𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑥 ✔︎ || 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑

37

~ phoenix ~

His words terrified me, excited me, angered me... but mostly, terrified me.

As a result, I resolved to locking myself in in his en-suite. Wisely, I picked up the shirt on my way in.

Slipping out of the sequinned playsuit, I pondered on his threat. He surely wouldn't - couldn't.... I shivered at the prospect. What scared me most was maybe I'd let him...

No, of course not, I reprimanded myself. I couldn't let myself succumb to his touch. It was wrong. Especially after what happened. Stay away from him, Gia had advised. And I would do exactly that.

So that's how I waited for the monster to return and bang on the door. I wouldn't open it and if he wished to break his own door down then so be it. But most importantly, I needed to resist. My friends- my sisters suffered all that pain to protect me from him and hell be damned, if I would let their efforts go in vain.

Soon, my legs grew tired of anxiously pacing back and forth so I plopped down into the large bathtub. What felt like hours passed and even my own mind began to bore me. It was when my eyes began to droop downwards that I ran out of patience. Warily, I unlocked the door and opened it an inch so I could peak outside. Ilya was nowhere to be seen.

I huffed with exasperation. My butt had begun to ache from the hard surface of the bathtub and all along, I could've been on the soft mattress because that bastard hadn't appeared. What was I saying? I should be relieved.

But I wasn't. I was curious.

What could've caused the notorious mob boss to forget the clear threat he made before he left? As far as I knew, Ilya was not the sort to back down from one. Perhaps, he was distracted by a certain sister-in-law of his. I ignored the thought with a growl. I don't give a fuck, I repeated in my mind.

Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. The questions gnawing at my mind seemed endless. I rose from the bed and hesitantly peeked out of the room. Great, the coast was clear. I decided I would go down to the basement and find Rina; she'd have see where he went.

When the doors of the elevator opened, I could hear the roar of the party in the club. How dare he lock me up while he enjoyed himself. To my frustration, there was no clock in sight, but I was certain it was past midnight. An icy draught sneaked my my shirt and I realised with sudden embarrassment that that was all I was wearing. I brushed it off; it fell past my thighs so I could get away with it I hoped.

I entered the club through one of the back doors, that gave me a view of the entire space. I squinted my eyes to search for the pair, but they were missing. Angrily, I stomped to Rina's room and knocked.

She opened it with a glare. However when her eyes fell on me, the dark expression brightened.

"Birdie!" she exclaimed, "Who knew you would make it out alive?"

I narrowed my eyes at the grinning blonde, showing her I was not in the mood.

"That bad, huh?"

I sighed. "I just don't know what's bad or good with him, Rina. Have you seen him?"

Her brows descended in bafflement. "He wasn't with you?"

"No, he came back to the club, he said..." I trailed off, knowing how stupid I sounded. Why would he tell me the truth?

"Oh, well I left right when you did, Phoenix. Wanna come in?" she offered, hopefully.

"Um," I pondered over her invite, but the curiosity was too overpowering. "No thanks, I need to find him."