Mated to the Mad Lord-Chapter 207: Locked In

Cain had just walked back into their room with Violet beside him when Violet opened her mouth to speak, a worried expression on her face.

"Are-are you okay?" she carefully asked, her voice tinged with anxiety as she watched Cain slam the door behind him, a deep frown etched on his face. He had barely spoken a few words to her since the explosion, even after they returned to the room.

Instead of responding, he simply continued rubbing his head, a clear sign that he was suffering from a migraine, as he headed straight for the wardrobe and began to undress.

Violet was too shy to stare at him as he changed, but that didn’t stop her from talking.

"I know Frank has spent years with you," she said, her concern evident as she watched him change into dark clothes. He had given her nothing more than a nod in response to her previous question.

"I-I’m still stunned," she continued, unsure of what else to say, having seen the charred and dismembered bodies that were brought out due to the fierceness of the explosion.

But as she stared at Cain, he was already done dressing in black clothes—a tight black inner jacket before putting on a larger dark coat.

"You’re going out?" Violet asked, her worry growing as she took in the dark expression on Cain’s face. Her heart became even more uneasy when Cain suddenly pressed a button, revealing a hidden shelf behind where his clothes were kept.

A shelf filled with weapons she had only read about in books—weapons lethal to Reds. There were rows of sharpened wooden stakes and bottles of what she could only assume to be holy water.

Do they even work? she wondered, only to get her answer as she watched Cain pick one that looked extremely thin and sharp, stashing it away in his inner jacket before closing the hidden shelf.

"You’re going out?" Violet asked again, this time louder, a tinge of annoyance in her tone at being blatantly ignored and not receiving enthusiastic responses.

Yet, surprisingly, when Cain did respond, it was the last thing she expected to hear from him.

"I’m going to find someone, and there are a couple of things I need to do," he responded, moving closer to Violet and leaning his head against hers as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Who?" Violet asked, hoping that with how close they had become, he would give her more information about whatever he was involved in.

"It’s a friend of mine. You met him, but you were unconscious at the auction," he told her before planting a kiss on her head. "...Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here," he whispered, even as Violet’s brow creased further in worry. She gently nodded her head.

A vague explanation was better than none. Especially since it was much better than being tied to the wall, she thought. But the thought had just crossed her mind when Cain’s next words took her aback.

"I’ll have to lock you in," he said, his tone light, but the meaning was enough for Violet to jerk back in astonishment as she gasped.

"Wh-what?" she gasped, her eyes widening in absolute shock as she struggled to comprehend what Cain had just said. "Lock m—"

"I can’t take you with me, and I can’t risk you getting hurt," he told her, his tone fiercer than before and his expression darker as he recalled the memory of the explosion.

He had no doubt in his mind that he would have survived with intense injuries, but Violet would have died instantly—a scenario he realized he couldn’t stomach. He wasn’t even aware of how attached he had become to her, so much so that imagining her death made him feel a stab of pain in his chest.

Could he trust the servants? No. The guards? Not really, considering the fact that the bomb wouldn’t have been attached to the car if one of them hadn’t been compromised.

The door, once locked, was strong enough to keep her safe, even from an explosion. Moreover, he intended to have all the elite guards he trusted stand by and protect her long enough for him to return.

"LOCK ME IN?" Her voice rose an octave higher. "YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!" she gasped, staring intensely into his eyes, surprised to see Cain return her gaze as he repeated what he had just said without an ounce of guilt.

"I’m locking you in for your protection! You’re not safe right now! You saw the explosion! I would have survived... you wouldn’t," he said coldly and directly, stamping out the growing anger within her but not completely erasing it.

"Bu-but the mansion is safe, right?" Violet asked, her face etched with worry as she struggled to understand why he would go to such lengths. "I-I’ll lock the door behind me!"

But she wasn’t even done speaking when she heard Cain say in an absolute tone that left no room for discussion, "NO!"

Again, it pissed Violet off, and she was just about to ask whether he was doing this because he didn’t trust her when she watched him back away from her and head toward the door.

"You’re just going to leave?"

"There’s something I need to do. We’ll talk more when I return," he said.

"What?" she gasped, even as she watched him lock eyes with her. He pulled open the door and slammed it behind him, a second before she heard the sound of keys and knew the door had been locked in a way that would be impossible for her to open.

For a split second, she was stunned as she digested what had just happened. She looked around the room until her gaze caught the chains attached to the wall—the same chains he had used to restrain her before. For a moment, her heart thumped and skipped in fear at the thought that their relationship was simply going to dissolve back into the toxic dynamic it had been before. But then she tapped her chest and threw herself on the bed.

Relax, Violet! When he comes back... we’ll talk about it! she thought to herself, knowing firsthand how scary Cain could be. The only reason she was able to ignore it was because of how well he had been treating her lately.

He won’t tie you up again! He won’t!