All Chapters of Wait for Me in the Alley: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Save your energy. Ain't nobody coming for you."The man speaking had a cigarette dangling from his lips. His eyes raked over me once, then he tilted his head toward the guy beside him. "Decent enough. Send her to the estate. Couple days' training, then she works.""What estate? What work?" I clutched the strap of my backpack and took a step back."Quit playing dumb." He let out a scoff. "What do you think they do with girls like you?"My blood went cold.No wonder Nora had insisted on dragging me to Chicago. No wonder her boyfriend had been "conveniently" free to pick us up and drop us off the entire time. She'd sold me. For twenty thousand dollars."I'm not going to any estate. Let me go. I'll pay you—double—""Once you're through that door, you don't get to negotiate." He stubbed his cigarette out against the wall. "Either you behave and go work, or you take a beating first and then go work. Your pick."I backed up two steps until my spine hit the cold metal bed frame."Neither."Th

Chapter 2

A commotion erupted outside the storage room. Footsteps scrambled in every direction, people dragging things, voices hissing "clean it up, hurry."I pushed myself up, crawled to the iron door, and pressed my ear against it. Low voices drifted in from the hallway."Don brought a lot of people this time. Heard he's in a mood.""When's he ever in a good mood? Been looking for someone for three years and still nothing—you'd be in a mood too.""Who's he even looking for? What woman's worth all this trouble?""Beats me. Just don't cross him. Come on, let's go greet him."Footsteps faded.I clenched my fists in the dark. He was looking for me. Three years, and he was still looking.Three years ago, he'd locked me in that seaside villa. Windows welded shut. Phone lines cut. Even the bathroom had a babysitter. He said: "Olivia, you run, I catch. You run as many times as you want—I'll find you every single time." I tried seven times. The first six, I only made it as far as the docks before the

Chapter 3

When I woke up, I had no idea how long I'd been out.Still in that same windowless closet. My entire body felt like it'd been taken apart and put back together wrong. Every breath came with a metallic scrape in my throat.But I heard voices outside.A woman's voice."How'd she end up like this?"I went rigid.I knew that voice.Nora.My friend. The one who'd sold me for twenty thousand dollars."Come on,Nora," the guy who'd beaten me said, his tone all sycophantic. "She wouldn't cooperate. Refused to work. And she had the nerve to say she's the Don's fiancée. Can you believe the audacity?"Nora kicked me."You? Don's girl? Keep dreaming."I lay there, too broken to curl up, too weak to do anything but take it."Why isn't she moving? She dead?""Nah. Still breathing.""Don't let her die. That'd be too easy." Nora's voice curled into a cold laugh. "Let her live. Work her to death in this shithole."I clenched my fists—nails digging into my palms—but I could barely even make a fist anymor

Chapter 4

I had a long dream. I dreamed of the first time I met Caleb.Seventeen. I was in pre-med at a university in New York. That night, I'd left the library just past midnight and cut through the alley behind campus. That's when I heard it—someone breathing hard in the dark.I walked closer. A man was slumped against the wall, right hand pressed to his left shoulder, dark blood seeping between his fingers. He looked up. Under the moonlight, his face was pale and sharp, forehead slick with sweat—but his eyes were steady."Don't scream." His voice was so hoarse I almost couldn't make it out. "Help me."I was studying medicine. I knew a wound like that could kill him. I crouched down, tore open his shirt—there was a bullet hole, still oozing. I used my emergency kit to clean it, stop the bleeding, bandage it. He didn't make a sound the whole time. Just kept watching me."Are you a cop?" I asked as I worked.He paused for two seconds. Then gave a very soft "Yeah."He came looking for me at schoo

Chapter 5

That afternoon, I was cornered by three men in the supermarket parking lot. One of them pressed a gun to my lower back and shoved me into a black van. They tied my hands and feet, wrapped a black cloth over my head. I heard one of them make a call: "Mr. Richardson, we've got Olivia Myers. South side, abandoned warehouse. Come alone."I was terrified. They threw me onto the concrete floor. Someone yanked off my hood, traced the tip of a knife along my collar. "Caleb's girl cleans up nice." I curled up and didn't dare move, repeating Caleb's words in my head—I can keep you safe.He came. Alone. In less than forty minutes.When the warehouse door kicked open, he was covered in blood, smoke still curling from his gun. He pulled me off the ground and put me behind him, then turned and put three more rounds into the men lying on the floor. Then he wrapped his jacket around me and drove back to the villa without a word—fast, the streetlights blurring into a single line outside the window.Tha

Chapter 6

I watched his eyes go red, opened my mouth, but my throat was still raw.He quickly pressed my shoulder. "Don't talk. The doctor said your vocal cords need rest."A knock at the door. One of his men leaned in. "Don, we've got him. Tied up in the interrogation room like you said."Caleb stood, bent down to tuck the blanket around me. "Give me ten minutes."After he left, I heard a door open and close at the end of the hall. Then a few short, muffled screams—like someone had something stuffed in their mouth. A few minutes later, more screams, shorter this time. Then silence.When Caleb came back, there was a small dark stain on his shirt cuff. He paused at the door, looked down at it, then rolled the cuff twice and walked in like nothing had happened. Sat back down by the bed."It's done. I've dealt with everyone involved—everyone connected." His voice was calm.I looked at him, then reached out and took his hand. He froze, staring down at my hand covering his. His knuckles curled slight

Chapter 7

Caleb dealt with everyone involved. Everyone except Nora. She'd gotten wind of it somehow—disappeared from Chicago long before the sweep.After I recovered, Caleb started planning the wedding.He chose a private island in the Caribbean.He said he'd taken three years of my freedom—he'd spend the rest of his life making it up to me.The wedding day was perfect. I stood under the flower arch, the breeze lifting my veil. Seagulls drifted across the distant sea. Guests sat in white chairs, waiting for the ceremony to begin.The first shot—I thought it was a boat backfiring.The second one tore through the arch. White fabric shredded, drifting down like torn clouds. Guests screamed. Chairs overturned. The third shot came from the sea—a black speedboat was racing toward the beach, figures on deck with rifles aimed at us.Caleb came through the side door so fast I didn't even see him move. He tackled me to the ground, covered my body with his. His hand pressed against the back of my head, knuc

Chapter 8

The days that followed, I went to that alley every single day.The alley looked just like it had years ago. The graffiti on the walls had changed a few times, but the streetlamp was still the same dim yellow. I'd sit on the steps beneath it, hugging my knees, waiting from dusk till dark—watching silhouettes come and go at the mouth of the alley, shadows stretching long and then shrinking short.The first two years, I told myself he was healing. Too hurt to show himself. The third year, I started wondering if the body claim was a setup—maybe he'd used a double, gone underground somewhere. The fourth year, I stopped making excuses. I just sat there out of habit.In the fifth year, June, a storm hit New York. The alley pooled with water, the streetlamp's reflection shattering across the surface. I sat on the steps in my jacket, rain dripping from the eaves onto my knees—cold enough that I pulled my collar tighter.When the dark had fully set in, I heard footsteps from the other end of the

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