7
CASSANDRA
I woke on the wet ground with a nude man standing over me.
“You okay?” Orlando said, crouching to rest a tender hand on my cheek. It was warm and comforting.
For a second.
Everything came back to me. Going to the roof, not knowing what was happening. And then the horror I’d seen.
“I’ve waited an entire week to do that,” he said, relief in his eyes. “Oh man, you have no idea how good this feels…”
Panic shook me like a paint mixer, forcing me to scramble to my feet and grab my clutch. I unzipped it and reached inside, and my hand came away with my Ruger LC9 pistol.
I pointed it at him with a shaky hand. “Stay the fuck away!”
He froze, and slowly raised his hands. I don’t know what had happened to his boxer briefs, but he was completely nude now.
“Hey…”
“What did you do to me?” I demanded. I hadn’t taken any drinks from him; I’d been careful. I was always careful. “How did you drug me?”
His eyes widened with surprise, islands of white against the darkness of his skin. “I didn’t… Okay. Let’s just relax.”
“Relax? Like I’m the irrational one here?” I stabbed the air with the gun. “What did you give me to make me hallucinate?”
Orlando closed his eyes for a second. He looked exhausted. Or maybe he was just calmer, now. “Cassie, I have some things to tell you. About the form I just shifted into. If you would put the gun away…”
His tone set me off. “Oh hell no. Don’t talk down to me. I’m not crazy, and I’m not putting this away.”
Orlando’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Well. Can I get dressed first? As you can see,” —he gestured— “it’s cold out here.”
Not taking my eyes from him, I crouched and felt around on the ground until my fingers touched clothing. I felt his pockets for a weapon, but came away with only his wallet and cell phone. I kept the latter, shoved the wallet back inside, and then kicked the clothes toward him with a heeled foot.
“Thanks,” he said as he slowly got dressed.
“Start talking.”
“It’d be better if we went somewhere more—”
“I said talk!”
“Okay, okay.” He buttoned his pants and then picked up his dress shirt. “I tried to tell you. Before, I mean. First in the lobby, and then in our room. But then you were putting your hands on me, and your lips silenced my words.”
My heart beat so fast I thought it might pop out of my chest and run away. I tried to steady my breathing. “So it’s my fault you drugged me?”
“No! I didn’t…”
This was a waste of time. I needed to get somewhere safe.
I shoved his phone in my clutch, then backed away while keeping the gun trained on him.
“Hey wait!” He shot out a hand. “Please, just let me explain…”
God, I wanted to believe him. His eyes were disarming, and the part of me that judged men still thought he was harmless. But my flight instinct couldn’t be argued with. When I reached the door to the elevator room I jerked it open, continued backtracking, and then smacked the cold metal elevator door behind me until I felt the button click.
And that reminded me of the gift he’d given me. It pulled my eyes away from Orlando; it was on the ground to the right, next to an air conditioner vent. I couldn’t leave it; I had to go grab it, to take it with me before—
Stop it, Cassie. Focus. You’re not thinking clearly, probably because of whatever drug was coursing through your veins.
I heard the elevator door open.
“Cassie, you’re making a mistake,” Orlando insisted.
“The only mistake was this date,” I said, closing the door to the elevator room and engaging the deadbolt.
I fell back into the elevator car like an escaped inmate. The doors closed, it jerked, and then all I heard was the sound of unseen gears as it descended into the building.
The lights were intensely bright in here. I tried to steady my breathing again. I’d never had a panic attack, but this felt like that. Was it the drug he’d given me, or adrenaline? Maybe both.
God, I was shaking. The back of my dress was still wet from where I’d fallen on the roof. I felt like a mess.
The elevator slowed to a stop at the lobby. I barely remembered that I had a gun in my hand in time to shove it back in my clutch before the doors opened.
I took a deep breath, ran my hand through my hair, and then strode through the lobby like nothing was wrong.
“Ms. Kim?” The manager’s face was a mask of concern. “Is everything alright?” He looked back toward the elevators as if they held the answer.
“Thank you, James, but I’m fine.”
“Do I need to call the police? Or your… agent?”
I felt… ashamed. Like what had happened was my own damn fault. Even now, I imagined Orlando in my head as a good guy. That maybe this was all some big misunderstanding. I was even feeling more normal, not at all like I’d been drugged.
Goddamnit. I refused to let such irrational thoughts cloud my judgment.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll handle everything on my own.” I put a hand on the arm of his jacket. “Honest. A bad client, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”
His face darkened protectively, but he nodded. “Very well.”
I took a step toward the revolving doors, then stopped and turned around. “But he is stuck on the roof. I locked him there. Make sure he doesn’t freeze to death.”
He hesitated, then jerked his head in a nod. “Very well, Ms. Kim.”
“But feel free to make him suffer a bit first.”
His mouth twitched in the ghost of a smile. “Of course, Ms. Kim.”
I strode through the revolving door and out into the night.