Nice to finally meet you. Has Kazzy Bear talked about me?”
Trapped in Rolan’s huge arms, Emily widened her eyes.
My frown deepened. “I haven’t got a chance to discuss you. Try not to break her, please.”
“Of course not. She’s probably not used to a man with all these muscles.” Rolan let her go.
I frowned.
Rolan bellowed with laughter. “Oh. And congratulations on the pregnancy.”
Emily scowled at me.
I raised my hands in the air. “I didn’t tell him.”
Rolan shrugged. “Misha texted me a minute ago.”
I pointed to the walls to get us off the topic. “Where are the prisoners?”
“Prisoners?” Mrs. Jones opened her mouth in shock.
Rolan shook his head. “We do not talk about the prisoners at this time. This is a normal castle with normal things, Kazzy Bear. Keep your mouth closed.”
Okay. No talking about this in front of Ava’s grandmother.
I nodded. “I understand.”
“We will talk more in the bathhouse.” Rolan patted me hard on my back, went back to the table, and returned to his chess game with Mrs. Jones. “See you then, until now I must teach a beautiful woman a lesson.”
Mrs. Jones made it back to her seat. “I’m teaching you the lesson.”
“Nice meeting you.” I took Emily away, before Rolan gave out more hugs or said Kazzy bear one more time.
We left that hallway.
Emily slowed down and twisted her face in disgust. “Wait. I hate the next room.”
“The room of mirrors?”
“Yes.” She rubbed Harlem’s neck.
“Maybe, it is different.”
“Let’s hope,” she murmured.
We entered the room.
Stunned, I stood in the doorway.
All the mirrors were gone as well as the black carpet and ceiling. No porcelain dolls lined the walls. And there was no little woman with black hair.
What was her name again?
“Misha changed everything.” Emily took in the new place. “It’s a sitting area. A normal place to sit. Not a room of nightmares.”
Soft beige carpet covered the floor. A polished mahogany table stood in the center. Two bright blue couches lined the wall. An oil portrait hung on the wall, showing a couple riding horses on the beach.
Emily scanned the space. “What happened to the little girl?”
“She wasn’t a true kid. It was a little woman.”
“Oh.” Emily giggled. “Thank God. I thought your uncle had imprisoned some woman and her child.”
“No. He had a few limits. Jailing kids were one of them.”
We passed tons of rooms. Many of the doors were opened, neat spaces. The same portraits hung on the walls.
We left and headed to the staircase leading to the east wing.
“So. . .mysh.” I took Harlem from her arms and held her hand. “We have some rules.”
“Rules?”
“No exploring secret passageways this trip.”
Pouting, she followed me up the stairs. “Fine.”
Shocked, I turned to her. “Fine?”
“Fine.” She shrugged. “I’m pregnant. No secret tunnels and paths beyond the walls. No chasing after masked men and wrestling down to the ground and shooting them.”
“Hmmm.”
“Do you enjoy this, lion?”
“I must admit. I do. I like you being submissive.”
“Enjoy it for now. This won’t be that long. These months will rush by.”
I hope not.
We got to our room. The maids would bring our bags later. My sister and others would be arriving. Harlem explored the massive space, sniffing every corner and wagging his tail.
Emily checked out each inch of the room too, taking in the massive oil painting on the wall. “Who’s this?”
“Crucifix.”
She nodded. “That’s your favorite band.”
“Of course. My mother had this done for my twelfth birthday. This used to be my old room.”
All six members stood in loud colored suits. The artist had captured their boisterous energy.
“Jesus. This used to be your old room.” She spun around in the area. “This is a huge place for a twelve year old. No wonder you had a big ego. Is it the same furniture?”
“No way. I had a big bunk bed in here. Valentina would sneak in my room in the middle of the night because she was always scared to sleep alone. I had targets and basketball and rugby nets. Anything you can think of that was sports related.”
“Yeah. It’s big enough to play sports in here.”
I talked more with her about my childhood. She laughed and I enjoyed walking down memory lane with her. Never had I had a woman to do that with. There had been none that I had even held more than a few sentences of conversation with.
With Emily, it will always be different.
An hour later, I ordered food and we lounged in my bedroom, spending the rest of the night going over more of my old times in