Page 6 of The Stolen Dagger

CHAPTER FOUR

KATHERINE

I had called Pearl’s number three more times on the fifteen-minute drive home from the bar, but there was still no answer.

I turned the corner on the third-floor hallway of my apartment building with my keys in hand. Red-painted wood doors lined both sides of the hall. The brick walls, once painted white, had chipped and yellowed over the years.

It wasn’t the best place in town, but it was mine, and after the last few years, that meant something to me.

My mind drifted back to Pearl. Maybe she was just busy, but it wasn’t like her to not answer. She always returned my calls. Even though I just spoke to her last week, I was still worried.

My worry skyrocketed when I saw my front door.

My slightly ajar front door.

The light from the hall filtered in through the four-inch crack, revealing the darkness inside.

My heart beat rapidly, and my hands shook. I took a deep breath and strained to listen for any noise on the other side of the door, but there was nothing.

No footsteps on the creaky hardwood floor.

No rustle of clothing like someone was moving inside.

It was silent.

Placing my car keys in between my fingers like a weapon, I retrieved the can of pepper spray I kept in my purse with my other hand. I pushed open the front door, and it banged against the wall, alerting anyone that may still be inside of my presence.

Cautiously, I entered my home but halted almost immediately inside as I took my surroundings.

My apartment was trashed.

Tears filled my eyes for the second time tonight as all of my possessions were destroyed.

The beige couch was tipped over, and the cushions were shredded. The glass coffee table Leah gave me was shattered. My bookshelf and all its contents were spread across the hardwood floor.

After taking a deep breath, I followed the trail of debris and clothes that were strewn across the walkway to my bedroom that didn’t look any better.

My mattress had slash marks in the fabric and was uplifted from the box spring. The closet door to the right was ripped off its hinges. The dresser drawers were open, and their contents discarded on the floor.

But the room was empty. Whoever did this was long gone.

I walked back through the living room to the kitchen at the back of the apartment. Like everywhere else, it was a mess. Broken plates and glass peppered the white-tiled flooring.

But in the middle of the chaos on the countertop sat a single red anemone—a symbol of death and forsaken love .

Adrian.

I set down my makeshift weapons and reached for the flower. As I admired its soft red petals, my mind wandered to the past I had tried to forget.

Adrian might have had his flaws, but in the beginning of our relationship, he was a romantic.

He would often bring me different flowers for different reasons during our relationship.

In the beginning, he would bring me Camellias that, he said, symbolized his longing. When we would fight, he would bring Hyacinths to show his forgiveness and Dahlias for his commitment.

But that had all been an act. It was all a mask he wore to hide the reality of who he really was. And just like the state of my apartment, this flower was a warning—a threat.

This was Adrian’s way of telling me he hadn’t forgotten what we were to one another.

This was his way of asserting himself in my new life.

This small flower in my hand was a symbol of what was to come.

A loud vibrating noise disrupted my thoughts, and I set down the anemone, reaching into my purse for my phone.

As the screen lit up, it buzzed again in my hand as multiple texts came in one after another.

But they weren’t from a number I recognized.

Unknown:

You’ve been a very bad girl, mi princesa. And bad girls get what’s coming to them.

Consider this your only warning.

There is nowhere you can run that I will not find you.

I will get what I want, and whatever blood is spilled along the way will be on your hands.

Give me the dagger, or my next visit will be to one of your new friends. - Adrian

My chest tightened as I read each text. Tears spilled over the brim of my eyelids and fell onto the screen as I hastily deleted the texts and blocked the unknown number.

Multiple thoughts crossed my mind at once.

A dagger? I don’t have any kind of dagger. What the hell is he talking about?

I had to run again. I had to leave everything behind, but what about Leah and Drew? Adrian knew about them. How was I supposed to protect them? I couldn’t let Adrian get to them. I had to?—

Heavy footsteps sounded outside like someone was rushing down the hall.

I froze and turned toward my open front door.

Shit. Why didn’t I shut the door?

My heart pounded. My breath came out in quick pants. I swiped at the tears on my face and dropped the flower onto the countertop.

Guarded by the darkness of my apartment, I ran out of the kitchen, past the balcony window, and into the bathroom farthest away from the front door.

The floorboards in the entryway creaked as the footsteps got closer and closer before they stopped.

Someone’s in my apartment!

The footsteps continued steadily inside. They were slow and deliberate as they maneuvered around the debris in my apartment. An occasional crunch and snap of broken glass were the only noises heard.

Once the steps sounded farther away, I peeked around the corner from where I hid. With the intruder’s back to me, I guessed they were a man with the large expanse of their shoulders and dominating stance .

