Right. Well, that didn’t go as planned. “Could you use your code to let me downstairs? I want to go for a walk.”
But the man’s already shaking his head. “My instructions were to make sure you’re safe until Micah gets home.”
“Didn’t realise the streets of Auckland were that treacherous.” Like he’s in training to become a beefeater, the man doesn’t smile. “So, you know who I am?”
Again, the man shifts his weight. “You’re Ms Petrovic. You’re his fiancé.”
“And do you think Micah wants his fiancé stuck in this apartment all day?”
“Since that’s what he told me, yes.”
“Show me.” I hold out my hand, tilting my head back to look at him along the short length of my nose.
It’s a curious angle because he stands well over a foot above me and my neck is already feeling the strain of maintaining eye contact with the giant. He must make even Micah look like a normal sized man. “What’s your name?”
“Warren.” He pulls a phone from his inside pocket and displays the screen. “This is the message he sent me.”
“You didn’t speak to him in person?” I arch my eyebrow like that fact casts everything else he’s saying into a dubious light.
The text is self-explanatory.“My fiancé is in the guest bedroom. Crimson Petrovic. Guard her until I return home.”
“This says nothing about not going outside.” I waggle the phone in his face, then tuck it back into his inside pocket. Except I don’t. I let it fall inside my sleeve, pulling on Warren’s clothing so it feels like I’m doing what I should.
When I fold my arms, it’s to disguise the bulge of the device.
“It’s what Mr Webb means. You can take it up with him when he returns.”
“Which will be?”
“This afternoon.”
He had business in Christchurch, then. Business he couldn’t overlook, even as he stole me from my friends and family, locking me in his glass tower.
Where’s some Rapunzel length hair when I need it?
“I hope for your sake that summary is accurate,” I say vaguely, retreating to my bedroom so I can send appeals for help in private. The main door isn’t enough, and I close myself in the bathroom before taking out the phone.
Because he unlocked it to show me the message, I keep it that way by tapping on the screen, even when I’m just thinking. Gabriel is the first name that springs to mind but if I call him and Micah finds out, then I’ll be in trouble.
The fact he claimed me out from under his stepbrother shows their sibling rivalry is already well out of hand. It was obvious from Gabe’s reaction that Micah hadn’t consulted him any more than he did me.
And do I really want to call Gabriel?
He’d been taken by surprise last night, sure. Still, his reaction worried me. Walking out of the room to gather himself was hard enough to watch. When he returned, he ignored me in favour of sitting with the parents he always complains about. A move that was even more difficult to stomach.
And that was before his older brother made me strip naked before him.
Before you asked him to do the same.
My cheeks burn at the memory. I don’t know what I was thinking. Add that on top of me touching him in the back seat of the car and contacting my boyfriend—ex-boyfriend, now—doesn’t seem the wisest course of action, independent of Micah finding out.
It’s not like you had sex with him.
No, but that was more down to him than me. If Micah had continued to order me to do things, I wouldn’t be able to make that claim. I stopped because he stopped. Hardly a moral victory.
Even if I can get Dad to course correct on this nightmare engagement, there’s no presumption that Gabe and I will get back together.
It might be time to relegate him to the past. From now on, he’s a childhood friend who I thought at one time would become more but didn’t.
