Chapter Three
I locked the bedroom door behind me and kept my hand on the thumb turn until the metal stopped moving.
Everything was quiet.
It wasn’t apartment quiet, with traffic below the windows and neighbors somewhere beyond the walls.
This place held the hollow stillness of an old industrial building after dark.
Air moved softly through a vent near the ceiling.
Somewhere beyond the door, Geo was doing whatever a six-foot-four security professional did when the woman he was protecting disappeared into a bedroom and locked him out.
Apparently, he let her.
I let go of the thumb turn.
My overnight bag sat on the narrow bench at the foot of the bed. I pulled out a black T-shirt and soft charcoal pants, then changed out of the clothes I’d worn through the attack. My shirt wasn’t torn. My leggings weren’t stained. There wasn’t any blood on me.
I still shoved everything into the bottom of the bag.
In the bathroom across the hall, I’d washed my hands twice before coming in here. I could still remember the syringe skidding across the floor, the restraints beside it, and a man’s hand closing around my jacket.
I pressed my palms against my thighs.
The knob never moved.
Geo didn’t knock.
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. The walls were plain, the bedding was dark, and there was one lamp but no decorations. I couldn’t see a hidden second entrance, though I’d already checked the closet and the window because some habits didn’t need an invitation.
The lock was mine.
So was the choice to open it.
I stayed there another minute, listening to the stillness.
Then I stood, crossed the bedroom, and turned the lock myself.
The corridor light was low when I stepped out.
Geo hadn’t stationed himself outside it.
He was in the main room with his dark jacket off, standing near the long table where the sealed Exchange unit still sat at the far end.
A black shirt stretched across shoulders that had looked large in my apartment and ridiculous in this smaller space. He lowered his phone when he saw me.
“You doing okay?”
“I’m working on it.”
He nodded and left it there. He didn’t come toward me or ask what I’d been doing in there.
I walked into the living area.
“You really weren’t going to knock?”
“You locked the door. I assumed you wanted it locked.”
“That doesn’t usually discourage men who think they know what’s best for me.”
“It should discourage them.”
The rain had strengthened outside. I could hear it tapping somewhere high against metal, softened by brick and distance. The old walls showed their age in exposed brick and dark steel.
Geo set his phone on the table.
“Bancroft’s arranging the evidence handoff. Nobody’s coming here for it, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I almost smiled.
“You make everything sound extremely simple.”
“Most things get worse when people make them complicated on purpose.”
“Tarot must be your personal nightmare.”
A hint of amusement touched his face.
“I’m reserving judgment until the cards stop predicting men with needles.”
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. The sound felt strange in my chest after the hallway, but not wrong.
Geo glanced toward the table instead of studying my reaction.
Keeping me from being abducted didn’t create a debt I had to repay with my whole history.
“When you asked me about personal threats this morning, I said there weren’t any current ones.”
His attention returned to me.
“I remember that.”
“You didn’t ask what I meant.”
“I didn’t need to. You said there wasn’t a current threat.”
Of course he had a maddeningly reasonable explanation.
I ran my thumb along the seam of my pants.
“I was taken once before.”
Geo went still.
“I was a teenager. A man abducted me, and he hurt me badly.” I swallowed. “They caught him. He was convicted, and he’s still in prison. He isn’t connected to Antonio, The Exchange, or anyone in my life now. That’s all I want to say about it tonight.”
Geo’s jaw flexed once, but he didn’t ask how badly or what the man had done.
“Does anyone connected to him have access to you now?”
“No one does.”
“And he can’t contact you?”
“He can’t.”
“Then that’s all I need for the job. If there’s ever something else you want me to know, you can tell me. I’m not going to make you give me details because I’m curious.”
I swallowed before I answered.
I hated that almost as much as I liked him for it.
“I appreciate that.”
Geo picked up the water pitcher and lifted it slightly.
“Do you want more?”
“Yes, please.”
I carried my glass to the table and let him fill it. We stood on opposite sides for a moment, the evidence sleeve several feet away between us like an ugly reminder neither of us needed to discuss again.
“You should probably sleep,” he said.
“I probably won’t.”
“You can stay awake if you want. I’m not going to make you lie in a dark room and pretend.”
“That’s a terrible sales pitch for rest.”
“I’m not selling you anything.”
“No, you’re just giving me a fortified building, food, water, and unsolicited commentary about my sleep schedule.”
