"You good?"
"Yeah," I say.
He tilts his head. "You got any more jobs?"
"No. I'm done."
"Even at five grand a week?"
"It's not worth it." I look at him. "I'll lose her."
He makes a sound that is not quite a laugh and not quite a dismissal, and then lets me go.
I go upstairs and make love to my girlfriend on her birthday. She is all that I need, and I know that now.
The whole drive to Serena's house, my hands won't stay steady on the wheel. I know what Theo is. I've watched him up close long enough to understand the full shape of him — the hunger, the control, the way he has never once encountered a limit he respected. I've watched him do things I told myself I wasn't responsible for because I wasn't the one doing them.
I texted Adela the address to Serena’s place. I tell her to meet the team.
As soon as I get there, they throw me in a bedroom and say, “Film.”
I do what I'm told and hold the camera at the right angles. I keep my face blank and think about Adela not knowing any of this exists. She would never look at me the same.
Serena is panting while Theo fucks her ass, and Silas shoves his dick down her throat. She’s jerking off Beckett, and I’m capturing all of it.
They come all over her stomach while she giggles.
And then I get a phone notification that Adela’s outside.
Everything in me goes cold.
I pass the phone to Theo and say, “It’s my girlfriend’s birthday. Nobody say anything fucking stupid.”
Serena meows like a cat.
I walk out into the hallway and step outside, not expecting all of her friends to be here too.
When we walk in the house, I introduce her to the guys. Theo, Beckett, and Silas are still in the bedroom. My dick is throbbing in my pants, so I pull Adela down the hall and kiss her.
“Stay at my place tonight.”
She denies me.
Beckett and Serena walk out of the room. I watch Beckett look at her, and I know exactly what that look means. I've seen that look applied to other girls, other targets. I know the way it measures.
Not her.
I get her out. I keep my voice normal and my face normal. I tell her to leave, and I watch her drive away. I stand on the street until her taillights disappear, and then I go back inside.
Beckett points upstairs.
I walk up because I don't have a choice. I open the door, and Theo's face is the last thing I see before the cloth comes down over my head and the world reduces to darkness and the sound of my own pulse.
He forced me onto a chair and tied me to it.
"What the fuck is this—"
The sting hits before I finish the sentence. I buck against the restraints, feel how well they're tied, and understand that this is no longer a cat-and-mouse game.
