Chapter 12: Aww Dang It

I’m eating at the dining table across from Maddy, who also got a cheeseburger. The Presidential Suite’s dining area feels less intimidating without Caterina’s overwhelming presence. My burger is exactly what I wanted, simple, unpretentious comfort food.

The first bite is heaven, juicy, and perfectly cooked. Grease drips down my fingers as I devour it with embarrassing enthusiasm, not caring how I look. Maddy eats hers with more restraint, taking small, measured bites between glances at her phone. The silence between us isn’t exactly comfortable, but it’s not unbearable either.

“How’s the eye?” she finally asks, breaking the quiet. Her voice is casual, but I can see the genuine concern in her green eyes as they flick up to my swollen face.

I swallow my mouthful of burger and wipe my greasy fingers on a napkin before responding. “Maddy, it’s great,” I say, deadpan. “It makes me feel beautiful and strong.”

She freezes mid-bite, her eyes widening slightly before she catches the sarcasm. A snort escapes her, followed by a short burst of laughter that she quickly tries to suppress.

“Sorry,” she says, composing herself. “It’s just... you’re not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” I ask, curious despite myself.

Maddy sets her burger down, considering her words carefully. “Someone more intimidated, I guess. Most men would be terrified after...” She trails off, gesturing vaguely toward my face.

I take another bite of my burger, chewing slowly as I consider Maddy’s words. The juicy meat has lost some of its flavor, turning bland in my mouth as the reality of my situation settles over me like a heavy blanket. I set the burger down, suddenly less hungry than before.

“Maddy, I am terrified,” I sigh. The admission feels like releasing a breath I’ve been holding since Caterina left this morning. “I just don’t know what else to do.”

The words hang in the air between us, raw and honest, in a way that makes the opulent room feel smaller, more intimate.

Maddy looks around awkwardly, her gaze darting to the corners of the room as if checking for hidden cameras or listening devices. Her shoulders slump slightly, the perfect posture of the professional bodyguard giving way to something more human, more vulnerable.

“That’s fair,” she says simply.

I lean forward, lowering my voice even further. My heart pounds against my ribs like a trapped bird. “Can you really get me out like you said last night?”

The question seems to physically impact Maddy. She stiffens, her hand freezing halfway to her mouth with a french fry suspended in mid-air. The fry trembles slightly, betraying the sudden tension in her fingers.

She sets the fry down. When she finally meets my gaze again, her expression has shifted into something carefully neutral, a professional mask sliding into place with practiced ease.

“You don’t even want to give her a chance?” she asks, her voice carefully modulated, neither judging nor encouraging.

I gesture to my face, the movement sharp with frustration. “I don’t feel like I can trust her.”

Maddy’s eyes soften slightly, a flicker of sympathy breaking through her professional veneer.

“Caterina never treats her people poorly,” she says with conviction, though her eyes briefly drop to the table, avoiding my gaze as she speaks. “She’s fair and generous to those who are loyal to her.”

I point to my eye again. “Right, I’m so happy she would never, ever treat someone she wants to be lovers with poorly,” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm so thick it practically coats the room. “I mean, this black eye? Just a love tap, right? A little memento so I don’t forget who I belong to.”

The words come out harsher than I intended, echoing in the cavernous dining room of the Presidential Suite.

Maddy sighs deeply, the sound coming from somewhere profound within her.

“Look, you’re right,” she admits, her voice low and controlled despite the weight of her confession. “I can’t get you out. I probably can’t even offer you any real help.”

My composure slips completely, shattering like fine china dropped on marble. I give her a dirty look.

“So you lied to me,” I say flatly, the words falling between us like stones. “Last night, when I was desperate and hurt, you just... what? Decided to give me false hope for fun?”

“I’m sorry,” she says, meeting my gaze directly despite the discomfort evident in the tightness around her eyes. “I just didn’t know what to say last night. You looked so... broken.”

“No, it’s cool, Maddy,” I reply, waving a hand dismissively, my voice pitched high with exaggerated understanding. “Really, it’s fine. I mean, what’s a little false hope between friends? Or, wait, we’re not friends, are we? You’re just my owner’s employee, making sure the new pet doesn’t run away.”

The words hang in the air between us, ugly and mean-spirited. I don’t feel bad saying them. Fuck the mob. It’s not like she can do shit to me.

Maddy absorbs the verbal blow with the same stoic composure she probably brings to actual physical confrontations in her line of work.

“Look, I can probably give you advice, okay?” she offers, her green eyes intense and focused. “You’re the only man I’ve ever seen Caterina with besides her ex-husband.”

The words hit me like a bucket of ice water, shocking me out of my self-righteous anger. My good eye widens as I process this new information, this unexpected glimpse into Caterina’s past.

“Ex-husband?” I repeat, the burger completely forgotten now.

A nervous flutter passes through my chest, a mixture of curiosity and dread that makes my next question tumble out before I can stop it.

“Did she kill him?” I ask, my voice barely audible, the words carrying the weight of genuine fear.

Maddy quickly waves her hand in dismissal, her eyes widening at the suggestion. “No, nothing like that,” she assures me.

Suddenly, I feel a little annoyed. An ex-husband?

“They barely saw each other. They hated each other,” she explains, her eyes flicking back to mine periodically. “He’s the son of another family. They divorced quietly.”

She pops a fry into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully before adding, “I’m not joking when I say I never saw them in the same room together.”

