Arianna
"Hey! Stop!" I start to realize what I've done and push him away with all my strength but it doesn't even work when he doesn't move a single muscle as he rises his eyebrow in amusement.
"Forgot that you were supposed to hate me, love?" He grins and I almost melt but I remember that he is still a stalker and a murderer.
Looking at his eyes, I feel another familiar pull as he watches me.
My hand creeps towards his face before I can stop myself when I cover half of his face with my hand to see only his eyes. Those golden orbs flash with a hint of darkness and a knowing stare but I didn't dare to say anything because maybe I'm wrong.
Pulling my hand back to myself, I avoid his eyes," What happened to Charles?"
The man leans back against the seat besides me and watches me for long enough to feel his gaze on me. I hear a lighter switch as he lits his cigarette when he breathes out smoke from his mouth and makes a puff cloud in the car we were sitting.
When the smell hit my nostrils, I backed away from him with a cough as I looked at him angrily," Why are you smoking suddenly?" The smell was foul and disgusting and I hated people who don't respect others as they do it without asking.
"I'm sorry, baby, I'm just trying to get myself under control," he exhales the smoke again with the cigarette between his lips. I feel myself tearing up from the smell.
"I don't like the smell. It makes me sick," I almost gagged when his fingers stopped the cigarette against his lips from the next puff of smoke when he regarded me with surprised expression. Not a second when he threw the cigarette out of the car.
"Better?" He sounded concerned when he gently lifted his knuckles to my wounded cheek to caress it with soft strokes.
His sudden tenderness made me feel really stupid inside as I felt my cheeks heating up but I didn't want him to distract me from the real problems.
"You didn't answer my question. Did you kill him and threw him inside the trunk?"
Withdrawing his hand, he sighs," Not yet but I plan to. The bastard doesn't get to live after he hurt you," he said that calmly like it was a casual day to murder someone.
I don't answer that, instead I show him my tied hands," Can you please untie me?" Then I will escape from the madman who saved me but if I stay with him, who knows, he will kill me too if I piss him off.
Vincent smirks in my direction," So you can run away from me later?"
Blinking at him innocently, I lean closer to him and watch his eyes drop to my lips, the action making my heart skip a beat.
"Why would I? You saved me," I grin back at him," So please, Vince?" The short name makes him snap his eyes to mine again in a guarded manner but I felt the heat coming from him anyway.
"Comfortable enough?" He murmurs and I just smile with a nod.
Not breaking our eye contact, I feel his big hands working on my restraints, taking his pocket knife, he slashed the zip ties in two freeing my hands.
"Thank you," I shyly say and before he can stop me, I turned around to open the doors to jump out of the car. Almost tripping over my feet, I hear boots slamming into the ground when strong arms grabbed me from behind in a tight hold.
I feel his chest heaving from the jump when he landed on his feet after me, his dark chuckle against my ear making me freeze.
"Not so fast, little rabbit. I need to make sure you are safe until your pretty ass is in your bed. You know that you attract attention," he purrs with a kiss against my ear as I struggle to get out of his hold.
Why nobody is helping me!
Why nobody seems to be unaware of what is happening to me? It looked like kidnapping.
"Hel-omhpp," his hand on my mouth silenced my scream for help when I felt his lips against my ear, tickling it with his hot breath.
"Now, now. Be a good girl for me, sweetheart. I just want to get you home safely so I can go back to kill the man who failed to take you from me. I don't like to waste precious seconds on scums like that," I feel a sharp sting in my neck and I recoil from him but I seem to have no strength when I go limp in his arms.
"What-what did you do?" I feel numb, my vision blurry when I see from the corner of my eye the syringe he just injected me with.
"I'm sorry, baby. You gave me no choice," he murmurs gently and then I fall into the void of nothingness.
——————————————-
I wake up with a big headache, for a moment not remembering what happened to me to feel this way. As I try to open my eyes, I see total darkness around me, only the streets light from the window was slightly creeping inside between the curtains.
Feeling myself sleeping on the bed, I smell my comforter, realizing that I'm home.
Besides my head there's is a small lady meow and my sight gets adjusted to the dark, seeing my cat Millie in the bed with me. Since I was awake, she always comes to me to greet me.
"Hey, sweet girl," my lips feel chapped when I stroke her fur, letting her nudge her little nose against my hand as she purrs.
Smiling at the action, I'm still not back to reality, the sleepy state still holding me hostage but then I sit up with a gasp, startling my little kitten as her eyes peer at me with a shocked animal expression.
How could I forget?
That damn stalker drugged me!
How dare he!
Looking at my nightstand, I see the clock and see its late at night. 3:33am.
"Fuck! That stupid jerk!" Groaning loudly, I force myself out of the bed, noticing myself in my previous day's clothes. Well at least he was a gentleman enough to not peek at me naked while I'm unconscious.
My head hurts as I drag myself to the kitchen for a glass of water because my throat was thirsty.
Why would he drug me just to bring me home? What are his real intentions? Doesn't he know that since I have his name and face in memory, I can draw him and then show that to the police? Isn't he afraid that I will snitch on him? I even had a suspicion that he is someone I know but I needed to be sure to confirm it with my own eyes.
Grabbing the water bottle from my fridge, my eyes notice something strange as I stare down at Millie's food bowl.
It was half empty with canned food.
She never leaves food in her bowl if she is hungry for several hours when I'm out so it means someone was recently inside my apartment to feed her.
Gulping the water down, I wipe my mouth, suddenly aware that I have a stalker who follows me and watches my moves through the cameras. I feel self conscious feeling eyes on me but the apartment was too silent. It meant he was here before I woke up and that realization makes my head spin.
So he was here two times.
When he brought me home and then decided to show up again to feed my cat but why? He could care less what happens to my pet so why he would do something like that?
The flash and text tune brings me back to reality when I see my phone on the kitchen table, the screen coming to life with incoming notifications.
My silent steps are slow and wary as I read his messages.
Hey, sleepyhead.
I see that you're awake.
Go back to sleep so you can rest better.
Don't worry about Millie, she was happy to see her daddy ;)
"Are you kidding me right now?" I try to control my anger when I type back.
Why would you care about my cat?
I should go to the cops for what you did to me.
And what happened with Charles? Did you really killed him like you said?
It's not like I liked the guy but if my stalker really killed him...it will be my fault. He was my client and it ends with him being dead. I felt guilty even though he was planning to do worse to me after he tried to abduct me.
First of all, what is yours is mine so Millie belongs to us.
Second of all, no, you will not go to the police because you know deep down that you're curious about me.
And thirdly, you don't have to think about him anymore. That name doesn't exist.
Go sleep and stop thinking about possible ways to run because when I catch you, there will be no escaping from me anymore, little rabbit.
Quoting the words from my newest book, I stop breathing for a second.
Could it be really him?
Or...Is he just toying with my mind?