Dogs Among Withered Roses - Chapter 13

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The moment when security inside Valentiera Mansion became the most relaxed was during the weekend luncheons when the executives gathered together.

Of course, it wasn’t that there was no security at all. Most of the manpower was stationed around the dining room where the executives gathered and around the mansion itself, which meant the areas near Berenice’s bedroom and Ricardo’s study were relatively less guarded.

After all, everyone who entered the mansion was part of the Valentiera Family, so unless something unusual happened, there was no reason to stay on guard.

When two soldatos armed with rifles wandered around Ricardo’s study and then headed up to the third floor, Berenice, who had been standing on the stair landing, dashed toward Ricardo’s study as if she’d been waiting for that moment. Using a key she once secretly copied without Ricardo knowing, she opened the door. Entering the dim study, Berenice took a deep breath.

Careful. If you get caught, you’re dead.

After throwing that brutal warning at herself, Berenice locked the door behind her without turning on the lights. Without even looking back once, she went straight to Ricardo’s desk and checked the headset beside the telephone and the wiretapping device connected to it.

As usual, the device was already turned on.

Good thing I don’t need to touch it.

Pressing lightly against the shallow rise of her chest, Berenice took another deep breath. Actually carrying out something she’d only thought about from time to time made her fingertips tremble slightly, even though she hadn’t even done anything yet.

Now I just need to hide somewhere and listen to Ricardo ramble….

“What are you doing here?”

A low voice, carefully suppressed, echoed above Berenice’s head just as she tried to squeeze herself beneath the desk, a perfect hiding spot close enough that she could reach the wiretapping device just by stretching out her hand.

Startled nearly to the point of fainting, Berenice was about to let out a sharp scream when Erkin’s hand shot out like lightning and clamped over the back of her head and her mouth.

“Shh. You’ll be discovered.”

Lowering the hand that covered the back of her head and wrapping it around her shoulder, Erkin slowly straightened Berenice’s upper body, which had leaned far back. Berenice’s throat moved sluggishly as she barely swallowed the scream that had nearly burst out.

“You won’t scream, right?”

“….”

Her eyes, widened as if they might tear apart, gradually returned to their normal size as her breathing calmed. After the rise of her chest slowly settled, Berenice gave a faint nod, and Erkin removed the hand covering her mouth.

“What are you doing here?”

The moment their bodies separated even slightly, Berenice shoved Erkin roughly and hissed in a whisper. She pushed with considerable force, but Erkin didn’t budge at all, making her shove look meaningless. In the dim shadow, Erkin frowned and leaned his upper body closer.

“Miss, please don’t steal my question.”

“Why did you follow me here? Who told you to tail me?”

“Tail you? Did you forget that I’m your bodyguard?”

“What kind of protection do I need here?”

It was Berenice who’d secretly sneaked into Ricardo’s study, yet she shot back at Erkin as if he were the strange one for following her. Erkin nodded slightly, agreeing that protection wasn’t really necessary inside the mansion, and added calmly.

“Protection might not be necessary, but the boss told me to keep a close eye on you so you wouldn’t end up meeting some strange man.”

“…What?”

Erkin lowered his eyes and tightened the arm wrapped around her shoulders and waist so the startled Berenice wouldn’t fall backward again. Even while firmly holding her upper body, his long leg slid between Berenice’s awkwardly planted legs like a snake, blocking off her remaining escape route.

“He said if the situation called for it, I could step in. I even have permission to stop it myself.”

“…What?”

Berenice repeated blankly, her brows twisting sharply together.

“So you followed me because you thought I might be enjoying a secret meeting with some strange man in Ricardo’s study? To stop that?”

“That’s what I thought….”

He isn’t even making excuses. That’s what he thought, apparently. Dumbfounded, Berenice opened and closed her mouth. Erkin swept a quick glance across the dim study and muttered to himself.

“There’s no man here, and judging from how you were startled while trying to hide under the desk, you weren’t waiting to meet anyone either. And this….”

Picking up the headset Berenice checked earlier, Erkin brought it to his ear and glanced down at the volume gauge of the wiretapping device.

