Page 78 of Octane

“Oh, my God,” finally she sounds alert. “No, I didn’t speak with her at all yesterday.”

“I’ll be on the next flight home from South Carolina. Please go to the condo and see if she’s there. Immediately.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Call me as soon as you know whether she’s there.”

“I will.”

Ending the call, I rush through the room, grabbing any of my things that are laying out. Fuck the rest. Throwing a shirt over my head, I pocket my wallet and keys, and I’m out the door a minute later.

I unlock my cell phone as I walk back to the stairs.

“Jackson? It’s seven in the—”

“Nate, I need to get back to LA. It’s an emergency. Can you tell the guys for me?”

“Of course, but what’s wrong?”

“It appears that Daniel Dickface paid Sawyer a visit last night. I don’t know where they are now, but if I had to guess, they’re headed back to LA.”

“Oh, fuck,” Nate exclaims.

“Gotta go,” I say to him, hanging up the call.

Oh, fuck is right.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

SAWYER

Ihaven’t slept since we got back to the condo. I thought being here would make me feel closed in, like I was suffocating, even though it’s much larger than my new apartment. But I felt nothing when I walked through the door.

One of the first things Daniel did when we got here was put his mother’s engagement ring on my finger. There was a time, it seems like a lifetime ago, when I dreamt of wearing this ring. Now it serves as a shackle, linking me to Daniel and a future of solitary servitude.

“Now that you’re back, I see no reason why we should wait any longer.”

Even that didn’t elicit any emotion from me.

How could it? I am completely numb.

I sat on the sofa all night, wrapped in a blanket, staring at nothing. Into the abyss that had become my life in a matter of a few short hours. It feels like a week has gone by since yesterday morning, when I woke up in Vegas next to…

Stop it.

I look at the clock on the DVD player.

4:45 a.m.

I have no expectations for the day ahead of me. I don’t know if Daniel has any more surprises planned for me or if he intends to go to work like he would on any other day. I don’t know if he trusts me enough to leave me alone yet.

When we got here last night, Daniel showed me the new alarm system and cameras that he had installed while I was gone. It’s just one more way of him laughing in my face, telling me he knew I would be back here.

Of course, he’s the only one who knows what the code is to turn it on and off. In the event I try to leave without his say so, the alarm will go off, alerting him. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t try to leave. Believe me, that was the first thought that crossed my mind, until the memory of what I saw in the pictures came back to me. I’d envisioned seeing Daddy and Carissa laid out like the other victims, and it was enough to make me not even think about attempting to escape.

Trying to clear the images from my head for the umpteenth time, I’m startled by the sound of fists pounding on the condo door. My heart leaps, wondering if it’shim. If he’s come here to fight Daniel and help me escape.

So what if he has?

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