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Chapter Eleven
Iwas freezing. My teeth chattered as I tried to warm up. I groaned as I reached out to try and grab my comforter. When I couldn’t find it, my eyes slowly started to open as I tried to find something to warm me up.
That’s when everything started to rush back to my mind, and my eyes snapped open quickly.
“I’d say don’t freak out, but I’m assuming we are past that point,” a man’s voice called out. I opened my mouth to scream, but he rushed forward, placing a large hand over my lips before any sound could come out.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re safe.”
Normally, I would have been kicking, screaming, biting, and clawing because I knew that I definitely was not safe. I wasn’t even in the realm of safety, but my confusion and curiosity kept my body rigid.
This was not the same man from the club. The one who choked me. The one who I thought was there to usher me to the end.
“I’m going to remove my hand now,” the man said. “I need you not to scream.”
I wanted to tell this guy that there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to scream, but instead, I nodded, and when he pulled his hand from my mouth, I kept my lips pressed tightly together.
He held out a hand to me. “I’m Alex.”
My eyes zeroed in on his outstretched hand, but I did not reach out to shake it, nor did I give him my name.
After a minute or two, he realized I wasn’t going for it. He sheepishly put it into his pocket. “Are you cold?” he asked.
At some point, my body had curled itself into a ball. This room was frigid. It was November in New York, and I was still dressed in what essentially amounted to a string bikini. Still, I said nothing. I worried that if I spoke I would say the wrong thing. I didn’t know who this man, Alex, was, or if he worked for my would-be killer.
My eyes searched the room as I thought.
“Marco is downstairs,” Alex said, as if he were reading my mind. “He’s not going to hurt you.”
Sure he isn’t.. My throat was on fire, probably from the way he’d squeezed the oxygen out of it, and I was sure that if I looked in the mirror my neck would be covered in fingerprints. I trembled as the fear of what I thought were my final moments came rushing back to me in full force.
“Hey, hey,” Alex leaned towards me. I scurried backwards until my back hit the chair. “You don’t have to be scared of me.”
I didn’t move closer. My body was taut as a string. One wrong move and I would snap in half.
Alex realized this. He moved away from the bed with his hands up in surrender. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll stay over here.” His voice was soft as if he were talking to a wounded animal instead of an adult woman.
“Where am I?” I asked. I appeared to be in a well furnished albeit dark, bedroom. Alone. With only this Alex guy.
“You are at Marco’s house,” he said.
I raised a brow. “And that is…”
He winced. I suspected I knew who Marco was, but I wanted to be sure. I hadn’t expected to wake up again, and now that I had, I was planning to do everything I could to stay alive.
As Alex opened his mouth to answer, the bedroom door flew open. The heavy wood smashed against the plaster wall so hard that I was sure it would leave a dent. I curled up tighter hoping that if I was small enough they would all forget I was there.
“Good,” the man from the alley said as he strode in. I suspected that he was Marco. “You're awake.”
Alex positioned himself so that he was blocking my form from Marco. It was a protective gesture that was not lost on Marco whose eyes narrowed as he took in his…I didn’t know what Alex was to him…stance.
“You can go,” he ordered. “I’ve got it from here.”
The thought of being alone with the man who’d literally stolen the breath from my body made me whimper uncontrollably. I wasn’t normally so meek, but I was so terrified I couldn’t control myself. I didn’t want to die.
“I’ll stay.” I was grateful to Alex in that moment. I wasn’t sure if he was a friend or foe, but I could sense that he was different from Marco. Marco wasn’t pleased. His eyes narrowed in on Alex, and he looked like he wanted to pummel him. Frankly, I didn’t know what stopped him. Marco gave the impression that he didn’t care about anyone or anything. He’d laughed as he taunted Adrian, and pulled the trigger without so much as a moment’s hesitation.
I trembled as I recalled how he’d ignored my pleas and pressed his fingers harder against my windpipe. My hands went up to my throat, and I winced as I pressed my fingertips to the soreness that reminded me of Marco’s dangerousness.
