Page 57 of His Toy

In the surveillance room, I opened a drawer to show her two keys and pointed to the smaller one. The key to her collar.

“When this is all over,” I said, but I stopped. That wasn’t right either, was it? I turned the key over in my hand. “Before then, if you wish.” I gestured to her collar. “You know where this is.”

The look on her face was pure innocence; she hadn’t thought of that time in the future when this would be over.

“I’m confused,” she said.

I added, “You may leave the property.”

“But what about our agreement?”

“Your sister will stay in the clinic until after I have dealt with Eric. She will be safer there.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said. She touched my arm. “What about us?” I stared at her, waiting for an explanation, searching for the reason she cared. “What about the plan? Offering me as a gift? I thought it was soon.”

“If you no longer wish to be part of my design, I will find another way.”

“But you’re still going to keep my sister safe no matter what happens?”

“I ask that if you leave, you stay away from Eric and his followers, including your sister. They are not to be trusted.” I would have someone watch her until Eric was dead. “I will make sure you’re safe.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

It was as if the last speck of dust had settled at the bottom of a snow globe. The world was still with those words:I’m not going anywhere.Did she forget the severity of the situation?

“You should leave. Run while you can,” I said, turning away.

She grabbed my arm. “We have a deal,” she said, her voice stern, filled with anger. “I intend to follow through with it. Do you?”

Her voice lingered in the air. Neither of us moved.

“I don’t want to go,” she said quietly, her voice cracking. “We have to help those people. This isn’t about you or me anymore. It’s bigger than that. We’re in this together, Zaid.”

There were tears in her eyes. I wiped them away with my thumb, and held her face in my hands.

“Please let me stay,” she whispered.

I kissed her gently, savoring the soft touch. She shook in my hands, letting go of the adrenaline that had coursed through her veins. I swooped her into my arms and carried her through the house. I held her close, tight against me, as if to tell her everything was all right. I would make the world a better place for her. Because she needed to be in a better world.

“You never have to leave,” I said.

My bedroom was one of the few rooms I consistently barred her from. I unlocked it. A large rug rested in the middle of the floor, a king bed with a curved sleigh headboard in tufted leather lined up against the wall. A fireplace roared in the corner. The furniture was in dark cherry wood.

On the surface, it was elegant and simple. With my sexual inclinations, you’d expect there to be whips and chains in the nightstand, shackles coming from the headboard, a cane resting against the fireplace. But I slept there, and rarely let another person inside. I wanted her to notice the lack of instruments and equipment like that. I wanted her to feel safe.

I laid her on the bed, her small frame sinking into the comfortable mattress. She smiled up at me, tears in her eyes. But there was yearning there too. Desire, fear, lust, love.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You’re not like him,” she said. “You think you are. But you’re not.”

We hadn’t spoken of him, and yet she knew the trepidation clouding my mind. I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe that Heather was right, that I wasn’t a monster like Eric. But my whole life had surrounded one goal; kill Eric like he killed my mother. Nothing else mattered.

Until her.

Iwaslike him. I was worse. Heather didn’t know the rest of the truth. But for once, I wanted to ignore those feelings. I wanted to forget the horrors of my soul. To believe in the future. To believe in myself, like she believed in me.

“Come back to me,” Heather said, staring into my eyes. She wrapped her arms around my back, pulling me in closer. “Come back to me, Zaid. Stay with me.”