Am I putting my best friend in danger? Is she going to be the next life that this war claims?
Haven takes a step back, her hands on my shoulders. “You’re shaking, and you look like you’re going to be sick. What’s going on?”
“Well, you know how I told you that the guy from the chatroom has been stalking me and holding me here?”
“Yeah.” She shuffles inside, urging me back a step. She shuts the door behind her and twists the lock in place. “I told your familyabout everything going on, by the way. They agreed to hold back and let you see how this plays out for now. They wanted to know where he was holding you, but I told Aiden that I didn’t know. That you said you didn’t know either.”
I nod, pulling my bottom lip into my mouth and biting it for a moment. I blow out a long breath and run my hand through my hair. “I might be starting to second-guess that decision.”
“I don’t think you should. It makes sense that you might be worried about how all this is going to go, but I think staying and trying to figure things out is the right choice. You have a chance to get a look at how the Rinaldo family operates.”
“Yeah, sure.” I scoff and shake my head, leading her into the apartment and over to the white fluffy couch set in front of windows that stretch from the floor to the ceiling.
“Don’t be so pessimistic.”
“He’s going to keep me away from anything we could use to help us. You know that as well as I do.”
“Then what does he want with you?” She flops down beside me and puts her bags on the floor.
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, well, what do you want from him?”
“I don’t know that either.” I grab a throw pillow and clutch it to my chest. “I know that I should want to get out of here, but there’s this side to him that I can’t seem to escape. Every time I’m pissed at him, he does something kind or makes me feel like I matter to him, and then it pulls me back in.”
“That’s how men manipulate.” Haven kicks off her shoes and pulls her feet up onto the couch.
“Not him.” I hold up a hand before she can get going. “And I know you’re going to say that it’s what every girl who thinks their man is different says, but there is something different about the way he’s doing it. He’s obsessed with me.”
“And you think that’s a good thing?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I’ve been going back and forth about it. On one hand, I think that I might like who he is as a person. After all, we spent those months talking and some of it had to be true. I think most of it was true.”
Haven shakes her head and gets up, going to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of wine. “We’re going to need more alcohol for this conversation.”
“And face masks?” I laugh and head down the hall to the bathroom, and she joins me.
We put on the face masks and for a moment, I can pretend that I’m back at my own apartment and not being held hostage. I can think about something other than what happens if I stop playing along with him.
Though, I’m not so sure it’s just playing along anymore.
The tension is there. The sex with him was rough, but it was good. Really good. I don’t even want to admit to how much time I’ve spent thinking about it.
Haven nudges me with her elbow before leading the charge back into the living room, her face plastered with a mud mask. “You’ve got that guilty look on your face like you did something you shouldn’t have.”
I shrug, dropping back down onto the couch and reaching for the bottle of wine. “Probably, but there’s no going back now. I think the part I feel guilty about is wanting it to happen again.”
“Wanting what to happen?” She looks at me before she sits down and starts bouncing on the couch. “You fucked him!”
I’m glad the mud mask hides how red my cheeks have to be right now. “I mean…yes.”
She squeals. “Okay, look. I don’t know how I feel about you sleeping with the man who kidnapped you, since that must mean there’s got to be something wrong with you. Maybe in a good way. But then I have to know, how was it?”
“Good.” I groan and lean back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “More than good, if I’m being honest, and I think I want it to happen again, but it’s going to take some time, I think, until we get to that point again.”
Haven scoffs and digs her bony little elbow into me again. “You’re going to be falling into bed with him again before you know it. I saw pictures of him. He’s hot, and there’s no way you’re going to be able to fight that for long, even if it is a bad idea.”
I groan and twist to sling my legs over her lap, lying back on the cushions and staring at the ceiling. “I didn’t think being here was going to be this complicated. I thought everything was going to be fine. Sure, I was going to be held hostage by some guy, but I thought that I’d be able to figure out my way out of it, but then he signed me up for culinary school, and even when I push him, he’s never really hurt me. A couple of cuts here or there?—”