Relief washes over me, though I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not like I’m jealous of Caterina’s ex-husband. If anything, I should be envious that he managed to escape her orbit unscathed.

‘Fuck. I’m totally jealous.’

“Okay,” I say simply, not knowing what else to add.

Maddy sets down her burger. Her expression grows even more serious.

“Look,” she says, her voice taking on an urgent quality that immediately captures my full attention, “Caterina has another girl. Like me. Her name is Lara.”

Something in the way she says the name, Lara, sends a chill down my spine. There’s a weight to it, a warning embedded in those two simple syllables that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“Be careful of Lara,” Maddy continues, her normally composed features tightening with what appears to be genuine concern. “I don’t think she’d ever do anything to you, but she’s actually crazy. Like a certified psycho.”

“We don’t kill a lot of people, you know,” Maddy says softly. “But when we do...” She pauses, her green eyes darkening with something that looks uncomfortably like dread. “Lara jumps at the opportunity. She loves it.”

I gulp hard.

“What do you mean, she loves it?” I ask, though some part of me already knows the answer.

“She loves to hurt people,” Maddy says bluntly. “And she especially loves to hurt men. You know how some people just have a job? Lara has a calling.”

“She has a particular... interest in men,” Maddy continues, choosing her words with obvious care. “She loves to rape them. It’s like a hobby for her.”

My stomach lurches violently. “Jesus Christ,” I mutter, setting down the fry and pushing my plate away entirely.

“I know you don’t trust me,” Maddy says, her eyes locked on mine with an intensity that feels impossible to doubt. “But give that girl a wide berth, okay? If you see red hair coming, walk, no. Run in the opposite direction.”

The urgency in her voice sends another chill down my spine. Despite my earlier anger, despite the lingering sense of betrayal from her false promise of help, I can’t detect any deception in her warning. This, at least, feels genuine.

“But why would she go after her boss’s boy toy?” I ask, trying to sound casual despite the cold knot of fear forming in my gut. “Wouldn’t that be, like, career suicide in your world?”

Maddy’s expression grows even more grim, the corners of her mouth pulling down into a tight frown.

“She probably won’t,” she admits, pushing her own plate away and leaning her elbows on the table. “I hope she doesn’t. Caterina would go scorched earth.”

She pauses, and the silence stretches between us for several long seconds before she adds, “But I’m just saying, she’s an actual wild card. If you’re ever alone with her, be as careful as possible. Don’t antagonize her. Don’t joke around. Just... Be invisible until you can get away.”

I sit in silence for a moment, digesting this information. The warning about Lara hangs in the air like a toxic cloud. My fingers absently trace the edge of the titanium credit card in my pocket.

“Look,” Maddy says, her voice gentler now, breaking through my spiraling thoughts. “It’s not all doom and gloom. Caterina genuinely cares for you. That’s... rare. In our world.”

“And for what it’s worth,” she continues, her Boston accent thickening slightly with emotion, “I’ve never seen her this torn up about anything. She seemed pretty shaken up for hurting you.”

“Alright, thanks then, I guess,” I mumble. “For the warning about Lara, at least.”

Maddy nods, understanding in her green eyes. She wipes her hands meticulously on a napkin, folding it precisely before placing it beside her half-eaten burger.

“I should probably get back downstairs,” she says, rising from her chair.

“Alright,” I reply, suddenly feeling exhausted.

She pauses at the edge of the table, her tall frame casting a long shadow across the polished wood. “If you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Sounds good,” I say, staring at the rest of my burger.

*****

I’m laying on the bed watching YouTube videos about the planets to make sure they’re still the same here.

‘They are, thank God.’

Jupiter still has its great red spot, Saturn its rings, and Pluto its controversial dwarf planet status. At least the cosmos remained unchanged in this gender-flipped reality. I’d already confirmed that World War II happened with the same outcomes, though apparently, Hitler was a woman.

‘I wonder if it’d be hot if I was a little Jewish guy being saved by a big scary Nazi officer. Enemies to lovers and all. I could be Adam Frankenstein.’

……..

‘Wait, no. That’s a bad thought.’

The familiar ding of the elevator pulls me from my potentially offensive stream of conscience. My heart does a little jump in my chest. It’s sooner than I expected, but I’m honestly a tad bit excited to see Caterina. Despite everything, the violence, the possession, the overall insanity of my situation, there’s something about her that draws me in like gravity.

I set my phone down and slide off the bed, wincing slightly as the movement jostles my injured eye. The swelling has gone down marginally since this morning, but it still throbs with a dull, persistent ache.

The elevator doors slide open with a soft hydraulic hiss, and my stomach drops to my feet.

Standing in the elevator isn’t Caterina with her golden hair and crimson eyes. Instead, a tall woman with striking red hair that cascades down her back in fiery waves steps into the suite. Her angular features are arranged in an expression of mild surprise at finding me waiting, her intense blue eyes locking onto me with predatory focus.

Lara. It has to be. Maddy’s warning from barely an hour ago echoes in my mind like a siren. ‘If you see red hair coming, run in the opposite direction.’

But my feet remain rooted to the plush carpet, my body frozen in place as she steps fully into the suite. She’s dressed in an impeccably tailored grey suit that accentuates her lean frame. In her hand, she carries what I recognize as my Birkin bag, the one Caterina gifted me what feels like a lifetime ago.

“Hello there,” Lara says, her voice silky and melodic.

I feel incredibly unlucky.

‘Is this how Claire feels every day.’