Alpha Adrian part 21

Her body seemed to sense whenever the janitor showed up. She shuddered awake, held her breath and played dead for the rest of the time he was in there.

Every night, he spent a little too much time sweeping. Eva knew the room was barely dirty, so there was no need for such vigorous sweeping. It was getting to a point that she dreaded going to sleep. She was going to have to ask Adrian to replace the janitor, although she would hate to bring up the inconvenience. It made her seem like a willing guest that needed accommodations. She didn’t want to be under anyone’s watch. She wanted to go home.

Most of the time she was conscious, she planned how she would get away. She just needed to find a phone, or a sane person.

At least she was recovering quickly. Her arm was still in a sling, but she could walk around without getting exhausted. Adrian seemed to know this. He started taking longer breaks to tend to his work. Not that she minded.

When she walked in that day, he didn’t seem to be in his right mind. His shoulders were hunched, his shirt was on backwards, and his eyes didn’t meet hers. He played with a chess piece between his fingers for hours, and he was so silent that Eva nearly forgot he was there.

It was unnerving. He was usually very attentive—shifting whenever she did as if their body was one and asking if she needed anything if she shifted one too many times.

The one thing she noticed is that his phone wouldn’t stop buzzing all day. He hardly ever checked it, though. He was too busy staring at his chess piece.

Eva wondered what was going on. Did a business deal go really badly?

“Do you want to play chess?”

His grumble nearly scared her off the bed and sent her tumbling to the ground— or rather, to his arms. She knew he would never let her fall.

The request was odd. He never asked her to play chess. The board game was usually just there, waiting for her to mention it.

She stared at him for a long moment, before delivering, “no, than—”

“Why?” he interjected. The word was so blunt, so loud, that she flinched in expectation that he would swing.

Adrian stood up and extended an arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

A growl— a sound that should only belong in animals, erupted from his chest. The chess piece exploded in his fist, and he walked away in apparent frustration.

Eva looked at pieces on the ground, and then the shut door. How should she take it? Does it start like this? Do his outbursts eventually become physical?

A ding came from the floor, and she looked down and discovered that Adrian dropped his cellphone as he left. It was a new text.

“Sorry for your loss. Your mom was…”

Eva picked the phone up and stared at that text on the lock screen.

He lost his mother?

Numbly, she placed the phone on the nightstand and thought about his words. Was he so lost today that he needed a quick round of chess to distract him from the pain?

Guilt struck her. Maybe she should have said yes to his offer.

She looked at the door and realized it was peeked open. There was no usual shadow in the hallway. With a lurking suspicion, she slipped off the bed and inched toward the door. Her nightgown fluttered against her calves and her heart fluttered as she peeked outside.

No one was outside. She could run away.

Her hand jumped to the door handle, but she paused and looked backward. Damn it, why did she feel guilty? She was the kidnapped one. She had a right to freedom, and she didn’t want to be amongst strangers.

Thinking quickly, she scrambled in searched for a pen to leave a quick goodbye message. There was nothing in there, only a bag of chess pieces, so she had no option but to tear into it and spell— SORRY by arranging the pieces.

The single word was cold. She wanted to offer her condolences, wish him well, and ask that he kept his distance from her, but she didn’t have the utensil to write all of that.

She stared at the word one last time and noticed that the King and Queen were on opposite ends.

With a bitter taste in her mouth, she bunched up her gown and went for the door. She turned a corner and stopped when she found two people. Before they noticed her, she turned back and collapsed against the wall when she found two furious eyes on her.

“Go back and I won’t tell him you tried to escape.”

He spoke so fast that a drop of spit flickered off his mouth and touched her bottom lip. It was cold and disgusting.

She inched away from the janitor and dashed to her room. After locking the door, she unscrambled the message she left on the floor.

She found solace in the fact that it hadn’t been Adrian that found her.

In the bathroom, she vigorously washed her face raw, but she could still feel that speck of spit on her lip. With goosebumps all over her skin, she crawled into bed and tried to get some sleep.

The door opened late at night, and her muscles tensed as usual.

She really needed to talk to Adrian about this creep, but she was afraid that he would find out about her attempted escape.

There was a loud ruffle, and the door closed moments later.

Eva peeked open an eye. On the nightstand was an enormous vase overflowing with flowers. Flicking on the lights, she touched one tulip and noticed the attached note. She recognized the handwriting before anything else.

I’m sorry for scaring you. You’re the only person I would never want to be a beast with. 

-A

She stared at that A. What did it stand for, Adrian, Albert, Alpha?

The better question was, why was she melting over the detail? The man lost his mother and was doing all the apologizing. He had every right to be emotionally unstable, but was sending flowers and notes.

It was unhealthy for her to put him on a pedestal over this because he was still a kidnapper, but she couldn’t exhaust the flame in her chest.

The door creaked. She was wrong to expect Adrian to walk in.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she whispered to the unnamed janitor. “Stop intimidating me or Adrian will… he’ll hear of this.”

“And he’ll also hear about your little get-away,” he sneered. “What do you think he will be more upset about?”

She didn’t know, and that scared her.

“If I tell The Council you’re here, Alpha will be dragged to a world of shit. They’ll seize and wipe your brain, but not before Alpha throttles some sense into you. Is that what you want?”

Wipe her brain? With every word, she became more unnerved.

She should run and tell Adrian all about this, but she didn’t want to find out how he would react if he found out she tried to run.

“What do you want?”

“A date. With me.”

She shook her head. “What? I’m not—”

“No sex,” he interjected.

And she was just supposed to believe that? No. The guy was insane.

“No,” she stepped back. She had no interest in getting kidnapped twice.

Her arm pulsed with pain. She had been on weaker meds, and the stress was eating away at her.

“It will be in here.”

That sounded more compromising. If it was in here, she could scream her lungs out and someone would hear her.

"But what about Adrian? He’s always around.”

“Yes or no,” he pushed.

She hesitated, so he taunted, “fine, then. I’ll go and tell him about—”

“Yes. Okay!”

He pushed a hand through his thinning hair. “Good. Now be quiet about this, or you’ll suffer more than me.”