Page 28 of Warped

Shit, shit, shit.

I couldn’t go back out that way. In a panic, I ran to the door that exited onto a corridor which led toward the rear of the property, but when I tried the handle, I discovered it was locked. My panic went into overdrive. I couldn’t use the other door, whoever had arrived was heading this way, and I’d meet them on the way out. I had no choice but to hide.

Frozen by indecision, my gaze darted around, trying to figure out where to hide. The only two places I could think of were between the space beneath the desk, and the adjoining bathroom. Hoping it would give me more options, I darted for the bathroom. There was a full sized tub in the corner with a glass screen in a cracked glass pattern to offer some privacy to whoever might be behind it. I would have preferred an actual shower curtain I could have hidden behind, but I figured it was better than nothing. I climbed into the tub and sat down behind the screen, huddling myself into a ball to make myself as small as possible.

I prayed no one would come in.

Male voices came from the office, at least two, but more likely three, I thought. They laughed about something, and then someone said something else, eliciting another bellyful of laughter. I willed them to call it a night and get the hell out of there, but then I heard the clink of glass and realized someone had opened a bottle of something, most likely an expensive whiskey to celebrate some deal they’d seen go down that night. It was three in the morning. Didn’t they ever need to sleep?

I remained frozen in one spot, growing chilled on the cool porcelain as I waited, praying they would go to bed soon. I felt nauseated with nerves, and trembles ran through my body, though I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or the cold leaching through my skin.

Footsteps approached the bathroom and my heart lurched. Shit. Someone was coming in here. I could only assume it was Tony—I didn’t think the others would have the nerve to use his private bathroom.

The door cracked open and the light flicked on. I huddled farther down, trying to squeeze so tight into myself I would miraculously vanish. I normally appreciated my height and long limbs, but now I wished I was one of those petite women who barely reached five feet. I didn’t want to breathe, terrified he would hear it. I wished my heart to stop, feeling like the thundering of the beat would surely be loud enough to be noticed. I didn’t want to lift my head and look, terrified I would find him standing beside the tub, staring down at me.

I’d never been a person to be ruled by fear before, and I didn’t like how this man made me feel. He was cold—even more so than my father had been—calculating and ruthless. At least when my father had been vicious and brutal, I’d seen the pleasure and sense of power he’d gotten from it. With Tony, though, I saw nothing. I could have been looking into the eyes of a mannequin, and I found that a hell of a lot more terrifying.

The distinctive tinkle of urine hitting a toilet bowl met my ears, so I knew he wasn’t standing over me. I couldn’t breathe in relief just yet, though. I still needed him to finish and leave without noticing me. The only way I could do that was keep as still as possible and pray he didn’t look my way.

He flushed the toilet, shortly followed by the faucet running. At least he washed his hands. An inappropriate and dangerous laugh suddenly bubbled up inside of me, and I bit my lower lip to prevent it escaping.

But then the water switched off, and he left the bathroom, flicking the light back off as he did so, and plunging me back into blessed darkness.

I exhaled a slow, steady sigh, my whole body sagging. That had been close.

Tiredness swept over me, and I longed for this to be over so I could sneak out of here and climb into bed.

I listened to the men’s muffled voices and laughter.

For the first time since speaking to him, I allowed my thoughts to go to X. He had an idea where I was now, but would he try to come for me? I’d told him not to, and plus, he still didn’t remember me. Was a man likely to put his own life on the line for a woman he couldn’t even remember?

But I had to see him. We had to be together. Being apart felt wrong in every single cell of my body.

I lost track of time, but finally the office grew quiet. I wasn’t sure if I’d fallen asleep and missed them leaving. I’d been in a state of deep thought, lulled by exhaustion and the cold. It was quite possible I’d drifted off.

Listening hard again to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken, I slowly uncurled my limbs from my body. The muscles in my arms and legs were cramped and stiff, and I stretched them out before attempting to climb from the tub. I needed to get back to my room before the house started waking up. If someone found me in here, or even just wandering around the hallways, they’d want to know what I was doing.

I sneaked out of the bathroom, ran through his office and back up the stairs without being seen.

But when I entered the bedroom, someone was waiting for me.

Nicole sat up in bed, staring at me with narrow-eyed distrust. “Where have you been?” she hissed.

“Nowhere. I went for a walk.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been gone hours.”

“It was a long walk. Now give me a fucking break, Nickie. I’m exhausted, and I want to go to sleep.”

“You’re keeping secrets, I know you are.”

I’d had enough of this. “Like how you kept it a secret from me that you’d blown our cover with the Witness Protection Program. I don’t remember you coming to me and opening up about how you’d contacted Tony and asked him to bring you home.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a good thing I did, because if Tony hadn’t come to get us, that guy you’d been hanging out with would probably have shot you, wouldn’t he?” She pouted at me, and I resisted the urge to fly at her and slap her across the face.

“Our father might have sent X,” I said, “but X never shot me, did he?”

“But my point is that our cover was blown anyway, so I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You didn’t know that when you contacted Tony.”

She scowled at me, but had no reply. She knew I was right about that, at least.

And anyway, how did she know her telling Tony about our location wasn’t what led to our father finding out as well? I’d always thought Deputy Kier might have been the one responsible for telling my father where we were, but in the end there hadn’t been any proof of that. But what about Johnny, my old boss at the bar? He must have been on Tony’s payroll, and I could only assume that happened after we’d moved to town and I’d been given the job. It was too much of a coincidence for me to just happen to land a job working for someone who already worked for Tony. Tony must have offered Johnny a decent amount of cash to keep an eye on me. I wondered if that had happened before or after Nickie had contacted Tony.

It could easily have been someone in Tony’s family who had leaked our location to my father. These men ran on corruption, and money talked. Maybe when all of this was being planned, one of those men had taken the information to my father and offered to tell all in return for a decent sum of cash. I wondered if the culprit had been one of the men X had shot, or if he was still here, moving in and out of this house, acting as though he was still on Tony’s side.

I couldn’t trust anyone around me.

Not even my own sister.

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