“B—b—before or after you came over?”
“After,” he said, clenching the side of his ribs. And with all his skin on display, my eyes were rightly all over the place, trying to find somewhere to focus. “You know it was after I came here, I saw the documents, I saw some of the stuff you’d underlined, and your notes. It makes sense now, with what you told me about going to the FBI.”
“But if you know, who else knows?”
“Nobody,” he growled. “I’m a vault. Especially when it comes to you.”
I shook my head. This was all far too intense, far too quickly. There had to be another game, and there had to be something else going on. Men like him didn’t fall for guys like me. I pushed myself to stand from the side of the bed, leaving him there, his head cowering like he was now the one being submissive—but I wasn’t buying it.
I ran off with his phone in my hand, and his heavy-footed stomps followed after me.
“Ezra,” his rough voice came, followed by the stomps becoming louder. “Ezra. What are you doing?”
With the way the apartment was laid out, there weren’t many places to hide. I needed to hide. Jacques wasn’t who he’d said he was. He knew about me, about my research, and he’d even confessed to stalking me. I should’ve left the apartment. I could’ve left, but I didn’t.
3. JACQUES
“You need to trust me, Ezra,” I said, my heavy limbs banging around as I chased him through his apartment. I hadn’t explained myself properly, but there wasn’t much sense to it that didn’t paint me as some obsessive. Which was the truth, of course, and yet I didn’t want him to know that. I was just a man looking for someone who would love me for who I am, instead of running for cover like I’d hurt them. “Please, Ezra,” I called out. “Let me explain.”
Ezra was hiding behind the sofa, right beside the front window of the apartment. The same one with the view to the tree outside in the courtyard of the apartment block. I could see it through the window, there was a clean snap to the branch from where I fell. Flickers of the moments passed behind my eyes, and I dropped to my knees.
I didn’t know what had happened to me, or why it was happening, but when I came to again, I was on the hard floor, Ezra’s face in front of me. He was stroking my face and wiping my mouth. There were words coming out, but they felt like they were being told to me like I was inside a balloon.
“I’m going to call 911.” His voice came through.
Grabbing his hand with my phone in it, I pulled it away. “No,” I said.
“If you weren’t sobrokenright now, I’d call the police,” he whispered to me, shaking his head.
“You wouldn’t,” I mustered. “I don’t work for anyone targeting you. I know that’s what you must be thinking. In my work, knowing everything about people is important. So I had to know everything about you, and I found some bits of your research. It’s why I told them I didn’t want those drugs in me.”
Ezra’s sweet face shook, all pink and red across the bridge of his nose and under his eyes. “So it was you,” he said. “I knew someone had been through my files. But if it was you, then—” He let out a shaky breath. “The FBI are going to put me into witness protection. They’re going to protect me. Like I said.”
“I saw someone,” I told him. “When you didn’t answer, when I was in your tree, I saw someone, they were in here.” I tried my best to gesture to the window, but my limbs were heavy.
Chewing on his lip, Ezra nodded. “What drugs did they give you?” he asked. “I can probably figure out something to counter it. I have a lot of stuff in the medicine cabinet.”
I shook my head. “I don’t do drugs, don’t give me anything,” I told him. “I’ll ride this out.”
“What did they give you?”
It didn’t come off my tongue easily, and he told me I didn’t have to think or push myself too hard, which I knew was stressing something in me and triggering these episodic seizures. I knew I’d need to go back to Sanctum and be plugged back into their medical systems to figure it out.
“I can help.” Ezra’s soft voice came through all the internal noise. “We need to flush your system. I know the drug. It’s their sedative, Nexzen. It’s killed hundreds of people,” he said, stroking my head. “Long-term users, not you. You’re going to be okay.”
I lifted my head from the ground a little too quick, and dizziness hit like my brain had been put in a blender and was suddenly rearranging itself right in front of my eyes. “I’m... okay.”
“I believe you now,” he said. “If you were working for Nexovex to see what I knew, you wouldn’t have tried Nexzen. You’re gonna have to help me lift you, you need to go back to bed.” He hooked a hand under my arm. “Oh, you’re... excited.” His soft voice pitched into a giggle.
I was chubbed inside my sweatpants, and since I was free balling, there was a full print impression. After the seizure, my muscles had tensed, and that specific muscle was almost standing to attention. “It missed you,” I told him.
“We need to keep you from getting too excited,” he said. “And you need fluids. A lot of them. I think I have some diuretics to keep you peeing it out. How long did they have you on this stuff?”
“Ten days,” I said, my heavy feet stomping back to the bed. I stood a foot taller than Ezra, and he wasn’t doing much to hold me up, but it was the thought that counted, and I also liked that he was forgiving. I’d confessed to stalking, and I’d told him I’d seen someone else in his place. I didn’t know if he’d even clocked that I’d told him. Once I was in his bed, I told him again.
“I’ll call my FBI contact, but for right now, I want you to get better,” he said. “And maybe we can go into witness protection together. Just until the evidence is presented and whatever happens with the trial goes through.”
I knew a billionaire company would probably have had people out here, ready to murder to keep their secrets. I didn’t trust the FBI; I was even suspicious of Sanctum right now. They might even be on the payroll, especially since they were using their product.
