“You can work here,” Dorian says. “Or in one of the living rooms.”
I shake my head. “No, I need to get away from this house. I’ll go to the campus library.”
“Will you?” Dorian questions mildly. He doesn’t challenge my statement outright, but his words are enough to get the message across. If I want to get to campus, I have to go through him. If I want to doanything,I’ll have to go through him.
I release a deep breath. My best bet right now is playing his game, lying low until I can figure out plausible next steps.
“Can Ipleasego to campus to get my work done for the day?” I ask, trying to keep the tetchiness from my tone.
Dorian nods. “Of course. I’ll take you.” He pauses. “And stay with you. I also have a bit of homework, so a change of scene might be helpful.”
Naturally, I won’t be allowed to go alone. I shouldn’t have expected anything else.
“Dorian.”
“Mm?”
“How long am I going to be kept in this house exactly? How long are you going to bechaperoningme?”
“Not chaperoning,” he says, giving a mock shudder. “You’re not a child or a debutante. I’ll beaccompanyingyou until I’m sure you won’t pull the same shit you did last night, blatantly flirting with other men even though you know I want you.”
“Just because youwantme doesn’t make youentitledto me,” I point out, trying to keep my tone calm. “I don’t need you to accompany me places.” His response is a mere shrug. Thinning my lips, Ipress forward. “How long am I going to be staying in this house? Concretely?”
“A while,” he responds mildly.
“How long is a while?” I press. “A few weeks? A fewmonths?How long, Dorian? How long am I going to be a captive—”
“Guest,” he interjects.
“—Here? How long am I going to forfeit my freedom? Will it have to be until the end of the semester? Will it belonger?”
He sighs, growing irritated. “I don’t know, Mira. Until not onlyI, but mybossis convinced that you’re not a threat. You obviously have a past that’s given you a certain skillset. He wants to keep you close for the time being. He becomes dangerous when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
I inhale a deep breath. “It’s not… it’s notforever,right?”
Dorian doesn’t respond. The fuckwad does not say a single word, which makes my blood chill. He’s either not speaking because he doesn’t know the answer, or because the answer isyes.
“Dorian,” I say. “You’re… you’re going to let me go, right? Eventually?”
He shuts the screen of his laptop. “I’m hoping you won’twantto go after a while, Mira.”
“That’s not an answer,” I say, my tone becoming shrill. “You’re going to let me go eventually. Youhaveto let me go eventually. I can’t stay here for the rest of college—”
“I’m done talking about this,” he announces, standing from the bed. “Get ready, shower, do whatever you want to do. I have some shit to get done.”
He walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him, leaving me a puddle of uncertainty on the bed.
We get to the library an hour later. The drive is taken entirely in silence. Dorian is quiet, seeming somewhat ruffled, and I have no desire to make any conversation with him. Instead, I start to think through my options.
I can’t stay at Greywood if it means being under Dorian’s rule permanently. I won’t put myself through that. I had excellent grades in high school and have done very well in Greywood so far; there’s a slim chance that I might somehow be able to transfer to another school and retain a scholarship. I make a decision that the sooner I get the transfer, the better; I need to start lookingnow.
While I’m in front of Dorian, in his line of vision, part of his life, I understand I’ll remain a complication and potential threat that needs to be kept close. If I were gone, though… if I left, went to another school out of state, and kept my mouth closed about everything I’ve seen and done, maybe there’s a way he’d let me go. I might not be worth the effort of a retrieval.
That, of course, leaves behind the problem of his boss, who’s been mentioned to me several times in passing. I don’t know who the boss is, but I know enough to understand that he’s a very dangerous man. Ialsoknow that the boss is the reason Connor didn’t kill me the night I first met him and is probably the reason I survived the night of the shootout. Hopefully, that means he’s disinclined to kill an innocent girl.
If I leave in the right way, write a letter or contract that can convince whoever the boss is that I’ll keep what I know to myself, maybe I’ll be given reprieve. Maybe I’ll be able to get away, have a clean break.
Ihatethe very idea of leaving. I hate being driven out of the place that I’ve made my home, where I have friends andhadsafety for the first time in my life. Now, my safety is being threatened by Dorian’s presence in my life. I can’t risk staying here, with him, indefinitely. The more I think about it, the more a school transfer—ifI can pull it off—makes sense. Ihaveto be able to pull it off.
