Page 9 of Arseni

I’m very sorry, but I’m all booked up for the semester.Good luck with your studies!

After finishing up with my emails, my sushi devoured, I shut down my computer and grab my bag.I’m just about to sneak out of the office and hightail it to my car when another knock sounds on the door.

3

MARGOT

“Shit,” I hiss under my breath, my shoulders slouching.I hurry back to my desk and flop down in my chair before giving the person the go ahead to “come in.”

I’ve already got lines prepared for Austin when the door opens, but he isn’t the one to walk through.

My stomach falls to the floor as a masked man steps inside my office.

My very first thought is thathemust’ve read my mind.Somehow, he knew I considered sending him a nasty reply, considered shattering his delusions.And now he’s here to punish me.

I don’t move.I don’t speak.I don’t even cry as the man comes toward me, a knife pressed to his lips.I’m frozen in utter terror.

“Look at you being such a good girl,” he says, his shoulders swaying with confidence I don’t rememberhimhaving.

Because it isn’thim.

That isn’t his voice.I almost think I’ve heard wrong until the man speaks again.

“I didn’t even have to slice that old fuck’s throat to get you to shut up.”

I blink at him, not quite understanding what’s happening.I feel like a rabbit facing a dog when I was expecting a wolf.

Danger.Danger.Danger.

My sensors ring, but they’re muffled by shock.It’s like I’m hearing them under water.

As the man reaches me, I get a good look at his chocolate eyes,warmunlike the cold gray I see in my nightmares.

It really isn’t him.

The man’s gloved hand takes my chin and lifts to shut my mouth.My breathing sounds so loud in the room, so panicked.It only makes him smile, the hole in his mask displaying his enjoyment.

“I want you to listen very carefully to me, Margot.Your life depends on it.”

I slowly roll the chair backward until it bumps the wall.His voice sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t place it, and I can’t get past my confusion.

“Who are you?”I whisper.

The man’s smile falls as that same gloved hand wraps around my throat.My eyes bulge as he squeezes, and I claw uselessly at protected flesh while he leans into me until I’m so far back I think the chair may tip.Ihopeit tips.Because something occurs to me.

If it isn’thim,then I can scream.I can fight.I canescape.

Hell, I can even go to the police.

My eyes find the knife secured in the man’s other hand.Lack of oxygen makes it impossible to form a plan, but I know for certain that I want that blade.When I go to reach for it, my weak grasp pathetically trying to pry it from him, the masked man laughs and pulls away.

I suck in the largest breath I can ever remember taking and gasp as I hold my throat.I choke on sobs while struggling to get in air.

“Now… I have a favor to ask.In your building is?—”

“Help!”I croak, sloppily standing from the chair.

The man’s knife is to my throat before I can so much as stumble.He shoves me back into the chair, the blade pressing against my neck.Not enough to break skin, but enough to make his point.