Chapter 25
Terror seized me at the sound of his voice, the shock of realizing I was so not alone making me a little dizzy for a moment. The photos on the wall blurred as I spun around.
He stood in the doorway of the room, his blond hair messy, like he’d run his fingers through it several times. Those sharp, dark eyes appeared to miss nothing, and his arms were loose at his sides, but his hands opened and closed, grasping air over and over.
Kip. It was Kip.
He was the one who’d been breaking into my house and it obviously went further than that. The photos of the other women . . .
Kip tilted his head to the side like he could hear what I was thinking. “You shouldn’t have seen this. You wouldn’t understand.”
Fear had my throat seized up and I croaked out, “What is there to understand?”
One shoulder rose as he glanced toward the closet. “Probably should’ve made sure you couldn’t find your way up here, but I honestly didn’t think you’d find it.” He took a step forward and to the side, putting himself between the closet and the door. My muscles locked up. “I mean, you hadn’t discovered it this whole time. Figured you weren’t smart enough.”
Any other day I’d be insulted for not being “smart enough,” however, today I honestly didn’t care what he thought about my level of intelligence. I had to get out of there. My frantic gaze moved to the doorway. I’d been in James and Miriam’s apartment before, and if the layout was anything like theirs, I knew this room led to a hall and then to the door.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said gently.
I looked at him sharply. “That you’re a freak?”
His eyes narrowed. “And you’re a whore.” He spat the words out. Drawing back, I stared at him as a muscle flickered along his jaw. “You’re just like all the rest of them—just like Shelly.”
“Shelly?” I whispered.
“When it came to her, I was relegated to the friend zone for years, but I loved her. I loved her, Roxy.” His dark eyes flashed. “But she spread her legs for just about any guy who crossed her path. I wasn’t good enough for her, I guess.” He barked out a short, harsh laugh. “Well, I showed her just how good I was.”
When it hit me who Shelly was—the girl that had gone missing at the beginning of the summer—my knees went weak. I doubted showing her how good he was had anything to do with something I wanted to be a part of.
I thought about the other women—the ones in the photos on these walls. “You . . . you hurt them because of Shelly?”
His lips curled up in a mockery of a smile. “I don’t think I hurt them.”
The guy was insane, absolutely crazy-pants insane. I opened my mouth, but then I heard what felt like a lifeline. The distant ring of my cell phone. I’d left it in my closet. I had no idea who could be calling, but I prayed that it was Reece, because I had to think he’d check on me if I didn’t answer. He knew the passcode to the security system and he had a key.
Kip didn’t acknowledge the sound of my phone. He was studying me like one would look at an insect through a microscope. “I sent you flowers.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I sent you the flowers,” he repeated, taking another slow, measured step forward. “I sent them after I heard you talking with your mother,” he continued, sending a shiver of repulsion through me. “I told you things would be better.”
The man was seriously deranged.
“You never brought them home. That upset me.” He shrugged again and then he reached out, brushing his fingers along a photo. “I wanted you to know I was here with you.” A real smile appeared and somehow that was creepier than anything else. “I loved how you thought the place was haunted. Cute.”
Those dark eyes settled on mine. They were bottomless, wholly frightening. I heard the phone ringing again downstairs, and as my heart pounded in my chest, he lowered his arm. His hand opened and closed. “I never got to do that with the rest of them. Only Shelly. I knew where she kept her spare key.”
My arms were shaking so bad I wrapped them around my waist as I took a sideways step, moving closer to the door. I had to keep him talking. That much I knew.
“You really pissed me off when you brought him home,” he said. “I thought you were different. You were different from the rest of them—artistic, funny.”
“You messed up my apartment.”
“Of course I did. How else was I to get you back here?” He inclined his head again. “Sometimes I would watch you at Mona’s. I’d be there and you’d have no idea. Just like I’ve laid beside you and you’ve had no idea.”
My stomach knotted with disgust and horror. I couldn’t even wrap my head around that, couldn’t even allow myself to truly think about it.
“What . . . what are you going to do?”
“That’s such a repetitious question,” he replied, the grin slipping from his face. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I didn’t plan this. You weren’t supposed to come up here. I was supposed to come to you, when the time was right.”
When the time was right? Dear God, I was staring into the face of someone truly unhinged. I heard my phone start ringing again, and this time Kip’s eyes narrowed. His hands closed once more, and I sprang into action, my flats slipping on the wooden floor as I took off toward the door. My stomach was in my throat, and all I could let myself think about was making it to that door—making it outside.
