“You need?—”
“I don’t need anything from you. You’re one of them. But worse. Who are you? Why did you have that list?”
“That list is private.”
“Like the files?” She flung out a hand. “What is all this? Are you the J.T.? Who’s R.A.? Why are you doing this? Did you pick me on purpose?”
“I didn’t pick you,” he growled through clenched teeth.
“Then why am I here?”
His grey eyes moved slowly across the room, cataloging the wreckage, before landing on her with sharp accusation. Cold and dangerous. “I don’t know.”
Daisy’s frantic gaze dropped to his hands, then jumped to his collar. “Is that blood?”
He took a step forward, and she panicked, reaching for the poker and accidentally knocking down the rest of the fire irons in the process. Metal clattered, and she tugged.
“No!” His battered hand closed around her wrist, squeezing where her skin had blistered, shaking loose her grip.
“No!” she screamed, wrestling the poker free.
He jerked it out of her hand. “What are you going to do with that?”
“Defend myself!”
“From who?”
“You!”
“I’m trying to fucking protect you!” He threw the poker, and Daisy ran.
“I can protect myself!” Breathless and terrified, she bolted for the door, throwing herself against the wood as she frantically twisted the key.
He crashed into her, looping an arm under hers and pulling her back.
“No!” She kicked and screamed, thrashing wildly to break his hold. Swinging her head back, her skull connected hard with his face, and he dropped her.
“Fuck!”
She unlocked the door and dove into the hall.
“Daisy!”
No idea where she was, she ran as hard and fast as she could toward the end where the corridor turned.
“Daisy, get back here!”
Her legs pumped and her lungs worked. He was gaining on her. She sprinted right. Music pounded from below. She passed a staircase. It was a funnel of endless doors. A woman laughed. A naked couple, plastered against a wall. Some doors were opened. Beds. Bodies. Moans. A wide hall.
She turned right. Left. Another right. The music faded until his pounding footsteps were all she could hear. He was a wave, building—closer and closer—about to crush her.
Ahead was a table and a vase. The hall split. Left or right. How far could she go?
“Daisy, stop! You can’t go there!”
She didn’t listen. Her legs burned as her muscles screamed and her blood pumped. Almost there. Her feet slid as she prepared to take the sharp turn.
A massive giant of a man with black hair and terrifying eyes appeared out of nowhere. She was moving too fast to stop when his arm, thicker than her waist, snapped out, like a swinging steel bar.
