It’s not Cameron.
“Simon.” My breath hitches in my throat as he grabs my chin forcefully. Pulling his face into mine, he kisses me. I fight back as much as I can, thrashing my body around to no avail. I don’t want to feel his lips on mine or feel his breath on my skin. I want this moment toend.
He pulls away, his eyes so wide and round that the entirety of his irises are visible. “Don’t you know how good we could be together, Leyla? How perfect would we be together?! Don’t you like the presents I leave you?!”
He sounds insane, the timbre of his voice cracking with every word he speaks.
I close my eyes and turn my head away as I try to keep calm as his screams reverberate off the walls. “I AM SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIM! DON’T YOU KNOW I’VE LOVED YOU SINCE WE WERE KIDS?!”
My earsachefrom the volume and my heart thuds as each word registers to my mind. He’s been in love with me? He’s the one leaving the flowers? But I can’t harbor on that. I’m watching Simon come apart at his seams, panting and shaking as he paces around.Then, he snaps back in my direction and his hand darts to my throat.
“He doesn’t deserve you. He’s weak,pathetic.“ His hand is like a vice around my throat, as he forces his lips onto me again. I close my eyes not wanting to see this, begging for any cosmic power to make this stop.
“Mmmm. You taste amazing,” he growls, the insecurity dripping from his words. He holds my chin in place, forcing me to meet his eyes which are narrowed now, his lips twitching into a sick smile. “Does he taste as good as I do? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted something so sweet, my Cherry.”
My stomach drops at the use of my nickname— one only Cameron calls me. Even though all I should be feeling is sheer terror, anger strikes through me like lightning. The fuckingnerveof him to use a nickname so fucking special to me after calling Cameron pathetic. It makes me want to actuallyhurthim.
“Fuck– fuck you,” I grit out. Might as well go out swinging if I’m going to die here. “I would never fucking date you! I wouldneverbe with you! You aren’t half the man Cameron is! You don’t even compare! You’re insane!”
My outburst causes me to thrash— and I feel it then, the knot is undone. I can’t help but feel a momentary pang for Cameron, even now I’m drawing strength from him. It takes so much focus to control my face so that my shock doesn’t show in the midst of all this fury. He needs to stay completely oblivious. Even though I slip out of the poorly tied rope, I hold my hands steady. I can’t let him see, I just need to wait for the right moment.
“Youstupidslut!“ Simon hisses.
Then, I’m struck on the back of the head. I try to fight the dull but consuming pain, but black spots are forming in my vision from the blow and whatever the hell he did to me to get me to his lair. God, I fucked up. I don’t know why I get so reactive about Cameron, but I just… lost it. And now I need to make up with the crazy man to have any chance of getting out of here alive.
“Simon, please. I-I don’t understand!” I plead, though I think I’m just talking to try and stay conscious.
I feel myself losing both battles: appealing to the humanity in Simon, and holding onto consciousness. The look in his eyes is empty and cold and his face is all I can see. The rage etched into the fine lines of his face, the sweat beading on his forehead.
“I told you to shut the fuck up!”Simon screeches. He knocks me in the back of my head once again and the black dots overtake my vision.
Chapter 21
What The Fuck?
Cameron
As I step out of my car, I hear tires squealing and my heart drops to something lower than my stomach— Hell perhaps. I look at my phone, seeing the ongoing call and hearing my own footsteps echoing through the speakers.
“Leyla?!” I holler into the too quiet night.
My heart races as I run around the parking lot, coming across the skidding tire marks and her phone lying on the ground, our call still ongoing and my screams and bounding footsteps helping me find it.
Ragebubbles up in my throat and I let out an animalistic growl. Closing my eyes to desperately hold onto my center so I don’t totally lose myself to the madness I know lingers inside of me, I pick up Leyla’s phone, put it in my pocket, and immediately call Zack.
“Z, we have a problem,” my voice unnaturally even for the hurricane brewing in my head.
There’s silence on the other end, but I know that he’s listening. I immediately go into logic mode as I hop back in the Maserati. “I had you looking into her past regarding the stalker. Any status update on that?”
Zack’s low voice finally answers, sounding a bit bored, “Nothing out of the ordinary. You already know everything about her father. The cemetery that he buried his victims in has been excavated. There are no children of his victims that would be targeting her. Her best friend checks out. The overbearing mother-figure detective as well. She has no contact with her adoptive or foster families.” He lists off all the finalized results that he’s gathered so far. He’s a fairly decent hacker, so he’s got his hands in places that most people don’t have access to.
“Zack, someone took her.” My voice belies the fear and anxiety that is racing through me and barely contained by my forced composure that I trained all my life to master.Thanks, dad.
“What do you mean someonetookher?“ Zack huffs in disbelief. When his comment isn’t followed up by anything to let him know I’m being dramatic, he speaks again. “Cameron, we will find her.”
“If something happens to her, Z, I promise you, I will stop at nothing to fucking kill everyone who played a hand in this.Everyone.“ My voice is cold and emotionless. “I should never have left her, Zack. I never should have ran away from her. She should have never left my sight.”
I can hear him rummaging around and hard taps of a keyboard. “I’m pulling up the cameras around her complex. I gotyour location. Give me twenty minutes to comb through what I’ve got,” Zack confirms.
