Chapter 13 #2
“I want to go home.” This time I whisper the plea; like Dorothy and her slippers, though no amount of tapping my heels together is going to get me back over the rainbow to Nashville.
“Please.” Looking at him again, I grip the back of the chair tightly.
“I won’t tell anyone. I won’t say a word, or—” My words falter when he gets up suddenly, his phone going into his pocket.
He sighs and strides toward me, his boots thumping imposingly on the wood.
I barely register his worn, dark-washed jeans over what looks like cowboy boots, and the flash of metal on his belt, before Fox is right in front of me with his fingers tilting up my chin.
“What are you doing?” I breathe, suddenly unable to make any more noise than that. My body tenses, hands fisting at my sides, and I wish I could reach around him to grab the dull fork as a weapon.
“Well, Sadie-Rae…” His breath from the sighed words brushes against my lips, fanning over them softly. “Some of us have to go to work.”
Work?
I blink once, then again. His answer was so mundane and obvious that I’m rendered speechless by it. My gaze dips to his chest, where I can see his badge hanging around his neck rather than pinned to his chest like I’m used to. “You’re leaving.”
“I’ll be back.” When my eyes flick up to his, Fox chuckles, and his warm, brown gaze darkens. “Somehow I don’t think that’s the reassurance you’re wanting though, is it?”
“You could take me with you,” I breathe, hoping once again that maybe he’ll take pity on me, just once.
Just for this, please God—
“Not happening today, I’m afraid. Not for you, sweetheart.
” The nickname is a warm purr on his lips as he steps toward me, again cutting off the small amount of space I managed to earn for myself.
“But I’m glad I got to eat breakfast with you before I left.
Now…” Without warning, he walks me backward until my shoulders hit the wall, and a low squeak of surprise is pulled from my chest.
My hands scrabble against the wood behind me, like I can find some loose plank and bash him over the head with it. But Fox only ‘tsks and raises a brow. “House rules for while I’m gone.”
“House rules?” I repeat.
“Yes. Because someone doesn’t know how to stay put.
” He stops talking for a few seconds, only to reach up and comb his fingers through my sleep-tousled hair.
“You have got to start brushing this.” Fox sighs, almost condescending but not quite.
It just about makes me bristle, and maybe it would if I wasn’t scared out of my mind by his closeness.
Just like before, his fingers in my hair are gentle and kind. Every tangle is pulled through carefully, rather than efficiently, and I barely wince even though I’m still just as tender-headed as always.
“I know you won’t stay in your room. So I won’t ask. There’s food in the fridge, but if you trash my kitchen”—his hands curve around to my cheeks, and he holds my face upward so I’m forced to meet his eyes—“you’re never seeing the outside of that dog kennel again.”
There’s an absolute certainty in the threat, even with his smile, that sends a tremor down my spine.
“There are a lot of cameras on our property, Sadie-Rae.” Once again he reaches up, this time to smooth my hair back behind my ear.
“So even if you go outside, get past Deacon, and frolic off into the woods? You’re not safe.
You’re not free. The only way out is through the front door and down the driveway.
And well…” He tilts his head, and his grin turns a little less friendly at the edges.
“We have a long way to go before that’s an option while you’re still breathing.”
I jerk back at the words, a cold horror settling in my stomach. “I-I’m not—”
“I don’t need a lie,” Fox dismisses. “No mess. Or escape attempts. No breaking anything. Understand?” He waits, standing patiently, until I give him a jerky nod. “Good girl.”
Before I can react, his lips are on mine, sweet and affectionate. He kisses me with the same adoration as before, as if he truly enjoys just kissing and makes it a priority without it leading to more.
“Why are you doing this?” I finally whisper, though I’m panting from the thoroughness of his kiss. “Why keep me here? Why not just let me go, or—”
“Kill you?” Fox breathes against my mouth.
“Oh, but that would be such a waste of such a unique little rabbit. Shhh, shhh.” When I shudder in a breath, he kisses away the words on my tongue before I even know what they were going to be.
“I’m not asking for anything crazy,” he continues.
“So don’t make me be the bad guy, all right?
” As he watches, I force myself to nod, and it must be the right response.
Fox steps back a moment later, careful rather than abrupt, and gives me the friendly, charming smile he wears like a mask once more.
“I’ll be back before dinner,” he assures me, though I definitely don’t remember asking.
As I watch, he bends to offer Pearl his hand, though the dog has very little interest before she goes back to the table to lay her big, blocky head on it near my plate.
It’s the saddest attempt at begging I’ve ever seen, and I briefly wonder where she used to live that she knows not to jump up on the table in her pursuit for food.
“Oh, and Sadie?” Fox stops by the front door, though one hand works on the locks while I watch. Sure enough, he’s wearing a keyring at his waist and deftly goes through the locks with a seemingly psychic knowledge of which key goes to which lock.
“Don’t go into the workshop while I’m gone.
” Once again he has that less-than-friendly grin that I’m really starting to hate, and the one that lets me know he’s warning me away from something unpleasant.
“Seriously. I know you don’t want to listen to me, and you’ll probably run around looking for an escape as soon as I’m gone, but…
” He shrugs. “This one’s for your benefit.
Save yourself some trouble and don’t go in there before I come home. ”
He doesn’t ask for my agreement or wait around to see what effect the words have on me. Fox just gives me a little mock salute, all playful affection, and closes the door behind him.
Even still, I stand there, listening to the sound of every lock latching from the other side. He doesn’t miss one or rush them. I even hear him test the door before his steps take him away from the front of the house, across the deck, and down the steps to crunch on the gravel beyond.
At some point he even starts whistling, and it’s the same song from before. Though now I know what it is, the Manson Girls’ song doesn’t sound cheerful at all.
It sounds like a threat.