Page 60 of Pride

“Please, Emma. Give me a chance,” he added.

“I... I’m not sure... I don’t...” I was spluttering over my words, I was so confused, and then suddenly, he looked up and pointed at the small hatch that accessed my loft space.

“Do you use that space? Could I look up there?” he asked out of the blue.

“I don’t use it, and of course you can look up there,” I replied, feeling somewhat bemused at how quickly he’d changed the subject.

He stalked back into my bedroom and then came out with a chair. I stood there speechless, still stuck in the moment where he was begging me to have dinner with him and to give him a chance. Meanwhile, he was positioning the chair under the hatch and looking up at it with purpose.

He climbed onto the chair as I took a step back. Then he pushed the hatch up and open, peering into the loft space that I’d never been in.

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled as he gasped, and then he said, “Holy fucking shit. No fucking way. Emma. You’re gonna want to see this.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

EMMA

What the hell had he found up there?

A dead body?

A store of weapons?

A psychotic artist who was squatting and intent on making my life hell?

The last one seemed pretty valid at this point.

Feeling a little nervous, I asked him, “What is it?” and he shook his head as he climbed off the chair and said to me, “You need to see it for yourself.”

He took my hand in his, eliciting sparks of electricity as he touched me, helping me onto the chair. I know he felt it too, from the heated stare he gave me. Then he stood against me as I lifted my head to peer up into the loft, his body flush against mine to keep me stable. With all the stress currently coursing through my veins, his close proximity helped to make me feel a little safer.

My loft was an expanse of dusty darkness. I didn’t keep anything up here. But as I peered down the length of it, I could see Ethel’s loft hatch, then another a little way down, and then a fourth at the end. Our lofts were all linked. Which wasn’t an unusual thing for Victorian houses to have, but I knew thatmost houses built like this had their loft spaces bricked up and secured years ago. But not ours, it would seem.

“I guess we know how he got in now,” Alex stated. “He could’ve entered any one of these houses and come into your home through the loft. You haven’t got a lock on the hatch. You were easy prey.”

“I didn’t even know it was like this,” I gasped, staring down the vast loft space like it was an abyss.

“It won’t be like that for much longer,” he snapped. “Pack your bags. We’re leaving. Oh, and I’ll need your landlord’s details so I can arrange for the building work to be done. You’re not coming back here until this place is one hundred percent safe.”

I climbed off the chair as he took my hand to help me. The electricity was still there when he touched me, but as I gazed up at his face, I could see he was pissed off. His jaw was flexing, his muscles taut. Only moments ago, he’d been whispering sweet things about intrigue and giving chances, and now, he looked like he wanted to smash my whole house down.

“I’m sorry I didn’t check it out before. I had no idea,” I said.

“You don’t need to be sorry about anything. Other people have put you in danger, and I’m not having it anymore. This bullshit stops today.”

He picked up the chair and took it back into my bedroom, telling me, “I’ll give you space to pack.” And then he left and headed downstairs.

I threw a few essentials together and then hauled my suitcase down the stairs, stopping halfway as he came bounding up to take the case from me.

“Always a gentleman,” I remarked.

“Someone needs to be,” he said, taking the suitcase downstairs and straight out the door.

I picked up my mail and took one last look at the red words on my wall.

YOU’RE NEXT.

I sighed, feeling the heavy weight of fear dragging me down.