Entangled (Vice Games) (5 page)

‘Why?’

‘Because there’s no one here to take care of me,’ Anna said.

‘You’re sixteen and there’s Jace and Lorraine.’

Anna shook her head. ‘Father doesn’t acknowledge them as my supervisors. They’re only servants in the house and Tristan is not home often enough. That’s why I have to go back to the Main House.’

‘Well, you have me now.’

Anna looked into my eyes and allowed me to see the intense fear she felt. ‘When I go back there, they’re going to make me take the drugs again. I don’t want to feel like the living dead.’

I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head to the side. ‘How big are the pills?’

Anna was slightly confused by my question. She had expected me to comfort her. ‘Small,’ she said.

‘And what exactly are they for?’

‘ADHD, insomnia, hyperactivity, psychotic outbursts and depression.’

‘Alright,’ I said. ‘Do you feel depressed?’

‘Only when I’m at the Main House and after taking the pills. Please don’t make me take them.’

‘I’m not goi
ng to force you to do anything,’ I said to her. ‘Let me talk to your brother and maybe you can stay here permanently instead. Come on, you still have half a plate of dinner to finish.’

It didn’t require much coaxing to get Anna back into the dining room. I knew she was hungry after all that jumping and bounding around in the mall. I certainly was.
Tristan was not there when we went back and Lorraine was surprised as to how I managed to Anna back out again. She was already clearing the table.

‘Goodness me, I thought that was the end of it when you left, Miss Annabelle,’ she said and placed the plates back dow
n. I moved to sit next to Anna. She ate every morsel on her plate and once we had finished, I sent her to my room.

‘Go through the stuff and pick out something for me to wear tomorrow,’ I told her.
That lightened up her face and brought life back to her again. She went without the need for a second telling. ‘Lorraine, where’s the master?’

‘He is in his study,’ she said.

‘I’ll do the dishes,’ I told her. ‘You go and relax.’

‘But it is my job,’ the housekeeper began.

‘Please let me do it, I need a little time to think.’

Lorraine hesitated.

‘Go and help Anna,’ I said to her, ‘I don’t want to leave her alone on her own for too long.’

Lorraine eventually gave in. I cleared the table and
took the plates to the kitchen. Apprehension rose to my chest as I dragged out my imminent conversation with Tristan Vice. It did not take long to wash and dry two plates. I just as I placed them away, I felt someone behind me. I turned around and found that it was Tristan Vice. It made me gasped with surprise and instinctively stepped backwards. I crashed to the open pantry doors and hit my head against one of its corners. Pain moved through my skull and I clutched the back of my head. I wasn’t usually a like this but something about Tristan Vice’s presence that made me act strangely. He reached out and caught the pantry door to prevent it from hitting me again a second time from the rebound.

‘Are you alright?’ he asked with a hint of concern in his voice.
He was much taller than me and I felt dwarfed by his presence. The silhouette of his strong solid torso could be seen beneath the shirt.

‘Yeah,’ I
managed to say, ‘I’m fine.’

The back of my head continued to throb and Tristan Vice did not move. His close proximity to me restricted my
ability to breath. In one decisive move, I slipped away by taking a side step and stumbled across the kitchen as if I had two left feet. He caught me before I could fall, his strong grip on my arm. The touch was electrifying and we momentarily gazed into each other’s eyes.

He was the first to look away
and release me at the same time. His body seemed tense as he took a step back from me.

‘About Anna,’ I started. I needed something to distract me from him.
‘You’re not thinking about sending her to the Main House, are you?’

Tristan Vice
was quick to recompose himself and put on his iron mask again. His voice turned cold towards me.

‘There is no other option. I am not pre
sent at this house all the time and she needs an adult to keep her from self-harm.’

‘
That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it? To be her babysitter. It would be much better for her if she stays here rather than force her to go back to the Main House. The mere thought of it threatens to give her a panic attack.’

‘I’m not her legal guardian and it is our father who decides where she stays.’

There was bitterness in his voice.

‘But she’s much happier here.’

‘Yes and is unfortunate that I cannot make this arrangement permanent.’

‘Then what am I doing here?’

He looked at me and I felt a flutter in my heart. His blue eyes were so piercing that it drew me in like a reel.

‘To keep her from self-harm,’ he said finally.

‘Then it is my job to convince your father that she is better off here. Do I have your full support in this endeavor?’

‘Yes.’

And that was the end of our conversation. Tristan disappeared upstairs and I did not see him again for the rest of the night.

I could hear my heart beating in my ears as I exhaled to calm myself down. What is happening to me? I forcibly reminded myself that he has a fiancée.

Anna decided to sleep with me that night. She grew paranoid about men breaking in and taking her away back to the
Main House. When she first told me this, I began to wonder if she really did need the medication. But Lorraine quickly dispelled this thought my informing that this has occurred more than a dozen of times and that Anna had a reason to fear sleeping alone.

‘I was ten when it first happened,’ Anna whispered in the dark as she lay next to me. ‘Father had hired men to come into the house and shoved me in the backseat of a car. Tristan was in Milan at the time and couldn’t help me.’

‘They’re not going take you awake anymore,’ I told her. Anna struggled to sleep and I decided to leave the lamp on to help her with her night terrors. It was then that I decided that she didn’t need any drugs. What Anna needed was a chance to live.

Although my eyes were close and pretended to be asleep, I laid awake for the next few hours. The thought of
Tristan in the room next to me made me feel strange. It was something I’ve never felt before and my attraction to him seemed to grow with each passing moment. It was maddening and I didn’t know how I managed to get through the night.

