Unfold Me (3 page)

The noise coming from my bedroom catches my attention, and I immediately switch off the TV show I’ve been watching and head to check on Isaac. As soon as I open the door, I see him sitting up on the bed and furiously tugging at the cuffs.

“You think this can stop me?” He glares at me, stopping the tugging for a moment, bloody marks already forming around his wrist.

“I’m going to take them off. I promise,” I say as I close the door and inch forward. “But first we need to talk.”

“Talk. Right,” he mutters, rolling his eyes. “What are we going to discuss? The rules? The things you or your helpers will do to me if I don’t do as you say? Where are your guards anyway?” He cocks his head to the side. “Waiting outside? Does this make you feel brave?” He gives a violent tug at the cuffs, causing a racket, but I don’t flinch. Bracing myself, I take a seat in the chair and stare right at him.

“How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Water, maybe?” I ask.

“As if you care.” His jaw clenches. “Oh, wait, my bad. I’m supposed to say, whatever pleases you, Mistress, right?”

“I’m not your mistress,” I say. “I didn’t buy you to be my slave. I did it so you can be free.”

He snorts, then rattles the cuffs again and raises an eyebrow.

I lick my dry lips. “Yeah, I know it doesn’t look like it right now, but I just wanted to make sure you won’t... do anything we might regret later.”

“Wow, that’s an interesting fantasy you have going in that sick mind of yours.”

“I’m Lilith’s friend. You remember her, right?”

His eyes meet mine, but his face is expressionless. “No.”

I bite down on my lip. Right, I should’ve expected this. He thinks I’m playing mind games with him. It’s something someone as sick as Raphael would do; pretend to help or be a person of trust to find out who’s plotting against him. “I know you don’t have reasons to believe me, but I’m not working for Raphael. This isn’t some kind of a test.” I pick up one of the photos of Lilith and me that I have on my dressing table and toss it onto the bed. Isaac just glances at it, then his eyes are on me again, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Like I said, Lilith is my friend and she asked me to help you because she couldn’t do it herself.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I wish Lilith had told me something that could convince Isaac that I wasn’t his enemy, but I’m sure she was too upset or didn’t want to give Isaac false hope. “Okay, then, let’s go from the beginning. My friend had a fear of sex, so she decided to hire a prostitute. That prostitute turned out to be your friend Caleb. When Lilith found out he was a sex slave, she wanted to help him, but he was as stubborn as you and thought Raphael was playing him, so she paid for an hour with you instead. For some reason, you decided to trust her, so you agreed to smuggle a camera into Raphael’s room to obtain evidence against him, risking your own life in the process. I assume you did your part really well, because Raphael decided to sell you. But now Lilith needs that footage, and Caleb refuses to cooperate until you are safe so that he’s sure this isn’t some kind of a trick. Lilith would’ve bought you herself, but that would’ve been too suspicious, especially since Raphael is aware of her preference for Caleb.” I give him a long look. “If Raphael knew all this, the three of you would be dead already, including anyone else you care about. Remember now who Lilith is?”

He worries his lower lip between his teeth, then looks up at me. “Yes.”

“Good. You’re here because we don’t have anywhere to take you at the moment, and we can’t let Raphael suspect anything, so you’ll have to stay with me for a while. We can’t mess this up, okay? Your friends’ lives depend on it.” I get to my feet and find the key to the cuffs in the pocket of my pants. “I’m going to take those off now, okay?”

He nods.

I uncuff him, but before I can inspect the damage on his wrist, he pulls his hand out of my grasp. “Just so we’re clear on this. You’re not my slave. You’re here just temporarily until Raphael goes down. I promise. We’ll find you a place to live and figure everything out.”

His eyes dart from me to the door and back again.

“There’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry, and you can take a shower or whatever you want. Just help yourself. For now, my home is your home, so anything you need... Oh, and I got you some clothes. Everything is in the closet in the bathroom, so you can change... and if you want me to take a look at any cuts that might get infected or anything... just let me know.” I offer him a small smile.

