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The blue shingles are old and dragging down the house like they melted over a span of fifty years. The roof has patches in it, and the windows are so dirty there’s a green film on the edges.
My heart sinks. “Let me go,” I whisper.
“I tried,” he says. “You wouldn’t budge. Now? You’re trapped forever.”
Chapter 5
Alessia
Leandro exits the car and opens the back door like a limo driver. He doesn’t try to pull me by the ankles, or retake his gun. He just waits.
I’m terrified of what lies in this shed of a dilapidated house. Bloodied tools and body parts hanging from the ceiling like ornaments most likely. What have I done, not killing him when I had the chance?
He stares at the sky while I remain curled up in the back seat, testing his patience. The longer I stare, the more serene he becomes. He’s all hard lines and muscle, except there’s a gentleness around his eyes I would not have thought him capable of. Perhaps he’s talking to his late wife or something less tethered to reality, which makes me wonder about him. Is he so tormented that he’d rather the blackness of death over the living?
He loves her so much he’d beg for a bullet in the head just for the slim chance of being with her again.
There’s something beautiful there.
I think of Joey’s hands gripping my shoulders so hard I thought they’d break. The glee in his eyes underneath all that hot air from the power he wielded over me. Being flung off my seat from a brisk slap to the face. I remember every time he laid his hands on me, and allow myself a breath that it can never happen again.
Maybe Leandro really did free me.
Still, I’m scared of this new chapter, however brief it may be.
Inching out of the car, the way he remains perfectly still makes me flinch. I look up at his craned neck covered in tattoos. He reminds me of one of those vampires in my college romance books, gazing at the sun like he’s experiencing it for the first time.
When I eye the gun on the floor again, I wonder if this is all part of a show. Maybe there are no bullets in the chamber.
His expression says otherwise, though. This man has snapped, I remind myself, and jump out of the car to keep my distance from him.
This is my chance to make a run for it.
Nah, forget it. He’d kill me before I make it behind the first tree.
He nonchalantly recovers his weapon, sticks it in his pants, and shuts the car door, motioning to the house I’m to reside in. The thing is little more than four walls and a storm door to make up the front entrance. There are visible cracks in portions of the siding, but it’s too dark inside to see what awaits me.
“After you, Alessia. The door is unlocked.”
“Please let me drive away. You’ll never hear of me again.”
Leandro smiles sadly. “You and I both know that’s impossible.” He reaches for the storm door since I won’t. The metal and rusted bolts make it as foreboding as Leandro himself. “Being part of witness protection means there’s a tether to you not easily broken. Your agent will launch an investigation and find you eventually, if I let you flee.”
“But—you were ready to die just now.”
The creak of old hinges makes me wince, and he just waits there, blood spatter lashed onto his white tank top beneath his leather jacket.
“Marissa didn’t let you pull the trigger. So I’m afraid I must keep on, for whatever the fates have in store next.”
“You believe in fate?” I ask rhetorically. “Why not trust in me? Let a life roam to find her own path. Don’t trap her again. Marissa wouldn’t want it.”
His eyes hold mine, and there’s no room for negotiation in them.
For fear of what he might do to me, I take my first steps into my next prison. The wood of the house is dark and moldy. The stench of mildew makes me hold back a gag. No one can possibly live in this filth. The kitchen table to my right is heavily slanted from uneven legs. There’s a fruit basket on top with nothing but rotten seeds in it. And a dripping ceiling leak is making a mess of the kitchen linoleum.
I thought he said he was bored of Jane’s cooking. Is Jane even real?
“Leandro…” I start to shake again, making sure never to fully turn my back to him.
