I had to get out of here. I had to get to a phone. I’d left mine sitting on the desk next to my list of names because I’d been using it to read my notes about the timing of the stalker’s messages.
I sidestepped. “I’d better get back to it. My fiancé will be here to pick me up soon.”
It was a lie. Ahanti wouldn’t be bringing me back a sub if Mark would be back any minute. Hopefully Eddie’d believe it enough to not try anything. He might not even realize I was on to him after all.
He let me pass.
I headed straight for the back room, keeping my pace casual even though my heart was beating so fast it’d probably soon stop from exhaustion.
The lock on the door clicked behind me.
A zing shot down my neck and the hairs stood up as if I’d really been electrified.
Don’t panic, Nikki. It’s like how your dogs don’t chase a rabbit unless it runs. He might simply be locking the door because Ahanti had it locked.
But my instincts said not. Since she was coming right back, he should have left the door open for her. I had to get to my phone and out the back door.
I broke into a sprint, but a large hand clamped down on my arm and dragged me back. I lost my balance. Eddie hauled me back to my feet.
“I thought you were my friend, too,” Eddie said. “You and Terrance. But both of you tried to hurt my relationship with Ahanti. You shouldn’t have done that. She’s my soul mate.”
He was going to kill me like he’d killed Cary and like he’d tried to kill Terrance unless I did something. Play along, I’d told Ahanti.
But how did I play along when I was an obstacle in the way of what he wanted rather than the object of his affection?
Playing dumb seemed like the next best option.
“I don’t know what you mean. Haven’t we been working together to keep Ahanti safe? From Cary, remember? And from Terrance. We helped keep her safe from Terrance. I had people add sensors onto her windows and you…” My voice cracked. I sounded frantic, but I couldn’t seem to pull myself together. “You made sure Terrance couldn’t harm her again.”
His fingers pinched into my arm, sending spirals of pain down to my elbow and up to my shoulder. I bit into my cheek involuntarily, and the coppery taste of blood flooded my mouth.
“You didn’t help,” Eddie said. “You took out the camera I’d put in to watch over her.”
There weren’t enough ways in my vocabulary to say crap to get me through this. I wasn’t going to be able to convince him that I was on his side. My next best option was to stall him. Ahanti and Lucas would be back soon. Lucas would know something was wrong as soon as the door was locked and no one answered it.
“I didn’t know that camera was yours. I would have left it there so you could keep protecting her if I’d known that. I thought it belonged to Terrance, remember?”
Indecision flickered across Eddie’s face, then he pulled me toward the back office. “I’m sorry, Nicole. I liked you. I just can’t take the chance. She’s finally starting to see that I’m the one she’s meant to be with. I can’t risk you messing that up. It was bad enough you brought in other people to her apartment. That made me look bad. Like I couldn’t take care of her.”
“She knows you can take care of her,” I said.
It seemed like he’d stopped listening. He didn’t even acknowledge me with so much as a glare.
He dragged me past the desks, my cell phone too far out of reach. Even if I could break away and grab it, I’d never have time to dial 911 before he snatched it back. Then he’d smash the phone and my head right along with it.
We were headed for the back door. My best chance seemed to be to wait until we were outside and then scream fire. I’d read somewhere once that if you screamed for help in a city, no one would come, but if you screamed that there was a fire, everyone would run in your direction. I sure hoped this was one of the times the Internet was right.
We reached the door. Eddie spun me around and wrapped his arm around my neck before I could lower my chin to stop him. Panic scurried up into my throat, blocking my air. He’d been so smart in going undetected through all of this. Perhaps he didn’t intend to allow me to walk out of here on my own.
“Ahanti will wonder what happened to me,” I blurted.
He pressed me back against his bare chest. He smelled like sweat and metal and antiseptic. “I’m going to tell her that you got a call and went outside to take it. How am I supposed to know where you went after that?”
If he gave her that story, she’d think the stalker grabbed me, and she’d never suspect it was Eddie all along. She’d stop his tattoo, he’d go home, and she and Lucas would call the police. By then, Eddie would be well on his way to disposing of my body.
Not that I’d care by that point. I’d be dead and in heaven with my Uncle Stan.
As much as I missed him, I didn’t want to have our reunion today.
In some back corner of my mind, I recognized that my brain was running in the crazy circles it sometimes fell into, but pulling it out required more willpower than I seemed to possess at the moment.
Eddie tightened his grip. He leaned his head down slightly. “If you fight me or scream, I’ll snap your neck.”
The way he said it, I believed him. There was a hardness to his tone that I’d never heard before—one that said he was the kind of man who’d rather commit suicide by cop, getting himself shot, instead of going to prison. He’d have no problem taking me out with him.
That thought alone would have buckled my knees had he not essentially been dragging me out the back door by my neck.
He hauled me into the alleyway behind Skin Canvas.
My advice to play along kept repeating in my head. Dead was dead. If I went with him, I might find another way to escape. He couldn’t take me anywhere far right now. If we both disappeared, Ahanti would be suspicious of him, and he knew it.
So he must be intending to put me somewhere for now and come back to kill me later, when he wasn’t pressed for time and at risk of someone witnessing my murder.
Eddie turned us down another side street where three cars parked. We went around to the back of the first car, and it beeped like he’d hit a clicker to unlock it. The trunk popped open.
My mouth went dry. I hadn’t thought through where he planned to put me. His car made sense in a twisted I’ve-killed-before-and-I’ll-do-it-again way.
Not only were the buildings butting up to the alleyway made of bricks—and therefore fairly sound-resistant—but I wouldn’t know whether the owners of the other cars were near enough to hear me if I screamed. Likely they were working in a building along this street and wouldn’t be back until the end of the day.
