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Fear flash-fired, speeding through every cell of my body.
I couldn’t see Evelyn, though by the sound of her, I knew she was likely against the far wall opposite me, out of my sight but not close to being out of my heart.
My heart that ran rampant, so loud it beat in my ears in time with the throbbing in my head.
Adrenaline a thunder, desperation whipping through the disorder that pumped.
I calculated, tried to process, my mind coming up with the horrible sum too fast.
Evelyn was being held hostage in a room with the same man who’d killed her mother. The same man who’d killed those two men to get back at Caleb.
A monster who raged in front of us.
A man I’d thought sweet. One I didn’t have the first clue how to handle.
But I had to figure it out quick.
Be smart.
“Nate, what’s going on?” I whispered, the words cracking on my dried tongue. I tried to keep it soft, without judgement, like I could keep the deranged from fully coming unhinged.
At the sound of my voice, he whirled around, and for the first time, I saw the delirium spinning through his gaze.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” His voice was eerily tender, the way it’d been all along, like he was filled with concern for me, though now I recognized the way it was edged in mania. The edges of his words sharp. One misstep, and he would completely snap.
“I am. Why am I tied up?” I tried to play it off like I had no idea who he was or what he’d done.
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to go running away from me now, would I?”
“Why would I run from you?” I had to swallow the vomit that rolled up my throat in order to get it out, my words far too sweet as they slipped off my tongue. I prayed they were more than saccharine to his ears. That he took them as genuine.
It made it freaking hard when my little Evie-Love whined from the corner, and I realized she had to be gagged with the way it was slurred and garbled. I wanted to beg him to let her go. Tell him she was just a little girl. Promise him I’d take whatever he had planned for the two of us, that he could hurt me as much as he wanted, just as long as he set her free.
But I knew it was the wrong move. It would only incite a madman. Because I could feel it, the vibration that pulsed beneath his skin, the wickedness that churned through his veins. Wickedness he thought he was entitled to.
His jaw creaked as a rush of rage rippled through his body. “You fucked him, didn’t you?”
God, I wanted to cover Evelyn’s ears. Protect her from this. But there was nothing I could do but lay there and play along.
I forced a frown to my face. “Who?”
“Mr. Greyson. You’re impure, just like her.” His voice hissed in an accusation.
Confusion swept through me, twining and twirling through my consciousness. I fought to figure out what to say. How to get through this.
“Mr. Greyson is just my boss, just like he is yours.”
He scrubbed a flustered hand over his face. “I see the way you look at him.”
“I’m just nice to everyone.”
“You left with him that night when you were supposed to leave with me,” he argued.
“Only because my friend Dakota was sick. I thought I was riding with our other friend to take her home, but Mr. Greyson insisted on driving me back to apologize for being a jerk. He’s a jerk a lot, you know.”
I forced the tweak of a smile to the edge of my lips, hating with all of me every word that dropped from my mouth.
“But you moved in with him.”
“That’s because I’m Evelyn’s nanny. I’m just there to take care of her. To keep her safe.” I didn’t even want to speak her name or bring attention to her, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Not when I was fighting for our lives.
His attention flashed to her, and something moved across his face that twisted a knife through my guts. “Yes, we have to keep the little one safe. He took her from me, and he’s trying to take you from me, too.”
What the hell was he talking about?
I was lucky I was able to keep from spitting it aloud.
Panic thrummed, if possible, harder than before.
“I don’t know what you mean, Nate. Let’s just…talk. You and me.” I shifted so I was sitting against the wall, groaning against the pain splitting my brain. I held my arms out in front of me, silently asking him to cut the rope he had wound around my wrists.
I struggled not to look to my right to search for Evelyn, her muffled cries riddling the air in her fear. I had to keep him focused on me.
