Page 67 of Keep Me Safe
There were clothes folded neatly at the foot of the bed. I sat down beside them then shoved them to the floor. I took my torturous heels off and wanted to cry, to scream... I needed release. Better yet, I needed to do something.
There wasn’t a mirror in the bathroom, only a pedestal sink, a toilet, and a shower. Perhaps I should have been thankful—he could have left me in a cage with a bucket, but that didn’t seem his style. He’d gone to enormous lengths during the month he’d held my sister captive, pretending he was her loving fiancé.
As far as I could tell, there weren’t any cameras in either room, so . . . at least there was that. But I had the terrible feeling this space was a tool.
When I shuffled out of the bathroom, I jerked to a halt.
Juric waited for me. The clothes I’d pushed on the floor were back on the bed beside him, folded neatly. “These are for you.”
My mouth went dry. “I like what I have on.”
“Hmm, me too, but you can’t stay in that dress forever.” I took a step back when he rose. “It looks like it ripped when you fell.”
Sure enough, the side of the dress by my hip had a shredded hole ripped in it. “You mean when I fell down the stairs you didn’t mention?”
“You said no to me. Don’t do it again.” His cold, merciless gaze drilled into me. “How about from now on we be completely honest with each other?”
Perhaps ignorance was bliss, but I was too confused to consider it. “Are you going to kill me?”
He took a moment. “Not tonight.”
It wasn’t really an answer. “Why not?”
“Are you anxious to die?”
“Of course not. But I won’t let you use me to get to her.”
His face hardened. “You’ll do exactly what I tell you to do.”
I let a sneering smile spread across my face. He could try to control me, but he would fail. I was excellent at controlling my mind and body when necessary. There was a thin line between pleasure and pain, so it stood to reason I could stay quiet when he hurt me.
Notif, butwhen.
His tone was calm, controlled. “Take off your dress.”
“Not a chance.”
He reached into his suit pocket. It wasn’t for the gun, as I had assumed it would be.
“Are you aware,” I said, my gaze fixed on the blade as he flicked it open, “I killed the last man who came at me with a knife?”
I stood my ground when he approached, muting the screams inside that were just below the surface of my cool facade.
“The one in your apartment?” He grinned. “That was you?”
Oh, God.Juric had been the one to get the body from my place?
“He wasn’t actually dead when I got there, but I finished the job. Did that son of a bitch give you this?”
His fingers skimmed the side of my neck where the faint pink line remained, the reminder from the knife ten days ago, and his fingertips on my skin made me lurch away. I’d rather have the knife than his too familiar, intimate touch.
“Why were you at my place?” Tension squeezed my body.
“I wanted to meet you. We’ve a lot in common.”
I was going to throw up. “We have nothing in common.”
He gave me a plain look. “Don’t argue with me. Now, we’ll try this again. Take off your dress.”
