CHAPTER ONE

ALICIA

You’re being watched! An ominous voice shouted in my mind.

“No, I’m not,” I muttered out loud, trying to calm my racing heart.

It didn’t work. It threw itself against my ribcage with every beat, like it was trying to escape. I was locked up securely in my penthouse apartment, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong. I knew it as sure as I knew my own name. Alicia Graystone.

I didn’t know exactly what had alarm bells ringing in my head, but I felt like a teenager in a horror movie that was being stalked by a serial killer.

Attack was imminent. I felt it in every fiber of my being. And yet, I had absolutely no concrete reason to think so, other than the warning signs my body was giving me: my racing heart, my clammy palms, and loud-ass mind.

Lightning ripped through the sky in a rare September thunderstorm, lighting up the New York City skyline beyond my closed bay window. It did nothing to soothe the feeling that I was trapped in a B-rated horror movie.

The air in my apartment crackled with the electricity of the lightning. The light smattering of golden hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood up. Perched as I was at my window, I had a full view of my modern penthouse, as well as the street below.

My eyes swept over both for what must have been the hundredth time that night, but there was nothing out of place.

And still I knew, down to my bones, that something was wrong.

My gleaming hardwood floors were silent, no sound of footsteps or creaking to be heard. At least not above the storm that was raging outside. No shadows fell on my snow-white walls.

By all accounts, I was alone in my open-plan living area. The lights on the appliances in my kitchen blinked at me, not disrupted by a body moving around them.

So why does it feel like I’m being watched?

I sipped on my sweet tea and reread the paragraph of the paperback sitting on my lap. I wasn’t even reading a book that could be making me paranoid. It was a tattered copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book that I’d read a million times before.

Every twist and turn of the story was ingrained in my mind. It was nothing new. And yet, I’d never felt the way I did now while reading it.

My mind screamed at me. Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

A part of me wished that I wasn’t alone, that there was a boyfriend or even just a friend I could call. There wasn’t.

My friends were all out, and I’d opted for a quiet night in, much to my present regret. And I hadn’t had a boyfriend in years.

Men had a tendency to back off when they found out I was the daughter of one of the most notoriously ruthless businessmen in town. I was set to inherit billions as his only daughter, but even that fact wasn’t enough to make them stick around long enough to meet Warren Graystone himself.

Another crack of lightning made me jump, and I spilled my cool tea all the way down the front of my tank top. “Shit.”

I slinked to my bedroom, feeling weird about tiptoeing around my own apartment, but I couldn’t help it. Even though I’d turned on every light in the place, lighting it up brighter than Times Square on New Year’s Eve, I still felt like someone was lurking around every corner. Ready to jump me if I made any noise whatsoever.

As crazy as it seemed to me, I didn’t even want to change my shirt in my bedroom. I opted for the complete privacy offered by my bathroom. I tugged the tea-stained shirt off, tossing it in my hamper and pulling a fresh one on quickly.

The last thing I wanted was to be feeling even more vulnerable by being half-naked.

When I was done, I cracked open the bathroom door and peered into my room. It was empty, as it should be, but that didn’t detract from the feeling that I was being watched. Awareness prickled my skin, and I whipped around, but there was no one behind me.

I seriously considered going home to my father for the night, but I shut that thought down, giving myself a much-needed pep talk instead. I had to calm the hell down.

You are a twenty-four-year-old, independent woman. You run your own business. You are not running home to Daddy with your tail between your legs. Woman up, damnit.

It had been a year-long struggle to convince my overprotective father that I was old enough to move out after my twenty-first birthday. If I went back there now, I’d have to admit why I was suddenly home at nearly midnight on a Friday. And if my dad caught so much as a whiff that I was in danger, or even felt like I was, he’d have me moved back home by the morning.

Squaring my shoulders, I marched my paranoid ass back to my book, trying my best to ignore my twisting gut.

It’s just you and Mowgli here tonight, I chided myself. Get a grip!

I was just passing by the kitchen when I heard a floorboard creak, the soft warning sound coming from the direction of the hallway I’d just emerged from.

Right behind me.

I froze.

Even though I’d never been in that situation before, my body responded automatically. My mind sharpened with laser-like focus, and my eyes darted for something to use as a weapon.

There.

The heavy crystal vase I still had to get around to buying new flowers for.

I reached for it, grabbing it off the marble countertop and spinning on my heel in one smooth movement. Swinging the vase blindly, it connected with a loud thud with the flesh of the intruder behind me.

I blinked rapidly, unable to believe that there really was a man in my apartment. He was dressed in all black and actually resembled what I imagined ninjas looked like. He was even wearing a balaclava, hiding everything but his pitch-black eyes from view.

“Fuck,” he growled loudly, clutching at his collarbone and dropping to one knee. He seemed dazed but far from incapacitated.

Damnit. I should’ve aimed for his head. I would have if I’d known he was really there.

Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda. It doesn’t matter. Run you idiot! The same ominous voice from before yelled in my mind.

I happily obeyed it, making a mad dash for my front door. The ninja reached out to grab me by the wrist. I twisted and yanked my arm away with less than a heartbeat to spare before he would’ve had me in his grip. Barely able to breathe, I turned my back on him and ran.

