Page 25

With an irritated sigh, she snatched it from his hand and scribbled her name on the sheet of paper. Before she could hand it back, he whipped out his hand and clamped it around her neck, shoving her inside the apartment, kicking the door closed behind him.

Learning from the last time when the woman had managed to get the drop on him, he increased the pressure on her neck, squeezing until she passed out. Then he dropped her unconscious body on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

Everything had gone smoothly.

Last time had been an anomaly, he’d been thrown from his game by Detective Florence Harris managing to get a read on him.

It was disconcerting for someone who was used to being invisible to finally be seen.

It was like his cloak had been removed and his nakedness made clear for all the world to see.

But he’d come up with a plan to get rid of the detective.

He was going to take care of this woman, and then he was hoping that the cop would be waiting for him at the next dumpsite.

As soon as he saw her, he was going to shoot her, aiming his car at her hadn't worked but a bullet between the eyes would do the job.

He was a good shot, not perfect—because he wasn't perfect at anything—but he was good enough to hit his target.

Right now though, he had a different woman needing his attention.

Kneeling down, he dragged the woman’s hands behind her back and added more duct tape than was necessary to bind her wrists.

Then he pulled over a chair from her kitchen table and hefted the woman up and onto it, securing her with an entire roll of tape because he was so paranoid about something going wrong.

By the time he was done, the woman was starting to come round.

“Who are you?” she croaked through a throat he knew had to feel like it had been covered in sandpaper.

“No one,” he replied simply. “I've never been anyone. Do you know what that’s like? No, of course you don’t.

” He gave a derisive laugh. “Look at you.” He lifted a hand and ran his fingertips down the woman’s cheek.

“You're beautiful, I bet everywhere you go everyone is looking at you. Guys want to have sex with you and women want to be you.”

“I…I…it’s not…I don’t…” the woman stammered.

“Don’t lie to me,” he warned. “I don’t like liars. My parents didn't like lying, verbally berating their children, that was fine, but lying was a big no-no. Do you know what it’s like to be the invisible middle child? Not the smart one, not the sporty one, not popular, not anything.”

Pacing across the room, he raked his hands through his hair, that familiar feeling of being lost in the dark, alone in the world, nowhere to turn for help or comfort began to soak through his body. It didn't matter how many times he told this story it didn't take away that pain.

He always thought it would, and it did for a little while, a day or two maybe, but then it came back.

He was back to being that scared little boy, desperate to please his parents, get them to notice him, but deep down knowing it would never happen.

“When I was twelve, they left me at the airport.

Didn't even notice that they’d left me sitting in a seat at the gate when they boarded the plane.

It wasn't until they were looking for a cab in an airport in Melbourne, Australia, that they realized I wasn't there. It’s a fourteen-hour flight from LAX to Melbourne Airport, the seats were three in a row, me and my two brothers sitting together with our parents in the row in front, how could they not notice I wasn't there? Do you know that not a single person came up to me in that airport to wonder why a kid was sitting alone for hours?”

“I-I'm s-sorry,” the woman murmured. “B-but I don’t know wh-what this h-has to do w-with me.”

“Of course you don’t.” He stalked back over to her and grabbed her around the neck again, hard enough to make her wince, but not hard enough to cut off her air supply.

“Everyone notices you.” His free hand grabbed one of her breasts and squeezed it hard enough to make her grimace.

“You throw these things in men’s faces and get whatever you want, you flaunt your beauty, use it to your advantage, but you don’t notice anyone around you, do you? Do you know that we’ve met before?”

Her green eyes grew wide, and she gave a small shake of her head.

“Of course you don’t. Because no one ever notices me. You weren't the first to walk right on by without sparing me a second glance, and you won't be the last. Guess where we met, if you get it right I might let you live. Might ,” he repeated with a wink.

She shook her head, silently begging him not to make her play this game.

Releasing her, he pulled up a chair and sat in front of her, knee to knee. “Come on, it’s a good chance, you should take it while you can. What about I give you three guesses, that’s fair, right? Right?” he repeated when she didn't say anything.

“R-right,” she agreed.

“So let’s have at it, where did we meet before?”

“At the gym?” she asked, uncertain eyes watching him warily.

He huffed a laugh. “Do I look like the kind of guy who works out regularly?”

Unsure how to answer that she gave a single shake of her head.

“That’s one guess down, two to go.”

“The grocery store?”

“Not even close,” he replied. “You only have one guess to go, better think really hard before you answer because if you get it wrong, you're going to have to be punished.”

Tears slid down the woman’s pale cheeks, and she shook her head again, her eyes pleading with him not to do this. Too bad for her he had never been shown any mercy in his life, so he saw no reason why he should bestow any on her.

“Time is ticking by,” he said. “I want to be a fair guy, give you your three chances, but if you want to forfeit…” He raised a brow.

“No,” she said quickly. “Did we meet on the subway?”

“We did not,” he informed her, standing. “That was guess number three. You failed. You know what that means? It’s time for your punishment.” A smile graced his lips as fear consumed the woman, it was nice for once to be the center of someone’s world instead of being ignored.