Chapter 32: The Snake And His Posion
ORION’S POV
"On a scale of one to ten," I laugh, "without me, you’d already be a corpse."
After making this statement, I only want one of these two things from Adrien— either duckling bends his head and lets me work out everything, or he chooses to bite back instead.
Bite back at what? One might wonder, but Adrien wouldn’t be Adrien if he weren’t sniping and nipping at a person’s ankles. Especially mine.
Even one who has his life in his hands.
"You’re wrong," Adrien snarls, panic giving way to certainty. "The only reason why I have a bunch of people after me is because you took me away from my fucking life."
Of course, he’d choose to bite.
"What life are you talking about?" I hook a finger into the handle of the desk drawer and pull out a thick binder. "Your life ended the moment you decided to run."
"Oh, cry me a river," he sneers. "So, one of your toys decided to run away? That’s really what you’ve been hung up on over all these years?"
As much as I enjoy his bite, I have an almost stronger desire to defang him. I will precisely rip each of his teeth from his gums...just for a moment of silence.
"If you fancy yourself to be a toy, I’ll be more than glad to treat you as such." Let it not be said that I do not take care of my duckling’s desires.
I care for him, don’t I?
Adrien stares at me like he’s trying to figure out if I’m exaggerating. I am not. If he’s going to keep calling himself names that I haven’t even given him, he’ll have to enjoy the consequences of bearing those names.
"I’m in danger because of you, yet you keep threatening me...you evil brute."
The problem with Adrien is that he treats danger like an unpleasant rumor. He acknowledges its existence but refuses to believe that it applies to him.
There are five organizations searching for him, all with bounties of different ranges on his head. Three of these organizations have money, one has access to military-grade resources, and the last is a shadowy one.
Someone’s personal assassin hub.
Of all these organizations, apart from the last one, none of them pose a threat to him. Because of me. I let them find out about him, and I invested in their businesses so they could generate the capital to put bounties on his head.
And as for why I did this— I don’t know.
But each time I imagine duckling being rude to me, then having to end up sinking to his knees begging me for help because the bounty has now extended to all those insects he cares for...I get so fucking excited.
He can insult me. He can do his best to piss me off. I will even allow him to talk to me like I’m one of his little friends, but even he knows that I will still get back at him.
But what he doesn’t know is that there is no getting back. I will simply train him, like I said I would, and break him just enough for me to still have something to enjoy.
It’ll be just enough and never too much.
"Yes, you are in danger because of me." I trail a finger down the length of the folder. "But that doesn’t mean I have to help you with it, does it? If I’m choosing to help you, I should be seeing a lot of gratitude in your eyes, shouldn’t I?"
"You’re just full of shit, Orion." He knows there’s something off somewhere, I can see it in his eyes. But what can he do? He’s weak, physically and socially.
I don’t even have to take the time to work all of this out. I’ve already tied Adrien with a noose he can’t loosen. But it’s not enough. I want him to know that without me, he can’t do anything.
Adrien Dubois can only exist if I permit it to be so. He can only thrive if it’s in my presence, because that is all I will allow him.
Niko immediately starts laughing. Marcella closes her eyes with a sigh, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else but here.
"Adrien," I say patiently, "in case you’ve already forgotten, a group of armed men attempted to turn you into a caricature of modern art tonight."
"I haven’t forgotten," he hisses, "I just think you’re full of shit."
For a brief moment, I consider the amount of time it’ll take me to walk over to him and snap his neck like a twig, but then I shake off that train of thought. I won’t waste my only source of entertainment that can keep up with me.
It’s not his fault his bullshit radar is always active, and I am in fact spilling a whole load of bullshit. But what can he do? He has no choice but to stick with me for his own safety.
Slowly, but surely, I’ll tie him down physically and hold him down mentally, till I can’t differentiate between the noose on his neck and my own hand.
So, instead of wasting my efforts by silencing him permanently, I throw the folder at him.
"Catch."
He ducks. It sails across his head and smashes into the glass ornament on the small table beside him. It shatters, glass pieces flying everywhere.
I didn’t even put much force into it. What a coward.
"All I did was speak and you tried to fucking brain me!" He lifts his head, brown eyes burning into mine with impotent rage.
"I threw that for you to read. It’s not my fault you have no physical capabilities."
"Oh, I’ll show you something physical all right— "
"Besides, if I wanted to brain you, why would I use a folder?" I sweep a hand across my two firearms on the desk. If I wanted to brain him, I’d do it the civilized way.
His eyes narrow, but he holds his tongue. Always running at the first sign of danger. I doubt that will ever change.
"What’s in that?" He asks, eyeing the folder like it’s a bomb.
Niko side-eyes me. I know what he’s thinking, and I remember already promising him that I would never again put us in the same building as a bomb for the fun of it.
Besides, why would I throw a bomb at my only source of entertainment? What does he take me for? I get the urge to kill him sometimes, not blow him to pieces.
"It’s evidence."
"Of what?"
I’m not sure if I should be frustrated or amused, but I’ll decide on one emotion in the next three seconds—
"Just open the damn thing!" Luca snarls at him.
I can’t believe it, Adrien actually manages to anger Luca into losing his delicate composure. You know, after I slaughtered his entire family, I never thought I’d hear him raise his voice again.
Life is truly full of surprises.
Adrien flips open the folder with visible reluctance. The pettiness disappears from his face. He sees the photographs, the names, the dates, and even the locations of everything orbiting around him.
A detailed timeline documenting every known attempt to gather information on him during the last month. The first page alone is enough to make Marcella sit upright.
"This is..."
"This is information about you that has been shared with the public...or should I say my version of the public."
The mounting despair in his eyes is simply delectable. He goes through the folder, page after page, gaze dimming with each flip.
The room grows increasingly quiet. I watch for the exact moment realization settles in, and I am not disappointed to see it.
Fear. Real fear, not panic or shock, but true fear. The useful kind. The kind that will bring him to his knees at my heel willingly.
"Why would anyone be this interested in me?" He asks, already knowing the answer to that question.
Because of me. Not because I arranged a part of this, but because he’s now publicly associated with me, and I know it must kill him to have to beg for protection from the person who put him in this situation in the first place.
But because I can’t give him that explanation, and I don’t really feel the need to taunt him because this whole situation is already doing the taunting for me, I tell him the next best thing.
"There are three likely explanations," I say, holding up three fingers. "Your knowledge of something."
"I don’t have any." He bites out.
Oh Adrien, you’re going to get crushed under the weight of all those your lies.
"You might not realize you know it," I say, indulging his lies with a smile.
"What are the rest?" He asks, eyeing my smile with visible suspicion.
"Either someone believes you’re connected to something valuable...or they want leverage." There is still that fifth group I don’t have anything on.
It’s like a growing itch.
"Leverage over who?" He mutters to himself.
"Who else but me, your lovely fiancé, darling?"