I didn’t make it very far.
Tackled from behind, I went down hard, my glasses flying off, my knees smacking the floor, and my palms scraping across a rough board. Pain flared, but I didn’t cave in to it. I wiggled and twisted, trying to loosen the arms circled tight around my waist.
Kip grunted as he flipped me on my back, and I swung out. His round cheeks flushed, he shifted, pushing his knee into my stomach with enough force to knock the air out of my lungs. “Knock it off,” he ordered, jerking back as I swung again. This time he wasn’t fast enough. My fist connected with his jaw, and I hit him like my brothers taught me to. Hard and fast. Dull pain danced over my knuckles, but I swung again, screaming as loud as I could.
“Scream all you want, Roxy.” He caught my hand and slammed it down, pinning it to the floor with bruising force. “James and his girl aren’t home and you know the Silvers can’t hear shit.”
That didn’t stop me from screaming.
He hauled me up by one arm and slammed me back down. My head cracked against the floor, and for a second, bright lights flashed in back of my eyes, dotting my vision. I was stunned as pain whipped around along the side of my head and down my neck.
Fear rose inside me, insidious as choking, thick smoke, but so did a fury that was far stronger. This would not happen. Not after everything. I wasn’t stupid. The other women obviously hadn’t been able to identify him, and Shelly—that poor girl didn’t sound like she was still walking this earth. I knew the chances of me walking out of there were slim. I was not going to go down like this. There was no way.
I was going to fight.
Rolling my hips, I succeeded in knocking him to the side. Once his weight came off my stomach, I didn’t hesitate. I rolled onto my knees, scrambling to put space between us. “Help!” I screamed until my throat felt raw. “Help!”
Kip snatched my ankle, yanking hard enough that I cried out as sharp pain flew up my leg. I didn’t stop. On my hands and knees, I crawled across the floor, toward the bedroom door.
“I don’t know where you think you’re going.” He grunted as he got a hand on my upper leg and pulled.
I went down, my chin banging against the floor. The walls whirled as he flipped me onto my back once more. This time his body settled on mine, and the weight, heavy and consuming—terrifying and repulsive—drove me crazy. I clawed at his face, screaming as my fingernails dug into his cheek. Pink welts appeared, quickly spilling blood as I dragged my hand down.
He threw his head back, howling as he lifted his arm. I didn’t even see his fist coming. Pain exploded along my cheek and eye. A fiery sensation stole my breath as the pain burst along my mouth. I tasted something metallic. Dazed, it took me a second to realize that he’d hit me twice. Twice. A man had never hit me in my entire life. Not counting my brothers when we were younger and used to beat the snot out of one another.
I opened my eyes—or one eye. My left didn’t seem to want to work right. I saw him raising his fist again, and as my heart dropped, I brought my leg up as hard as I could. He anticipated the move, shifting so my knee connected with the inside of his thigh.
Cursing under his breath, he wrapped his hand around my throat and squeezed—squeezed tight enough that I hadn’t realized I’d taken my last breath until it was too late. “For such a little thing, you sure as hell—”
“Roxy!”
Hope kindled to life at the sound of Reece’s voice floating up from my apartment. He was here—oh my God, he was here. I couldn’t believe it. I opened my mouth to yell back, but Kip slammed his hand down on my mouth, muffling my scream. The grip was brutal, smashing my lips against my teeth. He moved so quickly, his other hand reaching around to his back. There was a quick glimmer of something shiny and the cool metal pressed against the base of my throat.
He had a knife.
“Say one word, and I’ll give you a different kind of smile,” he whispered. “Do you understand me?”
My chest clenched as I stared into his cold, piercing eyes. I really couldn’t nod, but he seemed to see the understanding in my face. “Up,” he ordered.
As Kip hauled me onto my feet, I heard Reece down below, shouting out my name again. He sounded closer, as if he were near the closet. My heart pounded as Kip kept the knife against my throat, pushing me toward the bedroom door. Reece was smart. He would see the open door inside the closet, the stairwell, and he would come looking for me. Kip had to have realized that too.
Kip cursed again as he turned so I was facing the closet door. Heavy steps thundered throughout the apartment, matching the tempo of my racing heart. We were almost out of the room when Reece burst out of the closet, gun drawn and pointed straight at where we stood.