Page 50 of Tied

Chapter 24

Cain

This house has been serving as my safe house for the past year, and as I lead Riley out of her room, I’m wondering if I just made a big mistake by not covering her eyes. She can’t run anywhere, but she is smart and attentive. Her eyes flit from left to right, taking in every little detail while we walk through the corridor that leads up from her basement room. Her curiosity only grows when I take her upstairs. As we pass through the open entrance area of the house, Riley is turning and moving so wildly next to me that she keeps yanking at my wrist as her steps slow and her attention is elsewhere.

“Don’t try anything with me,” I warn, pulling her close to my side with such a violent pull that she almost loses her balance.

She mewls in protest and frowns up at me.

“It’s not like I could run away,” she reminds me.

“That’s right,” I agree. “But I want you to keep your eyes forward from now on. Do you understand?”

“Fi—,” she begins, stopping herself just in time to remember the correct response. “Yes, sir.”

She bites her lower lip in a visible effort to prevent herself from saying anything that could get her in trouble with me. Smart girl.

Still, I should have blindfolded her—just in case.

The house isn’t very big, a simple two-story townhouse lined up at the end of a row of similar-looking houses, most of them uninhabited. This house was never meant to be lived in either, at least not on a long-term basis, but I still made sure that it had everything to house a group of people if I ever needed it.

Like I do now.

Both Kyle and Jack are staying here on the first floor, while I have my bedroom on the second floor. The amount I pay them to serve as my personal henchmen and bodyguards is generous enough to keep their traps shut even when I’m the one deciding where they sleep. They were instructed to stay down here while I take Riley to the surveillance room upstairs.

She falls behind as we ascend the stairs up to the second floor, and when I turn around to check on her, I notice that it is because she has spotted Jack at the far end of the hallway that leads to the kitchen. He’s leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and a dirty grin on his face.

“Fuck off, Jack!” I yell at him.

He winks at Riley before rolling his eyes at me and then turns around and walks away.

Riley looks up at me with wide eyes, her face pale and overshadowed with intimidation.

“He won’t get near you again,” I promise.

“Why did you ever let it happen in the first place?” she asks as we continue our way upstairs.

I don’t deign to give her a response and, hastening my steps, I pull at the cuff to keep her close to me.

“I’m serious, Cain,” she presses behind me. “Why did you let them see me naked? Why did you humiliate me like that?”

She pauses, and for a few moments, her erratic breathing is the only thing I hear as she follows me through the hallway on the second floor.

“And why did you send these guys down to my room, so that I was all alone with them?” she adds after a while, her voice heavier and darker than before. “Alone and naked.”

We have reached the end of the hallway and I beckon her to step inside the room before me. She frowns at me, her lips pressed into a thin line while the crease between her eyebrows grows deeper—but she obediently follows my gesture and steps into the surveillance room. I follow and close the door behind my back, locking it just in case.

She stands in the middle of the room for a few moments before turning to me with a questioning look on her face, and I’m not sure whether it’s because she’s waiting for an answer to her inquiries or because she seeks an explanation for what she’s seeing in here.

The room is relatively big, hosting most of our technical equipment in one corner and two desks on the other side. It doesn’t look like much, but the two laptops next to the screens are the most valuable things in this entire house.

Despite the wealth I have accumulated over the years, I never cared for excessive possessions in most areas of my life, except for one: technology. When Riley and I first met, I was introduced to her as Cain Hewett, a successful tech mogul who made millions with security software and was now interested in growing his wealth and influence by smart investment in new applications in the same field. While very little of that was true, my interest in technology and the things it can do for us was not made up. There is even a part of me that envies Riley for her skills and her understanding of programming languages and software engineering.

“You’re not even going to answer me?” Riley probes, tilting her head to the side.

“That’s right, I’m not. We have more important things to discuss.”

She sighs but refrains from rolling her eyes at me.

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