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”Wecanlendyousome clothes,” Teo said. ”You’ll stay here tonight. One of us will drive you to your apartment tomorrow to make sure you get everything you need. We can talk about terms more as you stay here, but obviously, you can’t tell anyone where you are or what you’re doing here.”
”Right,” I said.
He looked me up and down, appraising me. ”In any case, I don’t expect you’ll want anyone to see you like this. And you don’t want the killer to know they weren’t successful. I see this as a good deal…your silence for security.”
I swallowed. He was right. I didn’t know him very well, but I could already tell that Teo was the kind of man who was often right, and he knew it. He carried himself with the soft confidence of someone whose voice was always taken seriously and I wondered if that came before or after becoming the leader of a powerful gang.
”Come with me,” he said. He put his hand flat against the small of my back, his lithe fingers pressing softly against my skin through the fabric of my pajamas. He guided me through the open space of the apartment, until we walked past a set of white double doors. The apartment itself was sparsely decorated, but if the artwork on the walls was original, it had to be expensive. From the corner of my eye, I saw a large spiral staircase coiling up toward a second floor, right next to a large blue sectional that cut across the minimalist living room. I’d been so worried about the fact that I’d been taken against my will that I hadn’t even noticed it.
Teo opened the stark white door for me and I turned my head to see a bathroom with a sunken shower and a bathtub that looked like it was encased in granite next to a large floating sink.
”I’m not going to watch you shower,” he said. He’d leant down so he was whispering into my ear and his breath was hot and warm against my skin. I wondered if there was a challenge there, or if there was a challenge in his voice. ”Clean yourself up. When you come out, there’s a door to your left. For the time being, that’s going to be your bedroom. I’ll make sure you have some clothes. Do you need anything else?”
I turned to look at him, at the way his eyes shone by the harsh light of the bathroom, at the curve of his lips, at his slightly open mouth. My heart fluttered in my chest from how close he was to me and I wondered if that was simply the adrenaline from the night I’d had and this misplaced desire to be safe.
His gaze fluttered from my eyes to my lips as his hand trailed up my body. Then it was on my arm, on my shoulder, almost up to my neck as we faced each other for a brief second. He leaned down so he could speak quietly to me, his hand pressed flat against my collarbone, his touch expertly avoiding my breasts. ”The windows don’t open from inside, Sofia,” he said. ”Don’t try to escape.”
”I won’t,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
”Good,” he said. And then he was gone, the door closing behind him with a soft click.
I let out a shaky breath, trying to calm my racing heart. I stripped off my blood-stained clothes and got into the shower, turning on the hot water as high as it would go. I stood there for a long time, letting the water wash away the blood and grime from my skin. It helped to calm me down a little, but I was still scared.
I kept replaying the man breaking into my house. The way my mouth had tasted when I first came to. The sound of the men around me, bickering, their voices seared into my brain.
For the first time since last night, it occurred to me that a serial killer had tried to murder me…and he’d failed.
I shuddered. This wasn’t the time to think about it. I could reflect on how close I’d come to deathafterwe’d caught the motherfucker.
I stepped out of the shower and grabbed one of the luxurious towels and draped it around myself, droplets of water falling from my hair and down my back. I was already feeling more like myself as I cautiously opened the door…and my jaw dropped.
The room he’d indicated was right next to the bathroom, and it was, somehow, even fancier than the rest of the apartment. The king-sized bed was covered in crisp white sheets and a fluffy duvet, and there were two nightstands on either side. A tall, ornate mirror was placed in the corner of the room, reflecting the soft light coming from a lamp on one of the nightstands. A walk-in closet was located to the left of the bed, and I could see men’s clothes hanging in it; jeans, pants, suits. A large window looked out onto the city, the lights twinkling in the night.
I took a deep breath and shook my head, trying to clear it. This was not my life. I was a journalist. I wrote stories about people and their lives, not about criminal organizations and their leaders.
I did not get involved with my stories. I knew better than that.
But I hadn’t had a choice. It wasn’t like my stories normally came into my apartment and tried to kill me. My pounding headache only lingered now and I had some time to think about my next move now that I was alone.
Like he’d said, Teo had left me a set of clothes on the bed. Butter soft pajama shorts, a loose white tank top and a soft gray sweater. I pulled them on quickly. They were slightly too big for me, but I didn’t mind. I was happy to be wearing something that wasn’t drenched in blood, even if I was a little unsettled by the fact that Teo just had women’s clothes lying around.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling the soft mattress give beneath me. I ran my fingers over the fabric of the comforter, feeling the softness of it against my skin.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing, but every sound around me made my heart race. The soft hum of the air conditioning, the creak of the floorboards outside my door, the distant sound of a car honking on the street below.
I couldn't help but wonder what Teo and his gang were planning. What did they want from me? Why were they helping me? I knew I couldn’t trust them. I wasn’t stupid enough to trust the most dangerous gang in the city. If my brother knew about this…
Shit. My brother.
Even the thought of him made my heart race with fear. Teo was right; anyone associated with me was in danger. I played with the edge of the duvet cover as I tried to think of my next move, but I knew there was no way out of this. How could there be? I didn’t need to test the windows to know that Teo was telling the truth.
A soft knock startled me. ”Can I come in?”
I looked at the door, which was suddenly ajar. I wanted to tell the voice–it wasn’t Teo, but I wasn’t sure who it was–that I most certainly didn’t have a choice, but I swallowed instead. ”Yes.”
The man pushed open the door and stepped inside. I picked my head up to look at him.
Grayson Santiago. I’d seen him in pictures before. He tilted his head down to look at me, his eyes narrowing. ”I brought you something,” he said softly. ”Can I give it to you?”
