Page 59 of Enforcer's Obsession

It was the only thing I had.

Most people would laugh at the thought of a barely above minimum wage entry-level job being all that they had, but it was so much more than that to me.

And after this was over—and I refused to allow myself to even consider the possibility that I wouldn’t leave alive—I needed to do something to go back to.

Nico had assured me that he had sent in a doctor’s note, along with texts to my supervisor from my phone saying I was sick but on the mend.

But that wouldn’t hold forever.

I needed to get out of here.

And there are other factors I had to consider.

I wandered through Nico’s living room and toward his kitchen.

It seemed so…normal.

To think that a man like him had novelty glassware was mind blowing.

But there it was. A pint glass from a local microbrewery.

The kind of mundane shit I would expect to see in a software engineer’s cabinet.

But Nico wasn’t a fucking software engineer, and I couldn’t let waffles or novelty pint glasses or sex, let me forget it.

Nico was a killer.

Everything that I both feared and despised.

He was a dangerous man, and I refused to allow the possibility of losing anything to him. Especially my heart.

So stupid to think, but it had felt good opening up to him. It felt natural.

And that was the scariest part of all.

For lack of anything else to do, I went back to the living room and turned on the television.

Found some silly movie about genetically engineered sharks, and soon felt myself drifting off.

When I stretched, I realized I was sinking into the softest, most comfortable bed I had ever experienced.

“Somebody’s finally awake?”

My eyes were still closed, but my lips turned up at the sound of the deep, rumbly voice, the faint accent at the tale of the words.

“Open your eyes, Hope. I have a surprise.”

I smiled bigger, then slowly lifted my eyes.

Froze when I met the barrel of the gun.

Follow the dark metal up a strong arm, locked eyes with Nico’s.

Watched in horror as he pulled the trigger.

I bolted upright, looking around wildly, realizing that I was in Nico’s living room, the credits of the shark movie scrolling across the screen.

I rubbed my chest, trying to slow my racing heart, but eventually, managed to get my breathing under control.

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