Page 23 of The Dollhouse

It was open, and a dolly sat just outside the door.

“What the hell?” I spoke, heading straight to my apartment.

Lake was just as confused as I was, and he walked with me. We both peeked into the studio apartment, finding that two huge guys were currently in the process of rearranging my bedroom area.

And by rearranging, I meant they brought up new furniture, and even a new mattress.

“Uh,” Lake whispered, neither of us stepping inside my apartment, “do you know those guys? They were not in there when I went downstairs to check the mail—either I zoned out, or they workreallyfast.”

“No, I don’t,” I said, manning up and walking inside. I could tell Lake didn’t want to come in with me, the two beefy guys made him uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to leave me alone with strangers who had somehow gotten into my apartment when I wasn’t home.

It wasn’t like I had a fake-looking rock sitting in the hallway with an extra key. First off, this was an apartment building, and those stupid things only worked for houses. Second off, no one knew I lived here, besides Lake and Crystal. Who in the world…

I set my groceries down in the kitchen area, causing both burly guys to look at me. “Who the hell are you guys?” I asked, figuring we’d better get straight to the point here.

Neither guy said anything; they were both about a foot taller than me and riddled with tattoos. They looked like the kind of guys you’d see in a dark alleyway, the kind of guys you’d instantly turn around and hurry away from.

Yeah, it was a good thing Lake was here, just in case.

One of the men reached into his pocket, pulling out a small envelope. As the other man finished setting up the bed frame and lowering the new mattress onto it—a real mattress, not a cheap air mattress like the one I had before. My original stuff was nowhere to be seen—he walked over to me, handing it to me without saying a single word.

The man working on the bed harrumphed, “We got more to go.” He and his partner vanished the next moment, taking the dolly with them as they went.

I watched them go, growing more confused as the seconds ticked on.

“That was weird,” Lake muttered. “Normally when people get furniture deliveries, they’re aware of it. They pay for it. You know, the usual—”

I tuned out his rambling as I tore into the envelope, pulling out the small, handwritten notecard stuffed inside. Written in thick black ink, as if the words were drawn with a quill and not a pen, it said:Here’s to us.On the bottom, it was signed with the letterR, nothing else.

One guess as to who R was.

Lake leaned over my shoulder, trying to read the note, but I held it against my chest, turning to him with a puzzled expression. “Well? What did it say? Who’s it from? Don’t keep me waiting in suspense.”

Roman, but I wasn’t about to tell Lake that, because then I’d have to explain who Roman was, how I’d met him—which would then lead me to telling him where I worked, which I did not want to do. Not that I was ashamed of working at the Dollhouse, I wasn’t, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t want Lake to know. I wanted to keep Lake separate from that life for as long as I could. Maybe a part of me feared that he would no longer want to spend time with me, no longer be so kind to me, if he knew everything there was to know about me.

And my arrangement with Roman, whatever the hell you could call it. Me agreeing to be his. Funny, because I did not recall ever telling Roman where I lived or even hinting that I needed furniture in my place; somehow all this shit had miraculously shown up on its own, like he’d done his own digging into my life and decided I needed this stuff anyway.

“My parents,” I muttered, lying through my teeth. I thought I sounded believable, but then again, I was never really a liar. That crown belonged to Willow and Bryan, not me. “They must’ve found me.”

His voice lowered, and he glanced over his shoulder to make sure we were alone before saying, “Did you not want them to find you?” Even though it was stupid, it sounded like he really cared about what my answer would be.

“No,” I said, catching myself, “I mean, yes? Ugh, I don’t know.” I ran a hand through my hair, crumpling up the note and tossing it in the garbage can near the fridge.

If Roman would go this far, out of the blue, what else would he do? Would he have cameras installed in my place just to make sure I was behaving right? I agreed to be his, but that didn’t mean he could control my whole damned life. I didn’t run from one gilded cage to be caught in another, you know?

Even if Roman’s cage came with cocks aplenty.

Lake must’ve set his mail down, for the next moment I felt his hand gingerly touch my upper arm, and I turned to meet his gaze. “If there’s anything I can do,” he said, pausing when the guys reappeared, carrying a huge, brand-new flat-screen TV, still in the box, “just let me know.” He peered around the guys, getting sidetracked a bit. “Is that seventy-five inches?”

A chuckle made its way out of my throat before I could stop it, and Lake glanced back to me.

“Right, uh, I mean—”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Do you want to stay with me while these guys finish up?”

Lake still looked guilty for getting excited about the size of the television set, and he muttered, “You sure you don’t want to send any of this back? I’m sure these guys would—”

The bigger of the two turned toward us, shaking his head once. “Are you crazy? You don’t return a gift from—”

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