Chapter 4 The Terrifying Scream

The scream ripped me out of sleep like someone had yanked my soul straight out of my body.

Not a normal scream.

Not the muffled ones I had grown disturbingly used to hearing echo through the mansion over the last few days.

Not the short, sharp ones that ended quickly.

This one was different.

Guttural. Raw.

It tore through the walls like claws made of sound.

It felt like pain so deep it couldn’t be human.

My entire body jerked upright before my mind could catch up. The blanket tangled around my legs as I gasped for breath. The chains on my wrists rattled against the bed frame, the metal cold and biting against my skin.

Another scream followed. It was louder, closer.

Desperate.

I could hear the cry for help without any words from this person and my heart stilled.

Then hammered.

Fear didn’t just seep into my skin, it punched through it, flooding every nerve.

No matter how many terrifying noises I had heard since waking in this place… this was different.

This was someone dying.

My legs moved on instinct.

I stood too fast.

The world spun.

Pain shot through my calves, thighs, my ribs, but I ignored all of it.

I had to…

I had to do something.

I didn’t know what.

I didn’t know how.

But the human urge to help overpowered the chains, the fear, the memories, everything.

I took one step toward the shadows near the bed, toward where the door should’ve been, when a gunshot cracked through the building.

The sound was so sharp, so sudden, it punched the air from my lungs.

Then silence.

Not the quiet kind.

The heavy, absolute silence that comes after something irreversible.

My knees buckled. I sank onto the edge of the bed, chest tight, breath trembling out of me in small gasps.

He was dead.

I didn’t know the man, didn’t even see him, but I knew in the same instinctive way you know a storm is coming. From the scream, the gunshot, the void that followed.

I didn't need someone to tell me that a person had died.

Here.

Now.

So close I could feel the fading echo vibrating through the floorboards.

My stomach twisted violently. I pressed a hand to my mouth, trying not to throw up.

Before I could even begin to process any of it, my door slammed open.

The force of it ricocheted off the walls, making me flinch so hard the cuffs bit deep into my wrists, and light from the hallway sliced into the dark room, harsh and blinding.

Jerome Black strode in like a storm wearing a human shape.

His face was carved in ice as usual. Sharp, merciless, and furious. The kind of fury that wasn’t loud… but lethal.

Behind him were guards.

More than usual.

Their heavy footsteps thundered through the doorway.

But the moment Jerome stepped inside, everyone else seemed small.

His eyes swept the room once.

Once.

Then dropped directly onto me.

My breath caught in my throat. My entire body went still, instinct curling me inward.

He didn’t acknowledge me. Not outwardly.

Instead, he turned toward the guards near the door, the ones who were supposed to be watching me, and it immediately felt like the temperature in the room dropped.

“You left her window open.” He said, voice quiet enough to chill bone.

The guards paled instantly.

One tried to speak

“Boss, we…”Jerome didn’t let him finish.

His foot snapped forward with brutal precision, slamming into the man’s leg.

A crack.

Followed by a scream.

The guard dropped to the floor, clutching his knee, writhing. Jerome didn’t even look down at him. His expression didn’t change.

The second guard stumbled backward, eyes wide.

“Sir, please…” He started but before he could complete his sentence, Jerome hit him too.

I winced as a second scream filled the room. Yes. It was nothing like the one outside, but painful all the same.

He kicked them both again, short, sharp, punishing strikes. Their armored suits didn’t help. His boots dug through fabric and into bone.

“You are guarding my property,” Jerome said, voice still infuriatingly calm. “You do not leave a point of entry unsealed.”

Property.

The word cut through my chest like a blade.

My usually sharp tongued self was mute. I had so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to counter but no words came out of my lips.

My hands trembled in the cuffs, the metal scraping against my skin as I tried to pull away from the scene even though I was chained, even though there was nowhere to go.

Jerome’s gaze flicked to me then.

Just a second.

Just enough.

He didn’t soften.

He didn’t even acknowledge that the violence happening in front of me might traumatize a normal human being.

He simply checked that I was still there.

Still alive.

Still chained.

Still his.

I swallowed hard, terrified of what that look meant.

Before I could find my voice that wanted to scream profanities at him, another man stepped into the room.

He wasn’t dressed like the guards.

He wasn’t dressed like Jerome either.

He was handsome, very handsome but in a lighter way than jerome.

As soon as I realise that I just impliedly state that the wicked gang leader was handsome, I mentally slap myself , hard.

The man's walk was confident, relaxed even, like he belonged here but didn’t need to perform dominance to prove it.

His eyes landed on me immediately, and the sway in his step paused.

A curious, knowing smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.

“Oh!” He exclaimed lightly, amusingly threading the single syllable. “So this is the woman you’ve been hiding.” He said in a teasing tone to Jerome who looked like he could pull his neck off his head any minute from now.

My chest tightened so violently that I choked on air.

Hide?

Hiding me?

Jerome’s head turned slowly toward the man.

The stranger’s eyes traveled over me who

was still chained, rumpled, and frightened before settling with a kind of satisfied understanding.

“I see why.” he added with a soft chuckle. “I see exactly why.”