“I’ve been staying here until you could get used to me.”Cormac sounds entirely serious and reasonable.When I met him with Ford, I thought so then, too.Just a regular guy.I thought he was a little too forward, but I dismissed it as social awkwardness.There were no red flags.My judgment is all fucked up.
And he’s completely delusional.
“Staying…in the pantry?”I ask.
“No, silly.”He pulls me all the way in.
The shelf has been moved away from the wall, and behind it is a small panel, pulled away from the wall and revealing a narrow door.To get through it, I would need to turn sideways.
Beyond the doorway is darkness.
“You’ve been staying in there?”I ask, my voice higher.
“Just so you could get more used to me.I’m a great partner, Madison.Ford taught me how to take care of the orange trees—it was so important to him, you see.He even showed me where I could stay, when I couldn’t find a new place after Vivienne died.”
“You’ve been here all along?”I can’t believe there was a trap door.But I never visited Great-Aunt Vivienne, to my forever regret.And if Ford was telling his buddy he could hide here, of course Ford wouldn’t show it to me when he helped me move in.No doubt, he did everything he could to keep me from it.In fact, the shelf was against this wall when I moved in.I never thought to look behind it.
The camera pointing at the front door makes more sense now.They wanted to monitor when I was coming and going.
All those sounds I heard, the “house settling,” the random bangs.It was Cormac.
“Those low-lifes you keep bringing over are probably coming again tonight, aren’t they?”Cormac asks.
Seth and Damiano, low-lifes?They are each ten times the man this asshole could ever be.
He makes atsking sound with his tongue.“I can’t tell you how rude that is, Madison.All I’ve ever wanted is your comfort and happiness, and you flaunt them in front of me.Do you know what I’ve had to endure?Iam your dom.Not them.”
I shake my head in disbelief.This should not be happening, this shouldn’t be real.
But he’s here, in my house, and he’s shoving me toward that tiny door.
“Cormac, please don’t make me go in there.”I grip the edge of the wall.“I don’t like how dark it is.”
“Oh, there’s a light down there, don’t worry.I’ll get you comfortable and quiet, and your otherfriendswill give up and go home.”
They’ll never give up.They’d have to find me dead before they’d give up.
Cormac pries my fingers from the doorway, then gives me a shove.
I stumble into darkness.
13
DAMIANO
“Madison already ate, but are you hungry?”I ask Seth.Lights from oncoming traffic flash and weave through the car’s interior.“I am.Do you think she would want anything from that Greek place off of Washburne?”
“I’ll call her and ask.”Seth puts his phone on speaker.
We listen to it ring.
And ring.And ring.
“Maybe she’s in the bathroom,” Seth says, ending the call as Madison’s voicemail greeting comes over the speaker.
“Entirely possible.”But the little hairs on the back of my neck are raised.Her cousin posted bail, and he’s been trying to get in touch with her.What if he somehow got past the Nove guards we set up at her driveway?He has done it once before, and we still don’t know how.
“What the fuck is this?”Seth asks, tension in his voice.
