And I decided right then to go to work on myself. To recover myself. To take all that hope—that damned four-letter-word—that I’d put in someone else and put it in myself.
I’d done good.
And now, I was wrapping up my first date in forever. A smile curved my lips. This felt nice.
“What you thinking about?” he asked softly, lifting our hands and pressing a kiss to the back of mine.
“You. Tonight. I needed this. Thank you, Malik,” I murmured.
“The pleasure was definitely all mine, lovely.”
He stood back as I opened my door, then waited for me to cross the threshold. Turning, I rewarded him with another smile. I wasn’t ready to invite him in, yet. But soon, maybe. He didn’t press, just hugged me lightly and brushed his lips across my forehead.
Then, he was gone. I’d barely made it upstairs before my cousins and sister started blowing up my phone with texts and calls. Smiling, I shook my head. I answered my cousin Everly first.
“Hey, girl!” I greeted her, laughing at my nosy family.
“Hey, T! Just checking in. How was it?” she asked, not even pretending to make small talk.
“Girl, it was good! I’m actually just getting home. It was nice,” I said, sliding out of my heels and into my house shoes, before padding toward my dresser. “He’s sweet, and I’m probably going to see him again.”
“That’s so good, baby! You deserve it.”
Everly sighed softly. Relief, I knew. They’d all been worried about me for so long. But I’d been doing my work—therapy, journaling, creative writing, moving my body, healing. I wasbetter, so much better. Still, a little twinge of loneliness, of uncomfortable silence, had been shadowing me. Maybe that was about to change.
“Now, tell me everything!” my cousin demanded.
Laughing, I did as she asked. “His name’s Malik. You know we met in an online writers’ group. He understands so much about me, Ev.”
“Y’all for sure gotta hang out more, then. Get to know each other,” she encouraged as I stripped out of my jewelry.
I nodded as I switched the phone to speaker and set it down, studying my reflection as I removed my bottom earrings.
“Oh, definitely. I want?—”
I was so busy talking, I almost missed the slight movement in the mirror’s glass.It was nothing, really. Just a slight shift, a quick image, gone almost as soon as I processed it.
Then, a huge, blond, white man materialized behind me. A scream ripped from my throat as I whirled to face him, accidentally knocking my phone down. I could hear Ev calling for me, but I was turning back around, frantically opening my top drawer. If I could just get to my?—
My heart dropped and a distressed whimper escaped me as I reached into the drawer and grasped nothing but the soft fluff that passed as my underwear.
My Glock!Oh, God. He must’ve searched my drawers before I got there. That meant the little pistol in my nightstand might also be gone. But the shotgun Daddy had insisted on hiding in my closet before he left me, maybe the blond giant hadn’t?—
I whirled toward the closet, determined to make it there before the big man who had stooped, apparently to pick up my phone.
“Please do not bother, Miss. I gathered them all. You have an impressive collection.”
His voice was low and gravelly, heavy with an accent that I didn’t quite catch. I didn’t wanna take his word, but I also realized it would be crazy to shut myself up in the closet if there was nothing in there to guard my life. Swallowing, I turned back toward him.
To my surprise, he just stood there, my phone in one hand, his other hand up, palm out. My hands clenched into fists, trying to ward off the waves of terror that I could feel slowly lapping against my skin. I refused to beg, though. I had done too much of that in my previous life. This new Theory just couldn’t.
“What –” I stopped, cleared my throat. “What do you want?” I bit out.
“I am not here to hurt you, Miss,” he tried to reassure me.
A strangled laugh erupted from me. “You broke into my house and took all my guns, but you’re not here to hurt me?”
He shook his head, and my eyes narrowed.
