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Salvatore Wolfe, dominant, always in control of everything, it seemed…except his own mind. That last meeting with him, up at his condo, had been intense. I’d gone there with the expectation of fixing a relationship that was fractured, and instead walked away from a man who would forever remain broken. I’d replayed that night over and over in my head, and no matter which way I relived it, two things remained abundantly clear. One, Salvatore had deceived me. He had manipulated me into believing he was someone he wasn’t to gain access to me ever since the very first time he saw me. And two, he was under some delusion I was his ex-boyfriend brought back to him so he could what…? Redeem himself?
If it wasn’t so horribly tragic, this could’ve been the best prank in history. But it wasn’t. This was what he truly believed, I’d seen it in his eyes, heard it in his voice, and the reality of that was downright frightening.
A knock on my door jolted me out of my thoughts, and as I got to my feet, I wondered who it could be. The buzzer for the building didn’t work, so it could only be a neighbor…unless someone had snuck in somehow.
Cracking open the door, I saw that it was indeed one of my neighbors, standing next to another man in a sharp suit.
“Hey, Jesse,” Vicki, one of the tenants on the first floor, said, and then she gestured to the man next to her. “This guy says he has a delivery for you.”
“Oh yeah?” I said, opening the door wider and crossing my arms as I looked around him for whatever Salvatore had sent now. “How about you give it to Vicki instead? I’m not interested.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the man said. “It’s in your name. Jesse Clark.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Again, if you don’t give whatever it is to Vicki, it’s just gonna end up in the trash, along with all the other gifts.”
The man hesitated. “I don’t think you’ll want to throw this gift away.”
“We’ll see about that.” I held out my hand and gestured for him to hurry up and hand over whatever it was, and when he produced a small black box, my eyes went huge. “What the hell is that?”
“Why don’t you open it up and see?” The man nodded at the box as he placed it in my hand, and a tremor racked my body.
No. No, no. Surely this wasn’t some kind of ring. Salvatore wouldn’t go that far, would he?
With trembling fingers, I lifted the top, and sitting inside on a plush pillow was a silver key. A key? A key to what? His house?
When I looked up at the man in confusion, he smiled and said, “It’s downstairs. If you’ll come with me…”
Vicki had a big, goofy grin on her face, and she took my arm and pulled me out of my apartment. “I got a peek, and wow. Whoever sent you that must really love you. You’re so lucky.”
Lucky? Me? That wasn’t the first or even fiftieth word I’d ever associate with myself, and as I let Vicki lead me down the stairs, I felt a sense of dread. What now? I thought, as the man opened the front door of the building and moved aside so I could see—
Holy. Shit. Grenades could’ve exploded all around us and I would’ve been oblivious as I stared at the big red bow wrapped around my “package.” Because red Fiat convertibles were just something you’d get delivered every day.
My shock had rendered me frozen and unable to speak, so even as the man gestured to the car and began to excitedly tell me all the features and whatnots, I couldn’t register a word he said. Blood rushed in my ears like torrential waves and my pulse kicked up as I stared ahead, and when the man handed me the note that went along with it, I felt a burst of anger so strong that if Salvatore had been there, I would’ve drawn blood. I looked down again at the words he’d written:
To keep you safe, my little lamb.
To keep me safe? And who would keep me safe from him? I crumpled the note in my fist as my chest heaved and flashes of red made my vision blur. There was no escaping him. While I was in this city—his city—he could and would always find me. He’d always be able to get to me. Whether it was lavishing these ridiculously expensive gifts on me or following me down a side street at night, no matter what I did, Salvatore would always be there.
“Take it away,” I said, cutting off the man’s spiel by handing him back the key.
“But sir—”
“I said, take it away. I don’t want it.” I didn’t want anything that put me in Salvatore’s debt. I didn’t want him to believe he had any claim over me. That was the key here. He had to know he didn’t own me in anyway at all. Key… Key… Oh shit. As the word rolled over in my mind, I spun on my heel, not even caring what the delivery guy was saying anymore, and dashed back inside, leaving Vicki out there on the curb with him. I took the stairs up to my apartment two at a time, as my heart thumped erratically. How could I have been so stupid? I raced through my front door and headed straight for the chest of drawers. Pulling open the top one, I rifled through my socks and underwear looking for, and finally locating, the key.
