"How the hell did you figure out I was going to try to escape when Alice brought me dinner?"
Kaija's voice came out sharp and breathless, more from disbelief than exhaustion.
Moments earlier, Juho had hauled her back through the endless maze of corridors like she weighed nothing at all, one arm hooked securely beneath her thighs while she kicked and cursed over his shoulder. Every turn had blurred together—gold-framed paintings, dark polished wood, antique lamps casting pools of amber light across crimson wallpaper—until she no longer had the slightest idea where in the monstrous estate she was.
And now she was back where she started.
Thrown onto the vast bed like a captured animal returned to its cage.
The mattress dipped beneath her body with insulting softness.
Juho stood at the edge of the bed, one hand in his pocket, the other lazily adjusting the cuff of his black shirt. There was no strain in his breathing despite carrying her all the way upstairs. No irritation either.
