Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
TEDDIE
I should be running, but I had a shower and got dressed in the clothes he left me. An old, soft Wolf Venom T-shirt, and what looked like a well worn kilt. It would have fallen to just above his knees, but it fell below mine. Along with my sneakers, the outfit was almost cute.
I stepped out of the bathroom, fully intending to find a door and make a run for it. Instead, I stepped right into his broad chest.
He grabbed my arms and smiled down at me. "You look adorable in my clothes."
"Why do you have a kilt?" I asked. Why was that the question uppermost in my mind?
"Sometimes I like fresh air on my balls." He grabbed my hand and tugged me along a corridor to the front of the house. Stopped as we reached a set of wide windows that overlooked the ocean.
"This is beautiful," I whispered. The moonlight glittered on the waves, like something out of a movie.
Right before the crazed murderer stabbed everyone in the throat.
"You're beautiful." He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on my shoulder.
I stiffened.
“You know I'm not really yours, right?" I asked. "For one thing, I hardly know you." That was only a minor detail compared to a bunch of others.
He nestled his face on the side of my neck. "We have plenty of time to rectify that."
"Are you sniffing my hair?" I asked.
"Of course. Isn't that what boyfriends do to their girlfriend? I don't know, I haven't had a girlfriend before."
"I wonder why," I said dryly.
"Sometimes I wonder the same thing, but then I remember I can be a handful and I'm a one-woman man kinda guy.
I just had to meet my woman. And now I have.
I'm sorry about not sending flowers sooner.
I should have sent them before they locked me in the basement.
Sometimes I get caught up in big things and I forget the little things, even though they're important, you know? "
"I don't need flowers," I said. "What if I don't like you?" After all, he'd killed someone. Why was I not terrified of him? Wary? Yes. Going to make sure my food was sealed before eating anything he offered me? Definitely. But not scared.
"Then I'll have to do everything I can to make you like me.” As if that was perfectly rational.
"Haven't you heard that song?" I watched the waves crash onto the sand. The windows must be double glazed, because I couldn't hear them. Would anyone hear me scream if he decided to kill me?
"The one where the singer says he can't make someone love him?” he asked. “Sure I've heard that, but that's them. I'm me. Besides, you and I are meant to be together."
"Because of that basement rule?" I asked.
"That and other things," he said. "The minute I saw you, I said to myself, ‘Victor, that woman is your girlfriend. You should go over there and introduce yourself to her.’ And I did.
I'm sorry, I should have explained who I was better.
I thought if I walked up and introduced myself as your boyfriend, you might have been confused. I mean, you hadn't met me before that."
"Confused is one word for it," I said dryly. He was definitely unhinged.
"Also," Victor continued, "Oak had walked away. You looked like you needed a bit of time to process. I know when a person needs their space."
"Do you?" Since the front of his body was pressed against the back of mine, I doubted it.
"Absolutely," he agreed cheerfully. "Lots of people aren't good with strangers. But then, when they're not strangers any more, it's easier. Wouldn't you say?"
"I'm not sure I would," I said. "Don't they say familiarity breeds contempt?"
"They also say when you find true love you should hold onto it with everything you have.” He sighed happily. "That's exactly what I'm doing."
I slid out from under his arms and stepped away from him.
"I know you think you like me—"
"I do like you," he said firmly. "The more time we spent together, the more perfect I see we are for each other."
"You killed someone." I moved over to the window, my gaze on him. "What am I supposed to do with that?"
He rubbed his brow as it creased. "Are you disappointed you weren't there? I took photos, I can show you." He started to pull his phone out of his back pocket.
I raised my hands in front of me. "Fuck no. Wait, you really took photos of a dead body?"
"Dead, almost dead, out on the street doing his thing while I was trying to figure out the right time and place to deal with him…” Victor dropped his hand to his side.
"Wait a minute, you were stalking him?" I asked.
"I prefer to call it careful planning," he said. "You're right, though, I should have been watching you like those guys were."
I leaned my head back against the window. I remembered what he said about the guy watching me at the restaurant. Were they stalking me, or was that a one-time thing?
The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should go home to my dads and tell them exactly what was going on. Not the stalking and murder, or the kidnapping. Or the tattoo I didn't ask for.
No, just the bit about the money the guys were going to give me. Money that seemed important at the time, but now? I might have been the crazy one, to accept their proposal.
"I've been too much," Victor said sadly. "I'll try to be not too much from now on. If I'm too much you have to say, 'Hey Victor, stop being too much.' I promise I’ll try to listen." He pressed a hand to his heart.
"I should go," I said. Was he going to let me leave?
"I don't think that's a good idea," he said. "Hel, Fade and Oak are probably looking for us right now. I'd really prefer not to go back into that basement."
"Have you tried explaining to them what happened?" I asked.
Instead of answering, he stopped and tipped his face back, frowning as though trying to hear something.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Someone's here," he said.
I froze and listened but couldn't hear anything. No sign of anyone out the window.
"What makes you think?—"
He pressed the side of his finger against my lips. "It's okay, I won't let them do anything to you." He lowered his hand and looked expectant. "This is where you say you won't let anything happen to me."
"Um…"
He grinned. "It's okay. You don't have to say it, I know how you feel. Of course you won't let anything bad happen to me. Because you're a good girlfriend." He grabbed my wrist and tugged me back towards the couch, pulling us both down to a crouch.
I wanted to remind him I wasn't his girlfriend, but he seemed genuinely certain someone was outside the house, and that someone intended to hurt both of us. We might be the next ones having our photos taken as we lay dead.
"Do you have any friends you'd like to pay you visits in the middle of the night?" I asked. It must be almost dawn by now.
"Surprisingly…no," he said. "In my experience, people who visit at this time of night aren't doing it because they like me."
"Don't tell me, you have a bunch of enemies and they've all come after you at once, right when I'm here." I was beginning to regret a whole pile of life choices. So many, I wasn't sure where to start.
"I might have one or two," Victor said. "Possibly three. Fade is harder to read than the other two."
"What makes you think it's them?" What did I think about that? I couldn't decide. They stalked me and locked him in their basement. He stalked, drugged and kidnapped me.
I was a kindergarten teacher studying for her masters degree and special education. Who had I pissed off for things to end this way?
"They would have found out I wasn't in the basement by now," Victor said. "And they know where I live.""
I stared at him. "You're running away from them and you go to the one place they know where to find you?"
He shrugged. "There's no place like home?"
His words were followed by a pounding on the door.
"Open the fucking door or we'll kick it in!" Fade shouted.
"Don't break my door," Victor shouted back.
I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips. "So much for hiding from them."
He clap a hand over his mouth. "Oops I forgot."
I closed my eyes and let out a semi-cleansing breath from between my pursed lips.
"One of us should talk to them." Maybe with some rational conversation, cooler heads might prevail. "Why don't you try to explain things to them? I'll stay here."
"Okay." Victor leaped to his feet and headed off towards the front of the house. "I didn't kill any innocent people," he called out in a sing-song voice.
"Sure you didn't," came the reply from outside the door. Hel.
While they talked, I slowly rose and tiptoed toward the back door. If I guessed right, it led out to the yard. Even if I was wrong, it was the opposite direction from Victor and the other men.
My breath held, I eased the bolt back off the door and opened it. It squeaked in protest.
I froze, hoping like hell no one heard.
The conversation continued.
"I told you, we don't buy the—"
I didn't stop to listen. I slipped out the half-open door and into the shadows.
Halfway across the yard, a shot rang out, echoing through pre-dawn.
Breath held, I ran a few steps, right into a wall of muscle.
“There you are.”
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