Chapter 4: Someone Close to You

I left the building with the taste of him still on my tongue and the deep ache between my legs reminding me of every thrust he had given me. The weight of his final words pressed hard against my chest. Someone close to me had given him that letter. Someone who had been watching me longer than Riven had.

The thought turned over and over in my mind while I drove through the quiet streets and tried to name every person who could have betrayed me this completely. Mira knew almost everything about my life yet she would never hand something so dangerous to a man like Riven. Jonah still claimed he loved me but love had never stopped him from acting selfish. Theo was the only one I trusted without question and the idea that my own brother could be involved made my stomach twist so hard I had to pull over and breathe until the nausea passed.

Even as the fear sat heavy in my chest my body still remembered the way Riven had held me down and the low sound he made when he came inside me. The memory sent an unwanted pulse of heat through me that made my hands tighten on the wheel in shame.

When I finally reached the apartment the windows were dark and the silence that greeted me felt wrong. I unlocked the door and stepped inside calling Theo’s name softly at first and then louder when no answer came. His sketchbook was still on the couch exactly where he had left it the night before and his shoes were by the door but the bedroom was empty and the bathroom was empty and the small kitchen showed no sign that he had been here recently. My hands started to shake as I pulled out my phone and called him three times in a row only to hear the line ring until it went to voicemail.

I was still standing in the middle of the living room trying to decide whether to call Mira or the police when a soft knock sounded against the front door. My heart jumped hard because no one should have been here at this hour. I walked toward the door slowly and looked through the peephole. Jonah stood on the other side with his hands in his pockets and an expression I could not read under the hallway light. I opened the door just wide enough to speak and he stepped forward before I could stop him.

"You look like hell," he said." I have been calling you all day. We need to talk."

I told him it was not a good time and tried to close the door but he put his hand against it and kept it open.

"Nora I know something is going on. I saw you leave that building tonight. The same building you went to last night. Whatever you are mixed up in is dangerous and I am not leaving until you tell me the truth."

Before I could answer my phone lit up on the table with a new message from the same unknown number Riven used. I picked it up while Jonah watched and the words on the screen made the air leave my lungs in one sharp rush.

Theo is with me. Come to the address I am sending you right now if you want him returned unharmed. Do not bring anyone. Do not call anyone. Night three starts early.

I looked up at Jonah with my pulse roaring in my ears and the phone still tight in my hand. He saw the fear on my face and reached for me but I stepped back and shook my head.

"You have to leave, I told him. Right now."

"Nora what is happening?"

"I cannot explain. Just go."

He started to argue but the second message arrived with an address only ten minutes away and a final line that froze the blood in my veins.

If you are not here in twenty minutes the next thing your brother loses will be something he cannot get back.

I grabbed my keys and pushed past Jonah into the hallway while his voice called after me. The door to the apartment stayed open behind me but I did not look back. All I could think about was Theo and the man who already owned one hundred nights of my body and now seemed ready to take even more.