Chapter 3
Morgan
My heart races, my eyes darting all over the place as he leaves the room.
How is this even possible?
He has to be playing some kind of sick fucking joke.
I'm shaking, jolting even further when someone touches me.
I look over and see Kaylee with her hands on my forearms, blocking my view as the man disappears from the room.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Let's go to your room," she urges, stepping beside me and wrapping her arm around my back.
Unsure of what else I could possibly do, I allow her to guide me from the room, thankful she has positioned her body on the side where the room is that the man had disappeared into.
I have so many questions, but the majority racing through my head, are pointed right at me.
How did I get tangled up with a man who I realize never gave me a name? I just called him "Baby" at the time because his real name didn't even matter. He was a means to have a little fun and to let off some steam in the most basic ways.
When did I become the person who had sex with a man whose name I don't even know?
The stairs seem endless as we walk up them, and my body is numb, my head completely confused by the time she opens the door to my room and escorts me inside.
"Lock that," I manage when she takes a step back.
Kaylee flips the lock on the door, but it does nothing to make me feel any safer.
"What is going on?" I ask again.
Kaylee looks just as confused as I feel.
"I don't know," she begins. "Are you saying the guy you've been seeing is Rooster?"
"Rooster?"
I shake my head. What weird ass names do these guys have? Is it so they can do bad things, and it'll be less likely they’ll get caught?
"His name is Rooster?"
"His name is Robert Stewart. Rooster is like a nickname. They all have them," she explains.
"And what is Ellis's nickname?"
Her lips form a flat line. "Heathen."
"That's..."
"Not why we're up here," she reminds me. "They look alike? The guy you were dating and Rooster?"
I have to shake my head. "They don't look alike. They're the same person. What do you know about him?"
"I know that Rooster isn't the guy who hurt me last night. I've not known the guy to even leave this place. He's always here. The other guys do the grocery runs. He works from here."
"It's him, Kaylee. I may not have gotten his name, but I know who I've slept with."
"He said he has a twin brother," she argues. "It's probably that Henry guy he mentioned."
I pull in a deep breath, running my hands over the top of my head as I attempt to consider the possibility.
"What set of grown twins still look exactly the same?"
"Those two, apparently," she says as I continue to pace the width of the room. "You're safe here. Rooster is not the guy you were dating."
"Can you stop calling him that? What are we, twelve? Grown men with nicknames are ridiculous."
"Robert isn't the guy you were dating," she corrects.
"Exactly the same," I repeat. "Exactly."
"There has to be some difference, right?"
I turn back to face her. "How the hell should I know that unless I see the guy naked?"
Kaylee shakes her head.
"Why aren't you more concerned right now? He tied you up and held you at knifepoint!"
"Roos-Robert wouldn't do that. These guys are like brothers, and one wouldn't hurt the other's wife."
"He's married?" I ask, wondering why in the hell that makes me feel any sort of way.
"Ellis is married. None of the other guys are," she clarifies.
"I just can't believe they aren't the same guy."
"But you could if you saw... more of him?"
I shake my head. "I just said that. I didn't mean I wanted to see him naked."
"But you saw Henry naked?"
"We had sex, Kaylee. Of course, I saw him naked."
"Any distinguishable features?"
I think back to my night with the man. I press a palm to my chest. "He had the dark half of a yin-yang tattoo over his heart."
If Robert really is his twin, then it makes perfect sense. I fully expect the man downstairs to have the other half in the same spot.
"Give me a minute," she says before bolting for the door and disappearing down the hallway.
I snap the door closed again. I want to believe that they're two different people, just like I wanted to believe that I was safe here, but today isn't helping me lean toward those emotions.
My heart races as I continue to pace the room, my ears on high alert.
I freeze in the middle of the room when I hear several pairs of boots on the stairs. It sounds like a team of men is coming in the same way they did last night at the party. Only when the door opens, Kaylee is standing in the doorway, and at her back are Ellis, Twisted, the other guy I hadn't been introduced to yet, and then as far away as he can get and still be visible, is the guy in question.
