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”Good?” I asked.
”Better than good,” he said. ”You look beautiful, Sofia.”
His voice was low and husky as he approached me, stuffing his phone in his pocket while he did.
”Thank you,” I said.
He reached out and touched the space between my neck and my shoulder blades, softly, his fingertips barely grazing me. ”This was really bad last week,” he said. ”How is it now? Did you cover it in make-up?”
”No,” I said. ”A little sore. Much better.”
His fingers spread over my skin, his palm cupping the curve of my shoulder. ”How about the rest of you?”
”I think I got lucky,” I said.
”Lucky?” he repeated, his eyes darkening with curiosity.
”Yeah,” I said. ”I don’t think they…you know…broke anything or whatever. I mean, I think you might’ve interrupted the process. I’ve thought about this a lot. Why wouldn’t the killer kill me? Why would they just let me be? Why take me to Neon at all?”
”I don’t know.”
”I think you had something to do with it,” I replied. ”Because I heard a scuffle before you arrived and I was sure I was done for.”
He thought about that for a few seconds.
”Right. It’s weird. Well, I’m glad they didn’t kill you,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. ”Because if they had, I wouldn’t have been able to control myself.”
I shivered at the intensity in his eyes, the way his fingers dug into my skin just a little bit, reminding me of his strength. ”Let’s go,” I said, my voice sounding breathy.
He nodded, taking my hand and leading me out of HQ and onto the streets of the city.
It was a strange feeling, walking with him, knowing that we were supposed to be pretending. But at the same time, it felt like so much more. I couldn’t help but feel drawn to him, to the way he carried himself, to the way he looked at me.
We walked for a while, making small talk, until we got to his car. He opened the door for me, helping me climb in. I noticed that there was no one around. There was no need for him to pretend at that moment.
As he slid into the driver’s seat, I studied him from the corner of my eye. His grip on the steering wheel was tight, his jaw set in concentration. We were driving through the city, the streets slick with rain. I watched the way the street lights played off his stubble, the way his muscles flexed as he shifted gears. It was easy to forget that this was all an act, especially when he looked at me with such intensity.
”Where are we going?” I asked, trying to break the silence.
”Nice little Italian spot,” he replied. ”I know the chef. I already texted your brother the address from your phone.”
I turned to look at him, my mouth drying. ”Teo.”
”What?”
”Are you going to hurt him?”
”Who?” he asked after a beat. As if he didn’t know.
”Sammy,” I said, my voice breaking. ”Please, he’s…Sam is all I have left of my family.”
He considered this for a long second. I knew that Sam was his biggest piece of leverage and I didn’t expect him to tell me that he wasn’t going to hurt him, because he still didn’t want me to run away. Now that I was sitting in his car, though, I knew that I wasn’t going to go anywhere.
Ever since my parents had died, my life had been remarkably lonely. I’d always been a determined, stubborn person, but after the accident, my life felt like it was passing me by and my brain felt like it was in a fog. The college relationship I had, which never really seemed to be going anywhere, fizzled out. My friends didn’t know what to say; nothing like this had ever happened to them and the tragedy of it was too much for them to handle socially, even though I had a few people ask me if there was anything they could do immediately after they heard news of their death.
But what could they possibly do? They couldn’t bring my parents back, and I wanted to be alone. The only person who got it was my brother, who sat next to me in my childhood room when I was too stunned to cry, neither one of us saying a fucking thing to each other from dusk to dawn, neither one of us able to sleep.
It had been years since I’d felt close to someone. Sure, my arrival had been marred by strange circumstances and I wasn’t at liberty to leave, but for the first time in years I felt that I had people I could talk to.Reallytalk to, not just about work or celebrities or the next article.
