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I come back to the present with a sharp inhalation of air that I hold and then force out, my state of undress undoing me. My hands run over my naked skin, looking for bruises or tender spots. I find nothing butI’m naked. If not for that, I’d think Randall or my brother masterminded all of this. But the mask and my lack of clothing, along with me ending up in bed; those things read like York’s doing this to me. And like I was raped while I slept and I start to tremble. I need my phone. No. I need to make sure I’m alone. Why have I not even considered that I might not be? I shove aside any thought of rape. I refuse to be weak. I refuse to let York do that to me.
I push off the counter and head to my nightstand where I keep a gun I bought after a crime wave last year, that is thankfully where I left it. I grab it, the heavyweight and classes I took, cold comfort I don’t want to need. With quiet cautious steps, I inch out into the living room, where I find no other person. I sweepthe rest of the apartment and then go to the front door to find the lock broken. I don’t even know what to think about this. Did someone break in to put me in my own apartment? I grab a kitchen chair and shove it under the knob, searching for my phone. I find my suitcase and my purse, but my cell is missing. So is my MacBook. Someone didn’t want those things to be used to track my location.
I need to call Jax.
I also feel disgusting.
Someone undressed me.
Someone touched my body.
Suddenly I need to shower.
Hurrying into the bathroom, I turn on the water, step underneath and I can’t scrub hard enough but I force myself to be quick. Thirty minutes later, I’m in jeans, a T-shirt, and boots. I even dry and flat iron my brown hair to a silk around my shoulders. I go so far as to put on makeup, going through the motions of living, when I should be running for the door. All the while, I flashback to the mask, the elevator, the plane, the second mask. It’s like the process of getting dressed is my mind’s way of finding order in chaos, in stabilizing my mind that keeps trying to go off the deep end.
Finally, I grab my purse and slip it over my shoulder. I still can’t get over the fact that whoever did this brought me and my suitcase to my own apartment. It’s like I’m in the twilight zone. One thing I grow more confident in is that York didn’t do this. York wouldn’t bring my suitcase back and he wouldn’t just leave. He’d stay to taunt me. My brother wanted me back here. My brother did this. Randall probably did this for my brother, and then that pervert undressed me. I glance at the clock. It’s nine in the morning, but I don’t know what day of the week it is. How long have I been knocked out? Ithinkit’s Sunday. I just can’t know for sure.
I hurry for the front door, grab a light black jacket from the coatrack, and shrug into it before I remove the chair from the knob and exit my apartment. I don’t waste time trying to lock a broken door. I head downstairs to the lobby where people in suits and dress clothes bustle around. At the security desk, I corner a fifty-something guard named Jimmie who has been around for years. “What day of the week is it?”
He frowns and looks confused. “What?”
“Just answer, Jimmie,” I press.
“Monday.”
“Right. That’s right. Monday would make sense. That means I was only out overnight. I need to use a phone.”
“Ah. Yeah. Sure.” He hands me his cellphone. Not what I expect, but okay. “I’ll pay you five hundred dollars if I can use this for the day. Mine is broken, and I have an emergency.”
“Take it, Emma. You don’t need to pay me.”
I don’t argue. “Thank you, Jimmie. I’ll make good on the five hundred dollars. And my lock is broken on my front door. Can you replace it?”
“Of course. Right away.”
“Thank you again,” I say, already turning away from him.
I exit the building and dial Jax. He doesn’t answer, which forces me to leave a message. “It’s Emma. I don’t know what happened. I woke up in my apartment. I was drugged. Or I do know what happened. A man in a mask happened. Just—call me. My phone is missing. I paid the security guard at my apartment for this one.”
I hang up and don’t ask me how, but I remember Savage’s number. Funny thing how being nearly pushed to your death makes you remember the Jolly Green Giant bodyguard’s number. I get his voicemail, too. I leave a similar message. Next is Smith. His number was only two digits off from Savage’sand thankfully, I remember that, and thankfully, Smith answers. “This is Smith.”
“Thank God. Smith, it’s Emma.” I step under the overhang beside a coffee shop next to my building.
“Emma. Thank God is right. What is going on? Where are you?”
“San Francisco,” I say, “and not of my own free will. I can’t reach Jax. I need Jax.”
“He’s in the air. He had a feeling you were there. He’s coming for you with Savage. What the hell does not of your own free will mean?”
“Jax is coming here for me?”
“Yes. Of course. That man loves the hell out of you. He’s losing his damn mind. Now, talk to me and quickly. What does not of your own free will mean?”
He loves the hell out of me.I want to linger on that statement, but I force myself to push past it and tell Smith what I know. “A man with a mask shoved a syringe in my arm and then I woke up in my own bed. I thought York kidnapped me, because—because I was naked when I woke up. But then, my suitcase is here and that doesn’t feel like something York would bother with.” I start thinking out loud, putting together facts. “And my front door lock was broken. Like they broke in to get me inside but how did they get past security? My brother could but he wouldn’t undress me but Randall might and my brother could have gotten him past security.”
“York is in jail, Emma. He was arrested three days ago. Some of the women involved in his sex parties were underage. With the help of the police, we questioned him. We don’t think he was involved.”
A mix of relief and anger surges inside me. “I was right. It’s my brother. That bastard. That asshole. And he let Randall undress me? What kind of brother does that? I need to go.”