He watches me with familiar eyes but doesn't open his mouth and try to convince me that he isn't who I think he is. It gives me the courage to cross the room and stand a little closer to him.
He isn't quick to smile and flirt like the man I was intimate with had done. When I met that guy, he was all smiles and enough charm to hypnotize a cobra. I was immediately ensnared by him. This guy seems more reserved, not as quick to try and get me to smile back at him.
I watch, my breath caught in my throat as he reaches to the back neckline of his shirt and pulls his t-shirt free from his body.
I get lost, my eyes drifting down the front of his body, and it all looks so familiar. I was in awe of the man's body the night he stripped naked for me, as if he was made to be in only his skin. Even now, when we aren't in such an intimate moment with several witnesses close, I can't help but gawk at him. Every dip and curve of his muscles have me entranced.
When my senses return, they lift to the bare spot right over his heart.
Bare. Nothing.
The sight of the tanned skin there confuses me, and that confusion alone is enough to get my feet moving closer to him.
He looks perplexed when I lift my hand and run it over the smooth expanse of his skin. I wonder if I shouldn't have been brazen enough to touch him without permission when goosebumps race after my fingertips.
"You expected the other half of the tattoo," he whispers. "I had it removed years ago."
There's no proof that anything marked his skin. There's not a single scar or an inch of raised flesh.
"You're not him," I whisper, lifting my eyes just enough to watch his throat work on a swallow.
"I'm not him," he replies, his voice husky. "I would never hurt a woman."
Our eyes meet, and I know what he's saying is true.
He stands there, my hand still resting on his chest as if he'll do it for the rest of his life just so he doesn't spook me.
"All cleared up?" Twisted asks, and I jolt, pulling my hand back as if the tips were going to catch fire.
"Thank you, Robert," I say as I step back, running my thumb over my fingertips when I can still feel an electric current in them.
"Anytime," he says as he tugs his t-shirt back on before swiveling and leaving the rest of us standing awkwardly in the hallway.
"Are you okay now?" Twisted asks, stepping in front of me and filling my line of sight.
"I'm fine," I assure him, taking a step back to put some distance between the two of us.
I've dated a lot of men, and I've been flirted with by countless more. I know Twisted has some kind of interest in me, and I wager that it's more than him being concerned for my well-being. I don't want to give the guy the wrong idea or let some kind of hope form that something could happen between us. That would make my stay here with Kaylee even messier than it already is.
"You're sure?" he asks, his hand coming out and resting on my forearm.
I give him a quick dip of my head before I take a step back. His hand lingers in the air for a few awkward moments before he lowers it back down. Much to his credit, when I look into his eyes, he doesn't look disappointed or mad with unfulfilled expectations. He might be the most mature man I've ever met, which makes me want to reevaluate the men I've been surrounding myself with my entire life.
"I know they aren't the same person."
"It can still be a little overwhelming," he replies. "You're safe here."
"We could get in the hot tub if you like," Kaylee says as she steps into my side and wraps an arm around my waist.
I allow her to turn me back in the direction of my room.
This entire thing is confusing. She was the one whose life was threatened last night, and she seems just... normal, like it never even happened.
Is she so confident in her husband and these other men's skill levels that she can allow herself to believe that we're all safe here?
I don't know that I'll ever have that same level of confidence in anyone again. What happened has opened my eyes to the real dangers in the world.
Before, I'd have to worry about leaving a drink unsupervised. I'd concern myself with one guy I was seeing running into another guy I was seeing.
The whole break-into-the-house and hold-my-best-friend-hostage thing was never on my radar.
Did he act that way because I broke things off? Did he act like that because he was truly obsessed with me?
It's too coincidental that he was in my life while his twin brother was in Kaylee's.
Was I targeted because of the man downstairs, and it has less to do with me and more to do with him?
I don't know if I'll ever have answers to my questions, and that may have the power to drive me insane.