And now they both knew he couldn’t bring himself to kill her or her sister. He’d fantasized more times than he cared to admit about just taking her. Why hadn’t he done it when he was there before?
The truth was that he’d grown to feel something that would no longer allow him to keep her if she didn’t want to be there. It would hurt too much to watch her hate him more every day. Even if he could break her mind... Even if he could train her so well she eventually forgot she hated him, it would linger somewhere in her eyes, and he just... couldn’t.
He looked up again to find Gabe still standing in the doorway. “Are you still here? Why don’t you go away?”
“Someone is here to see you down in the lobby,” Gabe said, sounding exasperated.
“Who?”
“Just come down. And try not to look like such a sloppy drunk.”
When Anton reached the lobby, she was there. Long, beautiful blonde hair. Smooth, light golden tan. He descended the stairs in a kind of dream state.
“Kiska?”
“You really still can’t tell us apart?”
Oh. The other one. Dammit. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re as fucked up as she is,” Janette said.
“You are awfully brave,” Anton slurred. “Maybe you are a freaky little slut like your sister. Maybe we could find out. I could take the consolation prize.”
Her face blanched, and immediately he regretted it. She looked too much like her sister.
“Shit. I’m sorry. I don’t mean that. It’s the vodka.”
Janette sighed. “I must be crazy, but you have to come get her. You need to sober up and come get her.”
Anton’s brain wasn’t properly processing words. Was this even happening? Maybe he was passed out drunk. Maybe he was having another dream. Suddenly she was standing right in front of him, snapping her fingers in his face. He kept forgetting she wasn’t Annette… kept wanting to reach out and touch her hair.
“Did you hear me? She’s a mess. Almost as bad as you. I’ve never seen her like this over a man before.”
“Would you please wait in the office?” Gabe said. Suddenly he was striding across the floor and leading Janette down the hall to Lindsay’s office.
Anton just stood there like a drunken idiot. This was why he never let himself drink this much. He knew he was being pathetic and weak. He should have fucking taken her if he was going to devolve into… this. This was worse than the visit with the knife.
“Come with me,” Gabe said.
“You look funny, mad,” Anton said.
Gabe didn’t reply, he just guided him back to the industrial kitchen and sat him down on a stool.
Phyllis put a plate of sausage, eggs, and toast in front of him and a big cup of coffee.
“You need some coffee and something on your stomach. You need to sober the Hell up now. We are all over your fainting princess routine. Get your shit together, and you can still save this,” Gabe said.
Anton was already forgetting what was going on. He thought Janette was here and she said some stuff but he couldn’t remember now.
“Was Janette here?” That couldn’t be right.
Gabe rolled his eyes. “Yes! She is here waiting for you to sober up. Eat!”
Why was Janette here? God, he was so fucked up. But he shoveled in the protein and then the bread and drank the coffee down. By the time he was done, he felt semi-rational and normal again.
“Now go take a shower and clean yourself up. Janette is waiting for you in Lindsay’s office.”
Twenty minutes later, Anton was showered and shaved and wearing a suit because it somehow seemed appropriate. He needed to feel like a human being again.
Janette was sitting quietly in the office when he reached her. So strange. This was the room where she’d snuck to call her sister that first night. This was Lindsay’s office where he kept copies of all his patient records.
Anton sat in the leather swivel chair behind the desk.
“You need to come get her,” Janette said.
Anton had the vaguest memory of her already saying this, but now that she was saying it again, it seemed even more impossible.
“What do you mean I need to come get her? Why on earth would you want the monster who kept your sister as a slave to come do it again?”
Janette sighed. “I don’t pretend to understand this sick thing you’ve developed with my sister, but I have never seen her like this. She’s broken. I wish I could believe she’ll get over it and return to her old self, but I’m not sure she will. And she’s refused to talk about it, so I don’t even know what happened.”
“Maybe I don’t want her back.”
Janette rolled her eyes, clearly not buying it. “Sure, that’s why you looked like a mountain man with that scruffy beard when I got here, because you’re so happy.”
“Just fuck off back to the city with your sister,” Anton said, wishing he had another bottle of vodka in easy reach.
“Are you going to come get her?”
“She wouldn’t come with me. She made it clear when I showed up at the apartment.”
“She will. Come tonight at eight for dinner. And don’t be drunk.”
He didn’t enjoy being ordered around, particularly not by a woman who looked exactly like the woman he’d believed was his, but he only nodded and watched as she got up to leave. He would never understand these two women or how now both of them seemed quite content to walk into the belly of the beast for the sake of the other.
“Get off the couch,” Janette said as the apartment door slammed behind her. Annette heard thuds on the counter. Her sister must have picked up some groceries. Good, they were down to toaster pastries with fake frosting and a can of green beans that had been in the pantry so long it was possibly growing something deadly inside.
“Fuck you,” Annette said, snuggling deeper into the thick blanket she’d wrapped around herself. It wasn’t especially cold outside, but she’d turned the AC on high just so she could wear fuzzy socks and raid the linen closet for something thick and warm to wrap herself in.
Janette ripped the blanket off her, dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor.
“I said get up.”
Annette stood and rubbed her hip where she’d hit the ground. “Ouch. Goddammit! You don’t have to be such a bitch.”
She was answered with an eye roll.
“I’m up,” Annette said.
“Good. Go shower and put on a nice dress and some makeup.”
“Why?”
“I’ve invited someone for dinner.”
Oh, God. If this was a setup… It was the last thing she needed or wanted. She couldn’t even think about trying to date a man right now. How would that even go? He’d be trying to be romantic and she’d be fantasizing about him chaining her up in his basement. Then he’d want to make sweet romantic love to her, and it would be her previous boring sexual history before Anton all over again. Just thinking about a man inside her fucking her in the most boring way possible made her want to empty the contents of her stomach. In hind sight, it was amazing she’d ever thought she wasn’t kinky. Obviously, there had been something wired up differently in her brain.