The needle on the gauge didn’t move, but after noticing the device was turned on, Erkin’s gaze returned to Berenice. His eyes silently asked what Ricardo was listening in on and from where, but Berenice bit her lip and shoved him hard with both hands.

“Enough. Just get out. Get out!”

Because his solid body stood firm like a wall, Berenice couldn’t withstand the recoil and staggered backward. Her fists probably hurt a little, but since she couldn’t even push him away, why did she keep hitting him? Tsk. Clicking his tongue briefly, Erkin grabbed Berenice’s arm and pulled her closer.

“Don’t waste your strength. Stand properly.”

Erkin glanced once at the study door he’d quietly locked behind him when he entered, then drew her attention back as if asking whether she had anything to say besides ordering him to leave. Berenice clamped her mouth shut in frustration.

Maybe because the distance between them refused to widen, or because the lights were off. His body, layered in shadow over the darkness, looked larger than usual today. Berenice ground her teeth and whispered again.

“Get out before Ricardo comes.”

“Are you waiting for the boss?”

“Who else would it be? This is Ricardo’s study, you idiot.”

Ricardo would probably be coming in soon. Berenice’s voice dropped even lower as impatience crept in.

“Looks like some pervert has taken up residence in your head, but it’s not what you’re thinking, so shut up and get out already. Do you really want me to start screaming in here? If we both get caught, who do you think dies first? Hm?”

Her eyes were cold and hardened, as if she’d never been startled or flustered at all, and the threat was sharp. Erkin moved his lips slightly, swallowing a brief silence before twisting his brows in a casual expression.

“I didn’t even bring you here myself, so those threats feel a little unfair….”

Suddenly trailing off, Erkin clicked his tongue as if things had gone wrong. Footsteps approached outside the study. They weren’t the lazy wandering steps of a Family member strolling nearby, but the footsteps of someone arriving at their destination.

At the same moment the sound of a key fitting perfectly into the keyhole turned like interlocking gears, a hand urgently covered Berenice’s mouth. With his other arm, he pulled the startled Berenice deep into his embrace and crouched down, squeezing his body beneath the desk.

Just as he pulled Berenice, who had curled up with her knees tight to her chest, completely against his body in an embrace, the study door burst open.

Berenice, curled up as small as possible, clamped her mouth shut as if sealing it so not a single sound could leak out.

The man’s solid chest and knee pressed roughly against her shoulder, and the arm wrapped around Berenice, keeping her unstable body from spilling out from under the desk, tightened with tense strength, afraid they might be discovered.

“I guess Don Castillo’s investigation wasn’t enough for you?”

“I only commissioned them. Isn’t there something you need to investigate yourself?”

At the voices of Chiara Volonte and Ricardo, Erkin lowered his head and only lifted his eyes sideways to glance at Berenice.

Unlike him, Berenice, who had expected Ricardo to enter the study with Chiara Volonte, showed little reaction.

He wondered why she tried to hide under the desk instead of using the balcony, but Ricardo and Chiara didn’t come anywhere near the desk.

Instead, there was the sound of a bookshelf sliding back and forth, and before long, the presence of the two disappeared behind a thick wall.

When silence returned to the study without even the sound of breathing, Berenice and Erkin let out their breaths at the same time as if on cue.

Thinking that if he kept staying with this woman he wouldn’t die a natural death, Erkin clicked his tongue while Berenice squirmed as if trying to slip out of his arms.

Erkin tightened the arm wrapped around her body as if binding it, silently asking what she thought she was doing.

‘Let go while I’m telling you nicely.’

Berenice pointed at Erkin’s arm with her eyes and mouthed the words silently.

But under the desk, darker than the dim study, there was no way to clearly see what her lips were saying.

When Erkin widened his eyes as if asking what she meant, Berenice twisted her lips in annoyance, suddenly lifted her chin, and bit down on his earlobe.

What the hell…!

He didn’t even have time to realize that the woman’s lips and hot breath brushed his cheek.

Swallowing the scream that almost burst out, Erkin covered his ear and loosened his arm.

Not missing the chance, Berenice slipped out of his arms like water spilling free, checked the wiretapping device’s volume gauge, and muttered a small curse.

The needle on the gauge was already moving back and forth.

Berenice quickly pressed the headset to her ear and lowered her body close to the floor.