Page 77 of Anonymous Acts


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“Understandable.”

He gave me a nod, and then stood, picking up a gun he had to have brought in with him from the bedside table. It was then that I realized he wasn’t wearing anything but his boxer briefs. I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep my mouth from dropping open.

Lawd.

I’d seen that body at least a hundred times, but always from a screen. A screen that, apparently, had never done him justice, because my eyes were glued to him like it was brand new to me. In his clothes, Wick was handsome. Without them, he was other-worldly – meticulously chiseled, coated in polished mahogany skin. From a side view, the boxer-briefs left nothing to the imagination – a tight, perfect ass, ample bulge in the front, powerful thighs.

It tookeverythingin me not to audibly groan before I turned away, burying myself underneath the covers again to hide how hard my nipples had gotten through the thin fabric of my nightgown.

“I’m gonna let you get back to it, if you’re good then. Try to get some sleep… if you can, after that.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll try.”

“Lights off or on?” he asked, from beside the light switch at the door, even though he’d shown me controls beside the bed earlier.

“On. Please.”

There was clear sympathy in his eyes before he bowed his head to acknowledge my request, and dropped his free hand away from the switch. “Good night.”

“Good night,” I called after him, even thoughcome backwas what I really wanted to say.

Even before the nightmare, I’d been iffy about being in the dark. What had formerly served as solace now held unseen danger – intruders lurking in places just out of my reach, waiting to attack me. I didn’t want to be alone in the dark – or hell, the light either. But I felt childish enough wanting the lights on. It would be the definition of “doing too much” to ask him to stay.

I re-situated the pillows and then laid back to close my eyes. As soon as I did, the first thing I saw on the backs of my eyelids was that bleeding wound in Amanda’s head.

My eyes popped open and I sat up, shaking my head before I decided to just get my laptop, and get some work done. It didn’t look like sleep was in the cards for me tonight.

Hmph.

Sleep is overrated anyway.

I couldn’t seem to let it go.

After being up most of the night with it in my head, and then spending most of the morning with it, I couldn’t shake that horrible image of Amanda from my head. I rarely, if ever, had nightmares, and when I did, it was never anything likethis.

What the hell did it mean?

As I sat at the desk in the guest room, my failed attempts at focusing on work kept leading me back to that image. It had to mean something, right?

Frustrated, I snapped my laptop closed and picked up my cell phone. I didn’t even blink when I found myself in the contact list, navigating to Amanda’s number, and hitting the call button.

It’s not going to ring.

I braced myself, waiting to finally hear the little message telling me that the number was no longer in service. But, like always, it rang. It rang, and rang, with no answer, until the voice mail message picked up – Amanda’s chipper voice asking the caller not to leave a message she wasn’t going to listen to, and to text her instead.

“Why the fuck won’t you answer?” I asked the phone, after disconnecting the call. It didn’t make sense for it to always just ring. Did she have my number blocked?

No.

Why would she have my number blocked?

Shaking my head, I unlocked the phone again, navigating to a different contact – this time, Amanda’s aunt. She was the one who’d raised Amanda, the one who came to help her move into the dorm room we shared, the one who yelled for her at graduation. Parentage had always been a touchy subject for Amanda – something I could relate to, though we had different reasons. I always thought she had it good though – at least she hadsomebodyin that role, to love and support her.

I couldn’t say the same.

In any case, as the phone rang, I wondered how Sheila would react to hearing from me. She’d always treated me kindly, but we hadn’t spoken in a long time – even before Amanda’s disappearance. After, I never felt quite comfortable calling her out of the blue – what if Ihadinadvertently done something to Amanda that pissed her off so bad she just didn’t want to speak to me? How awkward would that conversation be?

So I let it go.

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