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Content with her reply, I leave the room, locking it behind me and happy that we have the two-way locking handle just in case. I then march toward her room relieved that I can finally do what I’m good at. No seductive curves, sensual eyes, or sexy thoughts to distract me.
As I enter the room and approach JV’s body, I kneel down and look into the man’s lifeless eyes. “You’re lucky you’re dead, you son of a bitch,” I say to him as I reach into my bag and pull out a hacksaw.
I spread out a tarp, prepare for what I can nearly do in my sleep, inhale the smell of death, and get ready to clean. I then extend his arm and chop off his hand at the wrist. “You got what was coming to you, asshole.”
Chapter Five
ROWAN
I can’t believe I forgot to close my drapes before going to sleep last night. The sun pouring in the windows is so bright, I reach out to pull a pillow over my face. The shooting pain in my shoulder coincides perfectly with the crushing memory of the nightmare that has become my reality.
If only I could shake myself awake hard enough to make last night disappear.
It’s a miracle I got any sleep at all. As exhausted as I’d been when Z left me alone in his room in the middle of the night, I’d laid awake for hours, reliving the horrors of my attack and dreaming up every possible scenario for what might play out as today unfolds. Each fear had been worse than the one before until I’d worked myself up into a mini panic attack, which escalated when I discovered that Z had locked me in his room.
While being trapped in a strange room filled with scary things still feels claustrophobic, the locked door has also given me a tiny sense of security—enough to finally fall into a fitful sleep.
Keeping my face buried in the pillow, I catch Z’s masculine scent. For weeks I’ve been trying to catch his attention… hoping to find myself exactly where I am right now… in his bed. Unfortunately, he’s not here with me and worse—now that I’ve seen the real Z, my brain tells me I need to get as far away from him as possible. Unfortunately, his sexy scent and the memories of his muscular body covered in artistic tattoos want to override common sense. His sexy body had been a welcome distraction in the shower.
Braving the brightness, I peek out from under the pillow, lifting up to try to see what time it is.
I miss my phone. I never go anywhere without it. It’s my everything… including my clock.
As I push to sit up, a shooting pain pierces my shoulder, reminding me that Z had stitched me up the night before. He’d surprised me with his medical skills, but then again, literally everything I’ve learned about him has been a surprise.
Stumbling into the bathroom, I avoid the mirror, heading for the toilet first before rummaging through the vanity looking for any kind of painkiller. I pop a few over the counter capsules before looking around in hopes of finding an unused toothbrush. Finding none, I throw a line of paste on Z’s toothbrush and get to work trying to wash away the gross taste that lingers in my mouth.
If only I could wash the other ugly things in my life away as easily.
Once back in the bedroom, I can feel the tension seeping back in with each passing minute. I feel trapped, like a caged animal. Worse, I feel lost without my phone. No checking of email. No replying to the dozens of comments on my social media posts. No texts or messages. Hell, not even playing games to distract me.
And… no Googling the Luciano crime family. I’ve never heard of them before, but that doesn’t mean anything. That Z is concerned about how they’re going to take the news of my attacker’s death tells me all I really need to know.
I’m in a shit ton of trouble.
Trying to keep myself from spiraling, I start pacing the room, looking through the crap Z has piled on every surface around the room.
While his room is the size of a normal hotel room, nothing inside it looks normal. Considering he lives here, it makes sense that he’s made the space his own.
That he has a whole bookshelf full of books is an interesting find, but it’s the titles on the shelves that shock me the most. While one shelf is full of popular fiction novels, the rest of the shelves are piled high with what looks like college level textbooks. Anatomy, chemistry, biology, physics, and calculus take up one whole row.
The next row down is a bit more diversified with books on how to read blueprints, setting up virtual private networks, and Computer Hacking 101 mixed in with a pharmaceutical encyclopedia, and a book on crime scene investigations. The fact that literally every book has colorful bookmarks sticking out flagging specific chapters tells me these aren’t just hanging around for decoration.
