Chapter One
Olivia
“Hello?” I say after two rings, and then I want to kick myself when I realize I didn’t even check to see who it was.
“You have a collect call from an inmate at …” When the recorded message starts, I do what I’ve done the other fifty times and hang up. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and put down the phone.
“Why can’t he just fucking leave me alone?” I wonder if this will ever end. Will he ever stop trying to call me? I’ve already called his lawyer and threatened to file a restraining order against him if he doesn’t stop trying to contact me. His lawyer assured me that his client would stop. Surprise, he lied. It seems I was going to have to get my own lawyer and do what I needed to do for me. I put my hands on my face, and my stomach grumbles. Looking up to check the clock on the stove, I see it’s after three. I’ve been sitting at Casey’s island since this morning. I love working here. The windows make everything so bright that I almost feel like I’m outside. He even brought me wildflowers from the field the other day to bring color into the house.
“Shit, how did it get so late?” I’ve been working on the Christmas spread for the magazine. Since Kallie did not come over this morning, I just worked straight through. Standing, I walk over to the fridge and take out the plate of sandwiches that Charlotte delivered this morning along with fresh muffins. I also grab the bottle of wine and pour myself a glass. I’m not driving anywhere, and it’s almost five o’clock. As I pick up the glass to take a drink, my phone rings again. I groan, but this time, I check who’s calling first.
Cowboy.
“Hey there, cowboy,” I say after I swipe to answer it.
“Hey, darlin’.” His voice comes out smooth, and I smile, which is silly since I live with him, and I saw him three hours ago. “Whatcha doin’?” I’ve never actually lived with a man. I mean, I’m not living living with him since I sleep in my room and he sleeps in his. But we do share the kitchen and the living room, and he does walk around without a shirt, which wreaks havoc on my restraint. He’s just making sure you’re safe, Olivia, I keep reminding myself over and over.
“I’m just about to eat a sand—” I say with a smirk, and then something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I stop talking. Looking over, I see a shadow on the back porch. I move my head to the side, hoping to get a glimpse of his face, but I only see a black jacket. I don’t know why, but my senses go into overload. I’m sure it’s nothing. Probably just my imagination playing games with me.
“Hello?” Casey says.
“Someone was at the back door.” The words come out in a whisper, and my heart pounds. Then I turn back to where I saw the shadow, but nothing is there.
“What do you mean?” he asks, his voice tight now as I try to get my heart rate back to normal. But something isn’t right, and I don’t know what it is.
I turn and start to walk back. “I just saw a shadow at the back door, and I was …” But I stop when I feel eyes looking at me and turn to see beady eyes looking at me from the side window.
I scream out in fright and shock as the phone falls from my hand and the wine bottle that I forgot I was holding crashes to the floor and shatters. Looking down, I see the wine all over the floor around my feet, and then my eyes travel over to look at the phone and the picture of me and Casey lit up on the screen. When I look up again toward the window, I see him. He smiles at me, but nothing about his smile is friendly. Dressed in all black, he looks like he has his hair pulled back into a ponytail and a scar across his cheek. He screams evil, and when my mind finally places him, I gasp. I recognize the man from the picture Jacob showed me a couple of weeks ago of the man he found lurking on Casey’s property, pretending he was lost.
“Olivia.” The man says my name and knocks on the window, but he doesn’t knock with his hand. No, it’s with the butt of the black gun in his hand that I didn’t even see before now. “I need to have a word with you.” My heart speeds up, but my feet stay stuck to the floor, and my stomach roils. “Just open the door and I promise I won’t hurt you.”
“Olivia!” I can still hear Casey yelling my name through my phone. I want to reach down and grab the phone, but the screaming in my head takes over, so I turn and run down the hallway. As I’m making my way up the stairs, the sound of glass breaking echoes in the silent house. My breathing now sounds like it’s on speaker as I run to the end of the hall.
“Olivia.” He says my name, and a shiver runs up my spine when I run toward the media room where Casey showed me a hidden closet. The sound of my heart thumping in my chest is the only thing I can hear as I turn to look over my shoulder. Seeing no one there, I go to the little closet that I laughed about when Casey showed me.
“What can you possibly keep in here?” I laughed, and then he knocked me on my ass with his answer.
“It’s a hiding spot for my nieces and nephews,” he said with a smile.
I open the closet door and climb in, closing it gently behind me so as not to make any noise. The sound of my heart pounding and my heavy breathing fills the small, dark space. I sit with my legs tucked to my chest in the darkness as my eyes get used to the darkness. The only light I see comes from the crack under the door.
“Olivia, don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” he says, and I close my eyes, hoping that this is a dream. But then I open my eyes again, and I’m still in the darkness. “Olivia.” He says my name again, and this time, I hear the floor creaking under his feet as he makes his way farther into the house. “If you make me find you, it’ll just be worse.”
I try to swallow, but my throat is closed off, and only then do I realize tears are running down my face. My hands shake as I put them around my knees, and I think about how this is going to end.
How I’m going to die in this closet, and I haven’t ever really fallen in love. I haven’t even learned how to make my favorite meal yet. I haven’t been to Bora Bora and swam in the blue water. I haven’t ever had a man tell me he loves me and believe it. I’ve never been cherished. The tears now pour out like a river going downstream, and even if I tried to stop them, I don’t think I would be able to. My body starts to shake, and I can hear my teeth chattering, and in the tight space, it sounds like it’s full blast on speaker.
The sound of his footsteps makes my heart stop, and I hold my breath. “Olivia, just give me what I want, and I’ll be gone.”
I don’t even know what he wants. I don’t know what anyone wants from me because I have nothing. I know nothing, yet every single day, I get two calls from blocked numbers.
“Don’t make me angry,” he says. His voice is getting louder, and I hear the creaking of the stairs as he climbs them.
“I have all the time in the world.”
My breaths quicken, and my whole body shakes when I hear his footsteps coming closer. “I’ve been watching you,” he says, and he sounds like he is right outside the closet door. Then I see a shadow under the door. I know he’s close, so I hold my breath, hoping he doesn’t find me and walks away. But instead, the sound of creaking fills the room, and I suck in a breath when he opens the door and stands there with a gun pointed at my face. “Hello, Olivia.” He smirks, and a shiver runs up my spine. I take a second to look at the man who is going to end my life. For what, I will never know.