Room Fourteen: Making Her Beg

“Fuck, I’m going around in circles,” I said to the empty room, my eyes suddenly going to my closet. I went still.

I hadn’t checked the closet and my room was untouched. The back door had been closed. Did that all mean there was someone in my closet, waiting on me to go to sleep? I picked the gun back up and got out of bed. I didn’t want to look, but I’d have to. I’d never be able to sleep if I didn’t.

I walked quietly to the closet door, grabbed the handle, and jerked it open, holding the gun in my hands, ready to raise it if anyone was in there. I flicked at the light and peered in. There were no feet or legs sticking out from the rail and when I moved the clothes, I didn’t see anyone hiding. It was empty. It was the only room with a closet, so I slumped down against the wall, relieved that I was alone.

But was I?

“I hate this,” I said, wishing I wasn’t so determined to be independent, so determined to handle things on my own.

I got up, swiped tears from my face, and went to the bed. I picked up my phone, ready to call Diesel, finally, but I couldn’t. If he caught a murder charge over me, I’d never be able to live with myself. Which probably meant I should nip all of this with the three men in the bud.

There was a new sense of danger in my life, a very real danger actually, and I couldn’t expose them to that. It was better to find a way to deal with this on my own.

That thought had me up and out of bed, cleaning up the mess the intruder had made until the sky started to lighten a little. But it was all cleared away by then and I knew, for certain, that my house was empty now, too.

I fell into bed exhausted, feeling like my life had been invaded, and wondering if there was anything missing. There wasn’t, as far as I could tell, just a lot of shit that was broken that I’d need to get into my nest egg to replace. My last thought before I finally fell asleep was that I’d tell the guys I couldn’t go through with the deal tomorrow. It was for the best and would keep them all out of trouble. They might not appreciate me making that decision for them, but oh well. I had to keep them safe and out of prison and that was the only way to do it.