Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Milah shook her head, and tears filled her eyes. Glory tightened her grip on her hand.
“I … I need to walk.”
“Milah, you will not do this alone. Do not feel guilty for their deaths. It is not right.”
She wanted to scream at them. How could they see it like that? If she hadn’t been at this stupid house, it wouldn’t have happened.
“Come on, let us enjoy the snow. The chef was a horrible man, anyway. He always felt that he was to be protected,” Glory said. “It’s why he would hit us if we didn’t do what he wanted. Even if we did, he’d find a reason to harm us, and none of us would tell Damon.”
Milah looked at Glory in shock. “He’d beat you.”
“Yes,” Glory said.
She didn’t know if it was a trick to get her to calm down. People had died because of her. There was no way she was going to be able to forget that. Death wasn’t so easy. She hated it.
They continued walking, but for some time, Milah couldn’t speak. She had tried to hide the bad-tasting food. Of course, it meant she was starving for the most part, but she had tried to play it safe. They’d died anyway.
What had been the point?
“Have you heard any news about … what I asked?” she asked, aware of James close beside her.
“No, Milah. I haven’t. Nothing new has come just yet.”
Milah stopped. The snow outside was not soothing her thoughts. If anything, it was making her more miserable.
“I think it is time—” She stopped as she heard an animal cry. “Do you hear that?”
It came again, and James held his weapon tightly. She hated the sight of guns but had learned as a child to accept them. Her father demanded similar security around his home.
The cry came again.
Milah spun around, detecting the sound and heading toward it. Letting go of Glory’s hand, she followed the sound, and as she drew closer, she saw a puppy. It was so small in the snow.
On instinct, she removed her jacket, but James moved in front of her, and she feared he intended to kill it.
Throwing herself in front of him, she quickly gathered the cold pup in her arms.
“Milah, put it down. It could have diseases.”
“Do not be so fucking cruel,” she said. “I will not let you harm an innocent animal. Not now. Not ever.”
****
“She found a stray dog?” Damon asked.
“Yes, a puppy,” Glory said.
“I attempted to kill it, but she was like a wild animal, sir, I couldn’t kill it.”
Damon sat back in his chair. “Where is she now?”
“In her bedroom,” Glory said. “She is … she would like the vet to come and check it over.”
He shook his head. “I’ll go and deal with it,” Damon said. “You may leave. Glory, I need a word.”
James left the office after giving a lingering look to Glory.
She didn’t look in James’s direction. Damon made a note to keep an eye on that situation. The maids in his service were all protected. He’d ordered the men to never cross that line. When he was a boy, his father had been furious after one of his guards had raped a woman. She had attempted to kill herself, and because of this, his father made an example by chopping off the man’s dick and allowing him to live. He had to serve in the brothels, always being close but never allowed to touch.
The man was still alive to this day, serving women he could never have.
“Yes, sir.”
“How … is she?” Damon asked.
Glory looked up at him and then quickly bowed her head.
“You can look at me.”
“She seemed distressed when James went to kill the small pup.”
“It was out in the cold, and it would probably die anyway.”
“Milah is … she’s not happy about the death of the kitchen staff.”
“She knows?”
Glory nodded. “She asked when they would be returning.”
“Of course she did.”
“I don’t think she is anything like her father or the Russo men, sir.” She bowed her head again.
He was starting to see that, but he wouldn’t make the same assessment quite yet. The Russos were known liars and manipulators.
“She has asked about her father again. About what he has said.”
“She has?”
“I don’t know what to tell her.”
“Tell her that her father’s message is to see me,” Damon said, getting to his feet. “You’re dismissed.”
Milah had fast become a thorn in his side.
He made his way out of his office and went straight to her room. Milah looked up as he entered. She lay on the bed, a huge bundle by her side, and he saw her wrap her arms around it protectively.
“You brought a mutt into my house?” he asked.
“It was cold. I would like a vet, please. I … she…”
“Enough of this. Give the damn vermin to me.”
“No,” Milah said. She pulled the dog into her arms. “I’m not going to let you kill her. She has done nothing wrong. I won’t let another animal get hurt.”