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“Not until you and I have a little talk,” he said. He shut her front door and locked it and Ella saw her hopes for escape going down the toilet. “Let’s go into your family room and have a seat, honey. I think we should be comfortable talking about everything. I’ll even ditch the gun,” he said. He put the gun on the banister of her staircase, turning to usher her into the family room. “See, I’m willing to play fair,” he promised.
“I have nothing to say to you, James,” she spat. “You need to go,” she insisted. Ella knew that there was no way that he would be leaving just because she insisted.
He sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t want to have to do this, Ella, but you’ve left me no choice,” he said. James reached into his jacket pocket, and she felt as if she was holding her breath. And when he pulled out a knife, she almost expected it, but she was still terrified.
“So much for playing fairly,” she mumbled to himself. “Don’t do this, James,” she begged. “I’ll sit down and talk with you, but you don’t need that,” she said, eyeing the knife.
“Sure I do,” he breathed. “You need a little help cooperating and I figure this might help,” he said, holding up the knife. “Let’s go into the family room and get comfortable,” he repeated.
“Fine,” Ella spat, “we can play this your way.” She turned, pretending to go into the family room and James seemed to let his guard down a bit. Ella saw her chance and she decided to take it. She turned and kneed James in the groin as hard as she could. He turned and sliced her forearm as he slumped to the floor in front of the front door, blocking her only way out. She wasn’t sure what her next move should be; her only instinct was to run and hide. Ella ran into her kitchen and to the back of the room. She had an ace up her sleeve—a safe room inside of her pantry that no one knew about. It was a little something that she had done to help make herself feel safe living on her own.
She took off for the pantry just as James reached out to grab her ankle, knocking her to the hardwood floor, Ella’s head hitting with some force. She moaned and tried to push herself up from the floor, her head throbbing, blood trickling from what she guessed was a cut on her scalp.
“Shit,” she mumbled, grabbing her head. She got to her feet and scurried the rest of the way to the pantry, shutting the door behind her.
“You bitch,” James screamed. “You can run for now, but you won’t be able to hide from me. You’re trapped and you know it, Ella.” She didn’t bother to tell him that he was wrong. All Ella could think about was getting into her pantry and locking herself away in her safe room. Then, she’d call in the calvary.
* * *
Ella stoodin the back corner of the kitchen pantry trying to catch her breath, hoping that James wouldn’t be able to find her in there before she got into the safe room. A fresh wave of nausea washed over her, and she grabbed her stomach as if trying to keep from throwing up. She had hit her head on the floor when James grabbed her ankle. Ella never thought that he’d do anything like that to her, but here she was, hiding in the pantry, fearing for her life.
She fumbled around the pantry trying to find the latch to the safe room. It was the only thing that would keep her safe until she could call for help. The only problem was when she had the room installed, she sort of forgot it was even there. Ella honestly never thought that she’d need to even use the room and now, she was desperately trying to find the latch that would open the door. She ran her hands over the walls and almost shouted in the victory of finding the latch. She turned the handle and pushed her way into the room, shutting the door behind herself, entombing her in the safe room. There would be no way that James or anyone else would be able to get to her unless she opened the door.
The overhead lights flickered to life, and she smiled up at them as if they were the best thing she had ever seen. She turned on the surveillance cameras that she had installed in her home, hoping to catch James’ movement in her place, and pulled out her cell phone, dialing 911. The call didn’t go through, and she worried that James had set up some sort of cell signal blocker. That would be something that she’d do, so she wouldn’t put it past him. James knew the ins and outs of the security business, but she was just as versed and had a leg up on him—this was her home turf.
Right now, her only hope was that Linc and Ethan would get sick of waiting for her and show up at her condo to find her. She was supposed to meet them an hour ago when she ran into James on her way out. Sooner or later, they would get antsy and come looking for her—at least, that was what she was hoping for.
She checked her cell phone again and saw that she still had no signal, tossing it to her desk as if it offended her in some way. She could see James standing in her kitchen. He had the pantry door open and was looking into it as if he was confused.
“Where are you hiding, Ella?” he shouted. “You know I’m going to find you. There are only so many places you can hide, honey,” he taunted. There was no way that she’d let him know where she was hiding. He wouldn’t be able to unlock the safe room’s door. Once she got inside, she pressed in the code that only she knew, to lock herself inside. She would be the only person who could open the door again and that gave her some sick satisfaction.
“Good luck finding me, asshole,” she breathed. James paced around the kitchen looking like a caged animal. He wanted to find her, but this time, he wouldn’t offer to sit and talk to her. James wouldn’t give her that chance again because he knew her well enough to know that she’d try to run all over again if given the chance.
“Ella,” he breathed, “this isn’t over. I’ll be back and next time, you won’t be able to get away from me. Next time, I’ll make sure that you won’t be able to run ever again.” He turned and started for the front door and Ella held her breath waiting to see if he was really going to leave or if he was playing her. That was something that she’d also do—pretend to leave but stick around to wait for her to come out of hiding, but she wasn’t that stupid.
She watched on the video monitor as he grabbed his knife from the kitchen floor and his gun from the banister, and left through the front door, not bothering to shut it behind himself. There was no way that she was going to leave the room, not until she felt safe and at this point, that might never happen. Ella would stay in her safe room waiting for the guys to show up because she knew that they would—they just had to.
