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She gave me a faint smile and nodded, drawing back as the cab pulled out into the traffic.
I waited a second before going to the next cab in line.“Follow that cab,” I told the driver as soon as I was inside. I settled back as we wove through traffic, following Elena downtown.
I’d just found my new obsession. I wasn’t letting her out of my sight that easily.
* * *
Her neighborhood was worsethan I’d imagined. Boarded-up windows and shops with metal grills across the windows lined the road. People were drinking on the street corner, and loud music played. Trash blew up and down the seedy-looking street where her apartment was located, and bins were overflowing as if the garbage collectors had skipped the entire neighborhood.
Elena’s cab was empty and pulling away as we stopped at the curb. I watched her for a moment, a dark shadow clinging to a railing. She looked so slight against the hellish backdrop, like a harsh wind might blow her away, but then, she had to be stronger than she looked. She'd lived here for fuck knew how long, and she’d climbed to the top of a very competitive industry.
Elena inched along the railing toward a set of stone stairs outside a rundown brownstone with multiple buzzers. Which floor was her apartment on?
I frowned as she sat on the bottom step, holding my breath as she seemed to consider her options.Who would she call? Did she have family and friends to support her? If so, it would be difficult to get closer to her, make her need me like I already needed her.
Elena took out her phone, an older model, and stared at it for a long moment before her shoulders inched down in defeat. My pulse pounded in my mouth as I watched her take out my card. She turned it this way and that, and I thought for one astounding moment that she might call me. That she might have felt the electricity between us like me. I might not be alone in this obsession. The thought made my heart race and my palms slick. To be understood after a lifetime of loneliness would be profound.
But then she sighed again and tucked my card away before rising. She turned and started to limp up the stairs.
She made it three steps before she fell. I was out of the cab and tearing across the pavement to catch her as she swayed and fainted dead away. I reached her just in time, sweeping her off her injured foot and into my arms. Where she belonged.
I turned back to the cab and climbed in, cradling her carefully on my lap. The driver raised an eyebrow at me, and I passed him a hefty tip.
“One more stop. Upper Eastside, Ashton Tower.”
