Chapter 9

Kayla Santino. Fuck. I pull on my hair in frustration and groan. This person must be in this house. There is no way my grandpa came from Italy with that note in the cookies. This must be someone from this house, and I will find out who. Starting with planting secret cameras in my room. They will regret messing with me, no matter what their reasons are. I toss the cookies away because I can't eat them anymore. Who knows, maybe they got them poisoned. I furiously march out of my room to Thomas's. I need to start seeking answers. I open the door without knocking, only to find him watching TV, relaxed as if he is not making my life miserable. I'm sure you put that note in my cookies, and here you are pretending as if nothing happened. I glare at the guy and wish he would just disappear. "You want anything, princess?" Thomas acts startled as if he is not keeping tabs on me. I know he knew I was coming. Fuck face. Wait until I have evidence. We're going to have a very long, interesting talk. "Yes, I forgot to buy heels to go with my dress, please get them for me. Size 38," I say, handing him a bundle of cash. The main reason is to get him out of the house, so Theo and I can have the privacy needed to install the cameras. "Sure, the store from earlier, right?"He talks calmly, you wouldn't even suspect a thing. I hope I'm wrong about him. "Yes, and they should be sandal heels," I add, and he nods. Are we wrong about him? Thomas grabs his jacket from the bed and the cash before leaving the room. He doesn't lock the door, or maybe he just never locks it. Whoever cares. I patiently wait for Theo in my room, and when he arrives, we immediately get into action. "Hurry up, Theo," I impatiently whisper and look through the window in case Thomas is coming back. I don't need the shoes anyway, and I know I won't wear whatever he will bring. Theo plants the camera near his dresser, and I know we will be able to see everything that happens in here because it's the perfect spot. He installs one in the bathroom and two in my room. "And done," he exclaims happily, and for the first time, I am not bothered by his smiley face. "Is everything done?" I whisper-yell, looking in the corridors in case someone saw us. My dad can't know about this. " Yes, let's go check it out on my laptop. I will also hack his phone for incoming and outgoing calls, plus messages. You have his number, right?" he asks, leading the way out of the house. "Yes, I have it. Wait, where are we going?" I ask when he is about to open the door of his car. Thought we were gonna do everything in my room. "We need to do it somewhere else, the creep might easily sneak on us, and we don't want him knowing we already have suspicions about him." That makes sense. I nod and go back to my room to arm myself before joining him. Anything can happen along the way. "We are going to our house, he won't follow us there," he starts the car, and I keep myself busy with my phone. "Is Carl home? We don't want him getting suspicious." I ask when I remember that all the boys live in Carl's house. "He's not home. Probably screwing some whore or something," he shamelessly says, and I gasp in horror. "What did you just say?" I ask him in disbelief, Carl, does that shit? "Shit. I am sorry, princess. I completely forgot." "Don't worry about that, I'm the one wearing the crown," I assure him to ease the guilt on his face. " Just because we are expected to get married doesn't mean he already got me. He's gonna work for it if he wants me," Look at the man my dad got me. Couldn't he at least do better? I can always find another way to keep the alliance without the marriage. Imagine getting married to a manwhore, for what? "That's my girl," Theo chirpily exclaims. Damn, this guy is so ecstatic. Maybe he's not that bad, I think. " I hate how men move from one woman to another like we are mere objects. I don't like it one bit," I harshly whisper and try to bury the disgusting memories creeping into my head. "I agree with you, girl. If someone is not ready to commit, they should practice celibacy. Better still, find one woman for when they want a release" he says and I look at him with a scrunched face. I don't agree with that either. Why can't he be loyal?. Theo pulls up at a big grey mansion and the first thing I notice, is the large swimming pool on the left side of the house. I miss a good swim. I should get in the water soon. Shirtless men are scattered all over the place showing off their muscled bodies. "See, this is what I was talking about. All these muscles hurt my eyes," Theo whispers before opening my door. "Shouldn't your man's musicles be the only ones hurting your eyes?" I smirk and stare at him in amusement. He's so full of energy, I hope he remains this way. "It is but damn!, I gotta appreciate all these views and it's suffocating sometimes." he is so dramatic, I swear. " Btw you just smirked at me, that is the most reaction I got from you so far, progress right?" he exclaims, grinning widely, and I wonder why my reaction matters to him. "Let's just go," I roll my eyes, and put back my serious face on. "Okay, my lady" The place looks beautiful except for the horny eyes trailing up and down my body, which I would love to pluck out one by one. "Don't mind them, it's rare to see a girl around here. Only boss brings girls home, but the rest of us have to do it outside" he explains when he sees my disgust. "Do they know who I am?" I whisper to Theo. "Most of them know you as the princess but don't know about you being betrothed to our boss" he explains in a whisper "So I was not the only one in the dark?" "The reason Carl keeps it a secret is because he doesn't want to draw attention to you from his enemies. You know how this works, if they find out about his wife, they'll probably use you to hurt him" "So he lives freely like he's not tied to someone, right?" "You can say that." Wow! Men. The big double doors open to a large sitting room. It's well furnished, but the smoke in the air reminds me that it's a men's den. Carl is sitting on a large, king-like couch, shirtless with a cancer stick on his lips. On his lap, sits a blonde in a straddling manner and busy eating out his neck. Her hands are all over his body and I feel disgusted just watching them. Some husband he is. "Shit," Theo whispers, looking at me with worry after he follows my gaze. "Where is your room? we have something to do, remember," I tell him like I just saw nothing. Clearly, not the reaction he was expecting from me, he hesitantly leads to the stairs on the left side of the living room. "Are you okay?" he asks after a moment of silence. " Why wouldn't I be, Theo?" "I just thought maybe,...., never mind " I think everyone knows where their loyalty lies, and Carl is mature enough to make his decisions. It's a forced marriage after all. We slowly take the stares up to Theo's room. Carl and his crew don't notice us. "I like your room," I compliment when he opens his white door. The room is large with white walls that are covered by flowery portraits. I always assumed men were a bit untidy. "Thank you, it's my haven" I have noticed he doesn't interact with the other men a lot. The most I have seen him with is Sam. "So let's check out what our boy is up to," he says setting the laptop on the table. He does his thing and Thomas's room appears on the screen. He's sitting on his bed with the phone in his hands. After some time, Thomas places the phone to his ear like he's talking to someone. "His number, hurry" I quickly pass him my phone so he can take Tom's number. He doesn't take the time hacking it, and we are able to hear what he's saying. "Yes, master" his voice comes through. We are not able to make out what the other person is saying, so we settle on listening to his side. "She had sent me to the store, it won't happen again, boss." Theo and I look at each other knowingly. We caught him. But who is this master?