I woke up to a soft knock against the door.
Lorraine poked her head through the door and informed us that it was half past six. We were expected downstairs for breakfast in fifteen minutes.

‘Why so early?’ I asked her.

‘The master is going to escort you to the Main House.’

Anna turned over to her side and pulled her pillow over her head. The message made her sob.

‘Oh,’ I said as I blinked several times to wake up my eyes. ‘Come on Anna, let’s get this over and done with.’

‘He’s going to make me take the pills,’ she cried.

I reached out and pulled her pillow away from her face. ‘Not while I’m here. Come on, If it’s going to be that bad today, we’re going to need to face it with full strength.’

I got out of bed and went int
o the bathroom to wash my face. After getting dressed and encouraging Anna to do the same, I went downstairs. Anna had originally picked out a pencil skirt for me. I didn’t like tight clothing as it often made me feel uncomfortable. With the help of Lorraine’s opinion, I managed to negotiate for dress pants and a white blouse. As I put it on, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the unusual transformation in my appearance. I looked like a professional – pristine and ready for work. I supposed it fitted with the situation. I was going to need it to convince Anna’s father as to why she should be allowed to stay with her brother. Elliot Vice sounded like a stern man and I knew that my appearance could help me in my task.

Tristan Vice sat at the head of the table while Lorraine served him his coffee and breakfast. He did not greet or acknowledge my presence as I sat down.
He wore a white fitted dress shirt that outlined his strong torso. He left the top two buttons undone and it gave him a professionally casual appearance. His hair was not slicked back and the wavy locks were allowed to sit playfully on his head. There was something sexy about it and I reminded myself that he’s already taken. Besides, a relationship of that sort would be impossible and inappropriate. I was here to help his sister and it is unlikely that he takes any notice of me in that way.

‘Just one sugar, thanks,’ I told
Lorraine as she moved around to pour me a cup of the bitter beverage.

Anna joined us shortly and plotted herself down next to me. She poked at her breakfast but after five minutes, she gave one big sigh and wolfed it down. My words to her seemed to have worked its magic and Tristan took note of his sister’s newfound morning appetite. I suspected that this was unusual for Anna, especially when it involved going back to the
Main House. I guess there would be a great deal of protest and crying against the trip.

Jace took out the
black Land Cruiser from the garage and it made me wonder how many cars Tristan owned. Anna took the back seat and I was forced to sit in the front passenger seat with her brother. Lorraine gave Anna a reassuring hug before we left.

Tristan drove the car in silence and I could feel it gnaw at my skin and Anna’s sanity. She began to fidget and twisted her fingers nervously. My heart only raced because of Tristan. 

‘Pick a station,’ I said to Anna, breaking the nerve-wracking trip.

‘What?’

‘Radio station,’ I told her.

‘
I don’t know,’ she said.

I fiddled with the controls. Jace was the last to drive the car and it was set to Oldies.

‘Rock,’ said Tristan.

I blinked for a moment before I registered what he said to me.
It surprised me that he liked rock music. Or perhaps he knew that Anna liked that sort of music. I fiddled with the buttons and eventually found the station. We listened to classic rock. I carefully watched Anna through the side mirror and while she was still jittery, the upbeat sound of drums made her calmer than she was a few moments ago.

The
Main House was three times the size of Tristan’s home. If I hadn’t known, I would have mistaken it for an upper class private resort. As Tristan took the Land Cruiser through the front black wrought iron gates, I peered out the window towards the acres of land that seemed to expand out endlessly. I spotted several security cameras and counted at least fifteen. There was more attached to the side of the house and it made me wonder what exactly the Vice family did for a living.

A butler waited on us as Tristan parked the car in front of the fountain roundabout. The butler held out his white gloved hand but Tristan did not give him the keys. Instead, I
watched him defiantly pocket it. The butler frowned and momentarily gave me a sweeping look as he assessed me. He looked at me as if I was an imposter.

Tristan moved to stand next to me. It was a protective sort of move that shielded me from the butler’s judgmental gaze.
I touched Anna’s arm reassuringly and nodded to her.

‘It’s going to be alright,’
I whispered to her. Anna took a deep breath in and seemed to hold it.

The butler notified his master of the arrival and w
e were led into the main body of the house. The decoration was rich and intricate. Every part of the house seeped with age and grandeur. I thought it was rather much too big to be made into a personal home. There was nothing in it to indicate that a family lived here. The butler placed us in a waiting area and another butler came out with a silver platter. Anna immediately moved behind me and when I turned, I saw what it was that terrified her – it was eight little brown bottles. The butler placed it down on the table as the first butler disappeared and returned with a pitcher and glass for the water.

Elliot Vice and his wife entered the room shortly after.
Elliot Vice was a man in his sixties, his hair completely gray and wore a tailored dark grey suit. He and Tristan shared the same eyes, except the elder’s was stonier and colder than his son’s. It felt as if he was incapable of feeling any empathy towards his daughter. Karen on the other hand, she looked old enough to be Tristan’s older sister. She was a woman in her early thirties and I began to wonder how young she was when she married Elliot Vice. Her face was frozen and plastic, her breasts artificially enlarged, her hair set into perfect golden curls and her body tightly wrapped in a red bandaged dress. She would have been beautiful if it wasn’t for the cruel calculating red painted pout on her face.

I couldn’t see how this woman manages to convince a man like Elliot Vice to do her bidding. It was unfathomable. But then my eyes were drawn to her rack and I began to have some ideas on how she went about it. Men seemed to have a weakness for physical appearances of women. Perhaps Elliot Vice liked his woman to be the plastic trophy sort.