He slowly gets to his feet, his eyes never leaving me. He still doesn’t trust me, I guess. I stuff the cuffs back into the closet, and Isaac goes for the door. He eyes me for a moment before closing it. I immediately dash to the door and strain my ears to hear where he’s going. I’ve made sure to hide everything that could be used to open or break the main door, although I don’t think he’d be willing to risk the lives of his friends after he’s done so much for them. As soon as I hear the door to my left close, I breathe out a sigh of relief. He’s gone to the bathroom. At least he didn’t... A loud crash jolts through me like lightning, and I run to the bathroom.

“Isaac?” I knock on the door, but there’s no answer, so I try the knob. The door opens and I see Isaac surrounded by tiny pieces of glass. The mirror on my wall is no more. Isaac looks up at me, a big sharp shard in his hand. He doesn’t seem to care that his hand is bleeding.

“Put that down, please.” I lift my hands up as I inch closer to him. He’s just staring at me, his head lowered so the strands of his hair are falling into his eyes. The glass crunches under my sneakers and Isaac’s hand closes over the shard.

“Just let go of that. You’re hurting yourself,” I say softly. “Let me help you.”

He takes a step forward, the shard pointed at me. I stop but don’t flinch, just wipe all emotion off my face. His hand starts to shake a little, and then he closes his eyes for a moment. He lets the shard drop out of his hand and crash to the tiled floor.

I let out a breath I didn’t even know I’ve been holding. His gaze is pinned to the floor and the bloody shards that lie in a heap at his feet. I’m glad he hasn’t taken off his boots.

“Come here, please.” I go over to the cabinet and find an antiseptic and bandages. “Just be careful of the glass.”

He doesn’t say anything as he lifts his eyes toward me and does as I requested.

“Give me your hand.” I wait until he reluctantly places his hand into mine. “This is going to sting a little.” I gently hold his warm hand as I dab at the cut with the antiseptic. The wound doesn’t look deep, so I just clean it up and wrap a bandage around his hand. His brow is slightly creased as he watches me.

“Okay. All done.” I let go of him, certain that he doesn’t want to touch me for longer than necessary. “Do you want me to take a look at anything else?”

He shakes his head. “Sorry I damaged your property.”

I look up at him, my lips parting, and I know he doesn’t mean my mirror. He means himself. Shit. I guess wrapping his head around the concept that he has to stay at my place and be a free man at the same time is a bit hard for him, and I’m not really surprised. I was only captive for three months and I had a hard time believing the nightmare was finally over when I was back and safe in my home, which somehow didn’t feel like my own. Isaac just needs time. He’ll be fine. At least that’s what I hope.

“It’s okay. One thing less to clean. I have other mirrors.” I wink at him, and he gapes at me. “Now let me clean up that mess. You can go get some food in the kitchen.”

He just watches me for a moment and I think he’s about to say something, but then he frowns and strolls through the door. As I pick up the glass, I listen for a moment for any crashes in the kitchen and wonder if I secured everything that Isaac could use to harm me or himself, but I don’t hear anything, so I finish cleaning up.

I stare at the book in my lap and realize I’ve been reading the same paragraph over and over. My mind just keeps wandering to Isaac, who is resting in my room. He didn’t speak to me at all when I got him some food. And when I offered him my bed, he just nodded and left. Dumping the book onto the couch, I grab my phone to check the calendar. I don’t know how long it’ll take for Lilith to bring Raphael’s operation down, but I can’t imagine it’ll happen overnight, which means I’ll have to find some way to talk to Isaac... or send him off somewhere.

Him being here... It’s unsettling. I’m not sure I’ll be able to stand it for weeks. I cradle the phone in my palm, trying to resist the urge to call Lilith. She has enough on her plate and I know we should contact each other as little as possible in case Raphael has found a way to monitor her, so I place the phone onto the glass table in front of me.

