You Own Me (Owned 1)

I folded my arms, waiting for him to explain why he was in Seattle. Why he believed it necessary to track me down and ruin my holiday.

“I’m sorry,” Vic said after a few moments of staring.

I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting, but the last thing I expected to see was Vic Wall in a Seattle market. Inside I was surprised, curious, and a little swoony, but outside I was stone. In reality Vic Wall’s apology didn’t change anything, and I was trying to learn to live in reality.

I glared at him, my arms still folded.

“I know that doesn’t change anything,” Vic continued, like he was a mind reader. “But I need you to listen to me, Lenny.”

I scoffed, shifting on the balls of my feet. I should step on his foot or knee him in the balls. Calling me “Lenny” after everything? Coming to my town? I balled my hands into fists. As though anticipating my actions, Vic took a step back.

“Listen, Lennox, things have changed.” Vic ran a hand through his long, black hair. He was wearing it down today. The black tresses caught the fluorescent supermarket lighting.

I mentally cursed him. Even in this horrible lighting, he still looked drool-worthy. Under supermarket lights, I looked like a witch.

“You’re in danger,” Vic said matter-of-factly.

I laughed. “Christ, what else is new?”

Vic stepped forward and took my chin in his hand. “This isn’t funny, Lennox. People are after you.”

I blinked and wrenched my chin away. “Don’t touch me.” I over-enunciated each word.

Vic hesitated for a moment, appearing to wrestle with the idea of letting me go, but stepped back. He lifted his hands up in surrender.

Being the masochist that I am, I prolonged his stay by asking him what people were after me. It wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t care if the KGB is after me, I’m not returning to Vic. I’m not returning to that life. I’d already made up my mind the minute the plane landed on the tarmac at SeaTac.

After Thanksgiving ends, I’ll quickly get my stuff from my apartment in Santa Barbara, pay an exorbitant fee for ending my lease early, and come back to Seattle. I don’t know what I’m going to do after that, but I do know I needed to stay the hell out of Santa Barbara.

“People in my line of work. That’s all I can say right now.” Vic glanced around the supermarket as if at any moment a bad guy was going to pop out of the cereal.

I frowned, disbelieving. It’s unbelievable the amount of money and pills that have gone in to making me “normal” but every person I meet seems to be abnormal. There’s Dean, of course, who was clearly off his rocker. My mom, she’s long been six feet under for her abnormality. It only takes a few days with my dad to realize he’s not quite there. And now Vic, acting like a poster child for paranoid schizophrenics.

But I’m the abnormal one. I’m the one who needs pills.

Okay.

The entire mess with Vic and Dean has given me a chronic tension headache. I’m popping painkillers like they’re gummy vitamins. Let’s say Vic isn’t crazy. Maybe people are after me because, after all, my life has devolved into a Spanish telenovela. I don’t care. I don’t give two fucks. Nothing is going to change my mind. I want away from Vic. I want a new life, one where I have the option of actually making choices for myself.

“You need to come live with me,” Vic said, taking a step closer to me.

If I had been drinking water, I would have spit it out all over his face. “You’re insane. After everything, you think I want to live with you? I can barely stand to be in the same room with you.” My tension headache was threatening to explode into a full-blown migraine.

I was here to get a turkey (an impossible task in itself), not debate the improbable with my so-called ex-lover. It was like I was Alice and had fallen down the rabbit hole. The supermarket, with its price checks, sales, and families shopping, had become the deviant in my life. Vic with his death threats and outrageous propositions, they were the norm. How had that happened?

It made me want to cry, but I had already cried all my tears.

“Lennox, please. People are trying to kill you. If it makes you feel better, it will only be temporary,” Vic pleaded. His eyes were big and the blackness in them seemed to be stealing me away to another realm, like the time in the black room at the Regal party.

I shuddered, looking away.

“Yeah, that makes it loads better.” My words were almost unintelligible coming out between clenched teeth.

“Look,” Vic said. The timbre of his voice had hardened like stone.

Instinctively, I readied myself for a fight.

“You’re staying with me whether you want to or not. Your safety is non-negotiable.”