Sydney. She’s on the floor, clutching her head. Her attacker has her by the hair, dragging her across the floor toward her bedroom.
I don’t even stop to think.
I raise the gun and fire.
40
SYDNEY
My ears are ringing.
There’s something warm and wet on me. Under me. On my hands, on my clothes, pooling beneath me. I try to stand, but the world tilts, the floor sliding out from under me. There’s a sharp pain over my temple, and my scalp throbs from where someone had been dragging me by my hair.
Because someone…
Someoneattacked me.
I blink hard, trying to think. I remember leaving Alec’s mansion, humiliated and furious. I remember wanting to get home, to be alone. I was distracted, so caught up in my own thoughts and broken heart I didn’t notice someone waiting inside my apartment until it was too late.
As soon as the door shut behind me, they were on me. A fist connected with my temple, and the world went white. I hit the ground, tried to crawl away, but someone grabbed my hair, yanked me up, and then?—
BANG.
The grip on my hair vanished, and I slumped back to the floor.
The wet floor. It smells like copper, like warm pennies. I know that smell, somehow. Recognize it, but I can’t?—
A pair of hands cups my face, and I scream, scrambling to my feet to get away from them.
“It’s me, darling. It’s Alec.”
The sound of his voice instantly eases something in me, and this time I don’t shove him away when he reaches for me. My vision is blurred, and I have to blink hard a few times before his warm brown eyes come into focus. Then the rest of him falls into place. My Alec. Here, keeping me safe, scaring my attacker away. His eyes are dark, frantic and scared as they sweep over me, assessing the damage.
“Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?” he asks, voice husky. He’s trying to stay calm and controlled, but there’s a quiver of panic in his voice. He keeps one hand on my cheek, raising the other in front of me.
“Three,” I croak. My throat feels raw. Screaming. I’ve been screaming, haven’t I?
“Good girl.”
He’s so close to me, I can’t see anything but him. I take a shaky step back, trying to put some distance between us. “What happened?”
His jaw tightens. There’s red on him, I realize. All over his hands. I glance down at myself. There’s red on me, too. All over my arms and my clothes. Why is there so much red? “Someone was waiting for you,” Alec explains, voice low. “Why the fuck weren’t you answering your phone?”
Because I put it on do not disturb. Because I was pissed, heartbroken, ten thousand different emotions after letting myself be vulnerable just to be told he still couldn’t be honest with me.
“Gee, I wonder,” I snap. My fists clench at my side. “Maybe I wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat after throwing myself at you whenyoushould be the one groveling.”
“Red—”
“No. Forget it.” My voice shakes with anger. “Why did you even come? Why didn’t you send Seb or Ash? God, even Viper seems more inclined to help me at this point.” His face crumples as the words hit their mark, something flickering behind his eyes, but I don’t care. I went to him and put my heart on the line. And he rejected me.
“You will never let me in. I get it. Thank you for the help, and I appreciate you scaring him off, but I’ve had enough humiliation for today. Can you please just…” I glance past him and freeze, the words dying on my tongue as I realize what actually happened. He didn’t scare away my attacker.
There’s a dead body.
In the middle of my apartment. His blood soaking into my rug. One eye, unfixed, staring at nothing. His head…
Red. The red all over me, red all over my apartment, pooling under that too still man…
