Page 25 of Dangerous Deviance
“Or?”
“It’s either that, or I come there myself and interview her personally.” She shifted the phone, the speaker cracking as she moved. “I need a spark. I can work with a spark, but you’ve got to give me that, or I can’t do anything.”
I sighed. “All right,” I said. “I’ll find out.”
“Thanks. I’ll send you the invoice after I deliver.”
She hung up. Derek smirked when I looked at him.
“What?” I asked.
“Better you than me,” he chuckled.
Once I got back to the penthouse, I went straight to the rooftop. The sun was setting, casting a purple glow over the horizon. The ocean was choppy then, the breeze erratic. And like I had come to expect, Ellie was sitting on one of the patio couches, staring out at the water.
She stared at that view every single day. Sometimes, on the surveillance footage, I caught her lips moving, her eyes flickering back and forth, but I could never hear or see anything.
So what did she see?
I lifted a blanket towards her. She smiled and gave me a subtle nod.
I could have taken her on that rooftop. I had thought about it often, fucking her across the couch, stripping her bare, exposing her pussy for my pleasure. But seeing the way it pained her to look out at the world and get nothing back, leaving her alone, made guilt settle in my stomach. I hadn’t kept up my end of the bargain, and I should have.
But now, I could start.
“What’s your name?” I asked. She gazed toward me with a question in her eyes, then waited for me to finish. “Your real name,” I explained. “Your sister’s.”
She closed her eyes, pressing her eyelids together tight. Tears built in the crevices, her skin growing blotchy, almost as if it was painful for her to think. It must have been hard to not remember your past, to fight with your brain to remember. Your mind was supposed to be the only ally that you always had, and yet Ellie’s mind had betrayed her. Had left her alone.
She opened her eyes, her vision locking on mine. Those sapphires pierced me then, showing me their true depth. She was so much more than I knew, than she knew herself.
“My sister’s name is Julie,” she said. “And my name is Elena Jordan.”
CHAPTER 8
Ellie
The gray clouds dulled the whole city as if everything was monochrome, and the rainbow after the storm had never existed. I looked down; the rooftop of Wil’s penthouse always made it seem like I was in a different universe, like I hadn’t been a part of the ‘real’ world in a long time. I didn’t know where I had come from, and yet I knew this place, this city, wasn’t my home.
But where was my home?
It was colder on the rooftop, but I preferred to be outside, looking down at the world, trying to search the streets for clues to my past, as if the cars, the buildings, the street signs, as if everything could tell me a new secret. It was better than being inside of Wil’s penthouse. His place was nice; Maddie took good care of it. She came by every other day, asking and chatting about Wil as she cleaned. The entire place had been decorated with a modern, yet masculine vibe. And whenever it was cold, there was a fireplace built into the living room wall that gave off just enough heat to warm my bones.
But here on the rooftop? I had fresh air. A planter box held flowers with petals that wiggled in the wind; Maddie took care of them too. There was even a small square of grass that I sometimes stepped on with my bare feet, to remind myself that life went on outside of these walls. My sister was out there, somewhere.
You must find her, the voice said.Julie. Where is Julie?
Her name was heavy on my heart. I held a hand to my chest, thinking of her: that blond hair, her blue eyes bright like mine, eyes we had gotten from our mother. Julie had always been the opposite of me; naturally thin where I was built like a tree, spirited and adventurous when I was rooted to the spot. All I had wanted was to protect her. To give her the safety I wished I had. And instead, she had floated away.
Where is she?
I couldn’t answer the voice, couldn’t tell it the one answer that would give me peace, the lost answer that broke me in two. Made me feel worthless. Some big sister I was.
Footsteps thudded behind me. I stayed forward, pretending as if I hadn’t heard him. I was in tune with Wil’s presence now, like an instinctual tick, knowing exactly when he had returned to the penthouse through the shifts in the building, the sounds that came from within. I slept in the other master bedroom, and he locked me inside of there at night, but once it was daylight, I stayed on the rooftop as much as possible.
Unless he called for me. Like I knew he would right now.
“Ellie,” he said.
