Page 6 of His Witness

I’ve never felt so discombobulated before. That’s a big, fancy way of saying that it feels like I’m about to hurl all over this car. My stomach is roiling so fast, it’s like it’s on a spin cycle.

And one of the reasons is sitting next to me. Victor. He’s so big, so hard and just so mean-looking that I’m torn between being terrified and feeling as safe as if I was gold locked up in Fort Knox.

Victor’s honey-gold eyes are locked on mine as his fingers gently trace mine. My brain feels like scrambled memories and emotions right now. I can’t think about anything but his warm, calloused hand holding mine.

I search his hard face and nod my head at Tally when she asks if I’m okay with going back to take a look at some photos of what I have to assume are bad guys.

Victor nods his head and gives an approving smile that turns wolfish when I shiver.

I turn to Tally and finding her locked in conversation with Xavier, I turn to stare out the window. The smell of leather and exotic cologne is all around me.

I don’t say anything as we pull up in front of what has to be the biggest house I’ve seen close up. This is a mansion not an estate. Of course maybe those words are interchangeable. I’ve never hung around rich people. I was a scholarship kid. I was smart and motivated to get the hell out of my home life, which was shitty as hell. There’s just no other way to say it.

I was a mistake. My mother went out with a guy one time, slept with him, because why not? And then she found out why not. Cause you get pregnant and said joker ends up being married and wants nothing to do with you or your bastard child.

Xavier helps Tally out of the car and Victor reaches back with one very large hand, holding the door open for me. I hesitantly reach out and grasp his hand, surprised when he’s so damn gentle. He helps me out carefully and then closes the door behind us. He tucks my hand between his elbow and his body and my skin tingles at the feel of his muscles shifting under my fingers.

I can’t look away. There’s something almost hypnotic about Victor’s eyes. Like a vampire taking over your body and waiting to suck out your soul.

I try and tug my fingers out from between his arm and body and he just smirks at me.

Because of course it’s like trying to move a mountain.

“Come. Let me take you inside and show you around.” I watch Xavier take off with Tally to an anteroom. I nod my head at them.

“I want to go with them.” For just a moment, I really think he’s going to argue with me. He doesn’t. Just sighs and follows his friend and Tally in the room. We move to a fireplace and he growls under his breath, “You can’t just keep ignoring this.”

I turn my eyes up to his but keep a wary eye on the other man and Tally.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean. But I’ll let it go for now. Let’s talk about what you saw then.”

“There was a big blond man and he was holding a gun which he used to shoot the old man.”

I shrug. “I don’t really know what else I can tell you.”

“How tall would you say he was? Did you see his eyes? Was he tanned or pale?”

I look inward and even though I don’t want to, I think about what I saw. The quick stare-down I had with a killer.

“He was over six foot tall. He had shaggy blond hair that kind of stuck out all over his head. Almost like a disheveled surfer dude. He had pale eyes but I couldn’t tell exactly what color they were. It was too dark. He was very tan.” I stop and then look up at him. He’s so focused on what I’m saying that it’s almost scary. “I think that’s it.”

“What was he wearing? Any scars or anything that you saw?”

I point a finger at him and holler. “I’ve told you everything I remember. I don’t know anything else! I just want to go home!”

Then I storm out of the room. I reach the hallway and stop, not sure where the hell I should go. Until I hear Victor stomping after me.

Then I just pick a direction and go. Running wildly, I turn another corner and then stop, breathing hard and reaching for a door handle in front of me. When I open it, darkness looks back at me. I fumble around and find a wall switch which I flip. A set of dark stairs leads downstairs and I stumble backwards, before I straighten my spine. I can hear heavy footsteps coming this way and I duck inside the doorway and head down the stairs, creeping down one stair at a time, trying to duck down so that I can see what’s hiding down here.

It could be anything. A wine cellar, a dungeon. Who the hell knows.

A step creaks and I stop, holding my breath, ears perked up to catch any sound around me.

Nothing. I start moving again and soon find myself at the base of the steps. There’s nothing down here but old boxes and a door at one end of a smallish room.

My head darts left and right and I step out slowly, one ear cocked for any noise at all. Anything to say that there’s someone down here with me.

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