“There are two.”

The second sentence gripped me with fear. A sharp, metallic beep cut through the air. I spun around, my breath catching painfully. “We have to go back and help people. Innocent lives will be gone.”

“Listen to me, Rosie. I do not care about innocent lives. Do not make me out to be a saint. I only came here to save you. Make this difficult, and I will have no other option than to drop you.”