“I haven’t commented on your sleep schedule yet.”
“You were about to.”
“I was going to say that staying awake tonight won’t kill you.”
I stared at him.
“That’s worse. Now I can’t even argue with you.”
“I can say something unreasonable if it’ll help.”
The smile came easier this time.
“You’d hate that.”
“I would.”
We let the subject drop. Geo returned to his phone, and I took the couch with my water. For the next hour, rain drummed somewhere above us. I left the second tarot deck zipped inside my bag. Geo didn’t try to fill the silence for me.
By the time I set my empty glass on the table, Geo was leaning one hip against it.
Without the jacket, I could see the solid width of his shoulders and thick muscles in his arms. A pale scar disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt.
The same man had taken a knife away from an attacker without shaking afterward and stopped short of touching me when I went pale in the hallway.
Heat stirred low in my stomach.
It had been there before the attack, at my apartment door and in my kitchen while I packed. Adrenaline had buried it for a few hours. Now Geo shifted to reach for his phone, and the pull returned hard enough that my attention dropped to his mouth.
If Geo wanted to stop me, I probably couldn’t make it three steps.
He wouldn’t try unless I asked him to.
I set my glass down.
“Can I ask you something that isn’t about the murder?”
“Ask me.”
“Have you ever done primal play?”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I know what it is, but I haven’t done it.”
“If you’re picturing a random man chasing a screaming woman through the woods, that isn’t what I mean.”
“I was picturing negotiated chase, capture, and resistance.”
“That’s closer.”
His gaze stayed on my face.
“Why are you asking me now?”
“I’m asking because I like it.”
“You were nearly abducted a few hours ago.”
“I know. I also liked primal play long before today. Antonio and I had a standing arrangement for it at a club. We negotiated before every booking. What happened in my hallway didn’t create this.”
“I didn’t think it did.”
“But you’re wondering whether tonight is a terrible time to try it with someone new.”
“That’s exactly what I’m wondering.”
Heat gathered low in my abdomen.
Geo pushed away from the table but didn’t come toward me.
“You don’t have to prove anything to yourself tonight, and you don’t owe me anything because I’m protecting you.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me what you actually want.”
My nipples hardened beneath the thin cotton of my shirt.
“I want you to chase me.”
Geo drew a slower breath.
“You understand I’m not going to guess at the rules.”
“I’d be disappointed if you did.”
“Tell me all of them before we start.”
I moved around the table until nothing sat between us.
“We stay inside the secured part of the building. We don’t use exterior doors, weapons, or restraints. Give me ten seconds before you come after me. Once I start running, I’m going to fight being caught. I may tell you to let me go. That’s part of the scene.”
“What ends it?”
“If I say no or stop, you stop. Mercy is the safeword because I’m not going to say it by accident. If I can’t speak, I’ll tap you three times, fast.”
“Mercy, three rapid taps, and no or stop are hard stops.”
“Yes. If I go quiet and stop fighting, you stop too, even if I haven’t said anything.”
“I will.”
His answer came without hesitation.
“You’re very serious about this.”
“I’m serious about not hurting you.”
“You could hurt me without trying very hard.”
“I know that.”
My thighs pressed together.
Geo glanced toward the corridor leading deeper into the safe house.
“You haven’t seen the loading bay yet. I’ll show you the route before anything starts.”
“Is that where you keep the bodies?”
“I don’t keep bodies here.”
“You answered suspiciously fast.”
“Come look for yourself.”
Geo walked me through a steel interior door beyond the living space.
The loading bay was fully enclosed, long and rectangular, with old brick on two walls and reinforced metal along the others.
The exterior roll-up door was locked behind an internal security bar.
Two square support columns broke up the open concrete floor, and a narrow service passage ran along one side before returning toward the main corridor.
I checked the roll-up door, the interior door, and the service passage myself. There were no ground-level windows and no outside access I could reach without crossing a locked door.
Geo waited until I finished.
“My room is the finish line,” I said when we returned to the living space. “If I get inside and lock the door, the game ends.”
“Even if I’m two inches behind you?”
“Especially if you’re two inches behind me.”
“And if you make it?”
“You lose me.”
His eyes held mine.
“That’s clear.”
“We use a condom.”
“Yes, we do.”
“You have one?”
“I do.”
Geo looked at me for another moment.
“This is the last time I’m asking before you start. Do you want to do this tonight?”