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I breathe out a long sigh.
Did I clean the toilets? I did. It’s only fair. Though not without giving Jane an earful first. I’m oddly looking forward to getting in the kitchen and cooking alongside her. Keep my enemies close, right? If Leandro is bored of her meals, then I have a use yet.
There I go, already falling in line within this new environment. Is it bad that I’m excited, even though I’m captured? Yes, it’s bad. My life is shit. But this prison is one hell of an upgrade.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Aren’t there two other bathrooms?” I say lightly.
“C’mon, new girl. Don’t you want to go snoop around upstairs?” Anabel’s voice comes through. That woman is unhinged. First lingerie, now snooping? Is she nuts?
“Isn’t the door triple-locked?”
“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Today is a ‘no’ day.”
My mind immediately pictures Leandro’s hard gaze and mouth-watering physique. The man is dangerous. And by all intents and purposes, our warden. If he leaves the door with one measly lock, it’s almost like he wants us to escape. Does he enjoy the hunt, or something sick like that?
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I open the door to Anabel’s arm looping in mine, pulling me from the bathroom. Her free hand is waving around a flaming barbeque lighter like a baton. Did I mention that this woman is unhinged?
“Can I put some clothes on first, please?” I laugh uneasily, holding the knot of my towel to keep it from coming undone by this woman tugging me down the hall. “And watch what you’re doing with that, we’re all going to die in a blazing inferno if you touch the wrong cloth.”
Maria is shaking her head, reading a magazine on the couch as I’m dragged past her.
“A little help.” I look to her, but her eyes are still scanning the page.
“If it makes you feel any better, Leandro thought of that when building this place. Everything is flame retardant.” She flips the page.
My brow furrows. How would she know something like that? “Are you an engineer?”
“No,” she says evenly as Anabel leads me toward the staircase.
“Anabel!” I wince. “The last thing I need is our hitman captor finding me naked in his moldy sham of a house.”
“Relax! He won’t even look at me when I throw myself at him. But today, that all changes.” She seems determined as she stomps up the stairs.
The other women’s expressions make me think I’m making a mistake by going with her, but I am curious.
Jane’s cooking wafts up the staircase. I could use some eggs right about now.
“Okay, stay put.” Anabel unhooks her arm.
Her excitement makes me wary. Is she using me to fall on the sword, or something? What does she have planned exactly?
She uses a hairpin to pick the lock – something Arnold taught me how to do. I can tell Anabel is very experienced by her careful movements. She’s already latched onto the bottom end of the lock and is rotating clockwise correctly.
Click.
My heart stalls when the door opens. We’re not supposed to be doing this.
I hold my towel tight across my chest as Anabel undoes the latch and pushes the heavy door open, flinging the loose carpet with it.
“C’mon.”
“How do you know he’s gone?”
“Footsteps, duh.” She points. “I’ve been counting his beautiful footsteps for almost a year now. I know the lulls, I know when he’s sitting at the kitchen table, on the couch, and… when he’s gone.”
