The cold breeze blew in through the open tall glass windows, fluttering the long cotton hanging above them.
Adeline blinked her lashes apart, opening her eyes. Her pupils scoped her surroundings, and shook her throbbing head with a grimace.
Where am I? She brought her feet down to the floor and left for the door, opening it.
Down the hallway with white marble floor, she walked, glancing around in confusion.
"Where...is this?" she pondered and suddenly halted her steps.
Did they find me? Where is this place? Adeline's heart skipped a beat, and she turned to the window by her left side, peeking outside at the compound.
There weren't any security men outside, as she'd expected. Even at the mansion, Dimitri stationed tons of well-trained men, so where could this place be that he didn't even bother to post at least a few?
She took a slow step back, glancing at her reflection in the glass window. A bandage was wrapped around the lower part of her head and her wrist was secured with a cast.
This made her frown.
They treated her and also left the door open with no security. Weren't they afraid that she might run?
Run? Her eyes widened, and she quickly began to hurry down the hallway.
Though as fishy as it appeared, this was still her chance to get out of there. There were no bodyguards and it was as if they left a way—
She was met with a huge white double door right in her face. Her expression crumpled, and she backed away a little, taking a moment to stare at the door.
Was Dimitri or his father in there?
Adeline swallowed hard, taking a stride forward. She grabbed both handles and slightly pushed open the door, making her way inside.
Her gaze stretched far to the table in the office-like room and halted on a black leather chair that was turned backward.
With slow and steady steps, she approached until she was standing right in front of the desk.
"You've finally woken up," a deep unfamiliar voice sounded.
Adeline's expression squinched in puzzlement, and she could hear her heart begin to beat wildly in uneasiness.
This was neither Dimitri's nor his father's voice. Who was it?
Had she been kidnapped? Could that be the reason why the building and surroundings were unfamiliar? But who would kidnap someone to a penthhouse? It was unusual.
She reached for the golden-colored fountain pen tossed on the desk and started to take a step over to the leather chair.
The man seated on the chair twirled it, halting to face Adeline, who came to an immediate stop at the view of his face. He crossed his legs, interlocking his fingers with a smile tugging on his lips.
Adeline's eyes slowly widened. "H-huh?"
Isn't he... It took a moment to click in her memory, but this man was definitely the green-eyed man whom she'd met after the crash—the one who wanted her to pay for damages!
Why was he in front of her in a penthhouse she'd never seen before? Who was he? He couldn't have possibly kidnapped her...right?
Adeline's breath hitched, and her pupils dilated.
The man who was Caesar, smirked at her. "What is running through your mi-"
Adeline was before him in the blink of an eye, one hand pressed down on the chair on the right side of his head and the other holding the fountain pen, aiming at his throat.
She dipped her knee on the chair in between his thighs at his groin and moved closer, pressing the tip of the fountain pen against his neck. Their faces were just an inch apart.
"Who the hell are you?"
Caesar's eyes blew wide in surprise rather than fear that she might stab his neck any time soon.
"It is pretty bold of you to recklessly attack me like this." His lips curled up into a deadly grin, sending shivers of chills coursing through her body.
It was only now that Adeline realized he had a pistol aimed right at her temples. A single bullet, and she would be six feet underground.
Shuddering, her grip on the fountain pen tightened.
Caesar laughed—a deep, throaty laugh that made her frown deepen.
"Doesn't your wrist hurt?" He shifted his gaze to her cast-secured wrist and returned his attention to her scrunched expression.
"I'm not sure this is how you say thank you to someone who saved your life." His eyes searched her face.
Adeline immediately glared daggers at him. "Saved my life? You kidnapped me!"
"What?" Caesar cocked an eyebrow, no longer amused.
Adeline scoffed, peering at him with vigilant eyes. "First it was on the road, now this? What do you want from me?"
"Your head injury must be affecting your thinking. I would never kidnap an unconscious woman left dying by the roadside. If I wanted to kidnap you, I would have done it in a much more mature style," Caesar said calmly, retracting his gun.
"There are different ways to kill, far better ones. This method is pathetic."
Adeline drew her head back, gazing at him with a mix of confusion, disbelief, and shock.
"If you didn't kidnap me, then...why am I here? What is this place?" she questioned, getting off the chair and dropping the fountain pen on the table. "Is this all because I didn't pay for the damages on your car? If my memory serves me right, you were the same man glaring daggers at me as if you wanted to kill me."
"I had my reasons." Caesar shrugged, innocently spreading his arms out. "This is my penthhouse, and like I said, I saved you, nothing more than that."
Of course, Adeline wasn't going to believe him that easily. She sat down on the couch in the office, wincing at the pain she felt in her wrist. "How generous of you to help a woman that you found dying by the roadside."
She squinted her eyes at him. "Yeah, no, you don't look like the type. Not even a little bit."
"Is that so? That kind of hurts," Caesar said sarcastically, standing up from his chair.
He walked over and sat at the edge of his desk, his back slightly hunched. "It was a surprise driving down the road only to find a familiar someone dying under the rain." His gaze on her was taunting.
"What?" Adeline shot him a cautious glare. "Familiar?"
He nodded his head.
"You're Dimitri''s..." He couldn't seem to complete his words for unknown reasons and Adeline wondered why.
Who was he? How did he know Dimitri? No, how did he even know her? She barely left the Petrov mansion and Dimitri wasn't exactly someone willing to take her wherever he went.
Cautiously balling her fist, she walked up to him, gripped him by the collar of his shirt, and yanked him down to her height. "What do you want from me? Why do you know me and-"
"Do you know who I am?" Caesar lifted his hand, playfully twisting a few strands of her dark brown hair with his index finger. His head was cocked to his side, eyes boring into hers.
Adeline slapped his hand away.
"Who the hell are you?"