“Faolan, sweetheart…”
She bit down on a whimper. Her shirt was damp, her skin ice-cold.
He always called her that.
Sweetheart.
Right before he—
“It’s been a long time,” he said, tone light, conversational. Like they were old friends. “You’re still so beautiful. I have been catching glimpses of you.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
Not now. Not like this.
She gritted her teeth and pressed herself tighter against the wall while she clutched the taser like a lifeline.
Her fingers trembled as she pressed the call button for her first emergency contact.
Thane’s name glowed on the screen. It rang. Once. Twice.
And then, click.
“Don’t hang up,” she whispered, shoving the phone under a shirt that had fallen in the closet. The sound muffled, but still connected.
From beyond the door, his voice coiled into the air.
She had to survive.
Thane would come.
She just had to stay alive long enough for him to find her.
“Sweetheart,” he called. “Where are you?”
Faolan pressed her hand over her mouth.
She couldn’t see him, but her body remembered everything. Goosebumps broke out and chills ran under her skin. She thought she would black out.
Sandalwood.
The smell clung to her throat and made her stomach twist. It had always been on his hands, his coat, his sheets.
His footsteps echoed faintly, padded and unhurried, as if he were walking through memory lane rather than a stranger’s apartment.
“Sweetheart…” His voice floated through the air again, soft and sing-song. Warm in a way that made her feel frozen.
He moved from room to room, opening doors, shifting furniture.
“You always did like hiding,” he mused. “Remember the big wardrobe in the green room? You used to curl up in the corner with your thumb in your mouth. I used to sit beside you, stroke your hair. I told you that you were my little star.”
Chapter 46
Faolan fought the bile that threatened to rise. Her fingers tightened around the knife in one hand and the taser in the other.
And the voice—that voice from her nightmares—blurred through all the half-drugged memories. She had tried to forget, but she still remembered the sound.
“I know you’re here,” he said. “It’d be easier if you just came out. You know that, don’t you?”
