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“I’ve been waiting for you. But I never saw you alone. Until today. So as soon as I saw you go into the library this morning, I knew I’d have to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Waiting for me? For how long?
What did he say in the parking lot? Oh, God. “It was you. In my car.”
“It was. But you weren’t supposed to get hurt, Thea.” He stands up, shaking his head. “If you had just followed my instructions, you would have been here already. And none of the other unpleasantness would have happened.”
I can’t wrap my head around it. Not Stella. It was Alec in my car that night. Not trying to kill me. Trying to abduct me. Bring me back—
“Am I at your house?” Panic takes flight, my lungs stuttering as the reality hits me. Voice pitching up, my words come out in a rush. “You took me. Why? Why am I here? What are you going to do to me?”
All the horrible things I’ve read about, tragedies I’ve seen on the news—they’re all slamming into me at once. “Are you going to kill me? Why, Alec? I never did anything to you.”
I don’t even realize I’m crying until he brushes his thumb across my face. “There’s no need to cry.” He honestly sounds confused. “I’m not going to kill you.”
All I can think about is Ben, and his touch, his voice, how he held me when I was crying and made me feel better. And as my tears come faster, I know I’m doing the opposite of what the brave heroines in all my books do, but I can’t help it. I don’t want Alec touching me. I just want Ben.
“Thea.” He slaps my cheek—not hard enough to bruise, but enough to sting. His voice goes hard. “You need to stop that. I won’t have you moping around the house, crying all the time.”
Through narrowed eyes, he regards me. “I understand this is… surprising. But crying like this… honestly, it’s insulting.”
Insulting? What? I gape at him. “What are you talking about?”
Alec’s face goes dark, his features compressing into sharp lines and angles. His brown eyes blaze at me as he hisses, “Crying like you’re repulsed by me. Like you can’t stand to be here.” Leaning down again, he grabs my chin, his fingers hard and bruising.
Inches away, each of his words sends a spray of spittle. “This isn’t what I expected from you, Thea. In the library, you were always so nice. I’ll be very disappointed to find out it isn’t true.”
What will happen if he finds out it’s not true?
He said he wouldn’t kill me. But he could change his mind. And I can’t escape if I’m dead.
My heart is thundering in rhythm with the throb in my head, deafening drumbeats that make it hard to think. Nausea is slamming into me in waves. But I manage to bleat out, “I’m sorry!”
He glares at me, fingers digging into my skin, before abruptly releasing me. Then the anger leeches from his expression. “Good.”
God. It’s like two people.
“So,” he says amiably, like he wasn’t just threatening me seconds earlier. “You’re probably curious about how I chose you.”
I’m terrified to say the wrong thing, so I just nod at him. I don’t really want to know, but if I have any chance of getting out of here, I need as much information as I can get.
“It wasn’t my plan, originally,” he says as he starts to slowly pace around the room. “But I saw you going into the library, and you were just… captivating.” He stops, turning to look at me. “Beautiful, of course. But your smile… I had to find out more.”
Alec strolls over to the bed and leans on it, his gaze never leaving me. The way he looks at me… it’s greedy. Possessive. Satisfied.
I feel sick. Like he’s undressing me with his eyes.
“So,” he continues. “I followed you. Me. Going into a library.” He chuckles, a dry, biting sound. “I hate reading. But I kept going in there, every week, just to watch you.”
How long? How long was this happening, and I never knew?
“It took me a while to be sure. That you were the right one. Do you know how I knew, Thea?” His tone makes it clear he expects an answer.
“How?”
“How nice you were. To everyone. Even those annoying old people with their stupid questions.” His voice pitches up in imitation. “Can you find me these photos, Miss Nichols? Do you want a special holiday card? Would you like some cookies? Can you fix my computer?”
He moves toward me again, and it takes every bit of willpower not to cringe away. “You weren’t appreciated there, Thea. And that’s what made me decide to bring you here instead. So I researched you. Found out you lived alone. And I waited for a night you were closing up. When you’d be going home after dark.”
