Without Remorse

“Look,” he said, pausing to reach for a napkin to wipe his mouth, “I understand all this comes as a shock, but I couldn’t leave you there. The man who attacked you is a very bad man, and when he disappeared, other bad men would follow the trail and come looking for him. That trail would have led them straight to you. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Sloane threw her hands up in the air. “What are you talking about? What bad men?”

Nicholas crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “Bad men like the kind that wouldn’t leave a beautiful woman like you alive when they were done with you. Bad men who don’t operate within the law or think that the rules apply to them.”

“Men like you?” she asked scathingly.

He flinched and she wasn’t sure if it felt good or not to land a point. Part of her hoped he would deny it, but he just nodded.

“Yes. Men like me. And my boss, who sent me to watch the piece of shit who’d become obsessed with you.”

Sloane massaged her temple. “I think I’m gonna be sick.” She stood up and started to walk towards the bathroom but Nicholas moved to intercept her, a hand out, “Wait.”

“What?” she spat. “Can I not even take a piss without you watching? Or are you the kind of guy who gets off on that, too?” And come to think of it, she really, really had to go. As soon as she thought of it, it was all she could think about.

He flinched again. Another point landed. It didn’t make her feel better. None of this did.

She tried to push past him but he caught her by the wrist. “Let go of me, you bastard!” she cried and he did.

“Sloane, wait, he’s—” Nicholas said, but she slammed the bathroom door in his face.

Only to turn around and screech when she saw Oliver/Saint tied up and bound, unconscious in the tub. She yanked the door open and ran out again—right into Nicholas.

“I tried to tell you—”

“Not hard enough!” She punched against his chest to get away from him. “Oh my God.” She covered her face with her hands. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

She sat down on the nearest bed. There were two of them, at least, but still! What the hell had she gotten herself into?

“How am I supposed to pee with him in there?!”

Nicholas went past her and yanked the shower curtain closed. “Better?”

She could only stare at him. But her bladder was bursting so badly, she had no other choice but to head back in, slam the door, and do her business as fast as humanly possible. Goosebumps pricked up her arms the whole time at being closed in with the unconscious man who’d attacked her. She finally finished and flushed, glad the sink to wash her hands was outside the small toilet and shower area.

She rushed out to wash her hands, her entire body shaking. She looked in the mirror at where Nicholas stood behind her. “So you’re, what? In a gang or something?”

His jaw went tense. “Something like that.”

She shook her head, wiping her hands on a towel and then retreating back to the bed she’d claimed as hers. “So everything… it was all a lie.”

“No,” he said sharply, then he came closer. She flinched back but he didn’t touch her, just sat on the bed across from her. “I’ve never told you any lies.”

She scoffed. “Just about the entire reason you were there. What about imports and exports?”

He tilted his head to the side. “All right, sometimes I stretched the truth. But loosely, that’s what my boss’s organization does.”

Sloane blinked, realization hitting. “But… but you import things like… drugs?”

His eyes dropped to the floor. “What I do for a living doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re safe now.”

“Safe?” She laughed without humor. “There’s one gangster tied up in the bathroom and another one holding me hostage, taking me God knows where. How am I safe?”

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you,” Nicholas said firmly, and he sounded like he meant it. But how could she believe a single word out of his mouth? Plus, who knew what his version of safe meant?

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“To my home. In Brooklyn.”

She immediately started shaking her head, backing up against the wall as she did. “No, no you can’t. I can’t travel. You know I can’t—”

“You did just fine today.”

“You drugged me!”

He didn’t say anything, just kept his gaze steady.

“Oh my God, so you plan to just keep me drugged the whole way there?”

“How have you traveled in the past?” he asked.

Her mouth dropped open and she wished she could deny it was exactly what she’d done when getting to great Aunt Trish’s all those years ago. But that was different. She’d done it voluntarily for one!