A soft thud coming from my room makes me groan. What is he up to now? Did he find another thing in my apartment that he can turn into a weapon or is he just having restless sleep? Maybe I should give him space, but I need to know what’s going on. He’s not exactly trustworthy.

As I reach the door, I listen for a moment and hear rustling. What the hell is he doing? I knock and open the door before he can answer. The hair on the back of my neck stiffens when I see the scene in front of me. Half of my things are all over the floor, my drawers and closet hanging wide open. Isaac looks up at me briefly, then continues to dig through my clothes in the drawer.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask, unable to keep the anger out of my voice. I stride over to him, and as he steps back, I slam the drawer shut.

“Where are they?” he asks, his forehead caked in sweat, his lips cracked and dry.

“What are you talking about?” I blink in confusion, the beginning of a headache starting to form behind my eyes at the sight of the mess he’s made.

“The pills. I need them.”

I groan in frustration. This is because of the stupid pills? Fuck. “Seriously? You flipped my whole room upside down because of the stupid pills?”

“Where are they?” He fiddles with his fingers.

“Well, now you’ll never fucking finding out.” I glare at him.

“Please,” he says, his eyes feverish. “You don’t understand. I need... I need them.”

“No, you don’t.”

He advances toward me, and I back away until I hit the wall. He’s so close to me that I can smell my shower gel on him. “You’ll like me better if you give them to me,” he says, leaning both hands on the wall on each side of my head. My pulse speeds up as I stare at his now darker eyes. “Where are they?”

I place my hand on his chest and push gently. “Step back.”

“Or what?” His eyes glint in challenge.

“Or no pills ever again.” I know it’s not a good idea to just cut off the pills so suddenly and I wouldn’t put him through such misery, but he doesn’t have to know that. Besides, I need to find a way to deal with his addiction until he can get professional help. Too bad that’s out of the question until Raphael’s down.

He eyes me for a moment as if he’s trying to gauge whether I’m being serious or not, but finally he pushes himself off the wall and takes a few steps back. I let out a shaky breath.

“Clean up this mess,” I say. “And you’ll get what you want.”

“Fine.” His whole body is rigid, his lips curled.

“And don’t ever go through my stuff again, okay?” I give him a pointed look.

“The spoiled, rich princess doesn’t want her stuff to be touched. Fine.” He looks around the room, then laughs.

“You think you know everything about me now, don’t you?” The corners of my lips quirk up.

He shrugs. “A little. I know you used to go to college, but you stopped, because I guess you don’t really need a degree in economics when you’re an heiress to a multimillion real estate company, and you’re just going to inherit it... have people do everything for you while you spend all the money on fancy clothes and vacations. You want people to think you’re better than you are so you decided to throw some more of your money on me and help out your only friend. Well, I assume she’s your only friend that matters because you only have photos of her here.”

I roll my eyes at him. Wow, he actually read the small article about me that I should’ve thrown out already. He’s trying to annoy me, although what good he thinks that’ll do is anyone’s guess. I’m glad I don’t keep anything important in plain sight. “You may be right. Who cares?” I wave my hand in dismissal. “Now clean that up, and if even one of the papers gets wrinkled or has ears, you’ll not be seeing those pills anytime soon.” He opens his mouth to say something, but I don’t let him. “And don’t worry, threatening me or killing me won’t get you the pills because they’re in a safe, and the code is not lying around here.”

He clenches his jaw, and I turn on my heel and storm out of the room. The longer Isaac stays here, the more time he has to poke around, and I can’t let him find out the truth about me. Not that he’d believe me even if I told him everything anyway.

When I get to the living room, I grab the phone and text Lilith. If there’s a way to get Isaac to stay with someone else, even if I have to find a way to secretly transfer him out of my apartment, I’ll do it. I glance back at the hallway and wonder if Isaac is cleaning up or making an even bigger mess. I’m not entirely sure what his big plan was. Is he curious about who I am and didn’t think I’d tell him the truth or answer his questions if he asked?