Page 15 of Unleash Hades (Ungoverned Spaces #5)

Calissandra

I slipped into the empty hallway first. Hugo said he’d wait a few minutes then follow after.

But my brain was fried by the orgasm. The first in a long time that didn’t come from my right hand.

How easily I gave into feminine fancies when Hugo was near me.

His French accent reminded me of the home I turned my back on. A language I rarely spoke, even though I had been born to it. All because of Richard.

The hall was empty. The distant shouts told me that there was another match. Whatever it was, it must have been a good one.

I took a moment to catch my breath, and wiped at tears that were a mix of pain and pleasure. Incredible highs, and incredible lows all mixed into a single moment of my otherwise numb existence.

I turned the first corner hallway and, once again, almost smashed right into Rose Legaspi-Vasilieva-Green.

“Did you have fun?” She leaned back against the wall, one leg propped up. Her arms crossed beneath her ample bosom.

“I… yes. Yes I did.” I felt my ears heat with embarrassment.

I was used to being the frigid bitch. The woman who was cold and let her husband run around with mistresses. So to be that woman in the eyes of a stranger was… different.

Bellamy was right, I knew nothing about the Underground, or the woman in front of me.

This woman was strong. Stronger than me, certainly. Her shoulders were wide, her biceps bulging, and there was something about her demeanor that made me nervous. A certain stillness that I only ever saw in the faces of calm killers.

“I’m saying this because I care about my friend.” She pushed off the wall and squared up with me. “But whatever you’ve got going on, I don’t like it. So if you’re just leading him on because you’re some kind of…”

“I’m not leading him on.”

“You’re a married woman.”

“I am, but I am not leading him on.” I clenched my jaw, and brought my voice down, whispering a secret that I barely allowed myself to acknowledge. “He’s the only man I love.”

I wouldn’t stand here and be questioned by her. I wouldn’t tell her more than I wanted to. I had already said too much.

I skirted around her, giving her a wide berth as I rushed past, back down the hall and into the arena, where the familiar tang of alcohol, human sweat, and the shouts for blood filled my ears. In the cacophony, I found comfort.

I could armor up here, and keep my secrets close to my vest.

It was a relief to walk down the aisle, and to my seat by Bellamy. My enemy.

I was more familiar with conflict than comfort. Lies had been my armor, and to live in truth with Hugo? With that Rose…? It was to be naked, and raw.

I loved and hated it.

Bellamy cheered as one man in the ring pummeled the other, and the smack of human flesh filled the room, punctuated by the hoots and hollers of the well-dressed audience.

It was disgusting, really. Brutal, and bloody, the cheap entertainment was a testament to how many reveled in the sign of primal blood.

Humans were cruel, and those who thought themselves above such things - the people like Richard and Bellamy - were the most brutal and callous of all.

“Well, you’re just positively glowing,” Bellamy said, taking a gold and diamond pin off of his ascot, then re-attaching it. Then he cheered as one man struck another so hard, the sound of it echoed around the room. “Good show!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

But I could barely put my back into the lie.

“There's a pub near here.” Bellamy’s eyes never left the fighting men as he clapped and whistled along with the rest of the audience. “Four Green Fields. Do you know it?”

“No.” Yes, I did. I had been outside of it with Gavin.

“We should go and have a pint. Or whatever your drink of choice is.”

“I’d rather break a leg.”

He sighed, as the referee broke up the match, declaring a winner. For the second time that day, they carted a man out on a stretcher.

“You’ll regret that decision, I promise you,” he said, getting up from his seat.

“Where are you going?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh, to see the managers of the Underground.” He ran a hand through his hair, finger combing his black locks back over his ears. “Let them know what a good job they’re doing.”

“You know who runs this?” I sat up, my eyes wide.

“Of course.” He winked at me. “But since you won’t have a drink with me, I suppose I’ll find some other company for tonight.”

He stepped in front of me, heading toward the aisle, obstructing my view of the two fighters in the ring.

“Wait!” I called out, reaching to grab his sleeve. “How do you know them?”

Bellamy put his hands in his trouser pockets, his arms holding his blazer open at his side. He tilted his head and smirked down at me. “Oh? I thought there was nothing I could do to help with your story, Cali.”

He then inspected his nails again. It was an insipid gesture, but he used it often.

“I’m sure my knowledge of the Underground couldn't possibly measure up to yours.” He slowly turned again, and I tried very hard to resist the urge to call out to him.

I tried.

I really, really fucking tried. If I had been a cat, I would have been killed on the spot.

I grabbed him and pulled him to turn around. He looked at me, his eyebrows halfway up to his hairline, as he waited to see what I would say.

But I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to ask.

“Have a drink with me,” Bellamy said, leaning down.

“Darling!” A voice called out.

My spine instantly straightened, a cold shiver roiling up my back, my jaw clenching with sudden panic.

“What on earth are you doing here?” It was Richard.

