Enemy of my Enemy

𝕺𝖓𝖊

He was intrigued by her.

Bianca Blackburn had been in the trunk of his car for the past two hours. Her wrists and ankles were bound. A stream of blood trickled down the side of her face. Five older men who were strangers to her surrounded her.

And yet she was smiling.

Grayson doubted he'd ever seen anyone look so deliriously smug before.

"Do you think it makes you brave, refusing to acknowledge fear?" Grayson said. His voice was barely above a whisper, but he knew she could hear him clearly. "Was it wrong of me to expect more from you?"

Bianca laughed. Not in a nervous nor in a cruel kind of way. It was an actual laugh, one filled with delight. "I don't have any trouble with acknowledging fear, darling. I just don't feel any right now."

It was ridiculous, but Grayson felt he had to keep reminding himself that he was the one in charge here. She was his hostage, not the other way around.

"Is your father's name what gives you such false confidence?" Grayson asked.

"Not really, no," Bianca replied. "No offense, but you're just not as impressive as you think yourself to be."

"You don't know me, Bianca Angelica Blackburn."

"I may not know your name, but I know you," she shrugged. "You're just another egotistical man who has something to prove to himself. Just another idiot who's going to end up running away a couple minutes from now to save his own skin."

"You sound so sure about that."

"I've never been wrong before."

Grayson didn't know whether to punch her across the face or start laughing with her. He settled on the first option and landed a blow straight to Bianca's jaw. Her face turned ninety degrees from the momentum, but other than that, she barely seemed fazed. "You're going to have to try better than that." She shot him a devilish smile, then proceeded to let her eyes dart around the abandoned wine cellar Grayson had made his men drag her into.

"I'm going to tell you my name now, Bianca," Grayson said calmly. He was only being calm because he was imagining how lovely it would be to carve that smile straight off of the girl's face. "I would appreciate it if you looked at me when I do." It didn't matter how indifferent Bianca was acting right now. Even she would have to give a proper reaction once she found out whose presence she was in.

"Grayson Briare."

Her body snapped to attention at his name, but only for a short moment.

"I'm assuming that means you've heard of me?"

Slowly, Bianca nodded. "The psychopath who committed patricide."

"Let's go with that, sure," Grayson nodded. "And I'll call you the lunatic who pushed her best friend off a cliff."

Bianca stopped moving altogether at these words, which surprised Grayson quite a lot. He'd been expecting her to take on the whole 'So what?' attitude again, but instead, his little comment about her act of murder seemed to have left a lasting impression.

"This isn't fun anymore. I want to go home," Bianca murmured.

It took Grayson several seconds to realize she was being serious.

"You're my hostage, Blackburn. I don't let you go because you say you want to leave, that's not how this works."

"I'm going home."

Grayson watched as the muscles in Bianca's arms shook and trembled, until she'd completely broken past the bounds on her wrists. She tore the straps securing her legs to the chair she was on as well, then stood up and dusted herself off.

"Where are we? Is there a bus stop near here, or am I going to have to take the car I came in?"

Instantly, all of Grayson's men were on high alert. They drew the guns Grayson had made them carry, despite their insistences that they didn't need such weapons to keep a single girl at bay.

"Sit down, Bianca," Grayson said.

Bianca glanced at the five men, then turned back to Grayson. "I'm surprised," she responded. "I would've thought they'd be reluctant to accept your leadership, seeing as you killed their former leader."

"Yes, it turns out, we all had a little bit of hatred stored aside for my father."

Bianca nodded along, swinging her arms back and forth. "In that aspect, we're alike," she said. "But you don't see me chopping off my dad's head, do you?"

"I didn't chop off his-"

"Bye." Bianca moved for the door. One of Grayson's men shot at her with his tranquilizer gun, but instead of letting out a startled shout, Bianca caught the dart in midair with the tips of her fingers. She turned it around in her hand, then threw it straight back at the shooter with deadly accuracy. Within seconds, the man had crumpled to the floor.

"Keep going," Grayson told his men, choosing to leisurely take a seat at the far end of the room while the fight was carried out in front of him.

Bianca caught two more darts before one hit her right in the arm. She took two more to the leg, then fell to her knees. "You really are as mad as they say, aren't you?" Bianca mumbled sleepily.

"Not mad, darling," Grayson replied. "Just insanely ambitious."