Page 21 of Castle

Until…

I dropped to the ground and was screaming at the top of my lungs from the pain that surged through my left leg. Sobbing loudly, I forced myself to look down and saw that my leg was caught in a trap, the sharp edges digging into my skin.

Castle was on his knees beside me, frantically trying to open the trap with his bare hands, but it made the pain much worse.

From a distance, I heard the familiar voice moving closer.

Devin walked towards us, carrying a hunting rifle, and his expression was downright evil.

EIGHT

My legthrobbedwith the unbearable pain and when I touched my leg, I found blood on my fingers. I had a blurry vision, but I could see Castle hovering over me, trying to help as best as he could. You could tell from his expressions that he was upset with the turn of events and was frantic to help me out.

I wanted to scream at him since he was the reason I’d gotten stuck here in the first place. If he hadn’t followed me from the mansion, I would have already been across the lake and riding a cab.

Devin had laid the traps here on purpose so any staff that left the property wouldn’t be able to cross the forest and I’d fallen right into it. I should have known that escaping from here wouldn’t be so easy.

What have I gotten myself into?

What did this twisted family want from me?

“Castle, step aside,” Devin ordered him, the rifle slinging against his shoulders. “You’re making it worse for her.”

“You sick bastard!” I yelled at him.

“There, now Millie. I would suggest you control that smart mouth of yours. I’m your boss and I deserve nothing but respect. Besides, you’re the one who was trying to break the rules of thishouse and our contract when I specifically told you that breaking rules have dire consequences.” He informed me in a calm tone, “We have traps laid around in the forest for wild animals, and I should apologize that you got caught up in it, unfortunately.”

He was lying through his teeth and I knew it. He wasn’t sorry about anything.

“Greg, call Dr. Walker, and have him see Miss. Davis in her room.”

Greg was another one of the house servants who came forward to pick me up, and that’s when I noticed he limped slightly on his right foot.

Devin raised his hand to stop him from approaching me, “I haven’t finished talking to her.”

Greg stopped in his tracks and stood there with a solemn expression on his face, as if he were used to seeing employees caught in animal traps. It seemed like Greg had witnessed many things of such a gruesome nature and had learned to be numb to it all.

“Sir, we found her bag,” Winston called out.

Devin snatched it out of his hand. “Now what do we have here?” he asked teasingly before opening the duffle bag and emptying the contents onto the ground.

The sandwiches, the drinks, and snacks fell from it, along with my personal belongings.

Devin laughed, “Out of everything that you could steal, this is all you could think of? Millie, the pair of shoes that Dayana gave you the other day alone costs over a thousand dollars. You could have taken those instead.” He flashed me the boy-next-door smile—the same one that I’d mistaken for charming the first time we’d met. “But I do love honest people, and that’s the reason I hired you that day.”

“Please let me go.” I cried. “What do you want from me?”

Devin leaned in and tipped my chin upward, forcing me to meet his gaze. His emerald eyes, which I once thought were beautiful, now looked vacant and devoid of humanity. In that moment, I knew he was capable of far greater evils.

In a dangerously low tone, he promised, “You’ll soon find out what I really want from you, Millie.”

My blood ran cold.

He was likely going touseme for something sexual. I was so sure. He was a predator, just like uncle Mark. The only difference was that Mark was poor and doughy around the middle area, while Devin was wealthy and gorgeous.

It’s the inside that mattered. On the inside, both were clearlyveryugly.

I take back what I said when I first met him about Devin being a nice person.

---