It was like the floor fell out from beneath me. Did he see me with Hugo? Were there cameras? Did someone tell him I was here…

I swallowed, trying to clear my throat of the searing panic. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be overseas!

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.

Bellamy’s eyes darted towards me, then over my shoulder.

He smiled - that reptilian smile that didn’t reach his eyes as he placed an arm on my shoulder, and slowly turned me towards my husband.

“Richard,” greeted Bellamy. “How are you, old man?”

“I’m fine.” Richard looked at Bellamy up and down, his nose scrunching as his gaze landed on the apricot neck piece. “I didn’t know you would be here. And with my wife, no less.”

I opened my mouth to try to speak, but no words came out. Bellamy knew there was something going on with Hugo. Richard couldn’t know. But Bellamy would throw me under the bus if he could. He’d do anything to get ahead…

“Just chasing a story,” Bellamy said, stepping a little forward, almost as if he was getting between me and Richard. “She’s got the story, and I had the contacts. But I think this one might be a bit of a dud.”

“Oh?” Richard said, his eyes darting between me and Bellamy.

The look he gave me could have cut glass.

But he couldn't suspect something, could he? Did he know Hugo was here? Did he even remember who Hugo was? He was just one of many Legionnaires who were there when I did a story on Afghanistan. I had never mentioned him otherwise… so maybe he wouldn’t piece anything together.

“Aren’t you supposed to be handling a crisis in Angola or Argentina?” Bellamy placed a hand on Richard’s cheek, and I almost laughed at the horror in my husband’s eyes. “I was certain you weren’t supposed to be here, or I would have sought you out for a drink.”

“Algeria,” Richard said, flinching out of Bellamy’s grasp. “And I caught an early flight home.”

To see his mistress, no doubt.

“Oh! How wonderful. Good that your early flight let you come out here,” Bellamy clapped his hands in delight. “I was going to have a drink there with Aldon Mountbatten. You know Aldon, the Duke of Severn? Close relation to the King and all that.”

Was Bellamy’s voice becoming more flowery? I wasn’t sure. But it was making Richard deeply uncomfortable.

Richard’s eyes landed on me, and I thought, for a moment, he could see the evidence of my joy. Could he see love bites? No. Hugo had left none.

What about the marks of Hugo’s hands? Was the glow on my skin, so obviously not from him, evidence of my infidelity? Could he feel the warmth and wetness inside me that he had no part of? Did he know that my panties had gone missing?

“And you two are here, together, for a story?” Richard narrowed his eyes on me. “Peculiar.”

So much threat was packed into that single word. It was a question, a threat, and a warning to explain, very quickly or there’d be consequences.

I clamped my mouth shut, scrambling for a lie.

“Oh, yes, of course!” Bellamy said, pulling a handkerchief out from his pocket and swishing it in the air in front of him.

“We can’t seem to agree on a direction, and I don’t think we’re equipped for this one at all.

We’ll need to get more sources. Still, I’m not sure.

” Bellamy placed a finger to his chin as if he was deep in thought.

“To be honest, I don’t think this is really Calissandra’s thing anyway, is it?

I mean… fighting rings? Really? Who cares, and isn’t that a bit beneath you? ”

My heart thumped in my chest, as I stared at my husband like I was a deer, and he was oncoming headlights.

I could lose it all. He could hurt me. He could hurt the boys.

He could hurt Hugo.

“I think I should just handle this piece myself,” Bellamy said, with a flourish of his hand, letting out a small giggle. “But Calissandra insisted on being there, and I allowed her, talented as she is…”

He kept rambling and rambling, and Richard narrowed his eyes, trying to make heads or tails of what he was saying. Bellamy’s talent for saying so little with so much was astounding.

Bellamy placed a palm on Richard’s chest, as if they were comrades or… lovers? There was something uncomfortable about the whole thing, especially when Bellamy leaned in. His orange, painted nails playing with Richard’s silk tie.

“I mean, a lady on the byline would just be ridiculous. After all, this is a man’s sport.” He pounded his chest with his fist, and then let out a squeal when he must have hit it a little too hard.

I almost snorted in derision.

“It was a mistake bringing her here, I think.” That long finger came to his chin, and he tilted his head towards Richard as if they were having a little tete-a-tete. “Anyway, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about…”

Bellamy deftly turned my husband away, and they walked down the aisle, over to a drink cart, forgetting about me.

With their backs turned, I could finally breathe again.

I placed my hand on my chest, hoping that my lungs and my heart didn’t burst right out of it.

Like the coward I had been twenty-five years ago, I ran.

I ran, and ran, away from the noise, from the people, searching for somewhere silent so that I could think.

I needed to be able to think again. I ran from the venue, into the street, covering my ears against the sound of honking taxis, and shouting pedestrians.

I walked away, into an alley at the side of the building.

It smelled like piss, but it was quiet, and I could cover my eyes and ears, and calm the thumping of my heart.

I hated him. I hated him. I hated him.

I hated Richard as much as I loved… him.