When he turned, the light from the hall glinted off something in his hands. A gun! Then he entered my bedroom, searching.

Is he looking for me?

Careful to not make any noise, I tiptoed across the living room and stopped beside the doorway of the room he’d gone into with my back flat against the wall on the left side.

Shit! I left the pepper spray on the counter.

Adrenaline rushed forward and clouded my thoughts. I evened my breathing and waited. I clenched and unclenched my hands. Everything I’d learned from self-defense with Drew flashed through my mind.

When the intruder’s footsteps neared, he walked slowly through the doorway, pointing his gun at the ground.

That was when I struck.

Hidden in the darkness of the apartment, I stepped forward and hit his wrist hard, knocking the gun out of his hands. The weapon clattered to the floor.

Now caught off guard, the intruder turned, but I threw my fist into his stomach in an upward motion.

When he bent over, I grabbed the back of his head and raised my knee, aiming for his nose, but he shifted to the left, and my knee connected with his temple instead.

When I tried again, the intruder blocked my knee and wrapped his arms around my waist. Uh oh.

Struggling to loosen his hold around me, I planted my feet on the ground and jammed my elbow down between his shoulder blades.

The man grunted, but he didn’t let go.

Instead, he pushed forward and tackled me to the ground. I braced for the fall as my back hit the floor, but the intruder twisted at the last minute, and I landed on top of him.

He groaned in pain, but I didn’t waste another second as I pushed off his chest, swung my right leg up, and pressed my knee firmly on his neck.

He tried pushing me off him, but he was pinned to the floor with my body weight. I grabbed both of his hands, locked them together, and twisted until I heard a pop.

“Argh,” he groaned. “Katherine, stop! It’s me! It’s Drew!”

As if the cloud of adrenaline cleared, my hold loosened, and I looked at the intruder’s face for the first time.

Drew’s dark green eyes stared up at me, pleadingly.

Oh, God.

I frantically let go of his wrists and lifted my knee from his throat.

Drew coughed twice before he spoke. “I’m glad to see those self-defense moves I taught you were put to good use.” He rubbed at his neck where my knee had been. “Almost too good.”

His hair was ruffled off his forehead and stuck up in random places.

“I—I’m so sorry, Drew. I thought you were an intruder. I thought ...”

… you were Adrian.

He isn’t Adrian ; I had to remind myself.

I took a deep breath, still shaky from the what just happened, and glared at Drew.

“What are you doing here?” I pointed to his gun on the floor a few feet from us. “You had your gun out!”

He stood, swiped his hands on his jeans, and retrieved the weapon from the floor a few steps away. He clicked the safety back on before sheathing it on his hip.

“I needed to know you were okay.” Drew cleared his throat. “You looked terrified when you left. I knew something was wrong, so I followed you home.”

My heart skipped a beat at his words. He wanted to check on me—to make sure I was all right even after the way I treated him.

Drew took a deep breath. “What’s going on? What happened to your apartment?”

Despite him being here, I was still hesitant to involve him in my problems.

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “It’s nothing. You should go.”

“This doesn’t look like nothing.” Drew gestured to my destroyed apartment and reached for my hands. “Please, Katherine. I want to help you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and took a step back, but he stepped forward.

The little bit of light that filtered in through the window and from the hallway put a spotlight on his handsome face. The right side of his face was red from where I kneed him. His eyebrows were slanted up in concern.

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Drew asked. “I know something is wrong. Just tell me.”

I wanted to tell him, but he’d be in more danger than he already was just by being here. I couldn’t do that to him. This was my problem. I had to handle it on my own.

“You can’t help me,” I said. “You shouldn’t even be here. He could be watching us right now.”

“Who?” Drew asked. “The one who sent you that note?”

“Please,” I breathed out, trying to hold back my tears. “Just leave.”

“Come on, Katherine,” Drew pleaded. “I can take care of myself. And I won’t let you push me away again.”

I contemplated the consequences of him knowing the truth. A war of conflicting thoughts thundered inside my head.

If I confessed, then he would have a target on his back, too. But what if he could help me with Adrian? What if by trusting Drew, I could finally put all of this behind me ?

Maybe with someone else by my side, I’d have a fighting chance.

“Katherine?” Drew stepped forward and took my hands in his. “I’m here for you. You can trust me.”

Looking into his pleading eyes, I knew I could trust him. In fact, I did trust him. That was the problem. And I was tired of lying to him. I couldn’t do it anymore.

“I just—” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “You have to promise me you won’t share this with anyone else. Not even Leah.”

“I promise,” Drew agreed. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

I took a deep breath and told Drew everything about the past I had tried so desperately to forget.