“Come back here, bitch,” the ninja roared, his heavy footsteps slamming onto the wooden floors, sounding like he was gaining on me with every step.

As if my senses had been tuned to high definition, I was aware of every single thing around me.

The ninja’s heavy breath grunted behind me, and his booted footfalls closed in on me, signaling my doom. I couldn’t see another weapon in my immediate vicinity, even though my vision was clearer than it had ever been.

I felt his anger ripple in the air between us when his hands went around my waist, and he tackled me to the floor. The acrid stench of his breath invaded my nostrils as we went flying to the floor. I spun around as I fell, facing him. My knee jammed up on instinct, searching for his balls.

Clearly, he’d been expecting the move, and he expertly blocked my would-be onslaught to his family jewels. My back landed on the hard floor with a dull thump, and pain seared me from my tailbone all the way up my spine. I screamed out in a mix of pain and fear, clawing wildly at the ninja who landed on top of me.

His hulking body caged me to the floor, and I kicked out wildly, biting and scratching at him. My struggles had no effect. He pinned me down easily, with little effort. He peered down at me with soulless, obsidian eyes that terrified me. They were the dead eyes of a killer, and I saw my own death reflected in those black mirrors.

He brought his mouth to my ear. “It’s all over for you, princess. I’ll tell your daddy you said goodbye before I put a bullet in his head.”

“No!” I cried out, wildly thrashing beneath him as he reached for the holster on his belt. Using every ounce of the adrenaline that was coursing through me to my advantage, I screamed out shrilly right into his ear, just as I brought my knee up again.

Hard.

This time, he hadn’t been expecting it, and I made solid contact with his squishy groin, crushing his balls against his body. Then, I pulled my leg back to do it again, slamming back into him so hard, I was surprised they didn’t pop like grapes.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered someone teaching me about going for the eyes of an attacker if you got the chance.

So that was exactly what I did.

While the ninja cried out in pain from the two vicious jabs of my kneecap right to his balls, my hands clawed up. My fingers found his eye sockets, and I jabbed my thumbs into them with all my might.

There. That did it.

He rolled off of me, and his hands flew to his eyes. “Bitch!”

I had no delusions that he would take long to recover, and when he did, he was going to be turbo-pissed at me. It was my one chance to escape. I took it, ignoring the painful protest of my back as I jumped to my feet and hightailed it to my door. Throwing it open, I put my elbow right through the protective covering of the fire alarm without hesitation and sprinted to the stairs leading down.

Taking them two at time, it didn’t take longer than a few seconds for me to make it to the floor below mine. My neighbors were just starting to emerge from their apartments, confused looks on their faces at the blaring sound of the alarm.

“Help,” I yelled as soon as I saw them. “Somebody, please help me.”

Gary, the beefy, bald guy from 34A was the first to hear my pleas. He ran to me as soon as I stumbled into the hallway. “Alicia! What’s wrong?”

“There’s a man in my apartment,” I said between panting breaths. I rested my hands on my knees as I doubled over from the exertion of fighting the man off. “He attacked me.”

“What the fuck?” Gary asked, stunned for a second before he sprang into action. His head whirled around, seeking out his partner, an equally beefy man with ebony skin that was rushing toward us. “Dave, there’s someone in Alicia’s apartment. He attacked her. We have to get up there.”

To me, he said. “Call the police. Use the phone in our apartment.”

“Don’t go up there,” I begged him. “He’s got a gun. God knows what else.”

Dave’s dark eyes narrowed, sweeping the length of my body for any obvious injuries. When he’d satisfied himself that I wasn’t mortally wounded, he clasped a strong hand on my shoulder, his voice calm when he spoke. “Relax honey, you’re safe now. We’re both former military. If there’s still anyone up there, we can take them.”

Mrs. Mehigan, their kindly neighbor approached our huddle, padding towards us in her fluffy robe, with her purple hair in curlers. “Do any of you have the faintest idea what is happening?”

“Alicia was attacked,” Gary told her curtly. “Take her and get out of the building. And spread the word. We don’t know where this guy is lurking. He could still be in the building.”

With that, Gary and Dave loped up the stairs, leaving us to explain the situation to the others in the hallway. We made our way downstairs, putting as much distance between me and my apartment as possible. As things do, word spread through the building like wildfire, and soon, the sirens in the distance were converging on the street right in front of the building.

My neighbors and I spilled out into the cool night air, cowering under the awning, but getting soaked by the rain anyway. A few minutes later, Dave and Gary elbowed their way through the crowd, reaching me at the same time that black spots started popping up, blurring my vision.

The adrenaline that had kept me going was seeping from my body at an alarming rate. The sidewalk beneath my feet felt wobbly, and the world around me lurched back and forth. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was about to faint for the first time in my life.

“Are you okay?” Gary asked me, motioning to an officer, who was questioning some of the confused people milling around the sidewalk, to come over to us.

I couldn’t form words. I shook my head and clung to Gary’s arm, desperately hoping my trembling knees wouldn’t betray me.

“This is Alicia Graystone,” Dave told the officer when he finally reached us. “She was attacked in her apartment tonight. She managed to escape. She’s the one that pulled the alarm.”

As the blackness started threatening to overtake me, I replayed Dave’s words in my head. She escaped. The ominous voice inside my head added: For now.