When I fail to find it, I turn away from the door to see little Mitzy staring up at me with her glossy black eyes.
Totally judging me.
Shaking my head at myself, I move to the closest window, still determined to find a way out.
The lock for the window is easy to find, but just like the door, the window is stuck. Something else keeping it sealed against me.
After searching the window for a couple of minutes, I give up, moving on to the next one. Then the next one. My panic growing by the second.
I have to get out of here. I have to.
I wasn’t able to get a text off to Beth and Amanda before James took away my phone. I was too twisted up and couldn’t figure out what to write without totally freaking them out.
I should have totally freaked them out, dammit.
Without a way to call or text anyone for help, this might be my only chance to escape before he comes back and does something awful.
Like kill me…
Or worse.
Kiss me.
God, if he kisses me again, I don’t think I could handle it. The first time was a mistake. A complete fucking mistake I don’t plan on repeating.
I was weak, and I let him get under my skin. The jerk has a way of doing that. Has some magical way of knowing exactly what buttons to push to turn me into a complete psycho mess.
He turns me into someone I don’t recognize.
Someone who makes terrible decisions.
But I only used him. Yes, I only used him to ease some of this pain…
It was nothing. It meant nothing.
But why did I immediately want to do it again?
Why, even now, do I want him to kiss me like he’s trying to devour me? His lips consuming my soul as his tongue claims me completely?
Why do I want his weight crushing down on me and his cock filling me? His heart beating against mine as he drives us to the brink of death…
It’s the pain. It’s only the pain that makes me want to die and be reborn in his arms…
Or is it?
I wasn’t lying when I told him I know exactly who he is. After my kidnapping, I made it my mission to find out more about the men behind my rescue. Going as far as digging through my father’s classified files and making copies of them.
I know everything the police know about Lucifer and those that work for him. They’ve been under surveillance off and on for years, though nothing has ever come of it.
I know Lucifer himself is rarely seen in public these days. Ever since he married, he spends most of his time with his family, sending his men to act in his stead.
His right-hand man, who happens to be the man who drove me home the night I was rescued, Simon, is a computer genius. He’s suspected of being behind dozens of state and federal system hacks, but there’s little concrete evidence, or evidence a jury would understand, to actually prosecute and convict him.
Gabriel, Simon’s brother, was recently released from prison. Somehow pardoned for several first-degree murder convictions by the Governor.
Which is completely mind-boggling but shows the true extent of their power and influence.
There’s little information known about the other men, like Beth’s husband Johnathan, because they keep low profiles. Staying off the radar.
But James has an entire folder dedicated to him.
A folder filled mostly with surveillance photos of him with all the women he’s slept with.
He’s a fuckboy. A fuckboy who’s slept with half the women in Garden City.
CEOs, actresses, waitresses.
He’s an equal opportunity manwhore. No woman too rich or too poor to escape his attention.
There are pages of notes, pages of detectives trying to find a pattern or a reason behind his actions. But ultimately, it seems, the only thing the women have in common besides their dark hair is him.
When I first stumbled across the folder, I was shocked. Then hurt. But in the end, everything finally made sense.
How quickly I melted when he kissed me back…
It was from his years of experience seducing women.
The reason he ultimately pushed me away when Simon showed up...
He did it because he knew he couldn’t get away with using me for a quick fuck because of my father’s position.
But now my father’s dead. There’s no one to protect me, besides the other police officers.
And look what he did to Trent…
Shit.
Even though I’m not his type, I’m a blonde not a brunette, James wants something from me. Something so important, he’s determined to keep me ‘safe’ until he has it.
Whether it’s my life itself or information, I don’t know.
All I know is that I don’t have the strength, power, or experience to resist him.
Even now, I feel weak just trying to imagine resisting him if he touches me again. And if he’s still wearing that suit he left in… God help me.