Andi stared at me with wide eyes. It seemed I had finally broken through to her. I had tried everything over the months to get her to really listen to me. Half the time, it was like I was talking to a wall. It made me wonder how deep into her delusion she was.
I stood slowly and approached her the way I would a deer. “I’m sorry.” I wasn’t, but I would say anything to get out of here and go home. “I’m not myself, I just want to go home.”
She sighed and rested her palm on the glass enclosure, “I know, but you can’t. You’ll get distracted again, and we can’t have that.”
“Distracted by what?” I needed to keep her talking. If I could find the chink in her armor, maybe I could talk myself out of here.
“Her…Bec.” She spat Bec’s name like it was acid on her tongue. “She can’t have you!”
“She won’t,” I tried to placate. “You’re right, I was distracted… but I’m not anymore. Let me out, and I can show you.”
Andi backed away slowly and shook her head, “Not yet. I need to find a way to get you out of the city. Then we can go together.”
The city? I was still in New York City. Well, that was a start. At least I was close to home. If I could just get out of here, I could get home… to my mom and my sisters… home to Bec.
“Let me help,” I insisted.
Andi softened for a moment but shook her head again, “I can do this. I need to do this.” She turned to leave but glanced over her shoulder, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
The door shut behind her with a hard click.
My head fell against the glass as I sighed in frustration. I would get out of here. I had to.
Nine Hours Ago, January 17th
Another month had passed.
Every day, like clockwork, Andi would arrive with the food and clothes. She’d talk about leaving the city, and I would beg her to let me leave or to let me help. She would insist she hadto do it alone, and then she’d leave me… again. Day after every goddamn day.
I was losing my mind in these walls. I had no sense of time or day. Hell, it could have been two months. I was simply guessing based on how often Andi had brought me food. Ninety-one meals… thirteen weeks. Thirteen weeks that I guessed I had been locked in here.
My funeral had come and gone. My family was mourning me. My heart broke thinking of my mom, knowing she had buried my dad… and now me. My sisters would recover someday, but if I didn’t make it back, their lives would be forever changed.
MyBec… Ineededto get back to her. I had promised her I would never leave her. That I would be a constant in the chaos. I refused to be another person who let her down. Death wouldn’t keep me from her; nothing would.
I felt some peace knowing that Malachi was there for her, giving her comfort in the moments when it all felt too big. But someday he would have to go home, as would Will. She would be left alone, abandoned by the one person she should have been able to count on.Me.
I needed to get home to her.
I couldn’t imagine how the company was faring after the drama of the last few months. I sat upright quickly as I remembered the board meeting. Shit, I needed to get out of here. If Bec was removed as CEO because stupid Andi decided to kidnap me—because she lost her goddamned mind—I was going to be livid.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered as I counted the days on my hand.
If I hadn’t lost any days, the meeting was in a week. If I had lost days, which I must have between being drugged twice, shot, and caged like a dog without sunlight, the meeting couldbe happening sooner than I thought. Maybe it had already happened.Fuck.
I looked around my cage, looking for anything to help me get out. All I had were a stack of trays from my meals, the small mattress and blanket in the corner, a hole that had seen unfortunate things, as it was all I had for a bathroom, and the stack of clothes Andi had been giving me to change into.
The door was latched shut, but there was a keyhole on the inside of the door. I had tried to pick it with what little I had, but nothing had proved fruitful. It was some sort of safety lock, meant to unlatch in case of emergency.
I rifled through the clothes that I had abandoned the moment they were given to me. I wanted as little to do with Andi as possible. There were sweatpants, a few hoodies, a couple of band tees, one pair of jeans, and a hoodie with my favorite football team logo printed on the front.
“Did she pick these out for me?” I mumbled to myself. They were all brand new and my exact size. How had I not noticed how attentive she had been before? Sure, I knew about the crush. But the insane level of attention to know things like my underwear size should have been more apparent.
The clothes weren’t overly helpful. I racked my brain, trying to find a use for the clothes, when an idea sparked. Literally.
An idea, if executed wrong, could kill me.
Hell, I was dead anyway. What did I have to lose at this point?
